Eyes Wide Shut

Based on Arthur Schnitzler’s novella Dream Story, Eyes Wide Shut is the story of a doctor who learned about his wife’s desire to stray from their marriage as he goes into a night-long adventure where he encounters all sorts of things including a secretive ceremony that nearly gets him into big trouble. Directed by Stanley Kubrick and screenplay by Kubrick and Frederic Raphael, the film is an exploration into the world of marriage and sex as a couple face their devotion when one reveals the desire to be with someone else. Starring Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Todd Field, Marie Richardson, Vinessa Shaw, Leelee Sobieski, Rade Serbedzija, Alan Cumming, Thomas Gibson, Julienne Davis, Sky du Mont, and Sydney Pollack. Eyes Wide Shut is an evocative yet hypnotic drama from Stanley Kubrick.

Dr. Bill and Alice Halford (Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman) attend the party of their friend Victor Ziegler (Sydney Pollack) where Alice flirts with a Hungarian (Sky du Mont) while Bill chats with his old friend Nick Nightingale (Todd Field) while he is being hit on by two models. Later that night, Bill is called by Victor to deal with the overdose of a young woman (Julienne Davis) he was having sex with as Bill took care of things. The next night while smoking pot in their bedroom, Bill and Alice have a heated discussion about infidelity where Alice if Bill would’ve slept with those women as he says no. Alice then reveals about a fantasy she had about a naval officer she encountered last summer that disturbs Bill who then leaves after getting a call about a death of one of his friends. Bill goes to the home where he meets the man’s daughter Marion (Marie Richardson) who professes her love to Bill as she tries to kiss until her fiancee Carl (Thomas Gibson) arrives.

Still uneasy about Alice’s confession, Bill goes on a walk around Greenwich Village in New York City where he encounters a young hooker named Domino (Vinessa Shaw) and later goes to a jazz club where Nick was playing. Bill and Nick chat where Nick reveals about a secret gig that he has to play blindfold as he wrote “Fidelio” as the password and reluctantly revealed to Bill about the location. Bill then goes to a closed costume shop now run by a new owner named Milich (Rade Serbedzija) who gives him the costume while dealing with a couple of Japanese men who were with his teenage daughter (Leelee Sobieski). After traveling away from New York City to a reclusive estate, a masked Bill finds himself in a strange underworld full of orgies and other quasi-religious rituals as a woman tries to warn him to leave. Instead, the woman offers to sacrifice herself to spare Bill from further trouble as he returns home where Alice had woken up from a nightmare that disturbed her.

Bill goes to Nick’s hotel to ask him what happened only for a hotel clerk (Alan Cumming) to reveal that Nick was taken away with a bruise in his face. Things get stranger when Bill returns his costume to Milich without the mask that he lost where things get weirder as Bill notices he’s being followed. Later that night while working, Bill goes to Domino’s apartment where he meets her roommate (Fay Masterson) who reveals some startling news about her. Things get darker when Bill learns about a model dead from an overdose as he goes to the morgue where he learns who she is. After getting a call from Victor, Bill gets some startling news about the events that he had went through in the past few days as he begins to ponder the strange adventure he had just been through.

The film is essentially an exploration into the dangers of marriage and the idea of how jealousy can drive someone to do something in the heat of passion. In this film, it is about a man who goes into a journey one night around New York City after being disturbed by his wife’s confession about thinking from straying from their marriage. After some strange encounters with various individuals, he goes into a secret ceremony that is held by secretive people only to realize he’s stepped into somewhere he shouldn’t have gone into as it forces him to reflect on his own feelings of marriage as well as the fact that he might not have been honest to his wife after all. It’s a film that contains a lot of ambiguities and complications about marriage and infidelity as well as jealousy driven by this couple who do love each other but are compelled to ask big questions by their faithfulness.

The screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Frederic Raphael is quite conventional in terms of a traditional narrative structure but it is filled with a lot of ambiguities and themes about marriage. The first act is about Ziegler’s party where both Bill and Alice encounter people who flirt with them where Alice seems to enjoy herself though Bill tries to play cool only to help deal with Ziegler. Then it is followed by a montage of their daily activities where they later smoke pot the next evening and have this discussion about marriage where Alice asked if Bill is ever jealous. Bill is being cagey about being jealous and acts very smugly about the idea of Alice not cheating on him. Instead, her revelation would send him into an emotional tailspin that leads to the film’s second act.

The second is about Bill’s odyssey into the unknown from the encounters he makes with women who tries to seduce him such as a friend’s daughter, a young hooker, and a promiscuous teenage girl while he would also meet that girl’s father, an old friend, and encounter a bunch of drunk college kids who mistake him for being gay. Then Bill’s journey goes into a dark, suspenseful turn once he enters this very exclusive underworld filled with sexual rituals, orgies, and very strange things that occur where he finds himself in great danger. He returns home only to go further into a path of the unknown in the third act as Bill wonders about the journey he had previously taken as well as the fact that it involved people he knew as it forces him to ask big questions about himself and his wife.

It’s a script that is filled with some very frank yet realistic dialogue on not just about marriage and jealousy but also the idea that one would stray from their marriage just to make the other person jealous. Yet, both Bill and Alice do take each other for granted in the fact that Bill doesn’t seem to pay enough attention to Alice and the fact that Alice doesn’t seem to appreciate Bill enough. Both characters are very flawed as they both deal with the rules of marriage and each go into their own adventures. For Alice, it’s in her dreams while Bill goes into something much darker where both of them realize what they have to do to stay together.

Kubrick’s direction definitely bears a lot of the visual trademarks and cinematic style that he’s known for. Notably the tracking dolly shots, gazing close-ups, eerie medium and wide shots, and slow zooms to help maintain the sense of drama that occurs. Yet, there’s also a lot of elements that Kubrick brings to the film that feels fresh and new for the fact that it takes place in a world where it is contemporary but also with a sense of something that feels more 19th Century due to the Venetian masks that are worn at the secret society party. One element of the film that is very unique that plays into Bill’s journey is the fact he walks around the world of New York City.

Even though it’s shot in London and some of it on a soundstage with some second unit work providing scenes actually shot in New York City along with backdrops in some scenes in the car. It’s not really the New York City that most people know but rather a surrealistic idea of New York City since Bill is in a world where he’s lost and disturbed by his wife’s revelations. The people he meets during this journey are definitely off as they don’t really play to any kind of conventions. A young hooker who lives nearby as she doesn’t exude any of the usual traits. A costume shop owner with a teenager daughter who is very promiscuous. Then things get even weirder where it’s almost as if Bill is living in a dream world that isn’t just off but also unlike any kind of reality that is out there.

He goes inside this very exclusive place where it’s later revealed to be a place that only the elite can be part of. It’s a world where it’s almost this very religious ritual where people are in tuxedos, wearing cloaks, covering their faces with Venetian masks, and do things as if there were no rules. There’s orgies where there’s a lot of happening though Kubrick doesn’t go too far in terms of sexual content. Still, he maintains that sense of mystery that does occur in the third act as well as creating some very chilling moments in the sexual fantasy scenes involving Alice and the naval officer that plays inside Bill’s head. Things become more intense by the film’s third that includes this amazing climatic meeting between Bill and Victor where it is about what Bill encountered. Kubrick maintains the ambiguity in Victor’s exposition where he could be telling the truth from his view but is anything he saying is true?

This is then followed by more revelations as it returns to the story of Bill and Alice where it seems that both of them had just had a major wakeup call not just about themselves but their marriage. It seems like everything they had been through was just a dream as they both would have these major encounters about a life that was filled with rules and no rules. The film’s ending is really the culmination of everything Bill and Alice had gone through and them ready to take a major step into their lives. Overall, Stanley Kubrick creates a film that is very provocative but also entrancing film about the world of marriage and temptation.

Cinematographer Larry Smith does incredible work with the film‘s lush and intoxicating photography from the usage of available light to create beautiful scenes for many of the film‘s interiors at night to the more darker scenes in the streets as Smith‘s work is a major highlight of the film. Editor Nigel Galt does excellent work with the editing from the use of dissolves for the transitions as well as a few montages for Bill‘s look into Alice‘s fantasy as well as other stylish cuts to play out the mood of the film. Production designers Leslie Tomkins and Roy Walker, along with supervising art director Kevin Phipps and set decorators Lisa Leone and Terry Wells, do amazing work with the sets such as the look of the world of Greenwich Village as well as the places Bill encounters including the elusive estate that he visits.

Costume designer Marit Allen does wonderful work with the costumes from the look of the cloaks and tuxedos the characters wear to the clothes that Alice wears as well as the look of the Venetian masks. Sound editor Paul Conway does superb work with the sound from the way some of the dialogue is heard in Bill‘s head as well as the atmosphere in some of the locations including the exotic party that he attends. The film’s music consists of various classical pieces from the waltz theme by Dmitri Shotstakovich that opens the film to the more striking, suspenseful piano pieces of Gyorgy Ligeti. Original music by Jocelyn Pook is very ominous as it is played largely in the ritual scenes to maintain the eerie tone of the film. The rest of the soundtrack consists of jazz renditions of love songs along with some opera pieces and a playful rock song by Chris Isaak.

The casting by Denise Chaiman and Leon Vitali is brilliant for the ensemble that is created as it features some noteworthy small performances from Madison Eginton as Bill and Alice’s daughter Helena, Louise J. Taylor as one of the models who flirts with Bill at the party, Julienne Davis as Ziegler’s mistress Mandy, Togo Igawa and Eiji Kusuhara as the two Japanese men at the costume shop, Fay Masterson as Domino’s roommate Sally, Gary Goba as the naval officer that Alice fantasizes about, and Leon Vitali as mysterious Master of Ceremonies at the strange ritual that Bill attends. Other notable small roles includes Sky du Mont as the dashing Hungarian that Alice flirts with, Vinessa Shaw as the hooker Domino that Bill encounters, Rade Serbedzija as the costume shop owner Milich, Leelee Sobieski as Milich’s promiscuous teenage daughter, Alan Cumming as the hotel clerk, and Thomas Gibson as Marion’s fiancee Carl.

Marie Richardson is terrific as the daughter of Bill’s patient who tries to seduce Bill through her grief while Todd Field is great as Bill’s friend Nick Nightingale who unknowingly gets himself and Bill into trouble over the secret ritual party. Sydney Pollack is excellent as Bill’s friend Victor Ziegler who tries to assure Bill about everything that Bill had encountered in his journey. Finally, there’s the duo of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as both of them give incredible performances as Bill and Alice Halford. Kidman displays a lot of charisma and drama as a woman who feels like her husband doesn’t respect her enough as well as someone who feels guilty about some of her revelations. Cruise gives a chilling performance as a man who is a bit aloof about the idea of him being jealous only to embark into a dark journey that has him thinking about himself and his own flaws. Cruise and Kidman together are wonderful together in the way they interact as well as display the kind of tension in marriage as both of them give remarkable performances.

Eyes Wide Shut is an incredible yet entrancing film from Stanley Kubrick that features superb performances from Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. While it is a film that dares to ask big questions about marriage as well as infidelity and other big themes. It is a very intriguing film that explores that world as well as a film that features exotic visuals and intoxicating music that bears a lot of Kubrick’s trademarks. In the end, Eyes Wide Shut is a tremendous and grand final film from Stanley Kubrick.

Stanley Kubrick Films: Fear and Desire - Killer's Kiss - The Killing - Paths of Glory - Spartacus - Lolita - Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb - 2001: A Space Odyssey - A Clockwork Orange - Barry Lyndon - The Shining - Full Metal Jacket

Related: Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures - The Auteurs #18: Stanley Kubrick

© thevoid99 2012

Barry Lyndon

Based on William Makepeace Thackery’s novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon, Barry Lyndon is the story of a how a common Irish man became an aristocrat through a series of misadventures where he rose high only to fall through misfortune. Written for the screen and directed by Stanley Kubrick, the film is an exploration into a man trying to his role into a world that is new to him as he tries to become a gentleman through any means as it’s told by an unreliable narrator played by Michael Hordern. Playing the role of the titular character is Ryan O’Neal as the film spans through nearly 40 years during the second half of the 18th Century. Also starring Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Kruger, Gay Hamilton, Leon Vitali, Godfrey Quigley, and Steven Berkoff. Barry Lyndon is an exquisite and ravishing film from Stanley Kubrick.

A young man named Redmond Barry is trying to court his cousin Nora Brady (Gay Hamilton) in a small Irish village only to contend with a British captain named John Quin (Leonard Rossiter). Captain Quin represents everything Barry wants to be as he challenged him to a duel following a series of insults as Barry wins the duel but is forced to leave home and go to Dublin. After some trouble where he loses money during his journey, he decides to join the British army for money where he meets Quin’s friend Captain Grogan (Godfrey Quigley) who reveals about the true actions of his duel with Quin. Feeling trapped by his fate as the Seven Year’s War rages on, Barry gains some advice from Grogan about how to lead a different life where Barry deserts the army. Meeting with a Prussian captain named Potzdorf (Hardy Kruger), Barry is suddenly part of Prussian army where he saves Potzdorf’s life in a battle.

In return, Potzdorf offers Barry a chance to spy on a man known as the Chevalier de Balibari (Patrick Magee) where Barry meets the aristocratic man and confesses to him about what he’s doing. The Chevalier takes him in as a protégé before he flees Prussia where Barry gives a false report to Potzdorf. Barry’s work with the Chevalier has made the latter a successful gambler as Barry helps out in his gambling defeating the revered Lord Ludd (Steven Berkoff). At a lunch with the Chevalier at a palace, Barry is entranced by the presence of a woman named Lady Lyndon (Marisa Berenson) whom he courts as her husband (Frank Middlemass) is dying. Barry manages to win over Lady Lyndon much to the dismay of her 10-year-old son Lord Bullingdon (Dominic Savage) as his father dies and Barry becomes Barry Lyndon. With the help of Barry’s mother and a man named Graham (Phillip Stone) to handle Barry’s new wealth, Belle suggests that Barry should gain a title in order to maintain this new lifestyle with the help of the influential Lord Wendover (Andre Morell).

Still, Barry would find ways to undo things as he gains the ire of Lord Bullingdon as Barry later gains a son in Bryan Patrick Lyndon (David Morley) while the 18-year-old Bullingdon (Leon Vitali) has become more attached towards his mother as his hatred for Barry grows. After years of tension that finally boils, Bullingdon is forced to leave where Barry puts his full attention towards his son. Yet, financial mismanagement and Barry’s awful deeds behind the scenes as tragedy happens leaving Lady Lyndon in a state of shock. When the Lyndon family’s longtime advisor Reverend Runt (Murray Melvin) is dismissed, Runt would return with the exiled Lord Bullingdon who challenges Barry to a duel. For all that Barry had gained and lost, Barry would do something that would change the fates for everyone involved including himself.

The film is about a man who is trying to find his way to conform into a world that he is entranced by as he tries to figure out how to behave in this world despite his lack of intelligence and understanding about the way the world works. It’s a film that explores the life of a man who comes from humble beginnings to stumble his way into various places in the world and then become a man of great wealth. Just as he rose high through years of sheer luck, he would fall in a big way through his own doing. Infidelity, neglect, mismanagement, and foolishness would play part into downfall that would be furthered by tragedy only to find himself in a similar situation where his adventure begin.

Told through Michael Hordern’s narration that would reveal lots of back story and the fates that is to come for Barry Lyndon, it’s to establish what this man is trying to do in his path to become an aristocrat. A lot of Hordern’s narration delves into the lives of Barry and the characters he encounters as it’s told in third-person where Hordern would spoil things to unveil how Barry would screw things up for himself in his bid to gain a title. It would also unveil a lot of the fallout that happens as it would play into the fates of this man and the people he encounters.

Stanley Kubrick’s screenplay plays to the traditional rise and fall formula but it is told in a grand narrative where it’s about this slow rise to fortune and prestige only to fall in an even bigger way where Barry Lyndon would go full circle into his journey. The film plays into many themes that is explored such as conformity, desire, and will as it reveals how a simple Irish villager like Redmond Barry would become the aristocratic Barry Lyndon through the series of misadventures where he would serve in two different armies, meet people who would change his outlook in the world, and find a way to be part of this world that is so foreign to him. Of course, he would face forces that would prevent him from trying to be part of this world.

Through this narration that often has an air of melancholia, Kubrick seems to want to try and root for this simple Irish villager who manages to succeed by sheer dumb luck and stumbling his way into certain things. Once he has attained this aristocratic lifestyle, Kubrick then wants to tear him apart by exploring the things where Barry would completely find ways to ruin himself. In a way, the film is a character study of how a man would try to define himself to become a gentleman. In the course of these accidental encounters, Barry would observe the way a gentleman behaves as he tries to figure out how to do this in a certain way or how to do that. Yet, being a gentleman isn’t something that can be taught but rather for one to discover in the course of time. That is something Barry was unable to figure out until the very end but it would come at a great price.

Kubrick’s direction is truly exotic in the way he recreates 18th Century life in grand detail from the costumes to the homes and places that is created as if he goes back in time. From the wide compositions he creates to display the large number of soldiers that Barry would be a part of to the shots of the town and the opening duel. There is never a moment wasted where Kubrick is all about the great detail as if he is trying to recreate some old painting of those times and bring it to life. In creating this period, Kubrick allows the film to play out and maintain a pace that is more leisured where it will frustrate audiences at first because it feels quite slow. Yet, that’s because time moved much slower back then.

The direction is also quite intimate and intoxicating for the way Kubrick captures many of the scenes inside these mansions where the camera is always looking afar to capture the rooms the characters walk into or where they’re eating. The close-ups that Kubrick creates has him showing some restraint just so he can observe what this character could be feeling without the use of the narration. Still, Kubrick is interested in the story of this simple man who rises from humble beginnings to fall in such a grand way. Notably in how he creates a unique parallel to the duels that Barry would face in the beginning of the film against Captain Quin and Lord Bullingdon towards the end. It’s all about the fates that is set for a character like Barry where the first duel was just a set-up for everything he is about to embark.

It’s the last duel where the film reaches a huge climax where Kubrick definitely creates a lot of tension and suspense where it’s all about Lord Bullingdon reclaiming the family’s tarnished reputation against a man who has just lost everything. It’s this scene where it’s the culmination of everything Barry had been through. This time around, there’s no luck to help him nor is there a way he can stumble through. It’s all about this duel yet Kubrick would find a way to create an element of surprise. This element of surprise in this duel is where for the first time ever, Barry finally takes control knowing what his fate will be. It leads to a very sad aftermath but one that is poignant. What Kubrick does overall is create a very engrossing but also touching portrait of a man trying to fit in to a new world only to have a much bigger understanding on who he is.

The cinematography of John Alcott is definitely among one of the film’s many highlights in its technical field. With help from Kubrick’s expertise in lighting and the creation of some specific lenses by the late Ed Di Guillo, Alcott’s photography has a lushness for many of the film’s interiors where the look is very ethereal in its beauty while maintaining a natural tone that is unlike anything. The exteriors for all of the scenes shot on location in Ireland is very beautiful for its look and scope in many of its daytime scenes. Still, it’s the stuff inside such as the first scene where Barry meets Lady Lyndon for the first time with all those candles providing the light is among some of the most beautifully photographed images on film.

Editor Tony Lawson does excellent work with the film‘s editing to create some wonderful montages to establish some of successes of Barry as well as his downfall while maintaining a leisured pace for the film. Production designer Ken Adams, with set decorator Vernon Dixon and art director Roy Walker, does exquisite work with the film‘s art direction by going into grand detail to create the halls and furniture to recreate a place in time that seemed long ago. Particularly in the way the rooms are filled with paintings and all sorts of things where Ken Adams and his team create some truly amazing work.

Costume designers Milena Canonero and Ulla-Brit Soderlund do magnificent work into the design of the costumes that really gives life to the film‘s beauty. From the lavish details into the dresses that many of the women including Lady Lyndon wears to the clothing the men wear it all plays to their personalities and who they are. Adding to the look of the costumes are the wigs provided by Leonard of London that plays up to the extravagance of the film‘s look as well as a lushness to those costumes. The sound work of Robin Gregory and Bill Rowe is superb for the way it captures the atmosphere of the scenes inside the mansions to display its intimacy as well as the tense sounds of cannons and gunfire in the film’s battle scenes.

The film’s music soundtrack includes a wide mix of classical music and traditional Irish folk pieces that is performed by the Chieftans on the latter. Notably in the first act where its arrangement of woodwinds and acoustic instruments play out Barry’s Irish roots. Some of the film’s orchestral pieces that features original work from Leonard Rosenman who plays out some of the film’s tension that involves conflict including the moments between Barry and Lord Bullingdon.

The rest of the film’s soundtrack includes a wide array of classical pieces from composers like Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Franz Schubert. A lot of its to help convey the melancholia of the film as well as some atmospheric scenes where Barry walks in sync to the melody of Schubert’s Piano Trio in E-Flat, Op 100 (2nd Movement) just as he’s to kiss Lady Lyndon. It’s among the many wonderful usage of music to play things out as the overall music is another of the film’s technical highlights.

The casting by James Liggat is outstanding for the ensemble that is created as it features some memorable performances from Steven Berkoff as Lord Ludd, Diane Koerner as the German girl that Barry meets during his journey, Gay Hamilton as Barry’s cousin Nora, Leonard Rossiter as the dignified Captain Quin, Arthur O’Sullivan as the conniving Captain Feeney, Billy Boyle as Feeney’s son, Frank Middlemass as the ailing Charles Lyndon, Andre Morell as the revered Lord Wendover, and Patrick Magee in an exciting performance as the Chevalier de Balibari whom Barry idolizes. Other notable performances include Philip Stone as Barry’s financial advisor Graham, Marie Kean as Barry’s tough-minded mother, David Morley as Barry’s young son Bryan, Godfrey Quigley as the wise Captain Grogan, Murray Melvin as the sympathetic Reverend Runt, and Dominic Savage as the young Lord Bullingdon.

Hardy Krueger is great as the helpful Captain Potzdorf who teaches Barry the ways to become a gentleman as Barry sees him as a mentor. Leon Vitali is superb as the intense Lord Bullingdon who tries to deal with Barry whom he sees is ruining the family as he tries to confront him in many ways. Marisa Berenson is wonderful as the melancholic Lady Lyndon who is this exotic woman who doesn’t exhibit a lot of happiness as she seems trapped into the world that she lives in. Finally, there’s Ryan O’Neal in an incredible performance as the titular character where O’Neal displays a chilling restraint as a man who is naïve in his pursuit to find his role in the world where he is not part of. O’Neal displays a lot of great humility into his character as well as someone who is very flawed where it’s really the best performance of his career.

Barry Lyndon is a captivating and gorgeous film from Stanley Kubrick. Featuring a remarkable lead performance from Ryan O’Neal, it is a film that is a wonderful take on the rise-and-fall narrative that is told with great care and observation by Kubrick as the film is truly one of his most defining works of his career. Thanks to the great technical work made by Kubrick’s collaborators, the film is also a standard textbook on how a period film should look and feel like as a way to tell a story. In the end, Barry Lyndon is an enchanting yet evocative film from Stanley Kubrick.

Stanley Kubrick Films: Fear & Desire - Killer’s Kiss - The Killing - Paths of Glory - Spartacus - Lolita - Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb - 2001: A Space Odyssey - A Clockwork Orange - The Shining - Full Metal Jacket - Eyes Wide Shut

Related: Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures - The Auteurs #18: Stanley Kubrick

© thevoid99 2012