Fifteen years ago today, Stanley Kubrick‘s "Eyes Wide Shut" landed in theatres and promptly confused the world. One of the most sexually charged Christmas movies ever, the film found Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in the midst of a potential breakdown in their marriage, leading a surreal swirl of fantasy and a penetrating deep dive into New York’s erotic underbelly. Overshadowed by Kubrick’s passing just before release, and the real life relationship between the two leads (they separated two years later), it perhaps wasn’t given a fair look at the time. And this vintage TV special is interesting capsule of what is like at the time the movie was unveiled.
This twenty-minute episode of "Film ’99" explores how the myth of the "reclusive" Kubrick already made every movement he took towards production an event, along with how wild reports about the two stars led to lawsuits for libel. But the show also goes into the production, with interviews with both Cruise and Kidman, producer Jan Harlan and much more, though host Jonathan Ross ultimately gives the verdict that the movie is "disappointing." Kubrick is many things, but his films are often so rich, on so many levels, even his films you may not love as much, have lots to dig into. Check out the vid below.
I was stunned speechless when I saw "Eyes Wide Shut" on the day it opened, and then and there considered it to be Kubrick's greatest film. The opprobrium my opinion aroused scarcely abated over the next ten years, which is about how long it takes for most Kubrick movies to be fully appreciated. I'm glad to see that it's finally getting the recognition it deserves.
One thing you have to admit about Kubrick films: They only get better with time. When I first saw "Eyes Wide Shut," I left the movie theater scratching my head. Several years later, when I watched it again, in its entirety, on DVD, I thought it was absolutely brilliant. Kubrick films tend to be like that, partly because he never confined himself to a particular genre, and we never knew quite what to expect (other than yet another showcase for his singular artistic vision). His films were usually quite polarizing on initial release, but each film considered in retrospect is seen as a true work of art.
I remember I didn't see this in the theaters back in the day because I'd heard so much negativity about it. Then when I finally watched it on dvd a year or two later, couldn't believe it….mesmerized from the first shot. Definitely in Kubrick's top three or four, and probably the most thematically rich and subtle of all his films. Scorsese picked it as one of his top films of the 90s, saying that people never got Kubrick films when they first came out.
Kidman was haunting in this film, she aced her role.
Easily my favorite Kubrick film.