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Pitch perfect adaptation


I read Traumnovelle, then caught the original 35mm print of Eyes Wide Shut last year in cinemas for the film's anniversary. I have to say Kubrick and Frederic Raphael did an excellent job on the script, albeit it was slimmed down quite a bit during the shoot (Raphael's final draft is a tad bloated.)
The dialogue and scenes lifted from the novella are almost identical, word by word, updated from 1920s Austrian to 1990s "casual" English. We don't hear the doctor's inner dialogue as it is in the book but we get an impression of what Tom Cruise is thinking through sheer skill of direction. The sets also pay homage to Europe -- the architecture throughout the numerous wealthy people's apartments and mansions, with the addition of Swedish, Russian and Hungarian actors who seem oddly out of time and place. But it's the emphasis on Schnitzler's main dilemma -- his concern with the act of infidelity, both real and imagined, and our hidden selves that Kubrick translates into contemporary setting. Top it off with stellar cinematography, music and nuanced performances. I have to say that the original print is SUPERIOR to the dvd and blu ray transfers. You feel the warm natural lights in the interiors, and feel the blistering winter air when Cruise is walking through the city streets. The orgy at Somerton is surreal and hauntingly beautiful. I get why Kubrick was so happy with it.

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