Adrian Lyne
Attrazione Fatale

The story of this film, I believe, is known to many. It has a rather simple plot, a story with a linear progression that tells the tale of a very normal and tranquil American family being tormented by a woman with whom the pater familias had engaged in adulterous adventures. In short, it’s a stalking story, like many we've heard recently, with the necessary clarification that in the USA such issues have been daily news for years, whereas in our country it has only appeared in the pages of the penal code a few months ago. That said, just for juridical completeness, the message is clear... love is beautiful, sex too, but not all that glitters is gold. And it seems that Adryan Lyne, in his artistic journey, has made this principle his obsession.

In the 1980s, 9½ Weeks scandalized the American audience and became a cult or rather a sort of cultural phenomenon; more recently, Indecent Proposal created a disturbing quiz-game among couples worldwide (...and how much money would it take for you to cheat on me?) and, finally, Unfaithful enjoyed good public success. But the common thread in all these films (I chose not to mention the remake of Lolita for reasons of dignity) is always the same: a semi-distorted view of the man-woman relationship.

Sex is a physiological element of the human being, a bit like sleeping and eating, but the mere fact that it involves different brains makes it difficult, always problematic, rarely satisfying... this seems to be the message these films wish to convey. In 9½ Weeks, the protagonist becomes a victim, a woman as an object, of her partner to the point of psycho-physical exhaustion; in Indecent Proposal sex becomes beautiful when it's worth a million dollars, and in Unfaithful betrayal is wrong but inevitable and leads to tragedy.

Technically speaking, the success of Lyne's works is not so much due to the final artistic quality but to that sly way of making everything more glossed over and sadly voyeuristic... even in this "Fatal Attraction," the theme doesn't change, at most the setting does or rather a different cinematic territory is chosen: the psychological thriller. Personally, I suppose the choice is right.

The rarefied atmosphere, foggy and dark that envelops the story (photography and editing are almost impeccable) elevates it to a higher level and the unfolding of events creates a good mix of sensuality and tension. Even in the initial scenes, the warmer ones, so to speak, you sense that something is not right; there’s a sense of disturbance, not so much caused by the torrid relationship for its own sake but by the fact that the interpretative intensity of the protagonist (a tremendous Glenn Close) warns us with just a glacial look. In short, Fatal Attraction works and, without a doubt, it is the director’s best work (except for the excellent Jacob's Ladder, which moves on different themes) because it shows us how all the emotional knowledge of couple relationships can be taken to the extreme, and it does so with linearity and constant apprehension.

If you haven’t seen it yet, and I don't think that's the case, do it, perhaps alone, late at night... maybe you won’t fall asleep right away... because everyone has their own little skeleton in the closet.