Eyes Wide Shut
Encyclopedia
Eyes Wide Shut is a 1999 drama film
based upon Arthur Schnitzler
's 1926 novella
Traumnovelle
(Dream Story). The film was directed, produced and co-written by Stanley Kubrick
, and was his last film. The story, set in and around New York City, follows the sexually-charged adventures of Dr. Bill Harford, who is shocked when his wife, Alice, reveals that she had contemplated an affair a year earlier. He embarks on a night-long adventure, during which he infiltrates a massive masked orgy
of an underground cult
.
The film appeared on July 16, 1999, to generally positive critical reaction.
This was the last film to be directed by Stanley Kubrick before his death in 1999, and its actual release was posthumous. Although generally well-received by critics, the film proved controversial due to its strong sexual content, and its distributor Warner Bros.
digitally altered several scenes during post-production to ensure a theatrical R rating in the United States and Canada. The uncut version has been released on DVD since. In early versions, the soundtrack featured during the masked orgy is part of a Romanian
Orthodox Divine Liturgy
recorded in a church in Baia Mare
, played backwards. This was altered or removed in subsequent releases. The film also holds the Guinness World Record for the longest constant movie shoot, at 400 days.
) and his wife, Alice (Nicole Kidman
), a young couple from New York, go to a Christmas party, given by a wealthy patient, Victor Ziegler (Sydney Pollack
). There Bill runs into an old friend, Nick Nightingale (Todd Field
), who dropped out of medical school and now plays piano professionally. While a Hungarian man tries to pick up Alice, two young models try to take Bill off for a tryst. He is interrupted by a call from his host upstairs, who had been having sex with a young woman who has overdosed on a speedball
.
Next evening at home, while smoking marijuana, Bill's wife asks him if he had sex with the two girls. After Bill reassures her, she asks if he is ever jealous of men who are attracted to her. As the discussion gets heated, he states that he thinks women are more faithful than men. She rebuts him, telling him of a recent fantasy she had about a naval officer they had encountered on a vacation.
Disturbed by Alice's revelation, Bill is just then called on a housecall to the deathbed of the father of a now-engaged female friend, who impulsively kisses him and tells him she loves him. Putting her off, he takes a walk down the streets of New York, and meets a prostitute named Domino (Vinessa Shaw
), and goes to her apartment. Their encounter is awkward, but as they begin to kiss he is interrupted by a phone call from his wife, after which he calls off the encounter.
Bill goes to meet his friend Nick at the Sonata Cafe; there he learns that Nick has a later engagement that evening where he must play the piano while blindfolded. Nick tells him about the beautiful women he glimpsed when the blindfold slipped at the last gig, allowing him to surmise some of the goings-on. Bill presses for details. To gain admittance, one needs a costume, a mask and the password. Bill drives late at night to a shop called "Rainbow Fashions". Having been the doctor of the previous owner, he offers the new owner, Mr. Milich (Rade Serbedzija
), a generous amount of money to rent to him now. Searching for a costume, the owner catches his teenage daughter (Leelee Sobieski
) with two Japanese men and expresses outrage at their lack of sense of decency. He threatens to call the police.
With the costume, Bill takes a taxi out to a country mansion where a quasi-religious but highly sexual ritual is taking place. One woman comes to Bill, takes him aside and warns him that he does not belong there. He then meets another girl in whose company he walks through a few rooms where an orgy is taking place. The first woman catches up with Bill and insists he is in terrible danger for they suspect that he is an outsider. Bill is then interrupted by a masked porter who tells him that the taxi driver who is waiting outside wants to speak with him. However, the porter takes him to the main room where the masked, red-cloaked Master of Ceremonies confronts Bill with a question about a second password which Bill is unable to answer. The Master of Ceremonies insists that he "kindly remove his mask", then asks that he remove his clothes. The masked young woman who had tried to warn Bill now intervenes and insists that she be punished instead of him. As she is taken away, Bill asks what is going to happen to her. The Master cryptically replies her fate is sealed and Bill is ushered from the mansion and warned by the red-cloaked Master not to tell anyone about what happened there.
Just before dawn, Bill arrives home guilty and confused, where his wife Alice is now awake and tells him of a troubling dream in which he and she were in a deserted city without their clothes. She felt frightened and ashamed while he went off to try to find their clothes. After he left, she felt better, finding herself, still naked, in a beautiful garden. The Naval Officer emerged, stared at her, and the two of them began making love surrounded by many other couples doing the same. She then started having sex with many of those men and laughing at the idea of Bill seeing her with them.
The next morning, Bill goes in search of Nick. After he locates his hotel from the nightclub owner, the desk clerk (Alan Cumming
) there tells Bill that a bruised and frightened Nick had checked out a few hours earlier after returning with two large, dangerous-looking men. The clerk also mentions that Nick tried to pass an envelope to him when they were leaving, but that one of the men noticed this and intercepted it, then Nick was driven away by the two men in a limousine parked outside the hotel, with no mention as to where they were going.
Before going to work, Bill goes to return the costume and the shop proprietor, with his daughter by his side, states he can do other favors for Bill "and it needn't be a costume". The Japanese men leave; Milich implies to Bill that he has sold his daughter for prostitution. Bill has misplaced the mask, so is billed for it. Bill returns to the mansion in his own car and is greeted at the gate by a man with a typed note warning him to cease and desist his inquiries. At home, Bill thinks about Alice's recounting of the scene while he watches her tutor their daughter.
That evening, Bill goes to the home of the prostitute with a gift. Her roommate greets him, telling him Domino has just discovered she has HIV. Bill leaves and notices that a well-dressed man is following him. After losing his pursuer, Bill reads a newspaper story about a beauty queen, Mandy, who had died of a drug overdose. She has the same name as the woman he had treated at Ziegler's party. He goes to the hospital, claiming to be her doctor, and examines her body in the morgue.
Afterwards, Ziegler summons Bill to his house and tells him he knows all the events of the past night and day. Ziegler was one of those involved with the ritual orgy and his own position with the secret society has been jeopardized by Bill's intrusion. Bill is now concerned with the death of Mandy, whom Ziegler has identified as the woman at the party who'd "sacrificed" herself to prevent Bill's punishment, as well as the disappearance of Nick. Ziegler insists that Nick is safely back at his home in Seattle, but does not know where to contact him. Ziegler also insists that the "punishment" had nothing to do with Mandy's death; she was a junkie and she really has died from another accidental drug overdose. Bill clearly does not know if Ziegler is telling him the truth, but he accepts it anyway.
When Bill returns home, he sees the mask he had rented on his pillow next to his sleeping wife. He breaks down in tears and as Alice awakes, he decides to tell her the whole truth of the past two days. The next morning they go Christmas shopping. His wife muses that recent events do not define their life and they should be grateful they have survived and are still together and that she loves him. She then says they need to have sex as soon as possible.
, a categorization disputed by others. It is classed as such in the book The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema by Linda Ruth Williams, and was described as such in two news articles about Cruise and Kidman's lawsuit over assertions they saw a sex therapist during filming. One review panning the film disparaged it as an erotic thriller implying the genre was inherently disreputable, although other positive reviews such as the one in Hidefdigest also called it such as well.
However, reviewing the film on aboutfilm.com, Carlo Cavagna regards this as a misleading classification, as does Leo Goldsmith writing on notcoming.com (a website devoted to old movies out of current release), and also the review on Blu-ray.com. Writing in TV Guide, Maitland McDonagh writes "No one familiar with the cold precision of Kubrick's work will be surprised that this isn't the steamy erotic thriller a synopsis (or the ads) might suggest." Writing in general about the genre of 'erotic thriller' for CineAction in 2001, Douglas Keesey states that the film "whatever its actual type...[was] at least marketed as an erotic thriller". Michael Koresky writing in the 2006 issue of film journal Reverse Shot writes "this director, who defies expectations at every turn and brings genre to his feet, was ...setting out to make neither the “erotic thriller” that the press maintained nor an easily identifiable “Kubrick film”". DVD Talk similarly dissociates the film from this genre.
's 1926 novella Traumnovelle
is set around Vienna
shortly after the turn of the century. The couple are named Fridolin and Albertina, and their home is a typical suburb
an middle-class home, not the film's posh urban apartment. Schnitzler himself, like the protagonist of this novel, lived in Vienna, was Jewish, and a medical doctor (though Schnitzler eventually abandoned medicine for writing.)
The couple in the novella are implied to be Jewish
(and Nightingale is overtly identified as Jewish). According to historian Geoffrey Cocks, Kubrick (himself of Jewish descent) frequently removed references to the Jewishness of characters in the novels he adapted. This is reflected in the way the film handles the way Bill Harford is taunted by college students when going home in the morning. In the film, Bill is taunted with homophobic
slurs. In the novella, these boys are recognized to be members of an anti-Semitic college fraternity. (Kubrick's co-screenwriter, Fredric Raphael, in an introduction to a Penguin Classics edition of Dream Story, writes "Fridolin is not declared to be a Jew, but his feelings of cowardice, for failing to challenge his aggressor, echo the uneasiness of Austrian Jews in the face of Gentile provocation." Raphael, Loewenberg, and Cocks all note the students in the novella are declared to be members of an "Alemannic" college fraternity, which was known for its anti-Semitism.)
The novella is set during Carnival
, when people often wear masks to parties. The party that both husband and wife attend at the opening of the story is a masked Carnival ball, whereas the film's story begins at Christmastime.
Critic Randy Rasmussen suggests that the character of Bill is fundamentally more naïve, strait-laced, less disclosing and more unconscious of his vindictive motives than his counterpart, Fridolin. For Rasmussen and others, the film's Bill Harford is essentially sleep-walking through life with no deeper awareness of his surrounding. In the novella when his wife discloses a private sexual fantasy, he in turn admits one of his own (of a girl in her mid to late teens), while in the film he is simply shocked. The film's argument over whether he has fantasies over female patients and whether women have sexual fantasies is simply absent from the novella where both husband and wife assume the other has fantasies. In the film, Bill's estrangement from Alice revolves around her confessing a recent fantasy to him; in the novella both exchange fantasies after which she declares that in her youth she could have easily married someone else, which is what precipitates their sense of estrangement.
In the novella, the husband long suspected that his patient (Marion) was infatuated with him, while in the film it is a complete surprise and he seems shocked. He is also more overwhelmed by the orgy in the film than in the novella. Fridolin is socially bolder but less sexual with the prostitute (Mizzi in the novella, Domino in the film). Fridolin is also conscious of looking old in the novella, though he hardly does in the film.
In the novella, the party (which is sparsely attended) uses "Denmark" as the password for entrance; that is significant in that Albertina had her infatuation with her soldier in Denmark. The film's password is "Fidelio", from the Latin word for "faithful", and which is the title of Beethoven's only opera ("Fidelio, or Married Love
"). In early drafts of the screenplay, the password was "Fidelio Rainbow". Jonathan Rosenbaum notes that both passwords echo elements of one member of the couple's behaviour, though in opposite ways. The party in the novella consists mostly of nude ballroom dancing.
In the novella the woman who "redeems" Fridolin at the party, saving him from punishment, is costumed as a nun, and most of the characters at the party are dressed as nuns or priests; Fridolin himself used a priest costume. This aspect was retained in the film's original screenplay, but was deleted in the filmed version.
In the novella, when the husband returns home, the wife's dream is an elaborate drama that concludes with him getting crucified in a village square after Fridolin refuses to separate from Albertina and become the paramour of the village princess, even though Albertina is now occupied with copulating with other men, and watches him "without pity". By being faithful, Fridolin thus fails to save himself from execution in Albertina's dream although he was apparently spared by the woman's 'sacrifice' at the masked sex party. In both the novella and film, the wife states that the laugh in her sleep just before she woke was a laugh of scornful contempt for her husband; although awake she states this matter-of-factly. The novella makes it clear that Fridolin as this point hates Albertina more than ever, thinking they are now lying together "like mortal enemies". It has been argued that the dramatic climax of the novella is actually Albertina's dream, and the film has shifted the focus to Bill's visit to the secret society's orgy whose content is more shocking in the film.
The character of Ziegler (who represents the high wealth and prestige to which Bill Harford aspires) is entirely an invention of the film, having no counterpart in Schnitzler. Critic Randy Rasmussen interprets Ziegler as representing Bill's worst self, much as in other Kubrick films; the title character in Dr. Strangelove represents the worst of the American national security establishment, Charles Grady represents the worst of Jack Torrance
in The Shining
, and Clare Quilty represents the worst of Humbert Humbert in Lolita
.
Ziegler's presence allows Kubrick to change the mechanics of the story in a few ways. In the film, Bill first meets his piano-playing friend at Ziegler's party, and then while wandering around town, seeks him out at the Sonata cafe. In the novella, the cafe encounter with Nightingale is a happy accident. Similarly, the dead woman whom Bill suspects of being the woman at the party who saved him is a baroness that he was acquainted with earlier, not a hooker at Ziegler's party.
More significantly, in the film Ziegler gives a commentary on the whole story to Bill, including an explanation that the party incident of Bill being apprehended, threatened, with the woman's sacrifice revealed as staged. Whether this is to be believed, it is an exposition of Ziegler's view of the ways of the world as a member of the power elite.
The novella explains why the husband's mask is on the pillow next to his sleeping wife, she having discovered it when it slipped out of his suitcase, and placing it there as a statement of understanding. This is left unexplained in the film.
and Harvey Keitel
each were cast and filmed by Kubrick. Their roles were replaced by Marie Richardson and Sydney Pollack in the final cut.
research". In an interview, costume designer Marit Allen stated that Kubrick had the masks sent from Venice but noted that Kubrick also retouched them, slightly altering their appearance. These masks have been at some periods in history (including today) associated with Venetian carnival and performances of Commedia dell'arte
, and Schnitzler's novel is set in Carnival season. (Indeed, the party attended by the husband and wife in the novella's opening is also a carnival-season "masked ball", in addition to the mansion gathering being described as such.)
Historians, travel guide authors, novelists and merchants of Venetian masks have noted that these have a long history of being worn during promiscuous activities. Authors Tim Kreider and Thomas Nelson have linked the film's usage of these to Venice's reputation as a center of both eroticism and mercantilism
. Nelson notes that the sex ritual combines elements of Venetian Carnival and Catholic rites. (In particular, the character of "Red Cloak" simultaneously serves as Grand Inquisitor and King of Carnival). As such, Nelson argues the sex ritual is a symbolic mirror of the darker truth behind the façade of Victor Ziegler's earlier Christmas party. Carolin Ruwe writing in her 2007 book Symbols in Stanley Kubrick's Movie 'Eyes Wide Shut' argues that the mask is the prime symbol of the film, the masks at Somerton mansion reflecting the masks that all wear in society, a point reinforced by Tim Krieder who notes the many masks in the prostitute's apartment and her having been renamed in the film "Domino" which is a style of Venetian mask.
Since the release of the film, some vendors of Venetian masks have used Eyes Wide Shut as publicity on their websites (such as the UK based "Masks of Venice") and some published travel guides to Venice have pointed readers to shops from which Stanley Kubrick is said to have purchased masks used in the film. Website Conde Nast Traveller mentions mask shop Mondo Novo which Fodor's
notes has also supplied masks to films of Franco Zeffirelli
and Kenneth Branagh
.
, and received an average score of 68/100 at Metacritic
.Critics objected to two features. The first complaint was that the movie's pacing was too slow; while this may have been intended to convey a dream state, critics objected that it made actions and decisions seem labored. Second, reviewers commented that Kubrick had shot his NYC scenes in a studio and that New York "didn't look like New York". Writing about erotic mystery thrillers, writer Leigh Lundin comments that watching the dissolving marriage was painful and the backdrop of Christmas against the dark topic was disturbing, but "the oblique, well-told plot rewards an attentive viewer".
Lee Siegel, in Harper's, felt that most critics responded mainly to the marketing campaign and did not address the film on its own terms. Others feel that American censorship took an esoteric film and made it even harder to understand. Reviewer James Berardinelli
stated that it was arguably one of Kubrick’s best films. Writing for The New York Times
, reviewer Elvis Mitchell
commented "This is a dead-serious film about sexual yearnings, one that flirts with ridicule yet sustains its fundamental eeriness and gravity throughout. The dreamlike intensity of previous Kubrick visions is in full force here."
In the television show Roger Ebert & the Movies, director Martin Scorsese
named Eyes Wide Shut his fourth favorite film of the 1990s. For the introduction to Michel Ciment
's Kubrick: The Definitive Edition, Scorsese wrote: "When Eyes Wide Shut came out a few months after Stanley Kubrick's death in 1999, it was severely misunderstood, which came as no surprise. If you go back and look at the contemporary reactions to any Kubrick picture (except the earliest ones), you'll see that all his films were initially misunderstood. Then, after five or ten years came the realisation that 2001
or Barry Lyndon
or The Shining
was like nothing else before or since." Mystery writer and commentator Jon Breen agrees.
, Kubrick's brother-in-law and executive producer, reported that Kubrick was "very happy" with the film and considered it to be his "greatest contribution to the art of cinema".
R. Lee Ermey
, an actor in Kubrick's film Full Metal Jacket
, claimed that Kubrick phoned him two weeks before his death to express his despondency over Eyes Wide Shut. "He told me it was a piece of shit", Ermey said in Radar magazine, "and that he was disgusted with it and that the critics were going to "have him for lunch". He said Cruise and Kidman had their way with him — exactly the words he used."
According to Todd Field
, Kubrick's friend and an actor in Eyes Wide Shut, Ermey's claims are slanderous. Field's response appeared in a 26 October 2006 interview with Slashfilm.com :
digitally altered the orgy for the American release, blocking out
graphic sexuality by inserting additional figures to obscure the view, avoiding an adults-only NC-17 rating that limited distribution, as some large American theatres and video store operators disallow films with that rating. This alteration antagonised cinephiles, as they argued that Kubrick had never been shy about ratings (A Clockwork Orange
was originally given an X-rating
). The unrated version of Eyes Wide Shut was released in the United States on 23 October 2007 in DVD, HD DVD
and Blu-ray Disc
formats.
The version in South America, Europe and Australia featured the orgy scene intact (theatrical and DVD release) with ratings mostly for people of 18+. In New Zealand and in Europe, the uncensored version has been shown on television with some controversy. In Australia, it was broadcast on Network Ten
with the alterations in the American version for an MA rating, blurring and cutting explicit sexuality.
Roger Ebert
objected to the technique of using digital images to mask the action. He said it "should not have been done at all" and it is "symbolic of the moral hypocrisy of the rating system that it would force a great director to compromise his vision, while by the same process making his adult film more accessible to young viewers."
Although Ebert has been frequently cited as calling the standard North American R-rated version the "Austin Powers
" version of Eyes Wide Shut, in fact his review mockingly referred to an early rough draft of the altered scene (never publicly released) as the "Austin Powers" version of the film. This is in reference to two scenes in the film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
in which, through camera angles and coincidences, sexual body parts are blocked from view in a comical way.
religion. The American Hindus Against Defamation wrote to Warner Brothers requesting they change the voice-over chant that plays as Bill Harford wanders from room to room at the mansion. According to the AHAD, "the background music subsides and the shloka
(scriptural recitation) from the Bhagavad Gita
, one of the most revered Hindu scripture is played out." But, in reality, this is a modified version of an earlier piece by the film composer entitled "Backwards Priests". The main musical track at the beginning of the orgy scene is the chanting of a Romanian priest being played backwards.
As noted above one musical cue is sung in Tamil
although other sections (according to film composer Jocelyn Pook) are sung in Hindi taken from an earlier recording by Manickam Yogeswaran
.
When Warner did not concede, the American Hindus Against Defamation threatened to protest. Eventually, Warner Brothers agreed with the Hindu community of Great Britain
to replace it with a chant of similar dramatic tone. These changes were not made in the North American release. Later, Warner Brothers issued a public apology for the hurt caused to Hindus.
On 23 October 2007, Warner Home Video
released Eyes Wide Shut in DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats. This is the first home video release that presents the film in anamorphic 1.78:1 (Note that the film was shown theatrically as soft matted 1.66:1 in Europe and 1.85:1 in the USA). The previous DVD release used a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. It is also the first American home video release to feature the uncut version. Although the earliest American DVD of the uncut version states on the cover that it includes both the R-rated and unrated editions, in actuality only the unrated edition is on the DVD.
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
based upon Arthur Schnitzler
Arthur Schnitzler
Dr. Arthur Schnitzler was an Austrian author and dramatist.- Biography :Arthur Schnitzler, son of a prominent Hungarian-Jewish laryngologist Johann Schnitzler and Luise Markbreiter , was born in Praterstraße 16, Leopoldstadt, Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian...
's 1926 novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
Traumnovelle
Dream Story
Rhapsody: A Dream Novel, also known as Dream Story, is a 1926 novella by the Austrian writer Arthur Schnitzler. It details the thoughts and psychological transformations of Doctor Fridolin over a two-day period. In this short time, he meets many people who give a clue to the world Schnitzler is...
(Dream Story). The film was directed, produced and co-written by Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
, and was his last film. The story, set in and around New York City, follows the sexually-charged adventures of Dr. Bill Harford, who is shocked when his wife, Alice, reveals that she had contemplated an affair a year earlier. He embarks on a night-long adventure, during which he infiltrates a massive masked orgy
Orgy
In modern usage, an orgy is a sex party where guests engage in promiscuous or multifarious sexual activity or group sex. An orgy is similar to debauchery, which refers to excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures....
of an underground cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
.
The film appeared on July 16, 1999, to generally positive critical reaction.
This was the last film to be directed by Stanley Kubrick before his death in 1999, and its actual release was posthumous. Although generally well-received by critics, the film proved controversial due to its strong sexual content, and its distributor Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
digitally altered several scenes during post-production to ensure a theatrical R rating in the United States and Canada. The uncut version has been released on DVD since. In early versions, the soundtrack featured during the masked orgy is part of a Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
Orthodox Divine Liturgy
Divine Liturgy
Divine Liturgy is the common term for the Eucharistic service of the Byzantine tradition of Christian liturgy. As such, it is used in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches. Armenian Christians, both of the Armenian Apostolic Church and of the Armenian Catholic Church, use the same term...
recorded in a church in Baia Mare
Baia Mare
Baia Mare is a municipality in northwestern Romania and the capital of Maramureş County. The city is situated about 600 kilometres from Bucharest, the capital of Romania, 70 kilometres from the border with Hungary and 50 kilometres from the border with Ukraine...
, played backwards. This was altered or removed in subsequent releases. The film also holds the Guinness World Record for the longest constant movie shoot, at 400 days.
Plot
Dr. Bill Harford (Tom CruiseTom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
) and his wife, Alice (Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
), a young couple from New York, go to a Christmas party, given by a wealthy patient, Victor Ziegler (Sydney Pollack
Sydney Pollack
Sydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...
). There Bill runs into an old friend, Nick Nightingale (Todd Field
Todd Field
William Todd Field, known professionally as Todd Field is an American actor and writer/director. He has received three Academy Award nominations.-Background and personal life:...
), who dropped out of medical school and now plays piano professionally. While a Hungarian man tries to pick up Alice, two young models try to take Bill off for a tryst. He is interrupted by a call from his host upstairs, who had been having sex with a young woman who has overdosed on a speedball
Speedball (drug)
Speedball is a term commonly referring to the hazardous intravenous use of heroin or morphine and cocaine together in the same syringe. The speedball can also be taken by insufflation. The original speedball used cocaine hydrochloride mixed with morphine sulfate, as opposed to heroin...
.
Next evening at home, while smoking marijuana, Bill's wife asks him if he had sex with the two girls. After Bill reassures her, she asks if he is ever jealous of men who are attracted to her. As the discussion gets heated, he states that he thinks women are more faithful than men. She rebuts him, telling him of a recent fantasy she had about a naval officer they had encountered on a vacation.
Disturbed by Alice's revelation, Bill is just then called on a housecall to the deathbed of the father of a now-engaged female friend, who impulsively kisses him and tells him she loves him. Putting her off, he takes a walk down the streets of New York, and meets a prostitute named Domino (Vinessa Shaw
Vinessa Shaw
Vinessa Elizabeth Shaw is an American actress and model. Shaw has starred in numerous motion pictures since the early 1990s, and is probably most well known for her performances in Disney's 1993 Halloween film Hocus Pocus, Ladybugs, the 2006 remake of Wes Craven's horror picture The Hills Have...
), and goes to her apartment. Their encounter is awkward, but as they begin to kiss he is interrupted by a phone call from his wife, after which he calls off the encounter.
Bill goes to meet his friend Nick at the Sonata Cafe; there he learns that Nick has a later engagement that evening where he must play the piano while blindfolded. Nick tells him about the beautiful women he glimpsed when the blindfold slipped at the last gig, allowing him to surmise some of the goings-on. Bill presses for details. To gain admittance, one needs a costume, a mask and the password. Bill drives late at night to a shop called "Rainbow Fashions". Having been the doctor of the previous owner, he offers the new owner, Mr. Milich (Rade Serbedzija
Rade Šerbedžija
Rade Šerbedžija , occasionally credited as Rade Sherbedgia in some English-language productions, is a Croatian actor, director and musician of Serb origin. He was one of the most popular Yugoslav actors in the 1970s and 1980s. He is now internationally known mainly for his supporting roles in...
), a generous amount of money to rent to him now. Searching for a costume, the owner catches his teenage daughter (Leelee Sobieski
Leelee Sobieski
Liliane Rudabet Gloria Elsveta Sobieski , known professionally as Leelee Sobieski, is an American actress. Sobieski achieved recognition in her mid-teens for her performance in the 1998 film Deep Impact...
) with two Japanese men and expresses outrage at their lack of sense of decency. He threatens to call the police.
With the costume, Bill takes a taxi out to a country mansion where a quasi-religious but highly sexual ritual is taking place. One woman comes to Bill, takes him aside and warns him that he does not belong there. He then meets another girl in whose company he walks through a few rooms where an orgy is taking place. The first woman catches up with Bill and insists he is in terrible danger for they suspect that he is an outsider. Bill is then interrupted by a masked porter who tells him that the taxi driver who is waiting outside wants to speak with him. However, the porter takes him to the main room where the masked, red-cloaked Master of Ceremonies confronts Bill with a question about a second password which Bill is unable to answer. The Master of Ceremonies insists that he "kindly remove his mask", then asks that he remove his clothes. The masked young woman who had tried to warn Bill now intervenes and insists that she be punished instead of him. As she is taken away, Bill asks what is going to happen to her. The Master cryptically replies her fate is sealed and Bill is ushered from the mansion and warned by the red-cloaked Master not to tell anyone about what happened there.
Just before dawn, Bill arrives home guilty and confused, where his wife Alice is now awake and tells him of a troubling dream in which he and she were in a deserted city without their clothes. She felt frightened and ashamed while he went off to try to find their clothes. After he left, she felt better, finding herself, still naked, in a beautiful garden. The Naval Officer emerged, stared at her, and the two of them began making love surrounded by many other couples doing the same. She then started having sex with many of those men and laughing at the idea of Bill seeing her with them.
The next morning, Bill goes in search of Nick. After he locates his hotel from the nightclub owner, the desk clerk (Alan Cumming
Alan Cumming
Alan Cumming, OBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actor, singer, writer, director, producer and author. His roles have included the Emcee in Cabaret, Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, Mr. Elton in Emma, and Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids trilogy...
) there tells Bill that a bruised and frightened Nick had checked out a few hours earlier after returning with two large, dangerous-looking men. The clerk also mentions that Nick tried to pass an envelope to him when they were leaving, but that one of the men noticed this and intercepted it, then Nick was driven away by the two men in a limousine parked outside the hotel, with no mention as to where they were going.
Before going to work, Bill goes to return the costume and the shop proprietor, with his daughter by his side, states he can do other favors for Bill "and it needn't be a costume". The Japanese men leave; Milich implies to Bill that he has sold his daughter for prostitution. Bill has misplaced the mask, so is billed for it. Bill returns to the mansion in his own car and is greeted at the gate by a man with a typed note warning him to cease and desist his inquiries. At home, Bill thinks about Alice's recounting of the scene while he watches her tutor their daughter.
That evening, Bill goes to the home of the prostitute with a gift. Her roommate greets him, telling him Domino has just discovered she has HIV. Bill leaves and notices that a well-dressed man is following him. After losing his pursuer, Bill reads a newspaper story about a beauty queen, Mandy, who had died of a drug overdose. She has the same name as the woman he had treated at Ziegler's party. He goes to the hospital, claiming to be her doctor, and examines her body in the morgue.
Afterwards, Ziegler summons Bill to his house and tells him he knows all the events of the past night and day. Ziegler was one of those involved with the ritual orgy and his own position with the secret society has been jeopardized by Bill's intrusion. Bill is now concerned with the death of Mandy, whom Ziegler has identified as the woman at the party who'd "sacrificed" herself to prevent Bill's punishment, as well as the disappearance of Nick. Ziegler insists that Nick is safely back at his home in Seattle, but does not know where to contact him. Ziegler also insists that the "punishment" had nothing to do with Mandy's death; she was a junkie and she really has died from another accidental drug overdose. Bill clearly does not know if Ziegler is telling him the truth, but he accepts it anyway.
When Bill returns home, he sees the mask he had rented on his pillow next to his sleeping wife. He breaks down in tears and as Alice awakes, he decides to tell her the whole truth of the past two days. The next morning they go Christmas shopping. His wife muses that recent events do not define their life and they should be grateful they have survived and are still together and that she loves him. She then says they need to have sex as soon as possible.
Cast
- Tom CruiseTom CruiseThomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
as Dr. William "Bill" Harford - Nicole KidmanNicole KidmanNicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
as Alice Harford - Sydney PollackSydney PollackSydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...
as Victor Ziegler - Marie RichardsonMarie RichardsonMarie Richardson is a Swedish stage and film actress. She studied at the Teaterhögskolan i Stockholm from 1982 to 1985...
as Marion Nathanson - Todd FieldTodd FieldWilliam Todd Field, known professionally as Todd Field is an American actor and writer/director. He has received three Academy Award nominations.-Background and personal life:...
as Nick Nightingale - Sky du MontSky du MontSky du Mont is a German actor. He is known for his role in Eyes Wide Shut, as "Santa Maria" in Der Schuh des Manitu and for narrating the German dub of Thomas & Friends...
as Sandor Szavost - Rade ŠerbedžijaRade ŠerbedžijaRade Šerbedžija , occasionally credited as Rade Sherbedgia in some English-language productions, is a Croatian actor, director and musician of Serb origin. He was one of the most popular Yugoslav actors in the 1970s and 1980s. He is now internationally known mainly for his supporting roles in...
as Mr. Milich - Vinessa ShawVinessa ShawVinessa Elizabeth Shaw is an American actress and model. Shaw has starred in numerous motion pictures since the early 1990s, and is probably most well known for her performances in Disney's 1993 Halloween film Hocus Pocus, Ladybugs, the 2006 remake of Wes Craven's horror picture The Hills Have...
as Domino - Leelee SobieskiLeelee SobieskiLiliane Rudabet Gloria Elsveta Sobieski , known professionally as Leelee Sobieski, is an American actress. Sobieski achieved recognition in her mid-teens for her performance in the 1998 film Deep Impact...
as Milich's daughter - Alan CummingAlan CummingAlan Cumming, OBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actor, singer, writer, director, producer and author. His roles have included the Emcee in Cabaret, Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, Mr. Elton in Emma, and Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids trilogy...
as Hotel desk clerk - Leon VitaliLeon VitaliLeon Vitali is an English actor, best known for his collaborations with filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, most notably as Lord Bullingdon in Barry Lyndon.- Biography :...
as Red Cloak - Julienne DavisJulienne DavisJulienne Davis is an American actress, singer, and model. Her acting credits include the pivotal role of "Mandy" in Eyes Wide Shut, Tabloid, House of 9, The Bill, as well as being a main cast member of the television series Too Much Sun...
as Mandy Curran - Thomas GibsonThomas GibsonThomas Ellis Gibson is an American actor who is perhaps best known for his roles as Daniel Nyland in the Medical drama series Chicago Hope, as Greg Montgomery in the comedy series Dharma & Greg, and as Supervisory Special Agent Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner in the highly-popular CBS drama, Criminal...
as Carl Thomas
Genre and marketing
The film was described by some reviewers and partially marketed as an erotic thrillerErotic thriller
The erotic thriller is a film and literary sub-genre which consists of a mixture between erotica and thriller. The genre increased in North American popularity from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s, before declining in marketability.-1980s:...
, a categorization disputed by others. It is classed as such in the book The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema by Linda Ruth Williams, and was described as such in two news articles about Cruise and Kidman's lawsuit over assertions they saw a sex therapist during filming. One review panning the film disparaged it as an erotic thriller implying the genre was inherently disreputable, although other positive reviews such as the one in Hidefdigest also called it such as well.
However, reviewing the film on aboutfilm.com, Carlo Cavagna regards this as a misleading classification, as does Leo Goldsmith writing on notcoming.com (a website devoted to old movies out of current release), and also the review on Blu-ray.com. Writing in TV Guide, Maitland McDonagh writes "No one familiar with the cold precision of Kubrick's work will be surprised that this isn't the steamy erotic thriller a synopsis (or the ads) might suggest." Writing in general about the genre of 'erotic thriller' for CineAction in 2001, Douglas Keesey states that the film "whatever its actual type...[was] at least marketed as an erotic thriller". Michael Koresky writing in the 2006 issue of film journal Reverse Shot writes "this director, who defies expectations at every turn and brings genre to his feet, was ...setting out to make neither the “erotic thriller” that the press maintained nor an easily identifiable “Kubrick film”". DVD Talk similarly dissociates the film from this genre.
Comparison with Dream Story
Arthur SchnitzlerArthur Schnitzler
Dr. Arthur Schnitzler was an Austrian author and dramatist.- Biography :Arthur Schnitzler, son of a prominent Hungarian-Jewish laryngologist Johann Schnitzler and Luise Markbreiter , was born in Praterstraße 16, Leopoldstadt, Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian...
's 1926 novella Traumnovelle
Dream Story
Rhapsody: A Dream Novel, also known as Dream Story, is a 1926 novella by the Austrian writer Arthur Schnitzler. It details the thoughts and psychological transformations of Doctor Fridolin over a two-day period. In this short time, he meets many people who give a clue to the world Schnitzler is...
is set around Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
shortly after the turn of the century. The couple are named Fridolin and Albertina, and their home is a typical suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
an middle-class home, not the film's posh urban apartment. Schnitzler himself, like the protagonist of this novel, lived in Vienna, was Jewish, and a medical doctor (though Schnitzler eventually abandoned medicine for writing.)
The couple in the novella are implied to be Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
(and Nightingale is overtly identified as Jewish). According to historian Geoffrey Cocks, Kubrick (himself of Jewish descent) frequently removed references to the Jewishness of characters in the novels he adapted. This is reflected in the way the film handles the way Bill Harford is taunted by college students when going home in the morning. In the film, Bill is taunted with homophobic
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
slurs. In the novella, these boys are recognized to be members of an anti-Semitic college fraternity. (Kubrick's co-screenwriter, Fredric Raphael, in an introduction to a Penguin Classics edition of Dream Story, writes "Fridolin is not declared to be a Jew, but his feelings of cowardice, for failing to challenge his aggressor, echo the uneasiness of Austrian Jews in the face of Gentile provocation." Raphael, Loewenberg, and Cocks all note the students in the novella are declared to be members of an "Alemannic" college fraternity, which was known for its anti-Semitism.)
The novella is set during Carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
, when people often wear masks to parties. The party that both husband and wife attend at the opening of the story is a masked Carnival ball, whereas the film's story begins at Christmastime.
Critic Randy Rasmussen suggests that the character of Bill is fundamentally more naïve, strait-laced, less disclosing and more unconscious of his vindictive motives than his counterpart, Fridolin. For Rasmussen and others, the film's Bill Harford is essentially sleep-walking through life with no deeper awareness of his surrounding. In the novella when his wife discloses a private sexual fantasy, he in turn admits one of his own (of a girl in her mid to late teens), while in the film he is simply shocked. The film's argument over whether he has fantasies over female patients and whether women have sexual fantasies is simply absent from the novella where both husband and wife assume the other has fantasies. In the film, Bill's estrangement from Alice revolves around her confessing a recent fantasy to him; in the novella both exchange fantasies after which she declares that in her youth she could have easily married someone else, which is what precipitates their sense of estrangement.
In the novella, the husband long suspected that his patient (Marion) was infatuated with him, while in the film it is a complete surprise and he seems shocked. He is also more overwhelmed by the orgy in the film than in the novella. Fridolin is socially bolder but less sexual with the prostitute (Mizzi in the novella, Domino in the film). Fridolin is also conscious of looking old in the novella, though he hardly does in the film.
In the novella, the party (which is sparsely attended) uses "Denmark" as the password for entrance; that is significant in that Albertina had her infatuation with her soldier in Denmark. The film's password is "Fidelio", from the Latin word for "faithful", and which is the title of Beethoven's only opera ("Fidelio, or Married Love
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...
"). In early drafts of the screenplay, the password was "Fidelio Rainbow". Jonathan Rosenbaum notes that both passwords echo elements of one member of the couple's behaviour, though in opposite ways. The party in the novella consists mostly of nude ballroom dancing.
In the novella the woman who "redeems" Fridolin at the party, saving him from punishment, is costumed as a nun, and most of the characters at the party are dressed as nuns or priests; Fridolin himself used a priest costume. This aspect was retained in the film's original screenplay, but was deleted in the filmed version.
In the novella, when the husband returns home, the wife's dream is an elaborate drama that concludes with him getting crucified in a village square after Fridolin refuses to separate from Albertina and become the paramour of the village princess, even though Albertina is now occupied with copulating with other men, and watches him "without pity". By being faithful, Fridolin thus fails to save himself from execution in Albertina's dream although he was apparently spared by the woman's 'sacrifice' at the masked sex party. In both the novella and film, the wife states that the laugh in her sleep just before she woke was a laugh of scornful contempt for her husband; although awake she states this matter-of-factly. The novella makes it clear that Fridolin as this point hates Albertina more than ever, thinking they are now lying together "like mortal enemies". It has been argued that the dramatic climax of the novella is actually Albertina's dream, and the film has shifted the focus to Bill's visit to the secret society's orgy whose content is more shocking in the film.
The character of Ziegler (who represents the high wealth and prestige to which Bill Harford aspires) is entirely an invention of the film, having no counterpart in Schnitzler. Critic Randy Rasmussen interprets Ziegler as representing Bill's worst self, much as in other Kubrick films; the title character in Dr. Strangelove represents the worst of the American national security establishment, Charles Grady represents the worst of Jack Torrance
Jack Torrance
Jack Torrance is a fictional character, the antagonist in the 1977 novel The Shining by Stephen King. He was portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the 1980 movie adaptation of the novel, and by Steven Weber in the 1997 miniseries. The American Film Institute rated the character the 25th greatest film...
in The Shining
The Shining (film)
The Shining is a 1980 psychological horror film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, co-written with novelist Diane Johnson, and starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Danny Lloyd. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. A writer, Jack Torrance, takes a job as an...
, and Clare Quilty represents the worst of Humbert Humbert in Lolita
Lolita (1962 film)
Lolita is a 1962 comedy-drama film by Stanley Kubrick based on the classic novel of the same title by Vladimir Nabokov. The film stars James Mason as Humbert Humbert, Sue Lyon as Dolores Haze and Shelley Winters as Charlotte Haze with Peter Sellers as Clare Quilty.Due to the MPAA's restrictions at...
.
Ziegler's presence allows Kubrick to change the mechanics of the story in a few ways. In the film, Bill first meets his piano-playing friend at Ziegler's party, and then while wandering around town, seeks him out at the Sonata cafe. In the novella, the cafe encounter with Nightingale is a happy accident. Similarly, the dead woman whom Bill suspects of being the woman at the party who saved him is a baroness that he was acquainted with earlier, not a hooker at Ziegler's party.
More significantly, in the film Ziegler gives a commentary on the whole story to Bill, including an explanation that the party incident of Bill being apprehended, threatened, with the woman's sacrifice revealed as staged. Whether this is to be believed, it is an exposition of Ziegler's view of the ways of the world as a member of the power elite.
The novella explains why the husband's mask is on the pillow next to his sleeping wife, she having discovered it when it slipped out of his suitcase, and placing it there as a statement of understanding. This is left unexplained in the film.
Casting Changes
Jennifer Jason LeighJennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh is an American film and stage actress, best known for her roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Single White Female, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Georgia and Short Cuts...
and Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel is an American actor. Some of his most notable starring roles were in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma and Louise, Ettore Scola's That Night in Varennes, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion's The...
each were cast and filmed by Kubrick. Their roles were replaced by Marie Richardson and Sydney Pollack in the final cut.
Use of Venetian masks
Numerous authors of works on Kubrick have noted that the masks worn at the sex ritual in Somerton mansion are virtually all Venetian and that the film has a closing credit for "Venetian maskVenetian mask
Venetian masks are a centuries-old tradition of Venice, Italy. The masks are typically worn during the Carnevale , but have been used on many other occasions in the past, usually as a device for hiding the wearer's identity and social status.The mask would permit the wearer to act more freely in...
research". In an interview, costume designer Marit Allen stated that Kubrick had the masks sent from Venice but noted that Kubrick also retouched them, slightly altering their appearance. These masks have been at some periods in history (including today) associated with Venetian carnival and performances of Commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte is a form of theatre characterized by masked "types" which began in Italy in the 16th century, and was responsible for the advent of the actress and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. The closest translation of the name is "comedy of craft"; it is shortened...
, and Schnitzler's novel is set in Carnival season. (Indeed, the party attended by the husband and wife in the novella's opening is also a carnival-season "masked ball", in addition to the mansion gathering being described as such.)
Historians, travel guide authors, novelists and merchants of Venetian masks have noted that these have a long history of being worn during promiscuous activities. Authors Tim Kreider and Thomas Nelson have linked the film's usage of these to Venice's reputation as a center of both eroticism and mercantilism
Mercantilism
Mercantilism is the economic doctrine in which government control of foreign trade is of paramount importance for ensuring the prosperity and security of the state. In particular, it demands a positive balance of trade. Mercantilism dominated Western European economic policy and discourse from...
. Nelson notes that the sex ritual combines elements of Venetian Carnival and Catholic rites. (In particular, the character of "Red Cloak" simultaneously serves as Grand Inquisitor and King of Carnival). As such, Nelson argues the sex ritual is a symbolic mirror of the darker truth behind the façade of Victor Ziegler's earlier Christmas party. Carolin Ruwe writing in her 2007 book Symbols in Stanley Kubrick's Movie 'Eyes Wide Shut' argues that the mask is the prime symbol of the film, the masks at Somerton mansion reflecting the masks that all wear in society, a point reinforced by Tim Krieder who notes the many masks in the prostitute's apartment and her having been renamed in the film "Domino" which is a style of Venetian mask.
Since the release of the film, some vendors of Venetian masks have used Eyes Wide Shut as publicity on their websites (such as the UK based "Masks of Venice") and some published travel guides to Venice have pointed readers to shops from which Stanley Kubrick is said to have purchased masks used in the film. Website Conde Nast Traveller mentions mask shop Mondo Novo which Fodor's
Fodor's
Fodor's is the world's largest publisher of English language travel and tourism information, and the first relatively professional producer of travel guidebooks...
notes has also supplied masks to films of Franco Zeffirelli
Franco Zeffirelli
Franco Zeffirelli KBE is an Italian director and producer of films and television. He is also a director and designer of operas and a former senator for the Italian center-right Forza Italia party....
and Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V , Much Ado About Nothing , Hamlet Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from...
.
Reception
Eyes Wide Shut met with generally positive reviews. The film currently holds a 77% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, and received an average score of 68/100 at Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
.Critics objected to two features. The first complaint was that the movie's pacing was too slow; while this may have been intended to convey a dream state, critics objected that it made actions and decisions seem labored. Second, reviewers commented that Kubrick had shot his NYC scenes in a studio and that New York "didn't look like New York". Writing about erotic mystery thrillers, writer Leigh Lundin comments that watching the dissolving marriage was painful and the backdrop of Christmas against the dark topic was disturbing, but "the oblique, well-told plot rewards an attentive viewer".
Lee Siegel, in Harper's, felt that most critics responded mainly to the marketing campaign and did not address the film on its own terms. Others feel that American censorship took an esoteric film and made it even harder to understand. Reviewer James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
stated that it was arguably one of Kubrick’s best films. Writing for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, reviewer Elvis Mitchell
Elvis Mitchell
Elvis Mitchell is an American film critic, host of the public radio show The Treatment, and visiting lecturer at Harvard University. He has served as a film critic for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the LA Weekly, The Detroit Free Press, and The New York Times...
commented "This is a dead-serious film about sexual yearnings, one that flirts with ridicule yet sustains its fundamental eeriness and gravity throughout. The dreamlike intensity of previous Kubrick visions is in full force here."
In the television show Roger Ebert & the Movies, director Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
named Eyes Wide Shut his fourth favorite film of the 1990s. For the introduction to Michel Ciment
Michel Ciment
Michel Ciment is a French film critic and the editor of the cinema magazine Positif. Ciment is a Chevalier of the Order of Merit, Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters, and the president of FIPRESCI...
's Kubrick: The Definitive Edition, Scorsese wrote: "When Eyes Wide Shut came out a few months after Stanley Kubrick's death in 1999, it was severely misunderstood, which came as no surprise. If you go back and look at the contemporary reactions to any Kubrick picture (except the earliest ones), you'll see that all his films were initially misunderstood. Then, after five or ten years came the realisation that 2001
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
or Barry Lyndon
Barry Lyndon
Barry Lyndon is a 1975 British-American period romantic war film produced, written, and directed by Stanley Kubrick based on the 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray which recounts the exploits of an 18th century Irish adventurer...
or The Shining
The Shining (film)
The Shining is a 1980 psychological horror film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, co-written with novelist Diane Johnson, and starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Danny Lloyd. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. A writer, Jack Torrance, takes a job as an...
was like nothing else before or since." Mystery writer and commentator Jon Breen agrees.
Awards and honours
- Golden Globes http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120663/awards
- Golden Globes Award for Best Original Score - Motion Picture - Jocelyn Pook (nominated)
- Venice Film FestivalVenice Film FestivalThe Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
- Filmcritica "Bastone Bianco" Award - Stanley Kubrick (Won)
- French Syndicate of Cinema Critics
- Best Foreign Film - Stanley Kubrick (Won)
- Chicago Film Critics Association Chicago Film Critics AssociationThe Chicago Film Critics Association is an American film critic association.-Members:Current members include:*Sarah Knight Adamson*Zbigniew Banas*Shelley Cameron*Dave Canfield*Vittorio Carli*Erik Childress*Camerin Courtney*Bonnie DeShong...
- Best Director - Stanley Kubrick (nominated)
- Best Cinamatography - Stanley Kubrick and Larry Smith (nominated)
- Best Original score - Jocelyn Pook (nominated)
- Costume Designers GuildCostume Designers GuildThe Costume Designers Guild , IATSE LOCAL 892 was founded in 1953 by a group of 30 motion picture costume designers. In 1986, the Costume Designers Guild joined the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and added Local 892 to its name...
- Excellence in Costume Design for Film - Contemporary - Martin Allen (nominated)
- Satellite Award
- Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama - Nicole Kidman (nominated)
- Best Cinamatography - Larry Smith (nominated)
- Best Sound - Paul Conway and Edward Tise (nominated)
- César Award César AwardThe César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....
- Best Foreign Film (Meilleur film étranger)- Stanley Kubrick (nominated)
- Online Film Critics SocietyOnline Film Critics SocietyThe Online Film Critics Society is a professional association for film critics who publish their reviews, interviews, and essays on the Internet.The OFCS was founded in 1997...
- Best Director - Stanley Kubrick (nominated)
- Best Cinamatography - Larry Smith (nominated)
- Best Original score - Jocelyn Pook (nominated)
Music
- The opening title music is "Waltz 2 from ShostakovichDmitri ShostakovichDmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
's Suite for Variety Stage Orchestra", for years misidentified as the composer's Jazz Suite 2Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2 (Shostakovich)The Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2 is a Suite by Dmitri Shostakovich. It was written in 1938 for the newly-founded State Jazz Orchestra of Victor Knushevitsky, and was premiered on 28 November 1938 in Moscow by the State Jazz Orchestra. The score was lost during World War II, but a piano score of...
, recorded and released under the incorrect name by the Royal Concertgebouw OrchestraRoyal Concertgebouw OrchestraThe Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is a symphony orchestra of the Netherlands, based at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In 1988, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands conferred the "Royal" title upon the orchestra...
. - In the ritual, the incantations in the background are part of a RomanianRomanian languageRomanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
Orthodox Divine LiturgyDivine LiturgyDivine Liturgy is the common term for the Eucharistic service of the Byzantine tradition of Christian liturgy. As such, it is used in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches. Armenian Christians, both of the Armenian Apostolic Church and of the Armenian Catholic Church, use the same term...
recorded in a church in Baia MareBaia MareBaia Mare is a municipality in northwestern Romania and the capital of Maramureş County. The city is situated about 600 kilometres from Bucharest, the capital of Romania, 70 kilometres from the border with Hungary and 50 kilometres from the border with Ukraine...
, played backwards. The piece, named "Masked Ball", is an adaptation by Jocelyn PookJocelyn PookJocelyn Pook is a British composer, pianist and viola player.- Biography :Jocelyn Pook’s distinctive style is a product of her diverse experiences in classical, commercial, and so-called world music...
of her "Backwards Priests." When contacting Pook in regard to providing music for the film, Kubrick asked if she had anything else like Backwards Priests – "you know, weird." - One recurring piece is the second movement of György LigetiGyörgy LigetiGyörgy Sándor Ligeti was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he briefly lived in Hungary before becoming an Austrian citizen.-Early life:...
's piano cycle "Musica ricercataMusica ricercataMusica ricercata is a set of eleven pieces for piano by György Ligeti. The work was composed from 1951 to 1953, shortly after the composer began lecturing at the Budapest Academy of Music. The work premiered on November 18, 1969 in Sundsvall, Sweden...
". - In the morgueMorgueA morgue or mortuary is used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification, or removal for autopsy or disposal by burial, cremation or otherwise...
scene, Franz LisztFranz LisztFranz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
's late solo piano piece, "Nuages GrisNuages GrisNuages gris , S.199 or Trübe Wolken, is a work for piano solo composed by Franz Liszt on August 24, 1881. It is one of Liszt's most haunting and at the same time one of his most experimental works, representing, according to Allen Forte, "a high point in the experimental idiom with respect to...
" ("Grey Clouds") (1881) is heard. - "Rex tremendae" from MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's RequiemRequiem (Mozart)The Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death. A completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem Mass to commemorate the...
plays as Bill walks into the cafe and reads of Mandy's death. - The background score during the orgy (where Bill walks from room to room) is a TamilTamil languageTamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
song sung by Manickam YogeswaranManickam YogeswaranMaanikkam Yogeswaran is a Sri Lankan Tamil musician and exponent of Carnatic music.Manickam Yogeswaran, also known as "Yoga" was born 1959 in Meesalai, northern Sri Lanka. He studied at the Jaffna Hindu College before moving to London....
, a CarnaticCarnatic musicCarnatic music is a system of music commonly associated with the southern part of the Indian subcontinent, with its area roughly confined to four modern states of India: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu...
singer.
Kubrick's opinion
Jan HarlanJan Harlan
Jan Harlan is a film producer and the brother of Christiane Kubrick, Stanley Kubrick's widow. He was born in Karlsruhe, Germany on May 5, 1937....
, Kubrick's brother-in-law and executive producer, reported that Kubrick was "very happy" with the film and considered it to be his "greatest contribution to the art of cinema".
R. Lee Ermey
R. Lee Ermey
Ronald Lee Ermey is a retired United States Marine Corps drill instructor and actor.Ermey has often played the roles of authority figures, such as his breakout performance as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket, Mayor Tilman in the Alan Parker film Mississippi Burning, Bill Bowerman in...
, an actor in Kubrick's film Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 war film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is an adaptation of the 1979 novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford and stars Matthew Modine, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey, Arliss Howard and Adam Baldwin. The film follows a platoon of U.S...
, claimed that Kubrick phoned him two weeks before his death to express his despondency over Eyes Wide Shut. "He told me it was a piece of shit", Ermey said in Radar magazine, "and that he was disgusted with it and that the critics were going to "have him for lunch". He said Cruise and Kidman had their way with him — exactly the words he used."
According to Todd Field
Todd Field
William Todd Field, known professionally as Todd Field is an American actor and writer/director. He has received three Academy Award nominations.-Background and personal life:...
, Kubrick's friend and an actor in Eyes Wide Shut, Ermey's claims are slanderous. Field's response appeared in a 26 October 2006 interview with Slashfilm.com :
The polite thing would be to say 'No comment'. But the truth is that... let's put it this way, you've never seen two actors more completely subservient and prostrate themselves at the feet of a director. Stanley was absolutely thrilled with the film. He was still working on the film when he died. And he probably died because he finally relaxed. It was one of the happiest weekends of his life, right before he died, after he had shown the first cut to Terry, Tom and Nicole. He would have kept working on it, like he did on all of his films. But I know that from people around him personally, my partner who was his assistant for thirty years. And I thought about R. Lee Ermey for In the BedroomIn the BedroomIn the Bedroom is a 2001 American crime drama film directed by Todd Field, and dedicated to Andre Dubus, whose short story Killings is the source material on which the screenplay, by Field and Robert Festinger, is based...
. And I talked to Stanley a lot about that film, and all I can say is Stanley was adamant that I shouldn't work with him for all kinds of reasons that I won't get into because there is no reason to do that to anyone, even if they are saying slanderous things that I know are completely untrue.
American censorship and classification
Citing contractual obligations to deliver an R rating, Warner Bros.Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
digitally altered the orgy for the American release, blocking out
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
graphic sexuality by inserting additional figures to obscure the view, avoiding an adults-only NC-17 rating that limited distribution, as some large American theatres and video store operators disallow films with that rating. This alteration antagonised cinephiles, as they argued that Kubrick had never been shy about ratings (A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange (film)
A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 film adaptation of Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel of the same name. It was written, directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick...
was originally given an X-rating
X-rated
In some countries, X is or has been a motion picture rating reserved for the most explicit films. Films rated X are intended only for viewing by adults, usually legally defined as people over the age of 17.-United Kingdom:...
). The unrated version of Eyes Wide Shut was released in the United States on 23 October 2007 in DVD, HD DVD
HD DVD
HD DVD is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video.Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format...
and Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
formats.
The version in South America, Europe and Australia featured the orgy scene intact (theatrical and DVD release) with ratings mostly for people of 18+. In New Zealand and in Europe, the uncensored version has been shown on television with some controversy. In Australia, it was broadcast on Network Ten
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...
with the alterations in the American version for an MA rating, blurring and cutting explicit sexuality.
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
objected to the technique of using digital images to mask the action. He said it "should not have been done at all" and it is "symbolic of the moral hypocrisy of the rating system that it would force a great director to compromise his vision, while by the same process making his adult film more accessible to young viewers."
Although Ebert has been frequently cited as calling the standard North American R-rated version the "Austin Powers
Austin Powers (film series)
The Austin Powers series is a series of action-comedy films written by and starring Mike Myers as the title character, directed by Jay Roach and distributed by New Line Cinema...
" version of Eyes Wide Shut, in fact his review mockingly referred to an early rough draft of the altered scene (never publicly released) as the "Austin Powers" version of the film. This is in reference to two scenes in the film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery is a 1997 American science fiction/action-comedy film and the first film of the Austin Powers series. It was directed by Jay Roach and written by Mike Myers who also stars in the title role. Myers also plays Dr. Evil, Austin Powers' arch-enemy...
in which, through camera angles and coincidences, sexual body parts are blocked from view in a comical way.
Hindu prayer usage
While American censorship attempted to control the sexuality, complaints came from offended members of the HinduHindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
religion. The American Hindus Against Defamation wrote to Warner Brothers requesting they change the voice-over chant that plays as Bill Harford wanders from room to room at the mansion. According to the AHAD, "the background music subsides and the shloka
Shloka
A ' is a category of verse line developed from the Vedic Anuṣṭubh. It is the basis for Indian Epic verse, and may be considered the Indian verse form par excellence, occurring, as it does, far more frequently than any other meter in classical Sanskrit poetry. The Mahabharata and Ramayana, for...
(scriptural recitation) from the Bhagavad Gita
Bhagavad Gita
The ' , also more simply known as Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, but is frequently treated as a freestanding text, and in particular, as an Upanishad in its own right, one of the several books that constitute general Vedic tradition...
, one of the most revered Hindu scripture is played out." But, in reality, this is a modified version of an earlier piece by the film composer entitled "Backwards Priests". The main musical track at the beginning of the orgy scene is the chanting of a Romanian priest being played backwards.
As noted above one musical cue is sung in Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
although other sections (according to film composer Jocelyn Pook) are sung in Hindi taken from an earlier recording by Manickam Yogeswaran
Manickam Yogeswaran
Maanikkam Yogeswaran is a Sri Lankan Tamil musician and exponent of Carnatic music.Manickam Yogeswaran, also known as "Yoga" was born 1959 in Meesalai, northern Sri Lanka. He studied at the Jaffna Hindu College before moving to London....
.
When Warner did not concede, the American Hindus Against Defamation threatened to protest. Eventually, Warner Brothers agreed with the Hindu community of Great Britain
Hinduism in the United Kingdom
Hinduism was the religion of 558,342 people in the United Kingdom according to the 2001 census but an estimate in a British newspaper in 2007 has put the figure as high as 1.5 Million....
to replace it with a chant of similar dramatic tone. These changes were not made in the North American release. Later, Warner Brothers issued a public apology for the hurt caused to Hindus.
Home media
The original DVD release of Eyes Wide Shut corrects technical gaffes, including a reflected crew member, and altering a piece of Alice Harford's dialogue. Most home videos remove the verse that was claimed to be cited from the sacred Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita (although it was Pook's reworking of "Backwards Priests" as stated above.)On 23 October 2007, Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...
released Eyes Wide Shut in DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats. This is the first home video release that presents the film in anamorphic 1.78:1 (Note that the film was shown theatrically as soft matted 1.66:1 in Europe and 1.85:1 in the USA). The previous DVD release used a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. It is also the first American home video release to feature the uncut version. Although the earliest American DVD of the uncut version states on the cover that it includes both the R-rated and unrated editions, in actuality only the unrated edition is on the DVD.