Body Heat : Heightened Style in the Neo-Noir

In the early 1980s, the film noir was a dormant genre, superseded by more visceral crime thrillers and action films. Lawrence Kasdan’s decision to make his directorial debut with the erotic neo-noir Body Heat (1981) was a bold one, then, but it became a critical and commercial success. This chapter examines how Kasdan employs a subjective camera to enable the audience to process the narrative from the male lead’s perspective as he becomes entangled in the femme fatale’s scheme. According to Bordwell and Thompson’s neo-formalist paradigms of style, this choice follows the restricted narration of classic Hollywood crime stories. However, Kasdan also occasionally places the audience in the position of voyeur, obscuring the camera behind window frames or foliage, as if we were witnessing the events surreptitiously. Additionally, he uses long takes and languid camera movements to emphasize the oppressive atmosphere and the creeping sense of guilt at the center of the story. Employing historical poetics, the chapter argues that these directorial choices are not only aesthetic, but also help to build dramatic tension, especially when the “objective” truth is finally revealed.