9 1/2 weeks

9 1/2 weeks
(movie poster)
Theme/Genre	Erotic romantic drama film
Starring	Mickey Rourke Kim Basinger
Directed by	Adrian Lyne
Produced by	Mark Damon Sidney Kimmel Zalman King Antony Rufus-Isaacs
Distributed by	MGM/UA Entertainment Co.
Released	February 14, 1986
Runtime	117 mins
Budget	$17 million
Gross	$100 million
Followed by	*Another 9½ Weeks (1997) *aka Another 9 1/2 Weeks *The First 9 1/2 Weeks (1998) *12 weeks (2015) (Short) *912 Weeks (2013) (Short) *2 Weeks (2013) (TV Mini Series) *32 Weeks (2020)
Notes
IMDB Info	0091635 on IMDb
ASIN	B008XFJEE2

9 1⁄2 Weeks is a 1986 American erotic romantic drama film directed by Adrian Lyne with a screenplay by Sarah Kernochan, Zalman King, and Patricia Louisianna Knop. The film is based on the 1978 memoir of the same name by Austrian-American author Ingeborg Day. It stars Kim Basinger as Elizabeth McGraw and Mickey Rourke as John Gray. McGraw is a New York City art gallery employee who has a brief yet intense affair with a mysterious Wall Street broker.

The film was completed in 1984 but did not get released until February 1986. Considered too explicit by its American distributor, the film was heavily edited for release in the United States, where it was a box office bomb, grossing $6.7 million on a $17 million budget. It also received mixed reviews at the time of its release. However, its soundtrack sold well and the film itself became a huge success internationally in its unedited version, particularly in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, making $100 million worldwide. It has also acquired a large fanbase on video and DVD and has developed a cult following.

Plot

The title of the film refers to the duration of a relationship between Wall Street arbitrageur John Gray and divorced SoHo art gallery employee Elizabeth McGraw in her mid-20s. John initiates and controls the various experimental sexual practices of this volatile relationship to push Elizabeth's boundaries. In doing so, Elizabeth experiences a gradual downward spiral toward an emotional breakdown.

Elizabeth first sees John in New York City at a Chinese grocer, and later at a street fair where she decides against buying an expensive scarf. John wins her heart when he eventually produces that scarf. They start dating, and Elizabeth is increasingly subjected to John's behavioral peculiarities; he blindfolds Elizabeth, who is at first reluctant to comply with his sexual demands, but eventually surrenders to them. He gives her an expensive gold watch and instructs her to use it to think about him touching her every day at noon. She takes this imperative even further by masturbating at her workplace at the designated time.

Elizabeth wants to include John in her life and meet her friends, but he makes it clear he only wishes to see her in the evenings and instructs her to see her friends in the daytime. Elizabeth's confusion about John increases when he leaves her alone at his apartment. She examines his closet until she discovers a photograph of him with another woman, April Tover. John asks her if she went through his things, declaring that he will punish her. She attacks him. He then sexually assaults her.

Elizabeth's heightened need for psychosexual stimulation drives her to stalk John to his office. When they have lunch and she mentions she would like to "be one of the guys," he arranges for her to crossdress for a rendezvous. On leaving the establishment, two men hurl a homophobic slur when they mistake John and Elizabeth for a gay couple. A fight ensues. Elizabeth picks up a knife from one of the attackers and stabs one of them in the buttocks and both attackers flee. After the fight, Elizabeth reveals a wet tank-top and has sex onsite with John with intensely visceral passion. Following this encounter, John's sexual games acquire sadomasochistic elements.

Rather than satisfying or empowering Elizabeth, such experiences intensify her emotional vulnerability. In a scene at her home, she feels humane simple things: watering a flower, hearing little kids laugh on a swing. While later meeting at a hotel room, John blindfolds her. A prostitute enters the room and starts caressing Elizabeth as John observes them. The prostitute removes Elizabeth's blindfold and starts working on John. Elizabeth violently intervenes, and flees the hotel, with John in pursuit. They run until they find themselves in an adult entertainment venue. Elizabeth enters a room where a group of men is watching a couple have sex. Elizabeth, visibly upset, notices John watching her, and she starts kissing the man next to her. This affects John, and he moves towards her. Moments later, John and Elizabeth gravitate towards each other, finding themselves interlocked in each other's seemingly inescapable embrace.

Elizabeth's exhibition with the artist Farnsworth finally happens. The humanity of Farnsworth is a clear contrast with the futile frenzy of the crowd. In a sad scene, Farnsworth, clearly uncomfortable at the superficial drunk party, watches Elizabeth hiding in a corner, watching him in turn, and crying in a catharsis. Elizabeth understands she needs love, not sensuality, she needs to leave John and she leaves the party and calls him. The following morning, we see Elizabeth has spent the night at John's. She gets up, and slowly packs her belongings from his apartment. When John realizes she is leaving, he feels a need to share with her humane details about his life. Elizabeth tells him that it is too late as she leaves the apartment. John begins a mental countdown from 50, hoping she will come back by the time he is finished. As at the beginning of the movie, Elizabeth is shown walking among the crowd, and this time she's crying, yet we feel she's a changed better person and she brought a bit of goodness in the world around, since in the previous scene even John talked of his real nature, stepping out of his pervert sensual pursuit.

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From the director of "Flashdance", "Indecent Proposal" and "Fatal Attraction" comes this highly-charged erotic journey starring Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke as two passionate strangers who explore the limits of their sexual obsessions.

See also [ Top 25 BDSM Movies ]

More information is available at [ Wikipedia:9_1/2_weeks ]

Sources

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