Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Eyes Wide Shut (1999) - Kubrick signs off with thrilling, sexually oriented adaptation

3/14/2017

Eyes Wide Shut (1999) - Kubrick signs off with thrilling, sexually oriented adaptation

♥♥♥♥♥

+ 2nd Best Movie of the Year

+ Best Erotic Movie of the Year + Best New York Movie of the Year + Best On-Screen Couple of the Year: Nicole Kidman & Tom Cruise

A mysterious, curiosity-sparking poster for Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut

A wealthy married couple from New York goof around and flirt at a jet set party, and the wife admits to nearly having had an affair the year before. This provokes her husband to venture out on a sexual nightmare.

Eyes Wide Shut is an adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's (Beatrice (1901)) novella Dream Story/Traumnovelle (1926)), written by Frederic Raphael (Far from the Madding Crowd (1967)) and New Yorker master co-writer-director Stanley Kubrick (The Shining (1980)), whose last film it is.
Nicole Kidman (Moulin Roge! (2001)) and Tom Cruise (Risky Business (1983)), in one of the definitely most exciting and electric instances of a real-life couple starring in a film, are outstanding in Eyes Wide Shut, and so is Sydney Pollack (The Sopranos (2007), TV-series) in a key supporting part.
Eyes Wide Shut is intense and impossible to remove oneself from. It feels raw and is incredibly well-crafted, with sets of New York erected in London's Pinewood Studios appearing impressively authentic. It presents itself in an expressive color scheme, stemming, among other things, from its Christmas setting, so-called push processing and excellent lighting work; Kubrick wanted only natural lighting, only helped along in places by Chinese paper ball lamps. The terrific cinematography is by Larry Smith (Only God Forgives (2013)).
The film has a few scenes that drag out a bit. But the feeling that anything can happen is there throughout, which is unique. The ending and the title adds to the thought-provoking nature of Eyes Wide Shut, which is a worthy and rich final film for one of cinema's absolute best.

Related posts:

Stanley Kubrick: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - A robot fairytale with both heart and mind (concept only)

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date
The Shining (1980) - Kubrick's descent into madness is a timeless masterpiece
Barry Lyndon (1975) - Kubrick's elegant 19th century costume whopper

Top 10: Best future-set movies
A Clockwork Orange (1971) or, Outrage! The intellectual sci-fi-prison-crime-drama Shocker!
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) or, Humanity and Space
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb/Dr. Strangelove (1964) or, The Wrong Men, the Wrong Suits, the Wrong Invention

Watch Tom Cruise give an interview to Larry King about paparazzis before the film's American release here

Cost: 65 mil. $
Box office: 162 mil. $
= Even Steven
[Eyes Wide Shut premiered 13 July and runs 159 minutes. Kubrick bought the rights to the novella in the 1960s and had plans of making it with Woody Allen or Steve Martin as a comedy, which never happened. Several elements and character facts from the novella are changed in the film. Filming took place in England and New York from November 1996 - January 1998 with reshoots in May - June 1998. The shoot is recognized by Guinness World Records as the longest constant movie shoot, at 15 months, including an unbroken 46 week-long period of shooting. Kubrick's perfectionism was at its height, with meticulous recreating of parts of New York's Greenwich Village, as the master's fear of flying barred him from simply traveling there. Kubrick died 6 days after showing his first cut of the film to Kidman, Cruise and the executive producers. There are different accounts of the completion of the film (with Full Metal Jacket (1987) actor R. Lee Ermey stating what appears slanderous claims as to the master's satisfaction with the work), but it appears that Kubrick was extremely pleased with Eyes Wide Shut and his stars. The North American cut was altered in post production to disguise nudity that might have given it an NC-17 rating, which has drawn widespread criticism, (but probably helped it make a good deal of money in the market.) The film opened #1 to 21.7 mil. $ in North America, dropping to #4 the following weekend and then leaving the top 5, eventually grossing 55.6 mil. $ (34.3 % of the total gross). It was Kubrick's second highest-grossing film there, behind 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and is Martin Scorsese's fourth-favorite film of the 1990s. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe, a César Award (France's Oscar) and won an award at Venice International Film Festival. Kidman and Cruise were divorced in 2001. Eyes Wide Shut is certified fresh at 74 % with a 7.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

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Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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3/14/2017

Eyes Wide Shut (1999) - Kubrick signs off with thrilling, sexually oriented adaptation

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