Although many people are familiar with his abuse of Shelley Duvall on the set of "The Shining," some might not know just how crazy it was to make "Eyes Wide Shut," the director's last film. Abigail Good (the Mysterious Woman): They took this space which is now a really beautiful hotel in St. Pancras. Stanley wanted these sort of erotic vignettes and situations. Its about the cover-up in the Catholic church, wasnt it? The very first one or first two that came through, I said, Well, what made you think that? When it began to be just a maelstrom of these calls, I would hang up. Layering unrelated symbolism behind a story full of plot holes and unrealistic situations is just lazy. It was quite fun to us when certain people who were arguing negatively about this would point to certain figures in the scene and say, Oh, thats CGI. He had his unique fascinations, which is ultimately what led him to purchase the rights of Singin' In The Rain. And who you can expect to see performing and presenting. I also reached out to Yolande Snaith, a choreographer with her own dance company. Its a deliberate kind of movement. it followed the nocturnal pursuits of Tom Cruise's Dr. Bill Harford.In the most famous scene, Harford ends up at a mansion where he finds dozens of masked elites taking part in cult-like, ritualistic sex ceremonies with masked . Next: Amy Poehler Compares Hosting The Golden Globes To A Stanley Kubrick Movie. But we had every piece of research for years and years to do this stuff with. 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. That same MPAA approved the South Park movie! Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix have broken up after he allegedly cheated on her with Raquel Leviss. When he bashed it on the ground, that would indicate when [the girls] had to begin to come up from the floor. It was a collaborative process, but I did feel I was more of an artistic assistant for Stanley to develop a clearer vision of what that whole scene was. YS: Stanley had a whole collection of Italian masks, the commedia dellarte masks. Paddy Eason (supervising digital compositor): Fairly soon after [Kubricks death], my producer Rachel Penfold and I were called up to the Kubrick place to have a meeting about something to do with Eyes Wide Shut, with the inner circle charged with finishing the film. This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. My man. Eyes Wide Shut Symbols, Allegory and Motifs by Stanley Kubrick Eyes Wide Shut Symbols, Allegory and Motifs These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. Currently, he is both a writer and an editor at TheThings where he specializes in entertainment, film, and celebrity news. Introducing Sociology "Eyes Wide Shut" is not an easy film to decipher because of its dream-like quality, where nothing is as it seems. But it unfolds in the manner of a dream, with its events and characters based on real events.". AG: Stanley said I reminded him of Lady Lyndon from Barry Lyndon. I went through every modeling agency, every dance academy. All I could say was, Oh, well, I really like your films, too, Tom. [Laughs]. The vocalist had been improvising and had used some words from the Bhagavad Gita. We were playing around with different ritualistic formations. But that doesn't mean that there isn't any controversy attached to the film's release. Also rainbows are mentioned more than once! I and another girl, we opted out. Thanks for posting! eyes wide shut daughter kidnapped Cruises Bill Harford wanders a nocturnal landscape of potential transgressions, all of which remind him of the warmth of domestic life. The film is a confounding story, and even two decades later, fans and critics alike continue to debate the meaning behind "Eyes Wide Shut" and whether the final cut was what Kubrick really wanted. Those shadow men are pretty obvious. I wasnt willing to be accommodating. I made it very clear to everybody who came and their agents. In 1994, Stanley Kubrick sent the screenwriter Frederic Raphael a novella about a doctor who embarks on a dark odyssey of the soul . And no dream is ever just a dream. I stood, looked around, and saw Stanley standing alone on the other side of the room, holding up a blindfold. Setting records for the longest shoot in movie history, it was an excruciating labor of love for lead stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman -- one that would often be traced back to the alleged start of their marriage's decline. Sexual jealously causes people to do all sorts of things. At a certain point, it became clear to Stanley he wanted it to be a circle. He was throwing all these compliments at me about this little film. In one of the final scenes, Bill sees the mask on his pillow beside his sleeping wife. Published: 19:43 EST, 3 July 2019 | Updated: 20:44 EST, 3 July 2019. In the end, the Kubrick family felt rather uncomfortable about it, and they recalled all the films and I had to rerecord it again with a different vocal. Ive never been. very persuasive. But one night Alice admits that she considered having an affair with a handsome naval officer a year earlier, and Bill's whole world is turned upside down. She hadnt trained as a dancer, but she was a natural mover. For Kubrick's film, he transferred the story from early 20th century Vienna to New York City, Greenwich Village specifically, in the 1990s. In Barry Lyndon the narrator's dialogue and the filmed action often contradict each other. Youd very rarely do less than 20 takes. What matters more than who put itthere is whyit's there: as a bold reminder of how Bill hides from what is real. Plus, sex/money is a thematically important dichotomy in the film, so it makes sense that they would each be assigned a color. Stanley Kubrick was a very particular man. Here, Helena Harford walks by a toy called Magic Circle - showing that the occult elite's ways seep through popular culture, but are not noticed by those who have their eyes wide shut. While he almost gives in a few times, he makes it through the encounters unscathed until he gets to the main event, the secret society's weird orgy. Eyes Wide Shut: Ending Explained. AG: The premiere was quite interesting. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=27056817 Merry Christmas!This video was a long time coming and although I wish I could've gotten it out on Christmas day external factors prevented it. Mmkay. She was in England at the time, so she came into Pinewood and recorded the lines. Kubrick has no clothes. All this seems to suggest that she is all seeing, her eyes are wide open. Audiences had expected to see married co-stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman play . Eyes Wide Shut may have been great if it were shorter and had an eerie, melancholy, wandering/lost vibe and camera style to match. Well, maybe socks and a shirt, but certainly no pants. Kubrick's erotic odyssey is ultimately about the nature of seeing: what is hidden in plain sight and what we choose not to see. The real pornography in this film is in its lingering depiction of the shameless, naked wealth of millennial Manhattan, and of its obscene effect on society and the human soul. 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. In terms of color symbology, I agree red is associated with sex (and maybe lust beyond the sexual -- money, power, etc). And then I had to find, of course, the people who were willing to be a part of that. 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. Written by Timothy Sexton The Star of Ishtar What do you fancy doing? Shed say, No Absolutely no Maybe Yes No Thats okay.. But of course there are so many limitations when it comes to decency or obscenity. Me and Tom were among the last people he ever filmed; Stanley died before the dubbing was done. Meanwhile, Alice wears her own mask in the role of perfect wife and mother. Bill wears a mask in order to infiltrate the private ritual, but he also wears a figurative mask in real life to be an ideal husband and conceal his own sexual curiosity outside of his relationship with Alice. Charged as his last film is with symbolic references to death, we should not overlook the fact that in all of Kubricks films fear of dying is a constant presence and an apparent mirror image of his obsession with control. Tom Cruise in the Masked Ball ritual scene from Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece Eyes Wide Shut with Jocelyn Pook's haunting score filling the temple. We put some CGI characters, both male characters in black cloaks and female characters, to hide certain areas of frame. The scene known as Masked Ball, depicting an occult satanic ritual orgy, from Stanley Kubrick's final masterpiece Eyes Wide Shut - when played in reverse, it is actually a Romanian Orthodox chant.The lyrics of the chant are as follows: nc ne rugm pentru mila, viaa, pacea, sntatea, mntuirea, cercetarea, lsarea i iertarea pcatelor robilor lui Dumnezeu, nchintori, miluitori i binefctori ai sfntului lcaului acestuia. But, again, it is a good story for a thriller, so give it a view . Kubrick tested this idea on his powerhouse stars Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise in their roles of Dr. Bill and Alice Hartford. A yuppie who likes to smoke a little pot before bed, Harford embarks on a night-long endeavour, during which he infiltrates an unnamed secret societys masked orgy. Given Kubricks fear of flying, the entire thing was shot in England with sound-stage works at Londons Pinewood Studios, which included a detailed recreation of New Yorks Greenwich Village. Wealth is Ziegler's most important quality; he's not necessarily more illusory or deceitful than others in the film. AG: They would just say, Right, okay, you bend over, and you do that one like that, and you lie there, and you do it like that. I know we were wearing masks and we had our anonymity and we could have just never told anybody wed done it, but its not an easy thing to do. He knew this would be his last film. But when Eyes Wide Shut (his final film) was released, it tanked. We had the couches and beds and chairs and armchairs, and all the little choreographies that we made were on and around pieces of furniture in these different groupings of quartets, trios, couplings. This has also fed some theories that the orgy scene was at least somewhat inspired by the Rothschild family and those they associate with. "Eyes Wide Shut" is Kubrick's final film before his death. I said to the other girls, If you do this, thats a completely different scenario. Hed allowed the dreamy, Mitteleuropa-n mood of Schnitzlers original novella to seep into his picture. LV: We were taking so long that sometimes the leases ran out on where we could rehearse. In the final scene of "Eyes Wide Shut," Bill and Alice take their daughter shopping for Christmas toys, and Alice delivers the serious monologue: "I think we should be grateful. 262K views 5 years ago The scene known as Masked Ball", depicting an occult satanic ritual orgy, from Stanley Kubrick's final masterpiece Eyes Wide Shut" - when played in reverse, it is. With this film, Kubrick is taking on "the causes and effects of depersonalized sex." Stanley asked my opinion a lot. The soft twinkle of Christmas tree lights in the background and buoyant camera lends Kubrick's mysterious drama a fantastical atmosphere. On his films, he did everything: fix the sound machine, operate the camera. They didnt want to have anybody be able to say to them, Youve cut these shots out! or anything like that. There was one woman, Abigail, who ended up having this larger role. It was an expensive mess-up. Kubrick, left, on set with Cruise, Kidman, and Sydney Pollack. National reviewers myopic focus on sex, and the shallow psychologies of the films central couple, the Harfords, at the expense of every other element of the film-the trappings of stupendous wealtheven the sum Dr. Harford spends on a single night out-says more about the blindness of the elites to their own surroundings than it does about Kubricks inadequacies as a pornographer. PE: The cut was sacred; they werent going to change one frame of it. That was my brief! YS: There were a few male dancers we were working with initially on the erotic dances. It used a vocal sampled from another earlier recording. Dr. Harford is on call to that class of person who can afford not to wait in emergency rooms or die in hospitalspeople like his friend Victor Ziegler, whose name denotes him as one of the worlds winners. This was something that the models weren't exactly in to. This password will be used to sign into all, Photo: Collection Christophel / Alamy Stock Photo, Shania Twain Gives Rare Update on Her Ex-Husband and Ex-BFF, Journey Should Probably Go Their Separate Ways, 6 Stand-ups Analyze ChatGPTs Attempts to Steal Their Jobs, How to Watch and Stream Every 2023 Oscar-Nominated Movie, Rick Scott Is Unfortunately Kind of Right About Novak Djokovic, Rick Scott Is Unfortunately Right About Novak Djokovic, Ke Huy Quan Continues His Winning Streak at the Independent Spirit Awards. The film's dreamy nature may be confusing, but what is important to remember is that ultimately "Eyes Wide Shut"is about the reconciliation of a couple who intentionally blinded themselves from the hard truths of their insecure relationship. Stanley could change a whole scene just because it suddenly made sense to him in a different way. It actually got used in Gangs of New York. It's just that the storytelling of the second night resembles that of a dream. Kubricks perfectionism was so he sent workmen to Manhattan to measure street widths and note newspaper vending machine locations. The films production, at 400 days, holds the Guinness World Record for the longest continuous film shoot for over 15 months a period that included an unbroken shoot of 46 weeks. 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. Well put. When Kubrick died, the cut was known to be locked. And the same with Nicole. It is overly long. All about Eyes Wide Shut Ritual Scene. And he was a very hands-on editor. BC: When we were doing the glimpses of Nicole Kidman [with the naval officer], I used to have to go with pictures, blown-up pictures, and ask her what she was prepared to do. The entire film feels like"something that you can't look away from even if you want to, like in a nightmare whence you are partially self-aware of what's happening and even the fact that you are dreaming and it's not real, but cannot break free," writes TheCinemaholic. For those still in doubt that Kubrick set out with every film to create a many layered cake, it seems appropriate to leave the final word to the man himself talking about 2001: A Space Odyssey, a technically flawless production that took three years and $10,500,000 (in 1968) to create. And so on and so forth. Im especially mad because I just watched Barry Lyndon also, another lazy movie. It was clear to Yolande Snaith that Stanley didn't precisely know what he wanted from the scene. I did watch some soft-core porn and Red Shoe Diaries, just to see really what the general idea of the limits was. It wasnt his stuff, to be honest with you. We did that shot so many times. ! Wow, yes, thank you Kubrick. Brian Cook (first assistant director): I used to say to Stanley, We should get Adrian Lyne or Tony Scott to come and shoot this stuff for us. They had guts. By now any conspiracy weirdo worth his salt Im looking at you has seen Room 237 the Rodney Ascher documentary about interpretations of Stanley Kubricks 1980 stone cold classic The Shining. This again could be considered symbolic of Kubrick using the film as his own mask through which he is able to say much more than would be otherwise possible. Luckily, Yolande was there to help. All rights reserved. It's also a story about the constant temptation in a world that over-emphasizes sex.". Fifteen years ago, on July 16, 1999, Stanley Kubrick's final film, "Eyes Wide Shut," opened nationwide. You make some very interesting points throughout your analysis. "We looked for the barriers we just would not be able to cross," another assistant to Stanley, Leon Vitali, explained. The most famous version has it that he used Eyes Wide Shut to rat on the Illuminati, who retaliated by having him killed on 7th March, 1999666 days before 1st January, 2001 a gruesome nod to his most famous film.