Weve got romance, breakups, emotionally loaded dumplings this episode has a little bit of everything! I didnt think the orgy really needed a lot of choreography in the end, from what it became. Eyes Wide Shut: Ending Explained. Also rainbows are mentioned more than once! Or, to put it another way: Eyes Wide Shut may have been based on Arthur Schnitzlers 1926 Traumnovelle (Dream Story), but it also plays like a sex-drenched variation on Its a Wonderful Life, a warning to its protagonist to learn to appreciate his lot in life and love. Setting records for the longest shoot in movie history, it was an excruciating labor of love for lead stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman -- one that would often be traced back to the alleged start of their marriage's decline. And one of them, Russell, had been dancing in my company. Firstly, this is because Stanley and his team had to make sure they weren't crossing too many lines. The theory hangs together briefly as everything which happens on the second night can obviously be a dream until it completely falls apart when Bill returns to Ziegler's home and they discuss two different parties, the password, Nick being recommended to the Somerton party by Ziegler, the tuxedo hire, Mandy being at both parties and serious consequences for Bill. No Botox, no breast enhancements, anything like that. It was built by a [maharajah] in the 1800s, with a corridor that is hand-carved marble. I and another girl, we opted out. I think we actually agree on this point. For me, the blue seems connected to illusion. Eyes Wide Shut Explained (detailed) : r/StanleyKubrick Scene HD 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. But that was part of the whole psychology of [the scene]. A lot of the timing of that whole scene was queued by Russell because he had his stick. At a certain point, it became clear to Stanley he wanted it to be a circle. It was an expensive mess-up. Blanchett was a rising star during the "Eyes Wide Shut" post-production phase. Like there was a bit of an homage to Clockwork Orange. Alice also proposes that there is another thing that they must do as soon as possible: "F***." 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. YS: There were a few male dancers we were working with initially on the erotic dances. The sex orgy party has a dream like quality as it's completely unrealistic but while this can indicate it's mediated by Bill's subconscious it can also be attributed to the fact that we are watching a commercial, major studio film and what can and cannot be shown has always been a factor with Kubrick. Theres not, Stanley. (aka unrated, international theatrical cut). Eyes Wide Shut may have been great if it were shorter and had an eerie, melancholy, wandering/lost vibe and camera style to match. The placement of the eight pointed Star of Venus is again undoubtedly purposeful. The most famous version has it that he used Eyes Wide Shut to rat on the Illuminati, who retaliated by having him killed on 7th March, 1999666 days before 1st January, 2001 a gruesome nod to his most famous film. Eyes Wide Shut was accused of being out of touch at the time, but Kubrick was clearly after something stranger and more captivating. His eyes may be open, but they are metaphorically shut to the truth of these secret desires. And that was because Stanley wanted this very particular body type, a sort of Barbie-doll type. He initially enlisted one of Britains top choreographers to help conceive a far more surreal and suggestive series of vignettes and tableaux for the orgy. The directors final film had become, somehow, a holiday staple. There was a very extensive museum in his basement. Michael Koresky, writing in the 2006 issue of film journal Reverse Shot, writes this director, who defies expectations at every turn and brings genre to his feet, was setting out to make neither the erotic thriller that the press maintained nor an easily identifiable Kubrick film., Of course, Eyes Wide Shut, the phrase itself, is a calling card among secret societies, meaning my eyes are shut to your misdeeds, brother. This anonymity is required of participants, in order to cloak societys moneyed elite. "Instead, he said it would be more a kind of modern dance with the inference of sex.". 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. After a few weeks, he started to talk to me about the ritual, the masked ball, and the disrobing ritual. But look hard enough at this tale of an embittered husband seeking sex in the wake of his wifes admission of adulterous longing, and you can sense a familiar structure. Subscribe Now! Photo: Warner Bros. 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. Some scenes had been lit solely with Christmas lights. Full 1080p HD Show more Show more Movie. Eyes Wide Shut - Masquerade Ball scene / Occult Satanic Ritual (IN He had his unique fascinations, which is ultimately what led him to purchase the rights of Singin' In The Rain. Ive never been. 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.. And we as the actors were sort of like, Whats going on? And what happened was Stanley had noticed that there was a light out. It seems to appear whenever Bill is wrestling with the underlying lie of his situation. The director also thoroughly blended fact and fiction, creating a feeling of distrust between Cruise and Kidman by choosing to "direct each actor separately and forbid them to share notes. The director cast Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, husband and wife at the time, as the main couple in the story named Bill and Alice. The mansion in which the orgy scenes were filmed also just so happens to be Mentmore Towers in Somerset, England, built for the Rothschild family in the 1850s, a family with many ties to conspiracy theories because of their history of running the banking industry; which effectively made them the wealthiest family in human history. "Eyes Wide Shut" is an incredible drama that, as /Film's Bryan Young writes in his 20th anniversary retrospective on the film: "speaks to the complicated nature of relationships and how fragile they can be and how communication and honesty can work to heal those things. How Tyrel Jackson Williams Brought TikTok Cringe to, Its sort of a newer version of the L.A. actor ride that Kyle is on the first two seasons, but its worse.. At a certain point, it became clear to Stanley he wanted it to be a circle. The Truth About Stanley Kubrick's Most Controversial Scene 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. Harford is a condensation of Harrison Ford, due to Kubrick stating Harford should be like Ford, the whitest bread guy Kubrick could think of), who is shocked when wife Alice reveals she contemplated having a one night stand with a naval officer a year earlier. And then we had to find some more because we realized we didnt have enough. 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. Eyes Wide Shut is not Stanley Kubrick's best film. Those shadow men are pretty obvious. What was fascinating for me was how, depending on the particular angles and the particular shots, the circle of women would be reorganized every time. A frequent collaborator of Kubrick, writer Michael Herr, revealed in a Vanity Fair piece that Kubrick called him shortly before he had to show the Warner Bros. executives a cut the film, saying that "there was looping to be done and the music wasn't finished, lots of small technical fixes on color and sound; would I show work that wasn't finished?" But Bill's actions don't feel that way to me.Initially, Bill is called away by to see a dying patient before the full weight of Alice's words have had time to sink in- plus he's a bit stoned. AG: When all the other girls left, I was in this amazing position of being able to work with two incredible artists. The director died six days later, on March 7, 1999, at the age of 70. There were some people saying, Oh, if you make direct eye contact with Tom Cruise on the set, youre gone. That was crap. They had guts. There are three popular theories, several of which are detailed byScreenRant. Its full of obscenities, full of implied or actual sexual entendres. But Kubrick wasnt after realism with these scenes. The director took take after take of the same scene, but not because he had a detailed vision in mind. [After] the emphasis shifted onto that, I went out with him and Leon and the production designer to look at different locations, one of which was the big venue we eventually used.". I took a seat at the keyboard and started rehearsing Backward Priests. At a certain point, the music stopped. I disagree with the association of blue with money. Legman also recommended Flicien Rops, a very famous artist who specialized in all sorts of weird erotica. 'Eyes Wide Shut' Turns 15 & Audiences Still Think It's About - Bustle 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. In one painful example, for just one minute of final footage where Alice makes love to a naval officer, Kubrick demanded that Kidman shoot six days of naked sex scenes with a male model. The object that shields the truth sits in clear view, causing him to break down and reveal to Alice the details of his journey. Youve got some Janning to do! As the scene progresses, more carnal moments are revealed, as they really pushed audiences to the edge. According to Vanity Fair, Kubrick's "theory was that once his actors bottomed out in exhaustion and forgot about the cameras, they could rebuild and discover something that neither he nor they expected." Why have they done that? In some cases they were pointing at the wrong figure they were pointing at somebody real in the scene. Even though it had Tom Cruise as its star, it was not a successful movie and therefore not seen as one of Tom's most profitable movies. And apparently, there were some real-life influences for this story beat. Then when he had a little break, he came straight over to me and put his hand out and said, Hello, Im Tom. 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. The attendees are in many ways wearing masks too. Id look down and I had my three lasers, so Id say, Well, I am on the mark, Stanley. And one time Tom Cruise whispered to me, Just move the camera, Pete. [I realized] it was just code for saying that Stanley wanted to put the camera in a different place. Stanley Kubrick died six days after he sent Eyes Wide Shut final cut to Warner Bros. And this, if you know Kubrick's perfectionism, doesn't mean in any way that the version of Eyes Wide Shut that we know is the one he really wanted, neither it means that it was the perfect version. And then I had to find, of course, the people who were willing to be a part of that. Jeff Bezos, it turns out, sends awkward sexts. Cruises Bill Harford wanders a nocturnal landscape of potential transgressions, all of which remind him of the warmth of domestic life. Zis-a Domnul ctre ucenicii si: porunc nou v dau vouThe final piece that is featured in the movie was arranged and composed by Jocelyn Pook. The Harfords standard of living raises questions about their money, and where it comes fromfrom Bills sparsely scheduled private practice, or the sorts of under-the-table services we see rendered upstairs at the party? YS: Tom Cruise was very charming. And when we were shooting Eyes Wide Shut, it took Tom as long as it would have taken him to make three movies. Occult symbols like the pentagram can be found throughout the film, as well as multiple references to rainbows and looking glasses representing going beyond the looking glass, altered dreamlike states, and what the world is like on the other side of a mirrors reflection. During the Christmas party scene, at first glance traditional looking star decorations are actually made up of small pentagrams. We went through the shots and picked out the offensive bits of sex and tried to work out the least annoying way of covering it up. A very grand building with a big staircase. The real pornography in this film is in its lingering depiction of the shameless, naked wealth of millennial Manhattan, and of its obscene effect on society and the human soul. LV: It was Cate Blanchett! I came up with a weird piece called Dionysus, which didnt ultimately get used in the film. Bill is used to having all of the power in their relationship, so her admission leaves him bewildered and emasculated as he aimlessly wanders the city streets. He knew this would be his last film. Many projects are in the works - albeit slowly - but there's no telling which video will release when. In terms of color symbology, I agree red is associated with sex (and maybe lust beyond the sexual -- money, power, etc). Cookies help us deliver our Services. Kubrick tested this idea on his powerhouse stars Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise in their roles of Dr. Bill and Alice Hartford. 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. He said, Yeah, I really dont know what the music should be here, but try something sexy music. [Laughs.] Great analysis. The first day he was there and they were just shooting him entering into the ballroom, he was standing there with his mask on. This was something that the models weren't exactly in to. We would meet and rehearse and come up with ideas. Kubrick's erotic odyssey is ultimately about the nature of seeing: what is hidden in plain sight and what we choose not to see. Offscreen, he was one himself. Hasan Minhaj Brings His Powerpoints and Power Suits to Independent Spirit Awards, Travis Barkers Finger Is Now the Enema of Blink-182 Fans. And who you can expect to see performing and presenting. They know how to do this, Stanley. The Wagner opera returns to the Met for the first time in 17 years. Here, Helena Harford walks by a toy called Magic Circle - showing that the occult elite's ways seep through popular culture, but are not noticed by those who have their eyes wide shut. 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. CENSORED! I was asked later to do the rest of the original music. When Kubrick died, the cut was known to be locked. I think the words he used were surreal and suggestive. RT: I remember getting very, very precise instruction from Stanley Kubrick and Tom Cruise about the timing for that scene, about when Tom Cruise enters the room. And I always wondered before the film came out whether they were going to dub me, because I didnt have an American accent. Explore the Hidden Occult Symbolism Behind 'Eyes Wide Shut' It is a hypnotic film with many interpretative layers and meanings about sex, matrimony, and morality. At the time I found it somewhat frustrating, cause I, as a woman, have a very different view of women. For months, wed call them in once or twice a week and I would take a video camera and wed improvise a lot of stuff. Im not a prude, but I didnt see the point in doing that stuff, especially if Im in full mask. Grateful that we've managed to survive through all of our adventures, whether they were real, or only a dream. The theory goes that to protect the nefarious leaders, Warner Bros quietly had the picture re-editedand now denies this ever happened. "After a few weeks, he started to talk to me about the ritual, the masked ball, and the disrobing ritual. I also reached out to Yolande Snaith, a choreographer with her own dance company.