Basic Instinct

Information

1992
Sharon Stone(Catherine Trammell). Michael Douglas (detective Nick Curran). Dir. Paul Verhoeven.

Notable quotes: 'her magna cum laude pussy just about gone done-a fried your brain'

Cabin Fever

Now, apart from this term being a film about a group of people stuck in a wintery cabin and struck with a flesh-eating virus*, I really had no idea what it meant.

After consulting Wikipedia (so naturally the following knowledge is perfectly true), I found that it is an idiomatic term first used in 1918 to describe 'a claustrophobic reaction that takes place when a person or group is isolated and/or shut in, in a small space, with nothing to do, for an extended period'

Following the snowfall that came on my 21st birthday (december 17th), I had, somewhat optimistically, foreseen frolicking walks with leaping dogs (our dog has been dead for over 2 years), snowball fights, sledging, warm fires and a rosy glow from being outdoors all day. However, the extended period of time with my immediate family has made me long for lanes that have been gritted, or a house not in the middle of nowhere.

Everyone has retreated into different rooms by way of coping - I am now in the attic, feverishly typing and trying to ignore my mum's constant commentary of 'well, now at least you can get some work done.' such is my stubborness that I am now going to spend the rest of this afternoon slumming around, resplendent in my unproductivity. Wishing everyone a pleasant few wintery weeks - hide the axe in case it all gets a bit too The Shining

x



*side note: I love how, ridiculously, Eli Roth was inspired to write this after he got a skin infection on holiday. Because, obviously, that's identical to your screenplay, and not at all lame. also, I could rant about the horrible exploitation-fests that are Hostel I and II, but maybe will save that for another post.

The Murphy

Obviously I realize that this will be covered in practically every gossip blog out there. However, I can't help but feel shocked at the actress Brittany Murphy's death at age 32 from (to quote justjared.buzznet.com) 'a cardiac arrest'. Apparently her mother found her unconscious in the shower, and she was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical centre in Los Angeles but could not be revived.

For starters, I'm sure she earned her place in every teenage girl's heart with her lovable persona, created in large part from her character in 'Clueless', and further cemented by roles in light rom-coms such as 'Just Married.' She was the doe-eyed ditz that we identified with as the klutzy 'Tai', who tried to break out of her typecasting by her roles in Sin City and 8 Mile. It's interesting that, though Perez Hilton loves to chart in minutiae the lives of screw-ups such as Lindsay Lohan and Courtney Love, he left Murphy, for the most part, alone.

her husband, Simon Monjak seemed an atypical choice for Murphy; overweight and with a shady past, accused of conning women out of money. Hardly the perfect choice for a Hollywood screen star. TMZ is now reporting that he does not want an autopsy performed, an action that, for a woman accused of a drugs overdose, seems suspicious at the very least.

Perhaps Murphy's perceived naivete was really a truism, leading her down an unfortunate road with the wrong man. Perhaps she was in trouble from the very beginning, and managed to stop gossip blogs such as Hiltons' publicizing this by not giving them any evidence. Whatever the case, the death of a young woman is tragic and must be respcted whatever the circumstances; a nuance that TMZ et al. will surely not grasp in these upcoming days.