Eyes Wide Shut

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

i mean....

http://www.letoilemagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/IMG_3332bw-200x300.jpg

[redacted]

http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/eyes-wide-shut-tom-cruise-nicole-kidman

wish that someone would corroborate the apocryphal story of kidman and harvey keitel humping her hair

http://www.letoilemagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Eyes-59-300x168.jpg

ha i took this exact still (from the piece morbs linked) as a desktop background a couple years ago. can't have been a frame off.

I wanted to strangle Larry Smith by the end of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z22kV6t7TI

We will whisk you away from New York City to a secluded estate in the woods for an Illuminati rite of passage. Join us and discover the light of scientific truth.
A luxury limousine bus will pick up thirty Illuminati candidates at a secret Manhattan location. They will be transported to a stately hunting lodge located on a secluded lake peninsula one hour outside of Manhattan. Champagne will be sipped en route.
Our Surrealist soirée includes intricate cocktails, mouthwatering delicacies, inspiring music, devilish dances and esoteric rituals. The first course will be eaten blindfolded to better appreciate the nuance of the food.
Many of the dates will feature a special guest performance by Prodigy of Mobb Deep.
Attendees must fill out an online application and be accepted in order to purchase tickets.
Apply Now

So basically a hip hop concert with some random people wearing masks?

more like cirque de foreplay plus prodigy i think

more like fidelino

love this movie so much, second only to the shining, miss SK so much

"a secluded lake peninsula one hour outside of Manhatta" hmm where could this be ?

I wanted to strangle Larry Smith by the end of this

― 龜, Wednesday, August 6, 2014 1:30 PM (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hah i love the lightning and shit in the movie.

lightning = lighting

god good i just saw EWS for the first time and it was incredible, i'm absolutely floored. easily my favorite Kubrick - A Clockwork Orange and especially 2001 are a bit worn out for me.

it's so strange knowing of of a movie for many years, familiar with its basic premise and iconography, and then finally seeing it and having your preconceptions obliterated. i thought the movie was about Cruise & Kidman going to these mask parties together, at least twice. the way that ryan talks about the "elusive" construction up thread is so otm - it makes it so much more disturbing and creepy having a brief glimpse of that world and no retribution, as opposed to having Cruise killed or whatever. and yes one of the best looking movies i've ever seen.

i saw it on small screen maybe ten years ago and being a bit 'whatevs' at the time, but I've felt like that about every Kubrick film I've seen until I got to see it at the cinema. His films really need to be seen on a large screen to be properly appreciated.

Stevie D just watched it.

I watched it last night. Not seen it since about 2006. Really enjoyed it, although I'm still trying to decipher a lot of it. Lots more to chew on than I first remembered. I'm sure there are a thousand critical analyses online I could read but it's quite a ride. The climax of the film, the orgy/ceremony with THAT music and chanting is so creepy and evocative. I love it. I started reading something yesterday that argues that the film isn't so much about sex as lucre, and yes I guess it is, and this film resonates even more in the Trump era than it did in 1999.
But it's also definitely about sex, and infidelity and fear. Cruise's character, on more than one occasion, is presented with the opportunity to practice inFIDELity (and it appears he would) but somehow never gets to. Meanwhile, his wife is very open about her own fantasies of sleeping with other people and indeed has vivid Old Testament dreams about this, which she admits to using against her husband. It's that last line, 'we have to fuck' that closes the film and kind of neatly-but-not-so-neatly wraps it up. This couple who've been arguing, accusing of cheating on each other (but mostly) in their minds, who've been getting increasingly sucked into this sordid demimonde of money, masks and murder, could easily wake up from the dream if they'd only rediscover each other... Still the conclusion tells us nothing about the cult, about what really happened to Mandy, about why they'd be willing to kill someone to protect their secrets... And what's happening with the Rainbow outfitters? How many people already knew about the society -does the shop owner know? Do the two models who say they're going to take Bill to 'the end of the Rainbow' know? Does all this even matter to the protagonists in the story?
Cruise's character's goal isn't to bring down the secret society or to bring justice to the dead sex-worker. He infiltrates the ceremony for the same reason he decides to go back to Domino's house - intrigue, boredom, frustration, anger perhaps. He's curious, and he could just as easily go home back to his wife and daughter. Even the next day, even after he's told to back off and discontinue his enquiries, he persists, despite a perceived threat to his life.
I'd really like to understand more about the scene with his friend who says 'it was all staged' and who brushes off Mandy's death as being unrelated. This is pure Kubrick, and a very much Lynchian trope too. The kind that makes you want to come back to the film for a second and third time.

Some things never change

Good in-depth essay from Jonathan Rosenbaum:

It’s one of the movie’s many indications that the unclear separations of imagination and reality include many rhyme effects between Alice’s dreams and fantasies and Bill’s reality as well as rhymes between her fantasies and his (such as her having sex with the naval officer). In fact, though the film initially appears to be mainly about Bill because it follows him around more than Alice, Alice’s confession and dream are just as important as anything that happens to him; in some respects, thanks to Kubrick’s (and Schnitzler’s) careful calibrations in the storytelling, she makes an even stronger impression than he does, especially because she seems more in touch with her fantasy life than he is with his own.

Yeah I watched this a few months ago and was blown away. Totally forgot about the Christmas motif, and the rainbow-colored Christmas lights hanging in so many scenes.

I read it mostly as a commentary on class and how deep-rooted power is. Even though Cruise is a successful doctor, he's unable to buy his way into society's walled-off top tier (he spends his night throwing money around, offering everybody hundred dollar bills; his name is Bill, etc., but the old money power players see right through him).

I watched it two Sundays ago, first full viewing since 1999, thoroughly underwhelmed and still laughable in places.