that old feeling is still in my heart

---------------[excerpts, Lawrence Kasdan interview, by Alex Simon, "The Hollywood Interview" site]-----------What did your dad do?
He ran an electronics store, but that's not what he had intended to do.  He'd gone to Brown University and had wanted to be a writer.  He had a very frustrating life and died quite young, and I know it had an enormous impact -- I did not want that to happen to me.  My mother had wanted to write as well, so I grew up in a household where writing was an acceptable thing to do, but there was also a great deal of frustration.  Both my parents were from educated families and there was a feeling in the house, in spite of all the frustration and disappointment, that reading was important, and therefore writing was possible....

From West Virginia, you went on to University of Michigan.
I went there because there was a writing contest there that was the richest college writing contest in the country.  Arthur Miller had won it.  I had no money, so that contest put me through school....During all the student unrest there I was the classic observer.

...After graduating, you went into advertising, right?
I did.  I came out to UCLA to go to film school, but I hadn't gotten into the directing program, I got into the writing program, which I didn't want to be in.  So I went back to Ann Arbor and went to work in a record store, got married, and got a Master's in education, thinking I'd teach high school English.  But when I got out, the market was glutted with education majors and there were no teaching jobs to be found.  It was harder than becoming a movie director!  (laughs)  I met someone in Detroit who owned an ad agency.  Since I was writing screenplays anyway, he asked me to show him some stuff I'd written, and he hired me.  It started five years in advertising, six months of which I liked.  I couldn't stand it, but I had a kid, and I wanted to continue to write screenplays.--------------------- [end Interview excerpts]

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In the film Body Heat, after Lowenstein dances his way out the door of Stella's tiny café and Ned Racine and Stella laconically trade local gossip, the next scene is abruptly a night shot, EXT. -- an outdoor concert.  They're playing what I'd assumed was 1940s-style "big band" music -- an Internet Comment says the song is "That Old Feeling" (1937)...close...it's hot, an audience is seated for the concert -- there are concession-stands.  Ned walks around, still in his work-clothes -- he carries his jacket; an ocean breeze blows his tie back over one shoulder.  He gives the crowd a casual glance.

A woman in a white dress rises from her seat near the front and walks down the aisle, back toward where Ned Racine is standing.  She walks by him, and heads toward a boardwalk overlooking the water.  He watches her go, then follows.

[excerpt, Body Heat screenplay]
RACINE:
You can stand here with me if you want, but you'll have to agree not to talk about the heat.

She looks at him, and there is something startling about the directness of her gaze.  When she speaks, she is cool without being hostile.

MATTY:
I'm a married woman.

RACINE
Meaning what?

MATTY
Meaning I'm not looking for company.

-- Then you should have said -- 'I'm a happily married woman.'

-- That's my business.

-- What?

-- How happy I am.

-- And how happy is that?

She looks at him curiously.  She begins walking slowly along the rail.  He walks too.

MATTY
You're not too smart, are you?
I like that in a man.

RACINE
What else you like -- Ugly?  Lazy?  Horny?  I got 'em all.

MATTY
You don't look lazy.

He gives a surprised, incredulous, involuntary laugh.

MATTY
Tell me, does chat like that work with most women?

RACINE
Some.  If they haven't been around much.

MATTY
I wondered.  Thought maybe I was out of touch.

She stops again at the rail as a small breeze blows in from the ocean.  She turns her back to it and, with her cigarette dangling from her lips, she uses both hands to lift her hair up off her neck.  She closes her eyes as the air hits her.  Racine watches very closely.

RACINE
How 'bout I buy you a drink?

MATTY
I told you.  I've got a husband.

-- I'll buy him one too.

-- He's out of town.

-- My favorite kind.  We'll drink to him.

-- He only comes up on the weekends.

-- I'm liking him better all the time!
(a pause)
You'd better take me up on this quick.  In another forty-five minutes I'm going to give up and walk away. ...
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{script excerpt:  Body Heat, written by Lawrence Kasdan}

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