Reviews

This film is a work of genius that, like all Kubric films, is open to many interpretations. The art of this film remains its slow, thoughtful pace, camera angles and distances, facial studies, colour and ingenious set designs. The original music of Jocelyn Pooke provides the necessary extra voice and story that gives this film the unique feel it has. 'Eyes Wide Shut' is a study in psychology and nerve, human weakness and how we might overcome those weaknesses.

Many interpretations have been given of 'Eyes Wide Shut', and I agree that Kubric invites us to think carefully about his films, offering no definitive answers. However, I offer my own view of what I think is going on with the story of Bill and Alice Harford in this piece of cinema noire. Throughout the film, there are a series of clues dotted around the canvas like a puzzle of separate pieces, and yet bound by a common thread.

At the heart of the story are the married couple, Bill and Alice, who have marital problems. Alice, whilst telling of a sexual fantasy, doesn't actually enter into any kind of affair. Bill, jealous of Alice's fantasy, is seen walking into a series of temptations and embracing them. These temptations are rather like those described in the Garden of Eden story with Adam and Eve succumbing to temptation.

With Bill, it is his night walking and encounters with women in different situations that present his weaknesses. The one moment in the film that, for me, triggered thoughts about the Genesis story were the words of the masked woman at the hedonistic party who steps in to save Bill, saying she will redeem him. Who might she be to offer redemption? At that moment, the other parts of that central section of the film became clearer. The naked people seen copulating with each other is, for me, humans functioning as they should, to multiply. Naked flesh is not presented so much as erotic but rather as humankind exposed for what it is, as a sexually functioning race.

Bill is frail, showing fear as much as pleasure at the encounters he is having with the women he meets. The death of Mandy, a prostitute he first meets at Victor Zeigler's party, is a symbol of how life is. Destroy your body with drugs, and you will eventually die.

Life is frail, but we have to be strong and make better decisions, and that is what this film is about. It is brilliant and a great testimony as Stanley Kubric's final film.

Firstly, I do not understand why Marette van Kamp as Princess Daisy is given no billing on the DVD cover, she was, after all, playing the lead role. Her character was intense, and very sad considering the circumstances of losing her natural mother and then her father. At three hours, the film is very long, and jumps from one time zone to another, leaving perplexing gaps in the storyline. One of the major disturbing themes of the film is the incestuous behaviour of Daisy's half brother Ram, and Daisy's move to America to make a life for herself.

There are many interesting moments, and the fact of hiding a disabled child away in a remote home strikes at the heart and conscience of anyone who has a disabled child. On the whole, the film is thought provoking, although too long. The best effort was from Marette van Kamp.