Sorry way to end a career...
Kubrick should have called it a day after Full Metal Jacket. Eyes Wide Shut was an embarrassment after so many true classics.
Incomprehensible, pretentious self-indulgent baloney.
Incomprehensible??? It's a pretty straightforward narrative and story.
shareWhat I found most incomprehensible was the reason for making this movie. All through it I kept wondering "what's the point?"
shareIt was based on a book that Kubrick liked.
Based on Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 novella Traumnovelle (Dream Story), the story is transferred from early 20th century Vienna to 1990s New York City.
Kubrick obtained the filming rights for Dream Story in the 1960s, considering it a perfect text for a film adaptation about sexual relations.
It's right up Kubrick's alley considering he did the same thing with adapting Lolita. This was probably originally meant to be a follow-up to that movie.
Maybe he did it for the thrill of being able to direct such a grand ballroom orgy scene. :D
I can see why some would consider it pretentious but I didn't hate it because I think I enjoyed that scene too much.
Plus I thought it was interesting watching Kidman and Cruise try to act like they had a marriage that was anything more than a business decision.
"All through it I kept wondering "what's the point?" "
Boobs
The film is also a very suspenseful thriller,too...especially the use of a nighttime setting and sinster mansion where something sexy goes on, and the piano music (Gyorty Legiti, "Musica Ricerata") works..it's pretty scary in the second half, like when T.C.is at the the mansion gate and a limo or hearse pulls out with a creepy man with a simple, written threat..that piano music made it a real chiller..btw the happy orchestral musical, "Jazz Suite"(making it sound like something Gershwin would have written for Paul Whiteman-think "Rhapsody in Blue") at beginning and end---made its way four and a half years later into the Billy Bob Thornton film "Bad Santa" (with Lauren Tom driving a truck)..with Lauren Graham, Tony Cox, and the late stars Bernie Mac and John Ritter..
Oh, and one other thing.
Fidelio.
Totally agreed on the suspense, Eyes Wide Shut and No Country For Old Men are the two thrillers that affected me the most when I saw them. I was on the edge of my seat for both.
Oh, and one other thing.
Fidelio.
"That's correct, sir! That is the password... for admittance. But may I ask, what is the password for the house?" share