Eyes Wide Shut (Archive)

0:00Hey, film spotters, Josh and Adam here. Wednesdays are when we drop something in the feed from the giant film spotting archive this week. We're sharing our nine from 99 review of Eyes Wide Shut. I don't know if you think of this as a Christmas movie, Adam, holiday movie, but a lot of people do and they tend to revisit it this time of year. Yes, I think that that is only appropriate. And it's fitting for me because I may have treated myself to an early Christmas present this year by buying the 4K Criterion Collection DVD. Come on. Yeah. You're one of those people. Debbie does this too. November one, you don't buy yourself anything.

0:45You're done. Hold off. You can wait till January one. Okay? Well, yeah. Yeah. Maybe so. Maybe so. But Josh, maybe you get more Christmas presents than I do. Maybe if I don't buy them for myself, nobody will. Wow. I'm going to talk to Sarah about that. Sad note. You know, I'm just fishing for listeners to send me stuff. That's all. Just send me cookies. I just want baked goods. That's all I really want. Can't get that from Criterion. From September 2019, here is our 9 from 99 review of Eyes Wide Shut. You've never been jealous about me, have you? No, I haven't. And why haven't you ever been jealous about me?

1:26Well, I don't know, Alice. Maybe because you're my wife. And I know you would never be unfaithful to me. You are very, very sure of yourself, aren't you? No. I'm sure of you.

1:47Do you think that's funny?

1:58I really don't bring this up to rub it in, Adam, but when I was hanging out with our now mutual friends, Jason Eakin and Brett Merriman at the Film Spotting L.A. meetup this summer, one of the things we debated was the supposed misanthropy of Stanley Kubrick's films. Neither of them quite buy my theory that his movies mostly despise people and that the giant space baby at the end of 2001 is coming to gobble us all. I honestly don't remember if Eyes Wide Shut, the latest film in our 9 from 99 series, came up in the discussion that night. We'd moved on from the brewery at that point to a nearby Mexican spot.

2:35Now, Eyes Wide Shut is probably the Kubrick film best poised to puncture a hole in my argument. Here's a movie that I found back in 1999 and upon this rewatch to be, yes, clear-eyed about the depravity of humankind, but also brazenly positive about people and, dare I say, even a bit mushy. Eyes Wide Shut is adapted by Kubrick and Frederick Raphael from Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 novella, Trom Novell, which they updated to contemporary New York City. Then-married co-stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman play an affluent couple and parents of a young girl whose marriage changes course during one woozy, late-night pot-smoking session.

3:15Basically told by Bill, her husband, that women don't have the instinct for infidelity, Kidman's Alice launches into a searing confession about a near affair she had with a naval officer the summer before on a family vacation. Kidman's monologue, by the way, my number two Stanley Kubrick scene. Smart pick. Can't wait to hear what yours are, Adam. Alice's eye-opening tale sends Bill on a strange odyssey through the New York night where he dabbles with various opportunities to enact some sort of sexual revenge, including at the secret high society sex ritual he sneaks into that the movie has become notorious for.

3:51Now, a lot of this is nasty, ugly stuff and certainly in line with a misanthropic reading of Kubrick's work. It was also a turnoff to many critics at the time. Eyes Wide Shut only got mildly favorable reviews, and it did earn some notable pans, including David Edelstein's For Slate, which producer Sam Van Hagen referenced in this week's FilmSpotting newsletter. Kubrick himself, it's worth noting, died shortly before the film's release and didn't get to see its reception. And yet, if you stick with the picture, if you make it through the masked orgy to the moment when Bill drops his mask in response to Alice dropping hers, you'll find, as I put it in 1999, possibly the most moral movie ever to show this much skin.

4:33I think it portrays marriage as something difficult, yes, but also sensual and ultimately precious. Seeing Eyes Wide Shut in 1999 after I'd been married for four years, I found that interesting, encouraging. Watching it again in 2019 after 24 years of marriage, it nearly wrecked me. I honestly let out a teary guffaw at Kidman's perfect final line. This struck me as devastatingly romantic. So Adam, am I wrong, which means maybe Jason and Brett might be right about Kubrick? Or did you two find this odd sex odyssey from one of our quote-unquote coldest auteurs to be a work of real tenderness, passion, and compassion?

5:16I would love nothing more than to tell you that you're wrong, but in this case, you are dead on. And I love starting with this because it gets right at the heart of what I, too, appreciate so much about this movie. And I suppose the answer could depend on one's definition of romantic, but the counter to your take is pretty simple. This is a movie about a married couple who don't share a ton of screen time. When they're together, most of the wife's dialogue, Alice, as you said, played by Kidman, concerns fantasies about cheating with other men. In one instance, so many men she can't count and ultimately trying to humiliate her husband.

5:52When they aren't together, the husband is trying to actually cheat with other women he's consistently thwarted but he's trying so sure josh that sounds really romantic here's great movie the proof that you're right though is this this is a movie about a married couple who despite those fantasies and thwarted attempts is in a much healthier honest place than they were before i think the key expression of that sentiment comes in alice's lines near the end of the film when she says the important thing is we're awake now and hopefully for a long time to come. And this, of course, tying back into the title of the movie, if you set aside for now all the talk of dreams and the undeniable dreamlike nature of really the entire movie, and I'm sure we will talk about that a bit, there's this kind of suggestion of sleepwalking in their marriage right from the very beginning.

6:41Of course, we get that incredible opening shot of Kidman naked as her dress falls. She's facing away from the camera And she's just a stunning, sensual figure, statuesque in her pose. And then we go from that, a little bit of a credit break into the scene of them getting ready. And it's a very familiar conversation probably to most of us married people. Honey, have you seen my wallet? Is it on the bedside table? He kind of groans when he finds that, of course, she's right. And that's exactly where he left it. He points out that we're running a little bit late. She says, I know. And she says, how do I look?

7:14He says, perfect. Is my hair OK? It's great. And before she even says it, we're all aware as viewers, he's not even looking at her when he says it. He's really not paying attention at all. She then calls him on it. You're not even looking at it. He says, it's beautiful. You always look beautiful. Doesn't carry that much weight. He might mean it, but in that moment, it doesn't really carry that much weight. There's very little real connection there, I think, between them, which isn't to say there's a wide chasm or that there's a total lack of love. Not at all. But we do see them going through the everyday motions of a marriage.

7:45We see it too, I think, in Alice's looking into the mirror during a lovemaking scene after the party. And by the end, Josh, they've awakened to a couple things. The reality of relationships, of life, their fragility, and as she says, the gratitude they should probably feel that they didn't feel before. And seeing each other as they really are. No more facades, no more masks, and specifically seeing each other as individual sexual beings. That's the key, I think. This is territory that is certainly more fraught psychologically and emotionally. It's a little more dangerous, if you will, but it's also way more exciting and stimulating.

8:26And what's romance, if not something that should be exciting and stimulating, Josh? Yeah, it's romantic because it's a revival. I think that's why I find it that way. The other line she has in that final conversation, you mentioned it, to be grateful. She says maybe we should be grateful, grateful that we've managed to survive. And there's a key word as well. survived through all our adventures, whether they were real or only a dream. And so there's an honesty there. In a way, you get the sense they are in the most honest place, still a pretty terrible place. I mean, they've got a lot to sort out.

9:01It's not like they're going to walk out of that toy store where they're Christmas shopping with their daughter in this final scene, and everything's going to be hunky-dory. There's going to be a lot of rough roads ahead, But you feel like this is probably the most honest place they've ever been with each other. They're on their way to a more fulfilling path. Yeah. And I find that romantic. I agree with you. But it's the sort of experience where there are a little dollops of this in a movie that is otherwise extremely depressing in all the ways that you described, watching them apart. I do wish there had been more Kidman in this because not only because she just takes such control of those scenes she has, which are essentially monologues, but because we kind of get stuck with Cruz for a long time, who is good as well.

9:49Yes. But it is weighted far more towards him. And so, yeah, I maybe could have used a little bit more of her. But there are other romantic elements in this that the mirror scene you mentioned at the beginning to Chris Isaac's baby did a bad, bad thing. maybe more sensual than romantic, but at least captures a fire that they do have of some sort, mixed with a lot of other stuff going on. I think that look betrays something to me that isn't connections. So let's get to the performances because Kidman's looks in this film, what she gives the camera with her face, she's always two and usually three mental places at once.

10:26And I think that mirror scene is the quintessential one for that. We see that part of it is an attraction and connection with her husband. Part of it is thinking about what happened at the party they just came from, the cocktail party, where she was propositioned. And she's also suspicious of what he might have been doing. So that's at play. You also see her seeming to consider all of those things at once and asking herself, who am I? Who am I looking at right now? And who are we together? Kidman gives such a psychologically layered performance here. And again, with maybe a third of the scenes that Cruise has and just makes those so potent, so powerful that they do in the end for me outweigh the miserablism that we see Cruise's character mostly wading through.

11:10Yeah. I want to talk about the performances, I suppose, in particular, Cruise here, because I think you're exactly correct about Kidman and her performance. And if we were going to redo those Kubrick scenes, having now seen Eyes Wide Shut again, I probably would have tried to fit that exact scene on that monologue for me is the is the crux of the entire film. And I love her delivery of it. I think she's off a little bit. There's a sequence later, that dream sequence where she's coming out of a dream and she goes on another long explanation that doesn't ever feel quite right to me. In fact, I don't really like anything about that scene.

11:47It's a little bit too on the nose and it's Garden of Eden symbolism, I felt, that Kubrick was going for there. And she somehow just wasn't as grounded as she is in that scene where the camera is just trained on her. And we get those glimpses. We get those cuts to Cruise and those close-ups, which I also love. I think we get in those scenes and we get it in the taxi cab to a little bit of that Kubrick glare that he's famous for. It's that kind of almost looking down face that you only get from Kubrick emphasized that way. This suggests something more than just sorrow or just basic sadness, something like true existential despair.

12:22And I think you get it from Cruise. I certainly felt it there in that bedroom scene. So I think Kidman and Cruise are both great in that scene and very good in this whole film. But Amy Nicholson in that Vanity Fair article said something interesting about Cruise's performance, that she felt like it feels flat. She says,

13:03And she pointed out that critics then did kind of pan their performance. It was like, oh, he's the action movie star. And yes, he'd done Born on the Fourth of July, but he's out of his league here somehow. And now, again, separated from that by 20 years and looking over the expanse of Cruise's career, I don't feel that way at all about this performance. I understand what she's saying about the flatness and how it does ultimately serve the story. And it gets to the question that all of us as critics or viewers have about performances in films. When they work or don't work, who gets the credit? How much credit does the director get?

13:37How much of it is the actor and the choices they're specifically making with Kubrick on this film, knowing what we do know about his approach? I don't see how you can't give the lion's share of the credit or discredit, I would say, if that's what you perceive, to Kubrick. Because you know he shot 95 to 150 takes of every one of these scenes and tried to get exactly what he wanted out of those sequences. And how many takes that Cruz loved or that we would love did he leave on the cutting room floor? He wanted something that suggested more detachment, that flatness, perhaps. It's clearly all filling into this overall dreamlike state of this film.

14:20And you can get on that wavelength or not, I suppose. This is what's going on with Cruise. And you're right. Edelstein really went after him in that slate takedown. He mostly aimed at Cruise and his supposed flatness. But what I think is going on is that Kubrick cast him for perhaps, you know, the marriage element, but also for his innate enthusiasm, the way that he is our most enthusiastic actor. And then what he's going to do is stifle that and force that to be drained out of him. And watching that happen gives this movie and gives the performance attention. tension. And notice at the very beginning, when they go to that cocktail party, that holiday cocktail party by Sidney Pollack's Ziegler, the way Cruz shakes everyone's hands.

15:08Todd Field's pianist, when he sees him again, he's pumping it up and down. Like it's the best thing that's ever happened to the both of them that they're meeting together. He's greeting everyone this way. And eventually as his world starts constricting upon him or getting upended, he just gets tamped down more and more. But in those scenes where he's supposedly flat, you can see underneath that enthusiasm wanting to come out, that kind of energy and that rage. But he does not know what to do anymore. He's been completely discombobulated. And you see that Cruz, it's draining away. That smug Cruz smile just goes further, further away.

15:44And it's all about that line Kidman gives or Alice gives to Bill in that first fight. You are very, very sure of yourself, aren't you? Who's very, very sure of himself? Tom Cruise. Who's going to get taken to the mat in this movie? Tom Cruise, the character, Bill, the character, but also Tom Cruise, the persona. And I think that is what Kubrick is going for. Now, just to jump back to what you said about Kidman and Alice in that secondary, when she wakes up from the dream monologue, what I liked about it is that I was never quite sure, and maybe this can be read as an unsteadiness in the performance.

16:18I was never quite sure what Alice was making up, what she actually dreamt, what she was holding back from him that she did dream. And the way I read it is she is deciding as she's talking to him, how much of this dream am I going to tell him? Because you could have a dream like that and your spouse can wake you up. And mind you, when he comes into the room, she's giggling. She seems to be having a fantastic dream, but he wakes her up and she says oh i was having a horrible nightmare the conversation circles down to that it is horrible it is horrible so maybe she's being honest and he points out but that isn't all right yeah more to the story and so what i like about that scene is that that unsteadiness that i think she purposefully shows us is that i don't know what i want to say here i don't i don't know how i'm supposed to play this it's her unsteadiness we were in a deserted city and...

17:13and our clothes were gone. We were naked. And... And I was terrified.

17:31And I... And I felt ashamed. And... Oh, God.

17:42And... And I was angry because I thought it was your fault. But you... You rushed away to go find clothes for us.

17:58As soon as you were gone, it was completely different.

18:07I felt wonderful. Maybe this is where we can move into the formal. I think it's fascinating that we have spent this much time on a Stanley Kubrick film talking about performances and not really gotten to the form. I'm ready. This has to be, though, I think that's remarkable, though. This has to be his most, I don't want to say effective use of actors, but of all the films of his I've seen where acting plays as prominent a part in what the movie is trying to do. Is that fair? Maybe, maybe. And that's not to downplay any of the other performances that have been given. I mean, great performances have been given in his films.

18:41I just it's I can't imagine any other movie of his. We would start by talking about the acting for this one. No, probably not. And as we noted, a lot of people would disagree with that or certainly did back in 99. I hate to use the pun here, but maybe it's a perfect marriage of that form and content, or I suppose in this case, thinking about the camera and how it works around the actors and supports everything we're saying about these performances and really how it informs the psychology. I think our psychology is viewers more than anything. And with Kubrick, I think we've always studied his frames fairly carefully.

19:15I mean, we, as in anyone who watches a Kubrick film, we know to watch closely. I think I watch a little more obsessively now in a post room 227 world, right? That documentary that really gets into all those theories about what every single thing in the frame could possibly mean and all the symbolism of it. And so right off the bat with this film, I was doing that. I'm looking at Ziegler's party and I'm seeing that eight pointed star that's lit up as they walk in and they're doing the handshake scene. And then, man, we see that a few more times at his house. He seems really into that symbol. What does that mean?

19:50I promised myself I wasn't going to say Illuminati again, so I'm not going to go down that path. But I did start looking at it that way. And you start to notice, of course, it doesn't take long to realize that scene after scene, you're seeing frames populated by Christmas lights. And of course, I start thinking, well, what's the deep meaning of the Christmas lights? And I completely dismissed it because I said, brilliant observation, Adam. The movie takes place at Christmas. God forbid people are celebrating and recognizing Christmas. Of course, that makes sense. but the closer you start to pay attention and you especially realize not only does he really continue the motif in a way that defies reality i think it becomes a hyper kind of reality with those christmas lights you also start to notice when he doesn't employ the christmas lights and there are some key scenes and also then that meshes with the fact that we get in that scene when he is at the party and while she's dancing with the hungarian man he's being taken away by those two models.

20:53And it's weird. It's almost like something out of the movie The Devil's Advocate when Pacino's devil character is trying to tempt Keanu Reeves. And I remember he's got these, you know, these witches or these demons, if you will, who are super attractive women and they are tempting him. That's almost what it feels like because it's such an odd state. They are just ready to devour him as they're taking him away from his wife. But I'm watching that scene. What do they say when he asks where they're going? Their answer is, we're going where the rainbow ends. And then, of course, when you see the costume shop that he goes to, to go to the party, it's called Rainbow.

21:30And when they go down into the basement and that whole charade plays out, it's called Under the Rainbow. And you think about how those lights tie in with the primary colors of all these Christmas lights in scene after scene after scene. And for me, it does just all support this idea that there's this real world that they inhabit, but it's ultimately a fake world, right? It's adorned with these lights to suggest joy, to suggest comfort, whatever you want those Christmas lights to mean. And then there's this alternate world. It's a construct too, where this ritual is going on. This whole power system is in place.

22:06It's a construct, but it's where everyone reveals who they really are. And everyone shows their true primal instincts and their primal desires. And in those scenes, of course, we don't get those primary colors. We don't get the rainbow colors and the Christmas lights in the orgy scene. We get those stark blacks and reds in that scene. And how about those confession scenes? Anytime that they're in their bedroom, it's really striking how those are lit, right? Where it's this combination of blues, icy blues. The second one when she wakes up is all blue. In particular. Yeah. But even in that first one, you see.

22:45softer and almost warmer it is warmer but you see for example in shots behind him of the bathroom or the hallway there's always this juxtaposition of a little bit of a yellow glow with this real iciness that contrasts that which obviously speaks to or underscores kind of what's going on with their relationship and when it gets to the end of the film when it gets to that moment where he's about to walk in his bedroom, right? And he sees the mask and he says, I'll tell you everything. He reveals everything, honestly, or at least we're supposed to believe he does because we don't get to hear his recount of the night.

23:22We were with him. We're going to trust that he actually does tell her the entire truth. But what does he do? The last thing before he walks into his bedroom, he shuts the Christmas tree off. That's kind of that moment, right? Where that this rainbow fantasy, I think is really supposed to end and everything we're saying about their relationship, this new reality that they're about to enter, it finally happens once they finally shut those lights off. Yeah. And for him, then the final, I don't know, accusation, I don't know what you want to call it, but the final decision is when he does see the mask on the bed pillow next to her, which gives him that moment of, do I play this for more deception?