Though his films had always had provocative elements, the director had never tackled something so directly about sex and jealousy and fantasy before. For every movie he made, he was getting $20 million, $25 million up front. Nobody had had the conversation with Stanley before he died about how he was going to square that circle, because the orgy scene as it stood wasnt an R-rated scene. That was her voice. Stanley wanted these sort of erotic vignettes and situations. "He supplied us with a lot of information about secret societies and sexual mores in Vienna at the time of Schnitzler. For those with their eyes open, there are plenty of money shots. Youve got some Janning to do! There are three popular theories, several of which are detailed byScreenRant. ! Wow, yes, thank you Kubrick. Offscreen, he was one himself. But that doesn't mean that there isn't any controversy. Or perhaps members of the nefarious secret society placed it there as a threat. The analysis tries very hard to cram square pegs into round holes. 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. In this movie, the world of wealth and privilege is a world of illusion and facade. 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. Your email address will not be published. It felt like a sort of research period, with me playing around with ideas and presenting them to him, and him looking at them and feeding back. But there were a couple of times when we [agreed to use] somebody and their agents actually made them go out and get breast enhancements. In one of the final scenes, Bill comes home and as he comes to bed he sees Alice ( Nicole Kidman) sleeping next to the same Venetian mask he wore at the party. The theory goes that to protect the nefarious leaders, Warner Bros quietly had the picture re-editedand now denies this ever happened. It seems to appear whenever Bill is wrestling with the underlying lie of his situation. He banned Cruise from the set and forbade Kidman to assuage her husband's tension by telling him what happened during the shoot." Conspiracy theorists have also dove upon the fact that on the official movie poster, Alice (played by Nicole Kidman) shows one eye, representing the illuminated eye, which we must take to mean that she is aware, enlightened. He was forced to show the executives due to contractual reasons but didn't want to, and this was likely the cut that later became the final product. 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." And who you can expect to see performing and presenting. But Kubrick wasnt after realism with these scenes. Sure as I am that the reality of one night, let alone that of a whole lifetime can ever be the whole truth. There was a problem because the models would have to be paid a lot more to do that, and some of them didnt want to do it. But there is a sobering moment of reality that completely rattles Bill. He previously suffered a brain aneurysm on February 18, and was ultimately taken off life support. So nice to meet you. And he started talking about a film that Id made for TV called Swinger. It is overly long. "Eyes Wide Shut" opened on July 16, 1999, and did well at the box office and with critics. The actress was coming off a breakout performance in 1997's "Oscar and Lucinda" and then a star-making . And every day, Leon would record it and come back with feedback from Stanley. The film is full of puzzles, riddles, and games, symbols helping to reveal the truths of the unconscious mind, this large symbolic dimension helping foster emotional involvement. And that was because Stanley wanted this very particular body type, a sort of Barbie-doll type. I stuck to my guns about what I would do. Hes dangerous, hes terrifying, hes an extra in, How to Watch the 2023 Oscars Celebrate All 23 Categories Live Again. Women were posing in very graceful ways on the table, and at the same time there was this rather repelling kind of scene going on. The story is strange and winding, adding to the dreamlike quality of filmmaking that takes influence from the original "Dream Story." Audiences had expected to see married co-stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman play . We had a lot of illustrations, contemporary and even much older, of some ceremonies. Conspiracy theorists argue that Kubrick had never been shy about ratings (A Clockwork Orange was originally given an X-rating). LV: We were taking so long that sometimes the leases ran out on where we could rehearse. The attendees are in many ways wearing masks too. (aka unrated, international theatrical cut). The piece he did use was originally on my album. 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. The second half of Eyes Wide Shut sees Bill being given ominous warnings from this secret society, and he can't seem to find his mask from the party. Kubrick, left, on set with Cruise, Kidman, and Sydney Pollack. Eyes Wide Shut was roughly based onArthur Schnitzlers 1926 Traumnovelle (Dream Story), according to an interview by Vulture. Its not an actual dream, since Bill clearly does attend the event in reality, as evidenced by his costume rental and his later discussion with Ziegler, who references it and claims to have been a guest. big tits, cumshot, japanese, asian, blowjob. But when I look at the scene, I think what we did in the studio [during rehearsal] definitely influenced the whole feel of that scene. YS: Tom Cruise was very charming. 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. Something that might give you some insight into Eyes Wide Shut is the German television of adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's novel. Why have they done that? In some cases they were pointing at the wrong figure they were pointing at somebody real in the scene. Can Anyone Predict Whos Going to Win Best Supporting Actress? However, the 1999 film also contained a famously controversial scene with multiple naked women taking part in a ritual with a bunch of masked rich men. My man. I think we actually agree on this point. Kubrick also never let his actors see any daily footage, and this inability to track his own performance across the film gave Cruise an ulcer, which he hid from Kubrick. But we had every piece of research for years and years to do this stuff with. Some in the Hindu community happened to notice those few words, and it became a bit of a media frenzy. The master directors swan song and unconscious spiritual testament, which meditates on such ontological questions as life and death, as well as on cinema viewed as a visual art at the crossroads between concreteness and abstraction. And then I had to find, of course, the people who were willing to be a part of that. AG: When all the other girls left, I was in this amazing position of being able to work with two incredible artists. He died only six days after. We also arguably see Alice grooming her daughter, Helena, throughout the film. Kubrick was notorious for his grueling shooting schedule and the psychological games he played on actors in order to get out their best performances. Still, the director's final film impresses as an unforgettable story about morality and sexuality, no matter what way you look at it. Just then, a mysterious woman intercedes and sacrifices herself in order to save him. But the scene was more about the secret society of supremely rich hedonists who, under the shadows, orchestrate horrendous acts of violence and sexual manipulation. But it unfolds in the manner of a dream, with its events and characters based on real events.". His eyes may be open, but they are metaphorically shut to the truth of these secret desires. 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. I was a model and Id done a lot of catwalks, so I knew how to walk in heels. It could be he's just curious based on Nick's description and didn't realize that he would be spotted. But red and blue! ", Related: The Truth About Tom Cruise's Character In 'Tropic Thunder'. According to a 1999 New York Times article, "65 seconds of the movie were digitally altered. I and another girl, we opted out. Your email address will not be published. There was one woman, Abigail, who ended up having this larger role. The best musical instrument is a love triangle. I was apprehensive for a second but my worries were put to rest very early on with [Note: Most analyses of this film that Ive seen are largely about conspiracy theories and cults that are vaguely referenced by the movies imagery. I'm pasting the relevant section from my piece below. The film is also heavily entangled with the cult of Scientology, not least because both stars tied the knot in a Scientology ceremony in 1990 (they famously divorced not long after EWS finished shooting, gossip columnists at the time actually pinning it on Kubrick psychoanalysing the couples marriage for so long; Kubricks on-set wall of secrecy even divided Cruise and Kidman. We had a lot of illustrations, contemporary and even much older, of some ceremonies. Wealth is Ziegler's most important quality; he's not necessarily more illusory or deceitful than others in the film. Eyes Wide Shut, the phrase itself, is a calling card among secret societies, meaning 'my eyes are shut to your misdeeds, brother.'. Nobodys been here, nothings been touched. Yes, there is. It was an expensive mess-up. Those shadow men are pretty obvious. JD: Stanley had asked me to be in the orgy scenes, but I felt so vulnerable and uncomfortable with the idea of doing that kind of action in front of a crew. During the course of shooting Eyes Wide Shut, the director filmed 95 takes of Tom Cruise walking through a door. Lines, roads, walking, processions towards a threshold or towards an altar. Dude . Lots of really good points, Wow . And a lot of the characters stood still that was part of the style of the scene. Shelley Duvall on the set of "The Shining,". "Eyes Wide Shut" is Kubrick's final film before his death. I was asked later to do the rest of the original music. Just because it never happened doesnt mean they cant get back together. After this encounter, Bill finally realizes the dark side of this world of sex and anonymity, returning to his wife Alice's side. The idea for the scene was to feature erotic vignettes as opposed to full-on sexual acts. I know they find clues as the night progresses, but it seems they immidietly know he doesn't belong? YS: We did a lot of work with [the models], doing yoga to get them a little more flexible, spending a lot of time getting them to do things in perfect unison, which was a challenge. PE: The cut was sacred; they werent going to change one frame of it. Oh, Loosey! 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. Citing contractual obligations to deliver an R rating, Warner Bros digitally altered the orgy for the American release, blocking out graphic sexuality by inserting additional figures to obscure the view, avoiding an adults-only NC-17 rating that limited distribution. [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.".