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Director: Stanley Kubrick Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick & Frederic Raphael, based on the novella Traumnovelle, by Arthur Schnitzler Starring: Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollak, Todd Field, Marie Richardson, Rene Sherbedgia, Vinessa Shaw, Alan Cumming, Leelee Sobieski Running Time: 159 minutes Studio: Warner Bros. MPAA Rating: R |
The pacing -- languid, deliberate, dream-like -- is unmistakably Kubrick, as is the spare dialogue, the long tracking shots (the Steadicam seems born for Kubrick films), the occasional blurring of the line between reality and fugue-state, the hidden personas we never make public, and the challenge of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in "polite society" and by the MPAA. Kubrick challenges us to discover why and how we keep our Eyes Wide Shut, individually and collectively, and what we're not seeing as a result.
Eyes Wide Shut is Stanley Kubrick's thirteenth and final feature film, unfortunately, for he passed away in March of this year, a mere three days after finishing a final cut. News reached stars Cruise and Kidman in the middle of the night... Cruise had been expecting a call from Kubrick regarding the movie, he's said in interviews. The news hit them, and the entire movie world, hard. Superficially, many of his films can be placed into handy genres, though in Kurbrick's hands, the genre became redefined. Spartacus -- his sword and sandal adventure (and his least favorite). Dr. Strangelove -- his H-bomb dark comedy. 2001, his space epic (and still the best, for my money). A Clockwork Orange, his only dystopian vision. Barry Lyndon -- his costume drama. The Shining -- his horror picture. Full Metal Jacket -- his Vietnam War movie. And now, Eyes Wide Shut, which returns Kubrick to the realm of forbidden passion and obsession, one he briefly visited in Lolita. In fact, there's a pair of unsettling scenes involving a costume shop owner (Rade Sherbedgia) and his teenage daughter (Leelee Sobieski) that almost play like unsettling winks to the earlier work.