There are two versions of how the famous scene happened. According to the director of the film, Paul Verhoeven, Stone knew perfectly well what she was doing and was delighted with the perverse situation. According to the actress, the director exploited her. “When we shot it, it was going to be a hint,” says Stone, “but told me: ‘You can see the white of your underwear, I need you to take it off.’ He assured me that nothing would be seen. The detective with an addiction to risk (and everything else), Nick Curran ( played by Michael Douglas), knows that Trammell is not wearing underwear. He spied on her while she was dressing in the previous scene and has found that for her, lingerie is unnecessary. The viewer also knows it, and so witnesses that interrogation with an open mouth. Will Trammell dare to uncross those legs, to daze the males of the pack? Of course, the answer is yes.

Did the director have the consent of the actress to portray her crotch for posterity? Today, a mystery – more juicy, though less deadly – remains unresolved. Basic Instinct (directed by Paul Verhoeven, 1992) was the fourth-highest grossing film of the year. Sex (and the desire of it) corrupts every shot until it almost melts the celluloid of a movie that became an instant classic. And all because many teenagers (and some grown men) burned the video by repeatedly rewinding and pausing the scene in question. Murder suspect Catherine Trammell (played by a 34-year-old Sharon Stone) undergoes an interrogation, but it is she who ends up tormenting the police. The mouse and the cat have never been so in heat. Catherine is the only one who enjoys the situation.

It’s been 25 years, and some people still have not recovered. The crossing (or, technically, uncrossing) of legs that shook the world has not aged at all.

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