Kubrick's treatise on fidelity and marriage
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| Eyes Wide Shut (1999) - By Stanley Kubrick |
Our Rating: 10.0
IMDb Ratings: 7.2
Genre: Drama | Mystery | Thriller
Cast: Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Todd Field
Country: UK | USA
Language: English
Runtime: 159 min
Color: Color
Summary: A New York City doctor, who is married to an art curator, pushes himself on a harrowing and dangerous night-long odyssey of sexual and moral discovery after his wife admits that she once almost cheated on him.
Eyes Wide Shut was the very last film directed by legendary American movie maker Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick was unarguably Anglo-American Cinema's most potent reply to the 'Fellinis', the 'Bunuels', the 'Bergmans', the 'Kurosawas', the 'Rays', and the 'Tarkovskys' of the world. Ubiquitously acclaimed for his idiosyncratic style and inexorable yearning for perfection, Kubrick had held millions of viewers worldwide in a transfixion through his masterful works for well over four decades. Eyes Wide Shut—Kubrick's swansong that he also proclaimed to be his finest piece of work—represents cinema at its most vivid and innovative. Vintage Kubrick, Eyes Wide shut is a psychedelic pleasure that crosses genres, serving to be an elixir for the sore eyes and a panacea for the perturbed souls. Eyes Wide Shut, like most of Kubrick's avant-garde works, is open to speculation and can be interpreted in different ways, purely based on the viewer's own understanding. The movie indulges the viewers at different levels by posing a repertoire of questions pertaining to the complexities associated with the human psyche, and while the key to most of them lies with the viewers themselves they are still forced to delve deep and reach the sequestered corners of their psyche, where it is virtually impossible to tell the real from the surreal and fathom their true meaning.
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| Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut |
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| A Still from Eyes Wide Shut's Infamous Orgy Scene |
Larry Smith's cinematography is awe-inspiring to say the least and is well complimented by Jocelyn Pook's music. In Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick once again keep up with his tradition of blending the original music with classical tracks. The hypnotic piano music—the recurring second movement of György Ligeti's classic piano cycle "Musica ricercata"—that makes Eyes Wide Shut a truly unforgettable experience; the music keeps playing in one's head long after the movie is over. The orgy sequence, which is often treated with utter contempt, is undoubtedly one of the most vivid scenes ever visualized or choreographed in American Cinema. The very scene is highly reminiscent of the artistic sequences depicted in Fellini's Satyricon and Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev. In fact, Kubrick's brilliant showmanship makes it even more sensual. Tom Cruise is absolutely brilliant and convincing in the challenging portrayal of Dr. Harford, and succeeds in having an enormous impact on the viewers by evoking in them a strong sense of empathy. The nocturnal odyssey, being rife with debauchery and decadence, ironically serves as a lesson of moral reformation. Nicole Kidman is ravishingly scintillating in her portrayal. The couple incredibly succeeds in mirroring their real life chemistry and tension on screen.
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| A Still from Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut |
Overall, Eyes Wide Shut serves to be an experience of a lifetime. Cinema seldom gets any better. Eyes Wide Shut a work of an artistic genius on a creative crusade trying to prove a point to none but himself. This critic rates Eyes Wide Shut among his favorite works of cinema along with with the likes of Citizen Kane (1941), Stalker (1979), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Solyaris (1972), Ran (1985), and Dersu Uzala (1975). Eyes Wide Shut can only be relished by getting rid of bigotry, conservatism and prejudice. The movie is a delectable feast and a must watch for those who understand and appreciate avant-garde, auteur-driven, thought-provoking cinema.
Readers, please feel free to share your opinion by leaving your comments. As always your feedback is highly appreciated!
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Previous Review: Yojimbo (1961)
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Man, I must say you write really well! I wish people here in the US could also afford such a verbiage. You have won yourself an ardent fan.
ReplyDeleteThanks mate for those kind words! I really appreciate it :P
DeleteSo true, Murtaza!!! The movie had me turned all around...I was so thrown ut of my usual ways of thinking and it haunted me for days together. You have written a great review...very well penned!
ReplyDeleteThanks Bhavana foe sharing your valuable thoughts! I am glad to hear that you have a liking for Kubrick's style of movie-making. If you liked Eyes Wide Shut then you will probably like his other works such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Full Metal Jacket, A Clockwork Orange, Shining, AI (Kubrick's dream project that was eventually completed by Steven Spielberg), etc. A few other movies that I would recommend is The Ninth Gate by Roman Polanski, The Ghost Writer also by Roman Polanski, and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.
ReplyDeleteSounds like an interesting movie to watch. Will download it soon :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, it is undoubtedly... would love to hear from you once you watch it!!! :-)
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite Kubrick movie. Your review does justice to this under-rated masterpiece.
ReplyDeleteVery nice review. I find this movie and The Shining to be my favorite Kubrick pictures because every time I watch them, it feels different.
ReplyDeleteWell, I couldn't have agreed more. Eyes Wide Shut and The Shining (even 2001: A Space Odyssey) indeed can be watched again and again with each viewing offering a completely different perspective. It's incredible but then that's exactly what we expect from great artists :-)
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you liked it... Eyes Wide Shut despite being Kubrick's best work (as he himself stated) sadly still remains very underrated, primarily because of Kubrick's untimely death and poor marketing at the time of its release. But, I am sure that in due time it will succeed in attaining the iconic status that it deserves :-)
ReplyDeleteEyes Wide Shut is one of my favorite films and probably top 2 among Kubrick's films. It's a slow film but it drew me in from my first viewing over 12 years ago. The movie allows a lot of questions to be asked and the answer often remains a mystery even after multiple views. The movie ends on a very strange note. I love it!
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I couldn't have agreed more!!!
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