5 lessons in love (and life) from the films of Kim Basinger

Arguably Basinger’s most famous film and certainly her steamiest, this romantic drama co-starring Mickey Rourke offers a number of handy tips on how to spice up one’s sex life. In fact, there are so many useful suggestions on offer that it’s hard to know where to start. Rule no.1: Nothing livens up your sex life better than a well-stocked fridge (we recommend adding honey and maraschino cherries to your next grocery shop). Rule no.2: Slatted blinds make the ideal backdrop for a striptease – very ’80s. Rule no.3: Making love in a New York stairwell needn’t be uncomfortable. Rule no.4: Nothing gets a bad boy going like donning a suit and a ’tache. The less said about that one, the better.

Though it’s not uncommon for actors to become enamored of one another while working together on a movie (all of those creative juices flowing probably has something to do with it), one is tempted to regard this on-set romance as a cautionary tale, given how it turned out for all concerned. The message is simple: don’t fall in love with your co-worker, even if it is Alec Baldwin circa 1990 and you happen to be making a film called The Marrying Man – it’s not a sign. The couple’s follow-up movie, released a year after they got married and about a couple who don’t trust each other, called The Getaway (1994), turned out to be far more symbolic. Takeaway wisdom? Beware the escalated emotions of an office romance.

For many, this James Ellroy adaptation represents Basinger at her best. Her Veronica Lake doppelganger call-girl, Lynn Bracken – a reticent, jaded beauty who understands more than she lets on – finds herself at the center of a love triangle and a murder investigation with cops Bud White (Russell Crowe) and Ed Exley (Guy Pearce). Able to elicit truth with little more than a questioning gaze or a parting of scarlet lips, and proving that women can make men melt even while clothing covers nearly every inch of their body, Bracken epitomizes the notion that strength and fragility are common bedfellows. What does she teach us about love? That the best kind can look beyond appearances, circumstances and even actions to the soul within.

We have Basinger’s daughter, Ireland Baldwin, to thank for her appearance in this much-anticipated Fifty Shades of Grey sequel. Despite being less-than-enamored with the first movie, Baldwin nonetheless insisted her mother accept the role of Elena Lincoln, Christian Grey’s former lover and the woman who introduced him to the world of S&M. One can understand Basinger’s hesitation. Having played her fair share of femmes fatales over the years (mostly opposite Richard Gere), she’d be justified in thinking she had well and truly ploughed that furrow. But Baldwin insisted: “You have to do it, Mom. It’s really powerful for women. Your character is about a woman’s power.” Basinger was convinced and S&M cinematic history was made. What lessons can be drawn from this little parable? Well, how about: what goes on between two consenting adults is their business, but maybe don’t choose to do it with your friend’s son, and definitely not when they’re 15 years old.