Eyes Wide Shut (1999) by Stanley Kubrik

[cranefly]

I boycotted this when it first came out because of the censorship and swore not to see it except in Kubrik’s intended cut. Well, that unrated cut has been out on DVD for quite a while now. Unfortunately, the library doesn’t carry it. So I finally broke down and watched the butchered version.

It’s annoying to watch those scenes where the main action is blocked by shadowy figures standing in the foreground. It messes up the composition in a blatantly unKubrik way. And I continue to curse the censors for their disrespectful sendoff to the just deceased Kubrik.

But in all honesty these were brief scenes and don’t greatly impact the overall viewing experience.

In total, the film is interesting enough by the sheer power of Kubrik’s direction. But it is slow-moving, and the sexual aspects have an antiseptic feel about them, as if everyone’s wearing gloves and is carefully posed and airbrushed. Though Kubrik likely did this by intent, I cannot help feeling it hurts the story, which would have been more compelling with impassioned and spontaneous acting. Overall, it doesn’t strike me as among Kubrik’s best. But it does provide a nice glimpse of a spritely Nicole Kidman in the buff early on, in stark contrast to the almost grotesquely voluptuous (and nearly identical) nude slaves in the later party scene. Okay, so they weren’t really grotesque. But Kidman does have a wonderful elfin body.

Oh, after watching it I spent a couple hours online reading analyses of the movie. There’s no doubt that Kubrik loaded every scene with tons of symbolism. Still, methinks that while putting bark on all of those trees, he lost track of the forest.

Something like that. At least it wasn’t French.

[Drunk Monk]

I remember seeing this and thinking that the finale scene with the rows of topless wimmens reminded me of the brainwashing scene of Alex in A Clockwork Orange. I don't know why as they were completely different scenes - composed differently, different meaning to the plot, all different. Maybe it was the statuesqueness of the toplessness. I remember in the book, Alex had a straight razor in his pocket and it wasn't like Malcolm trying to cop a squeeze and getting nauseous - the book took it to a whole other level of violence. An amazing read, that book, once you get past the damn slang. I still use 'horrorshow' 'ultravi' 'moloko+' and 'droogies' in my regular vocab. Anyway, that's the only scene I remember from EWS beyond the opening scene when Nicole smokes a joint and then pulls at her skimpy wife-beater T-shirt, and of course those damn digital robed figures covering what was surely statuesque toplessness.