An Analysis of Eyes Wide Shut – Part Five

Part Five page is here.

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8 responses to “An Analysis of Eyes Wide Shut – Part Five”

  1. slim whitman Avatar
    slim whitman

    overthinking, it’s much simpler. twelve women: that gives away what the ceremony it.

  2. eric Avatar
    eric

    I think Eyes Wide shut is all Alice’s dream. Each woman portrayed has some connection with Alice, but Bill is always Bill…

    Her dream starts when the phone rings during their initial conversation where she confesses to (imagined) infidelity.

    The black and white shots of Alice comitting adultry give it away. Bill isn’t imagining it, Alice is dreaming it.

    Then we see the woman that confesses her love for Bill, tender but sad…just as Alice described earlier.

    The next encounter is Domino, a hooker, it is all too professional for her fantasy, so the dream moves forward. This is because she knows Bill is a doctor, and she knows he can see a woman without lust.

    Then we see the young girl being interrupted in her sexual endeavor, but this is not enough for Alice’s dream. She needs to face him as an adult.

    Then the orgy…this is Alice’s steaming cesspool of desire. Her dream brings Bill to it directly. In the end, she must save him from it and the destruction it would cause to ‘him and his family’

    I could go on, but you get the idea.

    in the end, the mask is on the pillow, because it is from her dream.

    look at it from a 1920’s perspective… the story is basically ‘women like sex as much as men, if not more’. That’s fairly racy for the time it was originally written, not so much now, but no less true; and Kubrick saw how to bring it to the screen.

  3. Philanthropy Avatar
    Philanthropy

    Do you think that the same football game seems to be playing on tv both at sonata cafe and when Bill is watching tv?

  4. jmk Avatar
    jmk

    The football game. They couldn’t rationally be as it’s supposedly after midnight but not yet two a.m. (But, for that matter, when Bill left Alice he passes by a clock which shows 1:22–though of course it is earlier in the night when he is with Marion and Domino). But I think it’s likely we’re supposed to be returned to that earlier scene. Maybe it’s a recording?

  5. jmk Avatar
    jmk

    Kubrick’s films give the impression of linearity but back in their shadow realms they aren’t.

  6. Peter Theroux Avatar
    Peter Theroux

    Full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/world/europe/dominique-strauss-kahn-says-lust-is-not-a-crime.html?pagewanted=all

    Here are some interesting quotes:

    “That defense and the investigation, which is facing a critical judicial hearing in late November, have offered a keyhole view into a clandestine practice in certain powerful circles of French society: secret soirees with lawyers, judges, police officials, journalists and musicians that start with a fine meal and end with naked guests and public sex with multiple partners.”

    “The investigation into the prostitution ring in Lille ultimately swept up 10 suspects, including Mr. Strauss-Kahn. They knew each other largely through their membership as French Freemasons, according to Karl Vandamme, a defense lawyer who represents Fabrice Paszkowski, the owner of a medical supply company who played a crucial role in organizing the sex parties.”

    Maybe Kubrick was trying to reveal what the elites and politicans were up to?

    Ziegler: “Who do you think those people were? Those were not just some ordinary people. If I told you their names- I’m not going to tell you their names- but if I did, I don’t think you’d sleep so well.”

  7. Thomas Dean Nordlum Avatar
    Thomas Dean Nordlum

    Surely you have heard and seen the ‘all seeing’ eye that briefly appears on Cruise’s back when he shuts the door to his place after Somerton?

    Oh my God! I have heard the dream sequence was much more than what is displayed in the film, but where does that screen play come from and what is the screen plan in the published version with Dream Story attached to it? I have never heard of an ‘original’ screenplay that is so different than the movie. Details please!

    1. Juli Kearns Avatar

      I don’t have details on the screenplay. I only know what is up on the internet. Have read the book on which the film was based, and its plot provides a kind of partial outline, a basic story idea. A doctor learns from his wife she had thought of having an affair, he had as well, he goes out and wanders, meets a prostitute, meets an old friend who is a pianist, goes to a costume shop, goes to a masked ball, attempts to recover some of his tracks the next day.

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