Eyes Wide Shut

mike myers in the lead would be interesting. he could probably do "I'm in over my head" more convincingly than cruise.

i should really see this again

wasn't steve martin originally who kubrick wanted for the lead? way back in the 80s iirc?

what was the deal with keitel? why do I remember something about someone cumming in kidman's hair? maybe that was my own dream.

it's apparently a myth, but a myth with explanatory power, like the anecdote about kubrick called up stephen king asking if he believed in god.

This is showing in DC this summer for a Kubrick retrospective. Can't wait to see it on the big screen

havin a hard time not seeing bateman every time cruise pulls the charming face in this:

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa295/slugbert/gamerecognizegame.jpg

masks!!!

Obviously they are very different films, but I kept getting these weird "Eyes Wide Shut" vibes when I was watching Argento's "Inferno" the other day. Something about the set design, and Keith Emerson's piano score, and the general mood. Admittedly, it's been a while since I've seen "EWS."

Brief thoughts of Kidman:

People thought that making the film was the beginning of the end of my marriage -- but I don't really think it was. Tom and I were close then, and it was very much the three of us. Onscreen, the husband and wife are at odds, and Stanley wanted to use our marriage as a supposed reality. That was Stanley: He used the movie as provocation, pretending it was our sex life. Which we weren't oblivious to, but obviously it wasn't us. We both decided to dedicate ourselves to a great filmmaker and artist.

Stanley had to coax me into some of the sexuality in the film in the beginning, but we shot things that were a lot more extreme that didn't end up in the movie. I did feel safe -- I never felt it was exploitive or unintelligent. He was very different with women than he was with men. He has daughters, so he was very paternal with me.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/nicole-kidman-stanley-kubricks-lens-382186

Paternalism resulted in her best performance ever.

we shot things that were a lot more extreme that didn't end up in the movie

o_O

I liked Slavoj Zizek's take, that a major theme of the film was that fantasy is destroyed the moment it's realized.

And all that's left after that is Christmas shopping.

fantasy is destroyed the moment that... OH JESUS THIS ISN'T WHAT I WANTED AT ALL

eyes wide shut uh http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0096.html

great essay, especially for the phrase "the groans of critical blueballs"

anyone else see Room 237 yet/ are ppl talking on another thread abt it?

The Shining

of course

just now:

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (237 of them)

well done, ilx

dunno why i was impressed w/ unremarkable coincidences. 237th post discussing the room 237 doc abt the shining while watching the south park episode parodying the shining. i r dumb that way.

at the same time that you were more dear to me than ever, i would have given everything -- everything -- for just one moment with him

― Surmounter, Tuesday, July 1, 2008 8:09 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this seems crucial somehow wrt the zizek piece, i think. dr. bill's odyssey isn't about the fulfillment of fantasy; he doesn't even have one of his own. he's just wandering around trying on what he thinks fantasy is supposed to look like. in the taxi scene where he's imagining alice with the naval officer, i think as much as he's haunted by hurt and jealousy towards his wife he's equally or more so envious of her having a fantasy that consuming and destructive.

i have to award points on the "destructive" part, tho, he did accomplished that much ok.

http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2013/02/06/cruise-control/#.URf3YGIFzjo.twitter

that's marvellous

hey, the Village set doesn't make sense

http://www.scoutingny.com/?p=6434

never noticed the walking in front of rear projection before!

My humble take on it is that Kidman was at the party if not in person, in spirit. Consider:

- Opening shot of the film, where she drops her dress the same way as the masked women during the ritual

- The upsetting dream she has, which is close to the events that Cruise witnessed at the house

- The final line of the film, spoken by her, in repsonse to Cruise asking what they should do : "Fuck"

Also, striking use of red:

- Hallway as Cruise descends into the Sonata cafe

- Domino's front door

- Pool table that Pollack leans over towards the end of the film

Also the color of the robe of the master of ceremonies at the ritual

never noticed the walking in front of rear projection before!

― turds (Hungry4Ass), Tuesday, March 26, 2013 5:44 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i totally noticed it but was never sure if it was meant to be noticed or not.

'Dream Story' is a quick read for anyone who enjoyed the movie. I knew the movie was based on the story, but was surprised how closely the film followed it. Almost all of the elements of the film - even the minor scenes - have some basis in the story.

yep, I was surprised when I saw EWS, having read the book when I knew that SK was adapting it.

I have an edition squirreled away in a box somewhere of the novel + the screenplay. never got around to actually reading it unfortunately.

http://i.imgur.com/8LD3XAC.jpg

Saw these chairs being delivered to the Masonic lodge in NYC this morning

Let me try this agajn
http://i.imgur.com/8LD3XAC.jpg

Oh fuck it

we can see this pics.

I've been in that lodge (not for an orgy).

a likely story

ha, i've been in there too. for, um, a fashion show.

likely story

those chairs are perfect

noting weird happened at the fashion show, look, here's a photo I took:
http://lightmasterstudios.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Eyes-Wide-Shut-Keyboards.jpg
just another night in new york city, you know?

well *i* still like it. so there.

this puts it under the microscope

http://somerton.tumblr.com/

A case for EWS (out 15 years ago yesterday) as SK's most personal film:

The final deep resonance regarding Eyes Wide Shut has to do with it being Stanley Kubrick’s last film. It was never intended to be a swan song. Fans of Kubrick would rather have had him sign off with AI or his long abandoned Napoleon, or maybe even his holocaust film Aryan Papers. But thinking deeply about Eyes Wide Shut, and feeling even more deeply about it, I believe that it may be as appropriate a final work for a filmmaker as A Prairie Home Companion was for Robert Altman and The Dead was for John Huston. I believe that this was Stanley Kubrick’s most personal film. The art on the Harfords’ apartment is mostly by Christiane Harlan Kubrick, and Alice is an artist; Nicole Kidman even kind of looks like Mrs. Kubrick. Kubrick’s father was a medical doctor, like Bill Harford. And as I implied earlier, there is a kind of concern for Helena, the Harfords’ daughter, who will grow up in a world where beautiful Barbie-doll women are sexualized, “get their brains fucked out,” and are then promptly discarded. Kubrick had three daughters, and there is an underlying concern of a father, quick to a civilization abounding with male privilege, for his daughter in the tapestry of this film.

http://www.letoilemagazine.com/2014/07/16/the-niles-files-its-old-fashioned/

I see that guy at screenings fairly often. Sky's the limit for him imo.

film criticism "sky" being what it is.

Bearing in mind it's what he *wants* to do.

hmmmm anything he wants to do is OK with me

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_2TVMxnrSCKY/S0kpzdDPCPI/AAAAAAAAGz8/AhDHDP0UuUY/s1600-h/nilesschwartz.jpg