Nine 1/2 Weeks

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld lists Nine ½ Weeks among her favorite films, not just any erotic drama but a masterful take on manipulation, so I had to watch it. Director Adrian Lyne made his breakthrough with Flashdance in 1983 and followed up with the release of Nine ½ Weeks in 1986. Lyne cast Mickey Rourke as powerful Wall Street maven John Grey and Kim Basinger as Elizabeth McGraw, a sultry divorcée working at a Soho art gallery; Jack Nitzsche scored the film with cinematography by Peter Biziou. The screenplay is based on the eponymous novel Nine and a Half Weeks: A Memoir of a Love Affair by Elizabeth McNeill.

Nine ½ Weeks differs from the average sadomasochistic fantasy in that Rourke and Basinger create convincing characters and make their relationship believable. The electric attraction between the two from their first moment on screen together propels their impersonal affair throughout the film. The libidinal excitement is tangible as Elizabeth yields to John's need to control, permitting him to explore any number of perversions in their games, enduring his aggression and hostility, enjoying the risk. Note that the Chelsea Hotel and Bloomingdale's are both used as settings for the film, adding that authentic touch of Manhattan to this frank depiction of sexual power.

Nine ½ Weeks promotional poster image distributed by MGM.

Comments

[Milla]

I recall my mum banning it from our television screens. Oh to be French...

[kellina]

Ha ha, did she really, Milla?! Too funny. Have you watched it yet as an adult? Yes, I would imagine that the typical French parents are not so conservative regarding the films that they permit the children to watch.