For 37 years, a drama directed by Adrian Lyne, coming from the mega-hit Flashdance and before embarking on Fatal Attraction, was the most talked about film of 1986 outside the United States. Using part of the narrative of music videos, sex, beautiful cast and urban locations with lots of smoke and lighting and, of course, a soundtrack filled with classics like Bryan Ferry‘s Slave to Love and Joe Cocker‘s You Can Leave Your Hat On, the film 9 1/2 Weeks generated controversy and much imitation, but no worthy heir. 50 Shades of Gray and the second episode of The Idol were poor copies of an inimitable film, not least because, almost 40 years ago, the culture was different. So much so that it is worth remembering.

A toxic relationship, psychological abuse and other problems are the least that would make it difficult for a 9 and 1/2 weeks to get off the ground these days. Marketed as “obsessive love” but true, the two-and-a-half-month-long “erotic odyssey” made Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke sex symbols and Adrian Lyne Hollywood’s most in-demand director of the 1980s. More so, it made Mickey a “new Marlon Brando“, when that was the highest praise for an actor. With edgy content, which included sexual dominance, sadism and amaurophilia, it did not perform well at the box office in American cinemas, but was successful around the world gaining prestigious “cult” status.

We follow the story of Elizabeth McGraw (Kim Basinger), a recently divorced woman who happens to meet John Gray (Mickey Rourke) and embarks on a sexually innovative relationship, part of a game of dominance and daring until it gets so dangerous that she has to make a decision. choice. Surprisingly for the time, and sorry for the SPOILER, she has had enough and chosen her mental health. But we’ll get there. Zalman King penned the screenplay alongside his wife, Patricia Knop, and Sarah Kernochan, being an adaptation of the semi-autobiographical novel by Ingeborg Day, the Austrian-American writer who wrote Nine and a Half Weeks in 1978, under the pseudonym Elizabeth McNeill, recounting a personal affair he had when he first moved to Manhattan. The film was recorded in 1984, but only reached theaters two years later, due to fights between actors and studio executives.

The book, like the film, could have been a short story warning of the dangers of toxic relationships, but due to the sexual context, it ended up being considered sexy. Go figure! To make matters worse, when Kim Basinger reported on the sexism and exploitation she experienced, from auditions to recording, she was branded as problematic. Her memory of 9 1/2 Weeks is tears and humiliation. She didn’t get along with Mickey Rourke or even Adrian Lyne and the fights delayed the recordings. Even so, they starred in copied sequences such as the striptease, the kitchen scene, but there are other situations that were already uncomfortable at the time, such as “pretending” rape.

In the face of all this, reviewing The Idol using Tedros (Weeknd) trying to be a “John Gray” is pathetic. Mickey Rourke was “gigantic” before destroying his career and face, but he was a good actor, so much so that he managed to turn questionable situations into success. Unsurprisingly, nearly 40 years later there is already an ongoing project to adapt the original book into a series. In the original, the conclusion is even darker than the one in the film, when Elizabeth has a mental breakdown and leaves John. In the book, John coerces Elizabeth to commit a violent robbery in an elevator, and after a “near rape”, Elizabeth is taken by him to a psychiatric hospital where she is abandoned by John. To see how it will be retold and with whom! Rumor has it that Kim Basinger has already agreed to do a cameo. It will be?

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