![]() ![]() The film repeatedly conveys complex information through deceptively short, naturalistic scenes, the action and dialogue imparting dense exposition with subtlety and grace. It is therefore perhaps no surprise that his film showcases a pronounced knack for establishing character and situation with both economy and detail, as well as an unshakable commitment to sheer entertainment. Although Body Heat was his directorial debut, he had cut his teeth co-writing the blockbusters The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981). Writer-director Kasdan’s screenplay is a model of concise, sharp storytelling. In its reworking of the classic formula, it also helped to define aspects of a new genre: the erotic thriller. It is film noir to the core, but with an audacity and self-awareness far beyond pastiche or simple stylistic exercise. What they will not know is exactly how he will meet his fate, and one of the many pleasures of this ruthlessly efficient movie is the way it twists and turns, consistently keeping its audience on their toes without ever entirely denying their expectations. It draws so deliberately on classic film noir that cine-literate viewers will realise almost immediately that the man watching the fire, Ned Racine (William Hurt), is doomed. ![]() It is not really a spoiler to observe that the opening scene of Lawrence Kasdan’s 1981 thriller Body Heat foreshadows its ending. Ominously, the camera does not move with him, instead choosing to remain on the blaze, waiting - as if it knows it is only a matter of time before he is drawn back to it… He knows the building that is in flames and jokingly protests, “My history is burning up out there!” before he is persuaded to return to her. The woman behind him bemoans the heat and slowly starts to dress, teasing him to draw his attention away from the fire. A cross-fade reveals the sweat-soaked back of a half-naked man, watching from a window. The clouds billow into the night sky in sensuous slow motion as John Barry’s languid, slightly sleazy title theme slips into the background, giving way to the sound of distant sirens. Sometimes the nastiest or naughtiest characters are the biggest turn-ons.The camera lingers on the smoke rising from a raging inferno. The sexiest movies often showcase glamorous, otherworldly creatures (like David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve as The Hunger’s vampire lovers) or disreputable schemers (like Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe’s conniving stepsiblings in Cruel Intentions, a modern take on Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ 1782 sexual-manipulation masterpiece Les Liaisons Dangereuses). Others, like Body Heat and Mulholland Dr., feature sequences of such exquisite and tantalizing carnality that they’ve come to define all that we think a sex scene should be. Some movies-like In the Mood for Love and Before Sunrise-are more noteworthy for their ambient erotic charge than for outright graphic sexiness. But survey any moderately sized group of individuals (or TIME’s culture staff) and certain titles come up again and again. Pulling together a wholly objective list of the sexiest movies ever made is impossible: One person’s erotic fever dream is bound to be another’s snoozefest, and vice-versa. ![]()
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