Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Genre: Mystery / Drama
Duration: 159 minuten
Country:
United States / United Kingdom
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
Stars: Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Sydney Pollack
IMDb score:
7,5 (398.171)
Releasedate: 16 July 1999
Eyes Wide Shut plot
"Cruise. Kidman. Kubrick."
After his wife admits to having sexual fantasies about another man, a doctor becomes obsessed with the thought of having sex with someone else. This leads to some unsatisfactory encounters with, among others, a prostitute. When he visits a nightclub, he discovers the existence of a secret sex club.
Actors and actresses
Dr. William Harford
Alice Harford
Victor Ziegler
Marion
Milich
Nick Nightingale
Domino
Desk Clerk
Sandor Szavost
Sally
Reviews & comments
Fisico (moderator films)
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- 10009 messages
- 5398 votes
Eyes wide shut is an excellent mystery thriller by Stanley Kubrick. His last as it turned out, because he died that same year in his sleep. Normal and simple movies are not in his dictionary, or it should be Spartacus. Eyes wide shut is a bizarre film that floats between reality and the dream world. It is also this stalemate that Kubrick extends to our real world where Cruise and Kidman formed a real couple. The subtle opening scene with Kidman in the bathroom makes it surreal. What is dream and what is reality? Kubrick continues this throughout the film as he also suggests in the film title.
The perfect couple, Alice and Bill, appearing to the outside world, they flirt wildly at the society party. Bill's confidence is shaken when his wife confesses her infidelity. There, too, we get to see a fuzzy image of deeds that remain veiled in a haze of mystery. It's a cue for Dr. Bill to roam the Christmas cheer of New York where people seem different from how they pretend to be (it starts in the society club where he had to help his friend out of trouble). The pinnacle of course is the spacious scene on the estate. Masks that symbolize anonymity. But what if the masks fall away? The password "fidelio" was not chosen by chance either.
The film has a slow pace, a succession of various contacts of Bill and often strange figures. The film is tedious at times, but Kubrick manages to keep the tension and mystery high. Tom Cruise in perhaps for me his best role ever (with Magnolia?). I've known for a long time that Kidman is a classy lady. The supporting piano music also had something ominous and only enhanced the film. Not everything gets through to me, but I enjoyed it and I'm triggered to see him again (someday).
Translated from Dutch · View original
Dievegge
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- 3094 messages
- 8012 votes
The paradoxical title refers to dreams. Then your eyes are closed, while you still see everything. It is loosely based on Traumnovelle by the Austrian Arthur Schnitzler. It was inspired by Sigmund Freud's dream analysis. Bill and Alice form a model family, with a daughter and his income as a doctor. Then, however, she has erotic dreams about a man in uniform. That is an expression of a repressed desire in her subconscious. She is ashamed of this and it makes her husband angry.
Bill's nocturnal ramble through New York is also somewhat of a dream. It seems like a manly fantasy, because all women are beautiful, young and willing. The secret ritual he witnesses is reminiscent of the Bacchanalia or the Dionysian Mysteries. The unintelligible declamations are played backwards in Romanian. The only crime the cult members commit is beating the pianist to drive him out of town. The mysterious woman Bill addresses isn't Mandy or Domino. She is played by another actress, Abigail Good.
The Christmas period was suitable for this because the nights last the longest and because the lights on the Christmas trees match it. Bright light in the primary colors, especially red and blue, sets the visual style. Blue can symbolize dreams, red for passion. The camera moves a lot, with long tracking shots throughout the rooms. The music is minimalist. The two-note piano tune must have been recorded with a microphone near the hammers of a grand piano.
Some scenes were shot dozens of times, so Kubrick had plenty of material to tinker with. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman transcend themselves. The end result is a psychological drama with a mysterious atmosphere, lots of symbolism and enough layers of meaning to bring in an archaeologist.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Piem
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- 58 messages
- 60 votes
What a hell of a movie this is.
One of Cruise's better ones with his ex. Lovely atmosphere too. Top!
9/10
Translated from Dutch · View original
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