Director Watch Podcast Ep. 107 – ‘Basic Instinct’ (Paul Verhoeven, 1992) with Special Guest Brandon Streussnig
Welcome to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter attempt to breakdown, analyze, and ultimately, get inside the mind of some of cinema’s greatest auteurs. In doing so, they will look at their filmographies, explore what drives them artistically and what makes their decision making process so fascinating. Add in a few silly tangents and a fun game at the end of the episode and you’ve got yourself a podcast we truly hope you love. On episode 107 of the Director Watch Podcast, the boys are joined by film critic Brandon Streussnig discuss the latest film in their Paul Verhoeven series, Basic Instinct (1992).
We enter a new chapter in the Verhoeven series, as the guys talk about one of the most iconic erotic-thrillers of all time with the most iconic image of the genre. But beyond that one scene lies an ode to Hitchcock, as we follow a sleazy detective down a rabbit hole of deception, sex, and murder as he investigates the death of a wealthy rock star, and the prime suspect is his old girlfriend, a writer whom wrote about his death in her latest book. Purposive, wild, and slightly progressive and regressive at the same time, Basic Instinct is the crown jewel of a type of film that audiences used to obsess over, perfectly made by a director at the height of his powers, featuring an all-time performance from Sharon Stone. Ryan, Jay, and Brandon breakdown their thoughts on the film, the history of the erotic thriller, the controversy over the iconic scene, how sex is weaponized throughout, the introduction to Joe Eszterhas as a writer to the world, the laughable sequel made several years later, ice picks, and just how good of a cop is Michael Douglas’ Nick Curran.
You can listen to the Director Watch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.
This podcast runs 1h56m. The guys will be back next week to continue their series on the films of Paul Verhoeven with a review of his film, Showgirls. You can rent it via iTunes and Amazon Prime rental or stream on HBO Max in preparation for the next episode of Director Watch. Till then, let’s get into it.
Music: MUSICALIFE, from Pond5 (intro) and “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).
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