Eyes Wide Shut
Short description
Eyes Wide Shut follows Dr. William Harford and his wife Alice, a wealthy Manhattan couple whose marriage appears settled until a confession unsettles it. After a party hosted by their acquaintance Victor Ziegler, Alice tells her husband about a sexual fantasy involving another man and admits she once came close to acting on it. Shaken, Bill leaves home and moves through the city by night, encountering patients, strangers and old acquaintances, among them a former medical school friend who tells him about a secret gathering devoted to pleasure without restraint. Bill gains entry to one such meeting and finds himself out of his depth.
Stanley Kubrick directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Frederic Raphael, and produced it with Brian W. Cook. It was the thirteenth film he directed in chronological order, arriving twelve years after Full Metal Jacket. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, then married, play the couple at its centre, with Sydney Pollack as Ziegler, Marie Richardson as Marion, Rade Šerbedžija as Milich and Todd Field as Nick Nightingale in supporting roles. The production credits 82 cast members and 78 crew.
Made for around 65 million dollars, the film took roughly 163 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.5 out of 10 from about 425,000 votes, and on TMDB it also holds 7.5 out of 10, from around 7,300 votes. A critics' rating of 8 out of 10 from 166 reviews places it above both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Screenwriter Frederic Raphael believed that the role of Dr. Schoyer (that was the surname in the original novel) should be played by a Jew, as described in the novel. But Stanley Kubrick thought it would be better to make Schoyer and his wife ordinary Americans and change the surname.
- Director Sidney Pollack agreed to play Victor Ziegler at the last moment, as Harvey Keitel had been fired from the film.
- In order for the film to be shown in the US for censorship reasons, some of the most explicit sexual scenes had to be “refined” using computer graphics.
- When Stanley Kubrick had the idea for this film in the 1980s, he considered Steve Martin for the lead role.
- Kubrick became interested in Schnitzler's novella back in the late 1960s, when he suggested his wife read it.
- Jennifer Jason Leigh had already finished filming when Kubrick decided to completely reshoot her role, giving it to another actress.
- During filming, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman had to spend a lot of time nude, and immersing themselves in the role of a detached couple, as is commonly believed, negatively affected their own relationship. They broke up shortly after filming ended.
- According to studio representatives, the director died four days after the editing was completed. However, film experts debated how much the official statements about the film's completion corresponded to reality. Known for his perfectionism, Kubrick could have continued to make changes to the editing for a long time. Rumors circulated that Sydney Pollack and Steven Spielberg helped to finish the film after Kubrick's death.
- The film is based on Arthur Schnitzler's novella "Dream Story" (Traumnovelle, 1925).
- Stanley Kubrick said he saw Schöyer as somewhat similar to Harrison Ford – and that’s how the surname “Harford” came to him.
- The password "Fidelio" comes from the Latin word "fidelis", which means "faithful". Additionally, “Fidelio” is the title of Ludwig van Beethoven’s only opera.
- Filming lasted 400 days. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman agreed to sign "open" contracts, meaning they committed to filming for as long as Stanley Kubrick needed, no matter how long it took. After filming, the film remained in post-production for almost a year.
- Early in the film, at a party, two women offered Tom Cruise's character to go "where the rainbow ends." This is also the title of a children's play from the early 20th century (1911) and a feature film of the same name (1921).
- Stanley Kubrick passed away a few weeks before the film's premiere, and the director's last cinematic wish was to prohibit dubbing the film into foreign languages – "Eyes Wide Shut" was released with subtitles in foreign markets.
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