The movie began filming in November 1996 and ended in June 1998, holding the Guinness World Records for longest constant movie shoot at over 15 months, with 46 weeks of unbroken shooting. For Bill and Alice, sex and temptation is all around them, but they only have eyes for each other. Kubrick's obsessive filmmaking techniques were well-suited for the high tension of hispart-psychosexual thriller, part-marital drama about a doctor who goes on a labyrinthine journey through New York City after he learns that his wife fantasized about another man. Me and Tom were among the last people he ever filmed; Stanley died before the dubbing was done. ! Wow, yes, thank you Kubrick. He knew this would be his last film. We had a man on his hands and knees with a woman on his back being fucked by another man. The ending of the movie Eyes Wide Shut shows us that Bill and Alice know too much about each other and the adultery they are capable of committing, yet they would prefer to live blissfully, ignoring it all. In the final scene of "Eyes Wide Shut," Bill and Alice take their daughter shopping for Christmas toys, and Alice delivers the serious monologue: "I think we should be grateful. Scene HD Throughout the night, Bill meets various strangers who attempt to engage him in sex. The entire film feels like"something that you can't look away from even if you want to, like in a nightmare whence you are partially self-aware of what's happening and even the fact that you are dreaming and it's not real, but cannot break free," writes TheCinemaholic. Of course, in recent years weve discovered that the indulgences of the mega-wealthy have little of the mysterious, cloaked menace of what happens in Eyes Wide Shut. He was also known as being a very challenging director to work with. 1999 was a busy year for a lot of reasons. Bill is sent for by Ziegler to attend to a prostitute named Mandy who has overdosed and needs medical attention, which Bill provides. It was the weirdest place youve ever seen. The rich are too busy screwing the world over to screw each other with any imagination. His location photographer Manuel Harlan (also his nephew; Kubrick liked to keep a tight ship) estimates there were 30,000 photographs at one point; the whole of London. A year of documentation, Kubrick purveyed them all with tremendous excitement. His obituaries liberally spotted with words like perfectionist and recluse, Kubrick didnt need to go out because the whole world came to him literally in a box. Eyes Wide Shut | 1999 - The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations The important thing is we're awake now and hopefully for a long time to come.". A yuppie who likes to smoke a little pot before bed, Harford embarks on a night-long endeavour, during which he infiltrates an unnamed secret societys masked orgy. YS: Im not sure that Stanley knew entirely what he wanted. In scenes that Warner Bros now refuses to release, the director apparently expounded at some length on the existence of actual cults. "Eyes Wide Shut" opened on July 16, 1999, and did well at the box office and with critics. But that was part of the whole psychology of [the scene]. Those who have also seen author Jon Ronsons 2008 documentary Stanley Kubricks Boxes, will however be familiar with the extreme obsessions of the master director himself. And every day, Leon would record it and come back with feedback from Stanley. 2:10:32. But red and blue! And the next day, the car returned to pick me up, and I went to see him in Pinewood studio. Can Anyone Predict Whos Going to Win Best Supporting Actress? Though his films had always had provocative elements, the director had never tackled something so directly about sex and jealousy and fantasy before. UNCENSORED! This again could be considered symbolic of Kubrick using the film as his own mask through which he is able to say much more than would be otherwise possible. Eyes Wide Shut. The last scene of the movie takes place at a toy store - a place full of highly symbolic items (more on it in the next article). When Kubrick died, the cut was known to be locked. Julienne Davis (Mandy): Stanley said, Its not gonna be any of this, and he made a thrusting gesture. It had been used during the war for a secret command center. The director died six days later, on March 7, 1999, at the age of 70. I think the words he used were surreal and suggestive. In 1994, Stanley Kubrick sent the screenwriter Frederic Raphael a novella about a doctor who embarks on a dark odyssey of the soul . LV: I spent years getting telephone calls from Illuminati fans, and theyd always start off with Wheres the power? Required fields are marked *. All rights reserved. It's just that the storytelling of the second night resembles that of a dream. And Stanley wanted the smoke coming out of the incense burner to be in the shot in a particular way, and smoke is fairly uncontrollable. He's written for TheTalko, Baby Gaga, Moms, and Screen Rant. Currently, he is both a writer and an editor at TheThings where he specializes in entertainment, film, and celebrity news. And then we had to find some more because we realized we didnt have enough. I disagree with the association of blue with money. Lots of really good points, Wow . The Wagner opera returns to the Met for the first time in 17 years. He also sent over a lot of illustrations of secret-society rituals and the Black Mass, mainly from the 19th century. No Botox, no breast enhancements, anything like that. In line with the film's illusory mood, the mask could also be an imagined indication that Bill's brush with infidelity would always haunt him. But it unfolds in the manner of a dream, with its events and characters based on real events.". The story is strange and winding, adding to the dreamlike quality of filmmaking that takes influence from the original "Dream Story." I would ask for more money if I were you.. For director Stanley Kubrick, there was one film idea that he just had to finish before the year was over, and that was "Eyes Wide Shut." The master directors swan song and unconscious spiritual testament, which meditates on such ontological questions as life and death, as well as on cinema viewed as a visual art at the crossroads between concreteness and abstraction. Wedding mother and sonny gut and ritual son-in-law bang mother. We had a lot of illustrations, contemporary and even much older, of some ceremonies. Executing the scene was far more complicated than the research phase. However, it was clear to Yolande Snaith that Stanley didn't precisely know what he wanted from the scene. For those still in doubt that Kubrick set out with every film to create a many layered cake, it seems appropriate to leave the final word to the man himself talking about 2001: A Space Odyssey, a technically flawless production that took three years and $10,500,000 (in 1968) to create. Introducing Sociology AG: They would just say, Right, okay, you bend over, and you do that one like that, and you lie there, and you do it like that. I know we were wearing masks and we had our anonymity and we could have just never told anybody wed done it, but its not an easy thing to do. The first is that Alice found the mask and left it out in order to provoke a confession. The vocalist had been improvising and had used some words from the Bhagavad Gita. The idea for the scene was to feature erotic vignettes as opposed to full-on sexual acts. In the end, the Kubrick family felt rather uncomfortable about it, and they recalled all the films and I had to rerecord it again with a different vocal. Its somewhere up in the Hollywood Hills, or around that area. She was in England at the time, so she came into Pinewood and recorded the lines. The scene known as Masked Ball, depicting an occult satanic ritual orgy, from Stanley Kubrick's final masterpiece Eyes Wide Shut - when played in reverse, it is actually a Romanian Orthodox chant.The lyrics of the chant are as follows: nc ne rugm pentru mila, viaa, pacea, sntatea, mntuirea, cercetarea, lsarea i iertarea pcatelor robilor lui Dumnezeu, nchintori, miluitori i binefctori ai sfntului lcaului acestuia. Stanley wasnt keen on doing it in many ways. The narrative is not completely successful. 100 Times. Your theory also fails to explain the three men from the first party who appear behind Helena in the toy shop in the final seconds in which we see her. As the scene progresses, more carnal moments are revealed, as they really pushed audiences to the edge. Bill wears a mask in order to infiltrate the private ritual, but he also wears a figurative mask in real life to be an ideal husband and conceal his own sexual curiosity outside of his relationship with Alice. We were playing around with different ritualistic formations. Simply the Worlds Most Interesting Travel Site, The Truth About Stanley Kubrick's Most Controversial Scene, purchase the rights of Singin' In The Rain, The Truth About Tom Cruise's Character In 'Tropic Thunder', Heres Why It Was So Hard For Stanley Kubrick To Direct 'The Shining', Amy Poehler Compares Hosting The Golden Globes To A Stanley Kubrick Movie. and gives me extra appreciation to Kubricks ideations. And that was because Stanley wanted this very particular body type, a sort of Barbie-doll type. I tried to create a visual experience, one that bypasses verbalized pigeonholing and directly penetrates the subconscious with an emotional and philosophic contentI intended the film to be an intensely subjective experience that reaches the viewer at an inner level of consciousness, just as music does; to explain a Beethoven symphony would be to emasculate it by erecting an artificial barrier between conception and appreciation. By using our Services, you agree to our use of cookies. The name of the costume shop is Rainbow, meanwhile when Bill asks the two girls at the party where they are taking him they reply where the rainbow ends.. ", Related: The Truth About Tom Cruise's Character In 'Tropic Thunder'. The movie is based on a German novella from 1926 called "Traumnovelle," or "Dream Story," which focuses on a man in Vienna who finds out his wife has fantasies of other men, and goes on a two-day journey dealing with personal realizations about sex, individualism, and morality. Facing the centennial, there was a lot to look forward to, and a lot to leave behind. Its not an actual dream, since Bill clearly does attend the event in reality, as evidenced by his costume rental and his later discussion with Ziegler, who references it and claims to have been a guest. After Dax Shepard asked her about her musical chairs relationship situation. It was all very Stanley. The film is a confounding story, and even two decades later, fans and critics alike continue to debate the meaning behind "Eyes Wide Shut" and whether the final cut was what Kubrick really wanted. But there were a couple of times when we [agreed to use] somebody and their agents actually made them go out and get breast enhancements. Why have they done that? In some cases they were pointing at the wrong figure they were pointing at somebody real in the scene. Wheres the power? You were making a film about the Illuminati, wasnt it? Eyes Wide Shut 1999 Now, get undressed. ago I really enjoyed reading this. This was totally abnormal as the director was notoriously (and agonizingly) precise about his decision. The literal definition of telling instead of showing. I told him, Its not that Im saying that I wont do it; Im saying that I cant do it. I was upset. And as with Kubricks earlier The Shining (another initially dismissed film that is now a classic), there have been plenty of conspiracy theories around it, mainly from overzealous viewers connecting the films secret society of possibly murderous, mega-wealthy hedonists to all sorts of shadowy organizations allegedly operating in the real world. For those with their eyes open, there are plenty of money shots. This conversation makes clear there were two parties. I took a seat at the keyboard and started rehearsing Backward Priests. At a certain point, the music stopped. These soulless copulations at the orgymirror Bill and Alice's potential affairs: they would be nothing but meaningless physical encounters that could never replace the profound intimacy of their marriage a genuine type of closeness that allows them to be their true selves. Hes the one playing the master of ceremonies [in the red cloak] with the incense burner in the middle of the circle. All this seems to suggest that she is all seeing, her eyes are wide open. But Kubrick wasnt after realism with these scenes. I wasnt willing to be accommodating. Stanley could change a whole scene just because it suddenly made sense to him in a different way. We see her rolling deodorant under her arms (whilst looking in one of those ever present mirrors) as Helena brushes her teeth next to her, this mother/daughter grooming ritual repeated when we see Alice brushing the young girls hair. This is just a bad movie, beginning with the mundane premise of it all, Money and sex are intertwined! And then in the later scenes, its Leon [playing him]. It is based on the 1926 novella Traumnovelle ( Dream Story) by Arthur Schnitzler, transferring the story's setting from early twentieth-century Vienna to 1990s New York City. I think the two interpretations are related. Weve got romance, breakups, emotionally loaded dumplings this episode has a little bit of everything! God, I sound like a bit of a bimbo! Something that might give you some insight into Eyes Wide Shut is the German television of adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's novel. There was a problem because the models would have to be paid a lot more to do that, and some of them didnt want to do it. Then when he had a little break, he came straight over to me and put his hand out and said, Hello, Im Tom. Jocelyn Pook was a composer I knew, [who had a piece called] Backwards Priests. I was using that in the rehearsal studio because it felt very appropriate. They had a huge problem. Todd Field (Nick Nightingale): The ball began at Elveden Hall. Leon Vitali (assistant to Kubrick): We looked for the barriers we just would not be able to cross. Loosely based on Arthur Schnitzler's novella Traumnovelle ( Dream Story ), Eyes Wide Shut is about an upper-middle class doctor (Cruise) who finds out his wife (Kidman) once fantasied about cheating on her husband. 'Eyes Wide Shut' Turns 15 & Audiences Still Think It's About - Bustle YS: By the time we got to working on the orgy scene, I had a commitment to a project that I was doing with my company. Britains royal family cheats in the most boring ways. Subscribe Now! And a peculiar one too. This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. Those shadow men are pretty obvious. Dylan Parker is a list and content writer and editor working for Valnet Inc. since 2017. What do you fancy doing? Shed say, No Absolutely no Maybe Yes No Thats okay.. Just because it never happened doesnt mean they cant get back together. Most of the 'Greenwich Village' street scenes were shot on the elaborately detailed outdoor set at Pinewood (the proliferation of T-junctions is a dead giveaway), but for a few shots, London streets were dressed as New York. I had three lasers on the Steadicam, pointed to the ground, and when they all lined up, a grip would drop a plumb line from a string from the lens; then Id line my lasers up, and then the grip would talk me into the mark, saying I was two inches, one inch on the mark. For Kubrick's film, he transferred the story from early 20th century Vienna to New York City, Greenwich Village specifically, in the 1990s. When he built it he had to build a railway line to supply all the building material that he needed. EYES WIDE SHUT, regrettably, continues that trend, even though some mainstream critics (and filmmakers) are still struggling to shower Kubrick with undeserved kudos. AG: Stanley said I reminded him of Lady Lyndon from Barry Lyndon. The film is also heavily entangled with the cult of Scientology, not least because both stars tied the knot in a Scientology ceremony in 1990 (they famously divorced not long after EWS finished shooting, gossip columnists at the time actually pinning it on Kubrick psychoanalysing the couples marriage for so long; Kubricks on-set wall of secrecy even divided Cruise and Kidman. Of course, the movie was mostly about sex, so it's not surprising that there would be many sex scenes in it. In truth, fashioning the orgy and the scenes around it may well have been one of the biggest challenges of Kubricks career. There was another scene on beds or sofas. Just as things are heating up, Alice interrupts the encounter with a phone call, again seeming to have a sixth sense about things. Well put. Bill wanders through the concrete jungle in search of his own adulterous experience and ends up at a secret society's masked orgy. The pressure and resistance of bodies against bodies, bodies against tables or walls or other kinds of props. It's interesting to see the similarities to Kubrick's film even though Traumnovelle (Dream Story) takes place in the 1920's. You can watch it with English subtiles on YT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d172U5tmTwQ I and another girl, we opted out. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google In Full Metal Jacket, Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon and Lolita he chooses not to include the most shocking violence - especially sexual violence - from the texts he is adapting. Cookies help us deliver our Services. You dont! We used to have a laugh about that. The piece he did use was originally on my album. Along with how long it took to film the movie, Kubrick put his main two actors through a lot of intense experiences. 2020 was a tough year and although I don't see things getting better anytime soon this channel and the community it's gradually developing is more than enough to keep me going spiritually, I guess. I had been sexually assaulted on the street in London just a few years earlier, and being attacked does things to you. And then I had to find, of course, the people who were willing to be a part of that. Find it. The ritual is all that remains, but it too is inverted. Because two things are sure: first, Warner Bros applied several modifications to Kubrick's version . They actually have women there in masks and guys in evening suits who patronize them. At a certain point, it became clear to Stanley he wanted it to be a circle. It all was choreographed as we went. But really, [the orgy scene] kept getting pushed back and back and back in the shoot. Eyes Wide Shut Ending Explained: No Dream Is Ever Just A Dream It is overly long. it followed the nocturnal pursuits of Tom Cruise's Dr. Bill Harford. It seemed Kubrick was merely torturing two of the worlds biggest stars. All about Eyes Wide Shut Ritual Scene. eyes wide shut daughter kidnapped There are pictures readily available on the internet from a large gathering in the 1970s that the Rothschild family hosted with masked guests and somewhat disturbing table decorations of shattered porcelain baby dolls. There is freedom in anonymity, but also isolation and a complete dearth of emotion" (Reel Views). But of course there are so many limitations when it comes to decency or obscenity. What do you think? To exaggerate the distrust between their fictional husband and wife, Kubrick would direct each actor separately and forbid them to share notes. My man. On his films, he did everything: fix the sound machine, operate the camera. There was another house we used which had belonged to the guy who discovered Tutankhamens tomb. Many projects are in the works - albeit slowly - but there's no telling which video will release when. This is of course even more relevant today because of the astonishing rape-allegations that came out in 2017 concerning Hollywoods top brass. Eyes Wide Shut has gained a reputation as the unfinished Kubrick film, despite its creator hanging on just long enough to oversee the final cut. Things are happening and that means I have less time to dedicate to YouTube. A very grand building with a big staircase. That same MPAA approved the South Park movie! Not only did he ask the pair to pose in over 50 sex positions, he banned Cruise from the set and forbade Kidman to assuage her husbands tension by telling him what happened during the shoot.). There's no doubt that his movies will continue to be seen as masterpieces for decades to come. "There was a problem because the models would have to be paid a lot more to do that, and some of them didnt want to do it.". Full 1080p HD Show more Show more Movie. Russell Trigg (dancer): Yolandes practice involves lots of contact work and improvisation, so that guided the rehearsal. One time, I was working with somebody else, and we had to move along a wall and against each other. One of the problems was that they had to be totally natural. This, after all, was supposed to be a feature film with two of the world's biggest stars (tom and Nicole Kidman) and hopefully be seen by the masses. Conspiracy theorists argue that Kubrick had never been shy about ratings (A Clockwork Orange was originally given an X-rating). AG: I remember being on set one day. The placement of the eight pointed Star of Venus is again undoubtedly purposeful. Throughout his career, Stanley Kubrick notoriously disliked shooting. AG: The premiere was quite interesting. It used a vocal sampled from another earlier recording. Child sex slavery, rape, drug overdoses, money can be used to buy everything. Stanley asked my opinion a lot. My perspective is that the ritual is not its own independent event, but rather a reflection of the earlier party at Ziegler's house. What matters more than who put itthere is whyit's there: as a bold reminder of how Bill hides from what is real. Alice also proposes that there is another thing that they must do as soon as possible: "F***." Password must be at least 8 characters and contain: As part of your account, youll receive occasional updates and offers from New York, which you can opt out of anytime. Dreams and the subconscious are powerful, and have the ability to transform our waking lives. I remember one of our animators, Sally Goldberg, talking about animating what people do when theyre standing still. The object that shields the truth sits in clear view, causing him to break down and reveal to Alice the details of his journey. He also sent over a lot of illustrations of secret-society rituals and the Black Mass [a satanic ceremony], mainly from the 19th century. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. The ornate masks worn at the orgy allow the secret society to remain anonymous and engage in salacious and disconnected sexual relations. However, he was a cinematic genius. "Masked Ball" plays during the black mass/lesbian homoeroticism part and "Migrations" during Dr. Hartford's wandering through the mansion afterwords. Eyes Wide Shut may have been great if it were shorter and had an eerie, melancholy, wandering/lost vibe and camera style to match. She never acted on her desires, but Bill is baffled by the idea that his docile wifehas her own urges and is not sexually passive. YS: I think his vision of the orgy scene over the course of the time we worked on it became much more of a literal orgy. Paddy Eason (supervising digital compositor): Fairly soon after [Kubricks death], my producer Rachel Penfold and I were called up to the Kubrick place to have a meeting about something to do with Eyes Wide Shut, with the inner circle charged with finishing the film. And so on and so forth. Great analysis OP, a good read, well done! While there's a lot of interesting history and questions revolving around "Eyes Wide Shut," unfortunately Kubrick isn't around to clarify anything. With this film, Kubrick is taking on "the causes and effects of depersonalized sex." But one night Alice admits that she considered having an affair with a handsome naval officer a year earlier, and Bill's whole world is turned upside down. Also Illuminati! Luckily, Yolande was there to help. And then there was the deliberate, trancelike cadence of the performances. Sexual jealously causes people to do all sorts of things. Cruises Bill Harford wanders a nocturnal landscape of potential transgressions, all of which remind him of the warmth of domestic life. I can tell. I like cats and Danzig. The Hidden Messages in "Eyes Wide Shut" (pt. II)