Are You With Us?: Eyes Wide Shut
By Shalimar Sahota
November 5, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Starring – Tom Cruise (William ‘Bill' Harford), Nicole Kidman (Alice Harford), Sydney Pollack (Victor Ziegler), Todd Field (Nick Nightingale) Marie Richardson (Marion Nathanson), Rade Sherbedgia (Mr Milich), Madison Eginton (Helena Harford)
Length – 153 minutes
Cert – 18 / R (originally NC-17)
Despite a very long, well-publicized shoot in London, England (15 months, with the whole production itself lasting two-and-a-half years), no one seemed to know what Eyes Wide Shut was actually about. With Stanley Kubrick amazingly left to do as he pleased, it's believed that not even Warner Bros. knew what the film was about, having not read the script. Co-writer Frederic Raphael revealed that he had not met with Warner executives, and wasn't invited to any screenings or premieres. Warner hadn't even seen the dailies till it came to editing the film.
This is hard to believe given how secrets are leaked today (sometimes purposely), often prematurely ejaculated all over the Internet, and swallowed by gossip hungry readers thirsting for the latest bit of juice. The oft-printed, possible red herring, was that Cruise and Kidman were playing a pair of married psychologists, both having affairs with their patients. The truth was far more boring.
Set in New York, Cruise is a successful doctor, William "Bill" Harford. Kidman is his wife Alice, an art curator who is currently out of a job. One night Bill and Alice argue about the feelings men and women have towards love and sex, with Bill saying that he's never been concerned that Alice would ever cheat on him. Alice laughs and then describes how she was willing to throw away everything for a moment of passion with a navel officer she once met last summer. Right after this revelation, the phone rings, with news that sets Bill off on a jealous spiral, as he experiences a night unlike any other... though one that is probably quite normal for the majority of married senators.
The film is credited as being inspired by Arthur Schnitzler's Dream Story (Traumnovelle). Kubrick had acquired the rights and first considered adapting it in the early 1970s, but just never got around to it.
Close to, and during its eventual release, controversy was spreading that the film was simply all sex and orgies. This immediately cast a shadow over whether it was actually any good. The theme of sex is prevalent throughout, but if you're just after people bonking then you're better off subscribing to red-hot amateurs. Eyes Wide Shut takes more of a psychological look into marriage, sexual paranoia, deception and jealousy.
With the Harfords attending a Christmas party, the film begins as if stuck in a state of normalcy, with boring, stilted dialogue, and outwardly this seems to play with a knowing deliberateness to it all. Around 25 minutes in, Alice turns Bill's world upside-down, and halfway through events suddenly reach a devastating high - more so due to Kubrick purposely opening the film on the safe side of expectancy.
Alice makes Bill feel jealous with her story of lust for a naval officer. Bill can't help but continually imagine some strange, uniformed man doing the dirty to his wife, and so seems intent on doing something to get back at her. To make things just that little bit more unbearable, almost everyone Bill encounters appears to be with a loving partner or just having wild sex (or something like it). Given how each of Bill's numerous encounters stop short of being fulfilled (he's almost always interrupted), it's as if the film is reinforcing the old adage from the Lord's prayer upon the audience; "lead us not into temptation," because temptation could potentially destroy you. It's worth noting that neither Bill nor Alice actually does anything unlawful. They instead experience jealousy and betrayal over fantasies that "might" have happened.
What's unusual is just how much money Bill has with him during his unforgettable night, especially since he's initially just going out to console someone related to one of his patients. That his wallet must have an unlimited amount of cash adds to the dreamlike quality, but it's astonishing to see him spend over $300 in the space of about 4-5 hours.
Cruise is in almost every scene and given his popularity, regardless of whomever he plays, Tom Cruise will always be Tom Cruise. It's unfortunate that his character Bill is charming, successful and married to someone that looks like Nicole Kidman, because it just feels too much like he's playing himself. Kidman, on the other hand, is completely off kilter, slurring her speech when high or drunk; you almost want to smack the words out of her. Also, there's little evidence as to why Bill and Alice married each other in the first place.
The film is practically a blueprint for building up curiosity. When Bill meets Nick (Todd Field) during his night out, a long-time friend who is now a pianist, Nick reveals details about a party where he'll be playing later that night. It's a party with special requirements, causing Bill to go out of his way to hire a costume, and take a taxi to a mysterious location. The high point is when Bill arrives at his destination, and you can't help it, you want to know what the hell he's letting himself in for. So much so that the build up is more exciting than the outcome itself. This occurs only at the halfway point of the film, and with all the craziness that's taken place, who knows where it's heading! Later Kubrick makes a simple exchange of receiving an envelope an incredibly frightening encounter. Gyorgy Ligeti's recurring moody piano piece, Musica Ricercata II (which also plays during this scene), is insanely numbing and effectively unsettling.
Kubrick struggled with the ratings system and was contracted with Warner to deliver an R-rated film - something he found difficult to achieve due to an orgy sequence, lasting just over a minute. While editing, Kubrick watched Fatal Attraction and Showgirls in an effort to find out what gets the MPAA so worked up. He eventually called Paul Verhoeven for advice, who responded by sending him both the director's cut and theatrical versions of Basic Instinct! It's believed that it was Kubrick (not Warner) who came up with the placement of computer-generated objects and characters covering up the more intense ‘action' during the sequence.
Warner could have chosen to release Eyes Wide Shut uncut, tackling the MPAA head on, releasing a big budget NC-17 (which is what the film was rated when originally submitted), but in the interests of business it wasn't to be. The film was released uncut in most countries, while Singapore and South Korea received cut versions (it was banned in Malaysia). A recent uncut special edition, with extras, was released on DVD and blu-ray in the US in 2007. However it presents the film in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) only, and not in full screen (open matte), which is what Kubrick intended. If you're a fan intending to purchase, then it's up to you as to what is more important.
As the years have gone by, film has clearly pushed the boundaries as an art form as to what is now considered acceptable in mainstream cinema, notably with scenes of torture and sexualised violence. Wide access to the Internet has normalised such issues, meaning that even young teens are just a few clicks away from violent beheadings, hardcore pornography and e-mails from a pedophile. With that, the shock value Eyes Wide Shut might have had (though I doubt that was Kubrick's intention) appears to have been diminished. If released today, this probably wouldn't cause such a ruckus.
Eyes Wide Shut was essentially an arthouse film receiving blockbuster treatment due to the star power wattage of Cruise and Kidman's involvement. Warner marketed it as a blockbuster, opening it in the US on July 16, 1999. The plan appeared to have worked since it reached #1 with a take of $21.7 million. However, it went into freefall the following week, losing over 50% of its audience and landing at #4. It spent only three weeks inside the US top ten. Audiences seemed to be far more appreciative in the UK, when it was released two months later on September 10, 1999. With two weeks at #1, it spent six weeks in the UK top ten with summer blockbuster leftovers, taking just over £5 million. It managed to earn a little over $160 million worldwide.
On Sunday, March 7, 1999, Kubrick died of a heart attack, aged 70, just four days after showing his cut of the film to Warner Bros. Most reports have Kubrick claiming Eyes Wide Shut to be his greatest film. A decade on and there hasn't been anything quite like it since. It's certainly an experience watching the ludicrous situations unfold, and you're ultimately left feeling that you've just seen something unimaginable. Maybe it's just me, but what most critics failed to mention is just how funny it is too.