Adult cinema with an air of warning against falling into the appetites of the flesh
This week a miniseries of ‘Presumed Innocent’ was released, trying to retell the story that already in the nineties caused fervor and discomfort through marital infidelities. It is a curious coincidence that it is not the only series in recent years that rescues a thriller with that theme released between the late eighties and early nineties.
That period was especially fertile for exploring marital tensions and sexual dalliances in adult cinema, almost with a tone of warning or moral to avoid them if you do not want to end up in a fatal and dangerous scenario. A particular phenomenon produced following the success of ‘Fatal Attraction’.
A dangerous romance
One of the quintessential sexythrillers and one of the most successful films of the eighties, with $320 million raised worldwide. Michael Douglas and Glenn Close star in this passionate and almost terrifying film that forged the reputation of director Adrian Lyne and can now be seen streaming on Netflix as well as on SkyShowtime.
In it, Douglas is Dan Gallagher, a perfect example of the successful man of the 1980s. A lucrative job, a perfect family, a big house in the suburbs. And he’s willing to take risks, like having an extramarital affair with Close’s character Alex. Even though it was supposed to be a one-time relationship, a gray hair in the air, everything will become your biggest nightmare.
There are few directors more eighties than Lyne, despite having known how to extend his style a little further over time. ‘Flashdance‘ was one of those paradigmatic examples where he manages to be a cinematographic icon by style, not by a story (which he lacks), and there he already showed a fascination for the relationships and bodies of the people who end up being foundation stone of his erotic thrillers.
‘Fatal Attraction’: a kamikaze thriller
‘Fatal Attraction’ takes that style to all possible consequences, with wobbles in tone that would be deadly for any other film. But his way of developing a fantasy ends up working that, gradually, falls into the terrifying through an almost adult slasher. And this breakdown of family tranquility manages to work without becoming excessively involved in a moralism that, of course, is not preserved in later films such as ‘Unfaithful’ or the recent ‘Deep Waters’.
His technical and narrative expertise has its best allies in an extraordinary Close in this role that would have been completely hysterical in other hands, and also in a Douglas who had no qualms at all about playing dodgy characters. Together they give shape to an incorrect magic, a perverse pleasure that is only possible jumping into a plank and risking burns. Something that the remake in the form of a miniseries from a few years ago failed to understand.
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