Director: Stanley Kubrick
Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick and Frederick Raphael (inspired by "Traumnovelle" by Arthur Schnitzler)
Lighting Cameraman: Larry Smith
Dr William Harford: Tom Cruise
Alice HarFord: Nicole Kidman
Victor Ziegler: Sydney Pollack
Nick Nightingale: Todd Field
Sandor Szavost: Sky Dumont
Milich: Rade Sherbedgia |
Whilst most Melbourne film lovers have lost themselves to the flickering lights of the Film Festival, I've been battling the dreaded lurgie. Still I did manage to make it to previews of some up-coming releases, foremost amongst them the final film from the unforgettable Stanley Kubrick - "2001: A Space Odyssy", "The Shining", "Full Metal Jacket" - amongst many others.
I have to admit that when a film hits our screens amidst the sort of hype that accompanies "Eyes Wide Shut" I tend to approach it with some trepidation. The result, on this occasion, was a pleasant surprise - perhaps not the greatest of his works, but suitably intriguing and enigmatic.
"Eyes Wide Shut" stars, in case you hadn't heard, Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise. The real life couple play the on screen couple of Dr Bill Harford and his lovely wife Alice. Given that the film is exploring sexual fantasy and its place in the "real" life of married sexuality I have no doubt that this was a conscious casting choice on the part of Kubrick. Harford is clearly making a nice living out of his medical practice - we meet the couple preparing to attend a flashy Christmas party hosted by one of Bill's clients, Victor Ziegler - played by Sydney Pollack. Once there they discover that, as usual, they know no-one except their host. That is until Bill spies one of his old friends from medical school, Nick Nightingale, now playing the piano in the band. Whilst a tipsy Alice is courted by a mature and sleazily charming Hungarian, Bill finds himself the centre of attraction for two glamorous models - will both or either succumb to the temptation or will they remain true to their marriage???
Thanks to his connections with Zeigler and Nightingale, as well as the jealousy Alice arouses in him by revealing how a chance meeting with a handsome young naval officer had tempted her to throw caution (and her marriage) to the wind, Bill soon finds himself lost in a dark, secret, world of sexual intrigue and indulgence.
"Eyes Wide Shut" is a psycho-sexual thriller that intriguingly raises questions about sexual desire and its place within marriage - Fidelio is the pass word that opens the ritualistic underworld of sex to Bill. The film blurs the line between reality and fantasy, truth and fiction; and strays into a bizarre and nightmarish world of sexual indulgence.
Not for the fainthearted or for those how object to nudity on film. A film that explores ideas rather than offering answers; one that seeks to open our eyes to the moral complexities of our world.
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