Eyes Wide Shut

This desire truly burns the viewer and most importantly, it matures within them. It may have been a long time since I saw the film, but the suggestive feeling of presence at the ritual or paranoid thoughts of Bill still remain. Cruise and Nicole are brilliant, and Kubrick's construction of atmosphere with the help of minimalist musical accompaniment is also exceptional. (14/09/2006)

Heavy calibre. As a wise old saying goes, "It's not art to tame pelican once, but to ride it" (okay, not that old), and I don't know of a better film that could so flawlessly put that into practice. The story, brimming with sexuality, keeps you in check the whole time, and you not only can't let go under the weight of the hypnotic dialogues and atmosphere, but you won’t even want to. What is the story about? About unfulfilled desires in life, about a crisis of sexual identity, about the nature of the universe? I can’t say, and honestly, I don’t care, because when someone can so grandly captivate you with the very tone of the narrative and delight you with the most amazing filmmaking art in history, you don't even want to dig deeper into that captivating splendour. The best imaginable epitaph for a brilliant artist and visionary. The erotic séance sequence is more suspenseful and thrilling than the vast majority of horror films ever made. Bravo! (18/05/2018)

Kubrick embarked on several space odysseys because of existential questions, only to finally realise on the last one that the only thing that makes sense in life is a proper fuck. The question is whether he’s right. His brilliance and advanced age, and the not insignificant weight of the message – his last – confirm that he is. Eyes Wide Shut is three hours of psychological and stylistic ecstasy. (17/04/2003)

I was waiting to watch this movie for an awfully long time. And when it finally happened, I had a hard time to accept its poetics for the first twenty minutes of the movie. The storytelling is slow and intensive but after half an hour it gets faster and it turns into a decent psychological flick with a mysterious atmosphere of 90s thrillers. After all I have to admit it was pretty clear that this is Stanley Kubrick’s film. Sometimes I felt I was not watching Eyes Wide Shut but The Shinning sequel. The camera shots or an intensive piano music confirmed that this film is again a completely unique experience for the audience. The end could have been a bit more daring and it didn’t have to end with simple ‘fuck’ but otherwise it was great. True Kubrick. It’s hard to find similar directors nowadays… (22/06/2018)

I once saw a bit of A Clockwork Orange in a summer camp movie theater, but otherwise I had been virtually uninitiated in Kubrick up until that point, save for a few documentaries and trailers. It was the master's last (and ironically my first) film that I saw in its entirety :)) and it must be said that it is a well thought out and functioning film combining elements of a psychological thriller and drama with an erotic touch and featuring a strong above-average performance by Tom Cruise (although I don't like Tommy otherwise, here he proves again that he is capable of acting really well under capable direction – just like in the case of Magnolia) and incredibly seductive Nicole Kidman. The slightly lighter soundtrack from the opening half hour is then replaced by a four-note (or five-note, I'm not sure now :))) piano motif, which at times gives you chills and gets under your skin quite unpleasantly.)) Otherwise, I can't remember a film in a long time that has so many memorable scenes (Alice's haunting monologue, the billiards scene, the opening dance with the "Hungarian", where the sexual tension between the two actors is masterfully captured). Before I got my first and Kubrick's last film home :)), I read somewhere that Kubrick's films resemble chess games – at the beginning they play with you, then they attack you quite sharply and thoughtfully, and at the end they might show you their method, and while you still feel only total defeat, you are totally fascinated (as in my case :)). So I have to say in conclusion that there is something to the chess comparison :)) 100% (03/02/2010)