Eyes Wide Shut

Finally! I've finally gotten to see this film by my beloved director Stanley Kubrick. I've been avoiding it, perhaps because of the subject matter. But I'm glad I finally watched it. It's not Kubrick's best film, but I just love the visuals and acting. And I'm not talking about naked women. This is about getting into someone's head, and it's not a pretty journey, even though it's bloodless. That makes it all the more depressing. (27/11/2015)

The story of an extraordinary marriage set in the night. The Kubrick-Kidman-Cruise trio searched until they found each other. It was last-minute, but they did it. :) I'm inspired to wear a bra the way Nicole does - there are so many ways to wear a bra, and Kubrick was probably the last one to tell her how to do it. In terms of more serious reflection, I’d point out the house full of masks, but that would be overdoing it. (27/03/2010)

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)

Unlike the rest of his filmography, Kubrick's latest film was controversially received. Remarkably often, five-star enthusiastic reviews full of superlatives are alternated with two-star reviews, where displeasure with the film's sexual openness and disgust with the vulgarization of the subject of romantic relationships prevail. I won't take either side in the dispute. The truth is that Eyes Wide Shut impressed me noticeably less than Kubrick's other dramas. It's not that his venture into the world of desire didn't evoke any feelings or questions in me, but they were sins committed in different places and of a different kind than the director intended. The bored, fresh widow (already a much worn-out topic these days) Nicole Kidman doesn't evoke sinful desires in me. Her beauty is the detached beauty of a runway model, not that of a sensual woman inciting sinful thoughts. Beauty and erotic allure are less related than commonly believed. Alice's flirtation with the aging beau at the party doesn't come off as erotic, but rather awkwardly lascivious. Alice and Bill's relationship is not driven by sexual fantasies and is instead a study of marital alienation. Kubrick should learn about desire, passion, and pleasure from Polanski. Animality belongs to desire, playfulness to eroticism. However, the game that Bill unknowingly enters into feels strange, overstrained, and overconstructed after three sexual revolutions. I don't even understand how Bill identified the masked beauty from the party with the dead woman in the morgue, and I don't understand many other things either. If anything, the film sparked an interest in the source material by Arthur Schnitzler in me. I will be wiser after reading it. My overall impression is 65%, with the understanding that my review is aided by Kubrick's traditional ability to work with images and master the technical aspect of the work. (31/12/2021)

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)