Eyes Wide Shut

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.

as in, "Do smart Americans like Kubrick and Raphael really have so shallow a conception of infidelity and perversion?"

hmmm, taken in a literary sense from Schnitzler

infidelity of the mind

I'm convinced most of it "doesn't happen"

Laughable in places i.e. every time they play the music

it's no far and away that's for sure

as in, "Do smart Americans like Kubrick and Raphael really have so shallow a conception of infidelity and perversion?"

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, February 19, 2018 2:53 PM (seventeen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Really?

Imagine this would be a good double feature with Risky Business.

(The Ligeti piece, in case it wasn’t obvious what I was referring to)

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/

― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Thursday, July 17, 2014 7:54 PM (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I didn't catch the latter concern, perhaps as a non-parent, but I nevertheless already regarded as his most personal and perhaps of a piece with at least one of the other two personal favorites.

(raphael was born in chicago but emigrated to the UK when he was seven: i think he probably mostly imbibed his shallowness of concept over here, if anywhere)

I thought Cruise and Kidman's acting was atrocious in places, especially Kilman acting stoned, all staggering around like a drunk antelope and talking really reaaaaallllly slowww. Cruise out-Batemanning Patrick Bateman actually worked in his favour in that it made everything feel even more uncanny

Imagine this would be a good double feature with Risky Business.

As long as you watch Risky Business, the better, smarter and definitely more enjoyable film, second.

Brilliant movie

How does it rank against The Emoji Film

it's better

fp'd JiC

Oh I just did that with like four people just now, including Alfred

no orgies for them

Classic:

http://78.media.tumblr.com/c9740dd8e43ff1de28672f28b3346603/tumblr_inline_n14xx4gWEB1qfo9ju.jpg

Dud:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cOFObkWKrK8/Vn8EQnlQCRI/AAAAAAAAOks/kO9-VCodd0Y/s1600/eyes-wide-shut-sidney-pollack.jpg

it's hard to get an orgy of beautiful people going

if you can manage 50% beautiful people in the orgy it's pretty much a miracle

but probably 2/3 will be sub 5s

basically the more people participate the less likely you'll get hot people in it

only reason i bring this up is because you try keeping your dick hard with people you don't find attractive

unless the actors are being paid to participate

They've dicked around with the aspect on recent Blus supposedly. Bad cropping and suchlike compared to some older versions on DVD.

http://cdn.avsforum.com/f/f1/f1f4ac2a_vbattach236931.jpeg

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/150-blu-ray-software/928408-eyes-wide-shut-review-up-hdd-3-stars-pq-3.html

holy shit

glad i got to see it for the first time in a theater last year

i have now seen the uncensored orgy scenes

i still find Kidman's laughing fit in the pot scene a riot

had forgotten almost the entire Marie Richardson lascivious grieving episode

that whole scene is incredible. those curtains...

are the uncensored scenes on the blu ray or did you see a screening? how much more explicit is it really? like someone said upthread (i think), part of what's funny/interesting/scary about the orgy is how stiff and non-erotic it is.

I'm talking about the fact that the US release obscured the pelvic areas of the orgiasts with CG onlookers -- "the Austin Powers version," as Roger Ebert called it. Just a reminder that American culture was infantilized even before the Orange Grifter showed up.

Even unobscured, the sex is mechanical and non-erotic, as Kubrick intended.

there are at least 3 brilliant "character" roles filled here:

- the aforementioned Marie Richardson

- Rade Serbedzija as the costume shop owner who ultimately pimps out his daughter

- Alan Cumming as the hotel desk clerk, one of the funniest 3-minute performances in cinema annals (Franklin Pangborn would be proud)

Sydney Pollack for me. No one did smarmy gravitas so well. It's a shame he never made a Phil Jackson biopic.

are the CGI onlookers still present in versions sold in the US now?

you can gifs of the differences here: https://decider.com/2015/01/30/eyes-wide-shut-uncensored-hbo-go/

you don't get to see TC on his knees with a cock in his mouth or anything.

well hope springs eternal

I've come around to really admiring this film. No to the Alan Cumming reception scene, though. I think he comes across as some sort of grotesque gay stereotype - maybe that's the point I guess what with "Are we in the good doctor's head? " and all. Must rewatch.

yeah i loathe Cumming and that scene

https://cinephiliabeyond.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/6-6.jpg

top stuff here

https://cinephiliabeyond.org/eyes-wide-shut-tense-nightmarish-exploration-marriage-sexuality-kubricks-ultimate-film/

the Alan Cummings scene is amazing

ly bad

http://image.ibb.co/eL39vT/vlcsnap_2012_11_04_23h10m23s181.png

I probably should have had some reasonable sexual encounters in my life before seeing this film

are the CGI onlookers still present in versions sold in the US now?

They were up until the 2007 release, which is what i just watched.

hey guess what, for a lot of hotel desk clerks that gay stereotype is true.

btw there is a bar/showplace in NYC now called Club Cumming which he has a stake in

that still above makes it clear why SK originally considered Steve Martin to play Dr Bill

It would never have occurred to me that this was the case:

“In some of the scenes, the backgrounds were rear-projection plates,” the cinematographer reveals. “Generally, when Tom’s facing the camera, the backgrounds are rear-projected; anything that shows him from a side view was done on the streets of London. We had the plates shot in New York by a second unit [that included cinematographers Patrick Turley, Malik Sayeed and Arthur Jafa]. Once the plates were sent to us, we had them force-developed and balanced to the necessary levels. We’d then go onto our street sets and shoot Tom walking on a treadmill. After setting the treadmill to a certain speed, we’d put some lighting effects on him to simulate the glow from the various storefronts that were passing by in the plates. We spent a few weeks on those shots.”

Alan Cumming scene is great.

The whole thing definitely had the feel of being shot on sets. The couple of b-roll shots (maybe a freeway exit or such?) felt really out of place. The rest of it feels kind of like an 80s video.

you can tell if you're looking out for it. it's one of my favorite things about the movie xp

I probably should have had some reasonable sexual encounters in my life before seeing this film

― mh, Monday, June 25, 2018 9:41 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

yeah that's otm for me