Basic Instinct (1991)
Basic Instinct constitutes the second collaboration of director Paul Verchoeven with the composer Jerry Goldsmith. Their first common work together was the scientific fiction adventure of Total Recall and they collaborated again in 2000 in the film Hollow
It seems, nevertheless, that he accomplished his job with success if one remembers that his music was a candidate for an Oscar in 1992. This is particularly interesting when considering the genre of the film itself: how often is the soundtrack of an erotic thriller candidate for an Oscar?
The way that the composer approaches each scene of the film is well worked and noteworthy. Selecting carefully when his music should add an enigmatic quality, intensity or eroticism to the picture, Jerry Goldsmith creates an ideal musical supplement for the atmosphere of the film. This constitutes a big qualification for the film, which, without the music of Jerry Goldsmith, would lack eroticism and passion.
Opening Titles
The composer immediately sets the mood of the film by using the main theme in the opening titles. Absolutely cold (the main characterisation of the music in the movie), melancholic and full of eroticism, it "opens" the film, underlining its very mystical nature. The suggestion of this numinous mood is achieved by the use of harmony and orchestration. In terms of harmony, Jerry Goldsmith uses “mediantic” chord progressions (i.e. D minor to F sharp minor). On the one hand, these harmonic progressions have the effect of loosening the tonal centre, which leads to an unsafe feeling, thus developing a sense of mystery to the listener. There seems to be a direct association between harmony and picture: the viewer cannot clearly understand the picture, as the tonal centre of the music is not clear to the listener. On the other hand, the use of this particular orchestration contributes to the composers effort; mainly woodwinds and “con sordino” strings, have rather odd harmonics in their audio spectrum; odd harmonics suggest a “dull” and “dark” sound quality which matches perfectly the blurry triangles of the opening titles. These two orchestral forces (strings and woodwinds) keep contrasting each other in a form of “musical dialogue” and are accompanied by a piano playing arpeggios in its very low register. The intention of the composer to have a very dull sound is clarified by the fact that he has electronically removed the high harmonics of the harp sound.
Apart from the main musical theme of the film, the soundtrack is constituted by pieces that are either calm and melodic (i.e wherein the film leaves the margins - as ph. in certain scenes of dialogues), or full of distress and dynamism (i.e. in certain scenes of chase). However, there are other scenes in the film that required extra effort from the composer…
The Sex Scenes
One of the main reasons that Basic Instinct became such a popular movie was not because of its “brilliant” script (which is by no means brilliant) but because of the intense sexual content.
This is a case in which it is obvious that the musical score has a very strong influence on how a film is perceived. The music transforms and “validates” the four sex scenes of the film, which could otherwise be understood to be extracted from a porn movie: the film is elevated to a valid and “classy”
The way that Goldsmith treats all of the four sex scenes, seems to have a common factor: an imminent danger, that partially distracts the viewer from the details (of which there seem to be too many!) and sets him a bit further through the plot. The music suggests a forthcoming disaster, which actually never happens.
An exception to this is the opening scene where Catherine Trammel (Sharon Stone) has sex with Johnny Boz (Bill Cable). After setting up an erotic atmosphere, the music swells into a climactic height – representing the sex climax – which leads to a murder. Highly dissonant chords take over a variation of the main theme, and drive the piece to its zenith, mainly through repetition and crescendo.
During the second sex scene, where Michael Douglas has sex with his “shrink”, the dynamics of the music are more constant, there is virtually no tune and the harmonic field seems to be the only developing factor. Again, through mediantic chord progressions, a feeling of insecurity pervades the scene.
While the next two sex scenes involve the same characters, they are treated differently, mainly because they are in different points of the plot. Particularly during the last sex scene, we hear again the main theme, as the music “expects” that Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) is going to be murdered. Noteworthy too, is the fact that all of these pieces have no resolution but rather a suspension, that prompts the audience forward through the narrative to find out what will happen next.
Other Functions
There are, however, more scenes in which Jerry Goldsmith treated the music in very special way: for example the sequence of the two detectives that come to interrogate Johnny Boz’s girlfriend (00:10:44-00:13:11). This is a very important scene as it is the first time we properly see Catherine Trammel. This is a very tricky situation, because the composer has a very limited time, and is also used under the dialogue, to establish the personality of Catherine Trammel. The acting and the dialogue are not flawless, so it’s up to the music to carry out a difficult task. The composer here uses a very clever technique: the start of the musical phrases come before each question or answer, forcing, thus, the viewer – listener to interpret the acting of Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas as a convincing one. Even when Michael Douglas is supposed to be thoughtful as the answers of Sharon Stone are stunning, he remains with no expression in his face, while the music is compensating for the his lack of performance. The main theme is used at the end of this scene as a “bridge” from this cue to the next one, that has a more naive character.
One scene that stands out from the rest of the movie, is the chase sequence wherein Nick is at first chased and then chases Roxy (Leilani Sharell). Goldsmith’s approach to this scene is rather conventional: he starts with a pedal point in the low strings, having occasional crescendo chords from the high strings (a very common way to suggest imminent danger), he then introduces a bass ostinato (the piano in low register – dull and dark) and he changes key signatures abruptly without carrying out a proper modulation. As the piece continues he uses a “stinger” chord when the character realizes the coming danger. This justifies, thus, the brass introduction and then the piece changes radically mood and becomes a very typical “chase” cue. While continuing the bass ostinato, Goldsmith uses changes of rhythm and marcato brass chords, occasionally bringing percussion into the orchestrational field. The piece uses the same principal that Goldsmith uses in the main theme: there is a kind of orchestral dialogue, but instead of using woodwinds vs. con sordino strings, he now uses the more appropriate combination of strings vs. brass. This piece has also a intermediate break as we see Nick climbing the stairs with his car. At this point, the xylophone combined with lower dynamic strings and abrupt harmonic modulations, has the effect of suspending the tension to the next climax of this cue. The same rhythmic schemes are used, as “a repeated rhythmic pattern can intensify a situation”. (Burt 1994:124)
Diegetic Music
The music in Basic Instinct is mainly non – diegetic with one only exception to this rule: the Dance Club Sequence (01:18:45 – 01:22:10). This is the longest cue of the whole movie and while it’s dense in terms of sound, the music here loses its harmonic structure and is mainly repeated without change. Here, the composer has the intension to represent an atmosphere that is obviously affected by the use of alcohol and drugs. Through electronic sounds and repetition the music seems to fit to the picture. Another factor that is perhaps not easily understood by the listener, is the gradual down set of the tempo. This contributes further to the atmosphere that the composer tries to achieve because one of the main side effects of alcohol is the feeling of “slower time”.
This overall feeling of suspension works best in the end titles, where the viewer really knows that nothing is going to happen (not in this sequel at least) , so it is up to the music to take the viewer to a journey beyond the timecode of the film. The piece is “complete” in its musical form, having both the main and secondary theme fully developed but still creates the feeling of an “unending story”, as its title is.
Downsides
Although the whole score seems to give a very specific character to the movie, it feels sometimes very monotonous. Because of the composer’s intention to keep this “suspension” throughout the score, the audience doesn’t have enough pluralism to listen too and the music ends up with two themes that are used in the same mediantic progression. Although at first the main theme seems magnificent with is sinister and sensual character, somewhere around the middle of the movie it just becomes too much. Nevertheless, Basic Instinct by Jerry Goldsmith is a very well composed score and without doubt it could benefit from a better movie to accompany it.
Conclusion
This particular score was chosen because it seems that Jerry Goldsmith, who is an expert in thriller scores, has done a very good job with a film genre that is mainly undervalued. Together with Body Heat (1981) by John Barry they are the only quality soundtracks that exist in this genre which is treated with much criticism mainly because of the sexual content. The second reason is because of the challenge that a composer faces when he is told to give to a sex scene, an artificial “sophisticated” background, so that its content becomes less provocative. In this particular area Jerry Goldsmith was brilliant. He succeeded with the aid of the National Philharmonic Orchestra to capture the essence of an orgasm on a music track.
Bibliography:
· Burt, G. (1994) The Art of Film Music. Northeastern University Press,
· Davis, R. (1999) Complete Guide to Film Scoring.
· Microsoft Cinemania 1995 (CD – Rom)
· Microsoft Encarta 2006 (DVD Rom)
· http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/basic_instinct.html
· Basic Instinct (1991) DVD
***Timecode positions may vary from version to version
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