![]() ![]() Knowing full well that having a male director and male cinematographer, Richard H. If this was going to be his only opportunity to direct a film, then he would employ every filmmaking technique, especially those from film noir, that he wanted to try. This had an effect on him and eventually influenced how he made Body Heat. It was obvious that there was little confidence in Kasdan’s abilities. George Lucas secretly signed on as guarantor, offering to pay a fee if Kasdan went over budget. They reached an agreement that if Kasdan were to fail he would immediately be replaced by a more experienced director. Ladd was still interested in taking on Body Heat but felt that having a first-time director on the project would be a gamble. According to the AFI, Fox dropped the project when a disagreement on casting couldn’t be resolved. When Ladd left the studio to start The Ladd Company, Kasdan’s script languished at Fox. He presented his idea for Body Heat to Alan Ladd Jr., the head of 20th Century-Fox, who was interested in the project and put in on the books. Kasdan took inspiration from his favorite filmmakers, John Sturges and Akira Kurosawa, as well as his favorite classic movies to update those styles of filmmaking with a fresh perspective. Lawrence Kasdan’s screenwriting career was on the rise thanks to his collaborations with George Lucas on two of the original Star Wars movies and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Matty Walker, played by Kathleen Turner, is the object of his obsession and lures him into a plot to murder her investor husband Edmund (Richard Crenna). William Hurt plays Ned Racine, a sleazy lawyer whose lust for a married woman lands him in hot water. In Kasdan’s original screenplay, that premise takes on a whole new life with two new unsympathetic protagonists, a Florida setting and an unrelenting heatwave. The basic premise of a femme fatale and her lover plot to murder her wealthy husband was modelled from the noir Double Indemnity (1944). Inspired by Kasdan’s love of film noir, specifically movies like The Big Sleep (1946), Out of the Past (1947) and The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Body Heat pays homage to the film noir style while boosting its sex appeal for a contemporary audience. And, as events so inevitably collapse around Racine’s ears, the natural recompense for the sordidness of his life, so Kasdan achieves his goal, creating a film to sit proudly in the legacy of those nihilistic standard bearers of the past.An atmospheric and steamy neo-noir, Body Heat (1981) is an impressive feature directorial debut by Lawrence Kasdan. The film is set during the sweltering prelude to a storm, a heated mirror to their illicit passions. In an inspired creative move, the director takes the basic visual motifs of the genre - turn down the lights and let the shadows fall long - and adds stark humidity. Kasdan fuses the traditions of old into his contemporary setting with some subtlety - the intricacies of legalese and America’s obsession with real estate are keynotes in the wiring of the set-up. Thus, when they plot the perfect murder, of Richard Crenna’s weasley but loaded husband, you just know something dark and complicated will unfold in the background. He’s just a normal, greedy, lust-driven guy, she’s got things going on. After a night of this kind of passion - and Kasdan revolves his plot around the landmark va-va-voom of their sexual encounter - who wouldn’t get a bit cock-eyed. He’s seedy, an over-aged bachelor priding himself on his womanising skills. ![]() It’s not for nothing that Kathleen Turner, who was making her debut, would be the prototype for Jessica Rabbit, she starts every conversation with her body, finishing them off with the razor edge of her tongue: “You’re not too smart, I like that in a man.”Īs with noir’s abiding tenets, William Hurt’s offbeat bottom-dwelling lawyer deserves everything he’s going to get, but, thanks to the actor’s skill in giving him a human strain, we still catch the note of his despair. ![]() Openly intending to reinvent the seething amorality of film noirs heyday in the ‘40s and ‘50s, Lawrence Kasdan gets his two key ingredients dead on: the cold heart of his screenplay and the sheer heat of his leading lady. ![]()
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