Paul Verhoeven’s 1992 Basic Instinct with Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone seemed so outrageous then. Today, I would barely raise an eyebrow, yes, even the highly provocative scene where he keeps crossing his legs. The film premiered in Cannes, and one remembers the stampede it caused when it was shown a couple of years later at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Calcutta (now Kolkata). IFFI used to travel from city to city then.
During a conversation on May 17 at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival, Douglas, who received an honorary Palme d’Or for career achievement at the opening ceremony on May 16, said it was “unique, even for France.”
“Seeing a lot of those sex scenes on the big screen in the Grand Palais was a bit overwhelming for a lot of people. We had a very quiet dinner afterwards, everyone was digesting it,” she recalled (the cast included Sharon Stone and Jeanne Tripplehorn).
Basic Instinct follows a weary detective (Douglas) who investigates a successful crime writer (Stone) suspected of murdering people with an ice pick.
In addition to Basic Instinct, Douglas has brought several films to Cannes including an impressive list: The China Syndrome, co-starring Jane Fonda; Joel Schumacher’s Falling Down; and his award-winning project Liberace Behind the Candelabra.
Douglas, son of the legendary Kirk Douglas, has won the Academy Award twice: the first as a producer for Best Picture (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Jack Nicholson, 1976) and the second for best actor on Wall Street. The film is often considered Douglas’s most definitive work.
Earlier in the day, Johnny Depp, who arrived at the press conference following the screening of the opening film, Jeanne du Barry, arrogantly said that he didn’t care about Hollywood. But he did admit that he felt somewhat slighted when he was asked to “give up a movie he’s in.” [Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore] by something that is nothing more than a bunch of vowels and consonants floating in the air.
“Do I feel boycotted now? Not at all, but I don’t feel boycotted by Hollywood because I don’t think about Hollywood. I myself don’t have much more need for Hollywood.
“It’s a very strange and fun time,” he added, “where everyone would love to be themselves, but they can’t because they have to align with the person in front of them. You want to live that kind of life, I wish you the best, I’ll be on the other side somewhere.”
The French-language opening work is seen as something of a comeback job for Depp following his two high-profile court cases in 2022 (one he lost, one he won) and director Maïwenn recently admitted to attacking a French journalist in Paris. at the beginning of the year. .
When asked why he chose Depp to play French King Louis XV, he said: “I wanted an actor who was sexy because I knew I had to kiss him (in the movie).” Frank to the core!
Jeanne du Barry was financed by the Red Sea Film Fund. The world is becoming truly global. Imagine a French play financed by Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, online ticketing issues continue to worry the Festival. On May 17, a large number of viewers were turned away from Pedro Almodóvar’s short film, Strange Way of Life.
Long lines formed outside the theater for the 31-minute short, which was followed by a chat session with Almodóvar. The queue stretched for miles. And just before the movie started, many with confirmed tickets were asked to leave.
Is a repetition of the screening of Almodóvar’s work planned?