The legendary eye chemistry between Warren Beatty and Julie Christie in the final scene of Heaven Can Wait (starting at the 6:00 mark in this clip) is all about spirit and pangs and possibility. But the eye current between Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche in this clip from Louis Malle‘s Damage is shamelessly carnal. They’ve just met six seconds earlier and it’s a done deal.

This kind of instant-green-light, good-to-go chemistry doesn’t happen all that often in dramas, or at least not as convincingly as it does here. But maybe my memory is faulty. I’m asking for other scenes that have this kind of current. One look, one touch…and there’s no doubt about what’s going to happen. It’s simply a matter of time and circumstance and somebody making the first call.

I’ve been there many times. It’s always the woman’s decision and you always know within minutes if not seconds. Losers like to think they can alpha-vibe or chitty-chat or sweet-talk their way into a woman’s boudoir. Maybe this happens every so often, but 90% of the time if a woman hasn’t given you the come-hither within three minutes or less you’re probably wasting your time.

Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t screw things up after the initial invitation. There are 50 ways you can motivate a woman out of a romantic mood, and if you can think of 35 of them in advance you’re a genius. But that green-light look is unmistakable.