MovieChat Forums > Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Discussion > So many strange things - but why? (spoil...

So many strange things - but why? (spoilers)


There are so many strange occurrences in this movie it's unbelievable! Here's a couple of things I've noticed on my most recent viewing:-

* When Bill first arrives at the Sonata Café he passes by a real estate place and a diner called Gillespie's. When he later leaves the Sonata Café he takes a cab to Rainbow Fashions, but Rainbow Fashions is right across the street from the Sonata Café! Watch the scene in which Bill is talking to Milich on the steps outside Rainbow Fashions; right across the street behind him is the real estate place and Gillespie's! Why does Bill take a cab when all he had to do was cross the street?

* Bill later takes a cab to the Somerton mansion and we see him being driven across a bridge and out of the city. When the cab arrives outside the front gates of the Somerton mansion it comes in from the right. The following day Bill drives himself back to Somerton. He takes the same route; he drives over the same bridge and out of the city. Yet this time when he arrives at Somerton he comes in from the left! If he took the same route why would he arrive from the opposite direction?

* In the scene in the bedroom in Domino's apartment, Domino is leaning back across the bed when Bill gets a phone call from Alice. She is propped up by her elbows and behind her on the bed is a stuffed toy tiger, which is facing her. Bill then moves over to the wall to speak quietly to Alice and the camera moves back to Domino. She is in exactly the same position and clearly hasn't moved, yet the tiger is now the other way round and is facing away from her!

There are many other such instances throughout the movie, with items appearing and then disappearing and furniture suddenly being in a different position, but the question is why? It is surely not continuity errors; Kubrick was known to be fanatically meticulous in setting up every shot. So why all these strange occurrences?

Is it supposed to be emphasising dreams? I've had dreams about places I've been to but they're never quite exactly how I remember them. Rooms are a different colour or there was a door that was not where it was supposed to be.

Maybe it's a symbolic message to Bill; look closely because things are not what they seem. Was Alice lying to him about her fantasy with the navel officer? Was Victor lying to him in the billiard room scene? Was Sally lying to him about Domino being HIV positive? Bill takes pretty much everything at face value and accepts what he is told even though there is no evidence to back anything up.

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Let's not forget the lady that vanishes behind Alice at Ziegler's party
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbN80HCMzvU

''And no dream is ever just a dream...''





http://www.imdb.com/list/_OaGg-zdQKo/

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which lady vanishes?

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The young woman in red talking to the older man with white hair, she disappears and turns into an older woman in black behind Alice as Alice walks through the doorway.






http://www.imdb.com/list/_OaGg-zdQKo/

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It's obviously a matter of bad editing and there's truly nothing to it.

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I just watched the movie again yesterday on video after a while, and I was just thinking without even paying attention to the business' names "wait a minute, why is he taking a cab if he is in the same street?" and also when he arrived to the house on his Range Rover by the left side, I thought I was crazy until I read this LOL

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You know, they could very well may be continuity errors. I mean Kubrick at that age was possibly a bit less concerned with being such a perfectionist. Then again, some speculate that the final film wasn't exactly the version Kubrick wanted everyone to see... *cue the X-Files theme*

Anyway, these things are certainly worth pointing out, and personally, I believe there IS something more to them. The mystery surrounding this film is sorta puzzling, to say the least.

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Maybe (it is of course only a theory) all this mirrors the fact that all this MIGHT be in his head. I heard this theory somewhere.

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Those all sound like editing errors.

Didn't the studio interfere with the shoot, take some creative control away from Kubrick? Or was Kubrick just past his best work?

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My theory is that Kubrick was drawing distinctions between dreams and reality in a very subliminal way. Not everyone will pick up on continuity errors the first time around, but our subconscious mind often does, which gives us an uneasy feeling that something isn't quite right. Or more appropriately, not quite real.

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Oh, that's a great theory!

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Agreed, the rigid and off rhythm spoken dialogue, the color timing, the soundstage look of the NY streets, it all adds to this dreamscape.

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[deleted]

that's true for the majority of films.. except when Dream/Reality is actually in question (and a major theme) here.

i think every detail downright to the paintings of children present during the Somerton orgies were indeed planned.
Ziegler also taps the pool chalk twice.. in a similar manner to red cloak during the ceremony.

sloppy editing? i think not. not in this film.

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