A conclusion of the
By Jerry Saravia
Bill arrives home at four in the morning with his costume in a bag (the entrance door to his apartment
is a dark blue color). He walks around the apartment to his daughter
Helena's bedroom, which is again lit in blue by the color outside her bedroom window .
He shuts his eyes and then opens them, perhaps glad he is home and that
his family is safe. Bill walks to his blue-lit study and puts the
costume in a cabinet. He comes to his bedroom where Alice is laughing
while sleeping, presumably dreaming. Bill wakes her up and she confesses
that she dreamt of the naval officer who was mocking her. She then
continues describing sexual acts (not all that different from what Bill
had seen at the orgy) and her frolicking and having sex with all the men
watching her with the naval officer. She says that she saw Bill in the
dream and laughed at him mockingly, as she did in their earlier argument
scene. Bill is again nonplussed, not to mention speechless, and she
hugs him tightly. Fade to black.
It is the
next day, and Bill is seen arriving at the Sonata cafe in a taxi with
the costume in his bag. He walks to the cafe but it is closed. Bill
walks into a coffee shop called Gillespie's and asks for coffee from a
waitress (Carmela Marner) with a British accent and a faded pink shirt.
As he sits contemplating, he asks her if she knows of when the Sonata
cafe will open again and if she knows Nick Nightingale, the pianist. She
says, "Sure. He comes in here." Interestingly, she starts speaking in a
New York accent and then reverts back to her British accent almost as
is she is disguising herself (I cannot be sure why but it does lend to
the film's dreamlike pull). To lend credibility to his fictitious story
of supposed medical tests for Nick, he shows his State Medical Board card once again.
Bill
arrives at the hotel where Nick had been staying. Still carrying the bag
with his costume, he speaks to a gay clerk (Alan Cumming) who is
immediately smitten by Bill. Bill again presents his State Medical Board
card, and asks him if he saw Nick and if anything unusual had happened
to him. The gay clerk tells him that Nick was escorted from the hotel in
the early morning by "two big guys, the kind you don't fool around
with," chucking at the possibility of making a sexual reference. He also
mentions that Nick had a bruise on his cheek and that he looked scared.
Bill leaves without much information about Nick's whereabouts.
Bill
travels in another taxi to the Rainbow shop to return his costume. He
sees Milich again who notices that Bill had forgotten his mask. Bill
says he had not left it in the party, though where he had left it is
never made clear. Milich's daughter introduces herself to the doctor,
and again we see the two Japanese men from the previous night, who have
made some arrangement with Milich. Bill is confused and we sense that
Milich is a pimp and his daughter is a prostitute. The other possibility
is that on the previous night, Milich was only faking his incredulous
behavior towards his daughter's sexual antics.
Next we
see Bill in his office, which has a pinkish glow coming from the shades.
He is fantasizing further about his wife Alice with the naval officer,
who are now shown to be nude and making love. His secretary comes into
the office and he tells her that he needs to cancel his afternoon
appointments.
This
time, Bill is driving his Ranger Rover out to Long Island to the
mansion. He may either try to retrieve his mask or inquire about Nick,
though we are not sure of his intentions. A bluish glow seems to appear
in long shot as Bill parks his Ranger Rover in front of the front gate
of the mansion. As he walks towards the blue gate, there is a slow zoom
to the surveillance camera which is tracking him. Bill then notices a
limo arriving at the other side of the gate. An elderly man steps out
and hands him an envelope, then abruptly leaves. Bill opens the envelope
and reads that it is a warning not to make any further inquiries about
what he had seen at the mansion the previous night. This sequence is all
accomplished with images and the discordant piano theme by Ligeti.
There is no dialogue at all (none is necessary) and it further shows
Kubrick's mastery of the film medium to tell a story with visuals.
It is now
nighttime again, as we see a master shot of Bill's apartment building
(the same shot that opens the film after Alice's undressing before the
camera). Bill arrives home and is greeted by Alice (wearing a faded pink
shirt) and his daughter, Helena, as they sit on the table going over
math problems. There are various books on the table, all representing
the colors of the rainbow, and the table cover is a faded red. He tells
Alice that he needs to go back to the office for more appointments. Bill
gets a beer from the refrigerator and hears Alice's voice from the
previous night where she confesses to her sexual orgy dream. The scene
ends with a close-up of Alice smiling at Bill.
Bill returns to the office and, outside his office, we see the
Christmas tree with a rather faded pink glowing star. There is the final
flash of Alice's sexual fantasy with the naval officer, and she seems
to really be enjoying herself. He decides to call Marion Nathanson, the
patient's daughter who made a pass at him the night before. Carl, her
boyfriend, answers the phone however and Bill hangs up on him.
We are now back in the nighttime streets of New York,
specifically Greenwich Village. Bill arrives at Domino's apartment in a
cab. He enters the apartment carrying a small cake-box.
He knocks on the door but it is her roomate, Sally (Fay Masterson),
dressed in a light blue shirt, who answers the door. She lets him in and
is unaware of when Domino will be back. Signalling him to go to the
kitchen, she slowly pushes herself against him and he stars to get cozy
with her. A rainbow effect stars to form at the bottom of the screen
where blue is the most prominent color. Bill grabs Sally's breast, but
she tries to get out of the flirtatious spell by asking him to talk
about Domino. They sit at the kitchen table and she tells him that Domino is HIV positive.
Bill is stunned, unable to know how to cope with what has been a
relatively unlucky night for him.
Bill is again walking the streets at night, and the discordant piano theme starts up again. He passes a green-lit store, two phone booths lit by yellow lights, realizing that he is being
followed by a bald man. Bill tries to evade him by taking a taxi but is
then told by the driver that he is off-duty. Bill walks by a magazine
stand and grabs a newspaper. Bald man is seen again and stops in his
tracks staring at Bill. Bald man continues walking and leaves Bill's
sight. Bill walks further down the street to a coffee shop and orders a
cappuccino. He reads the paper (which has the headline "Lucky to be
Alive" on the front page) and comes across an article about an ex-beauty
queen who had a drug overdose in a hotel room. Bill discovers it is the
same mysterious woman who warned him of danger at the orgy. Once again,
Bill's dark blue coat appears black in this scene, which has warm color
tones.
Puzzled by the newspaper article, Bill goes to the hospital to
inquire about the mysterious woman, who is now named Amanda Curran (also
known as Mandy at Ziegler's early party scene). He again shows his
State Medical Board I.D. card for verification, claiming she was one of
his patients. The receptionist tells him that the patient died earlier
in the day. Bill goes to the morgue to I.D. her body (the inside of this
room is grayish, making it a cold and sterile environment, only this
time, some red, green and blue bottles are seen in the distance). In a
canted high-angle shot of her corpse, we hear her voice-over from when
she warned him and that her life would not be spared for helping him.
Bill leans down to presumably kiss her but then he slowly stands back
up. While leaving through the hallway, he walks past several abstract paintings, each representing a color of the rainbow.
His mobile phone rings, presumably Ziegler.
Bill reports to Ziegler's mansion and enters the billiard room where Ziegler is playing on a red pool table with green lamps overhead. Once again, a lighter
blue light is shining from the outside windows. Bill and Ziegler have
some drinks, and then Ziegler slowly reveals information about Bill.
Ziegler is aware of Bill's visit to the Somerton mansion since he was
there and witnessed the whole scenario. Bill is shocked, first denying
it, then telling him that Nick Nightingale's involvement was minimal.
Ziegler tells Bill that he had him followed and knows Bill had been
making inquiries earlier in the day about Nick. Throughout this pivotal
scene, there is a dramatic distance between Ziegler and Bill (recalling
similar scenes in the chateau climax of Paths of Glory), and some
knowing sexual references in dialogue. Also Bill's dark blue suit
changes, once again, to an almost black color when he walks across the
room due, I imagine, to shifts in lighting.
Ziegler: (referring to Nick) "By now, he is probably back with his family...probably banging Mrs. Nick."
That line is hardly significant in mentioning yet it is followed
by Ziegler's downgrading comments regarding Mandy, aka Amanda Curran,
and that she is nothing more than a hooker and a junkie who was going to
die anyway. Bill is shocked at what he is hearing, especially when
Ziegler says that the whole situation at the Somerton mansion
(last-minute interventions, threats, etc) was fake and intended to scare
Bill. Ziegler finally puts his arm on Bill's shoulder, trying to
comfort him and tells him, "People die. It happens all the time. Life
goes on. It always does, until it doesn't."
We come to a close-up shot of the mask Bill lost, though we are
not sure when or where he lost it (the mask itself may not literally be
there but it may remind Bill of where he should be). Nevertheless, it is
seen resting on a pillow and the camera slowly pans to the left as it
reveals Alice sleeping next to it (obviously, this is where Bill should
be, sleeping next to his wife). Once again, blue light fills the room
from the outside. Cut to Bill arriving home, a bit distraught and aching
for a beer. He walks to the kitchen, turns off the Christmas lights in
the tree (which has a distinct pinkish glow), and sits at the kitchen
table drinking beer.
Dissolve to Bill coming into his bedroom when he notices the mask on his bed pillow. He approaches and sits on the bed with teary eyes,
and starts crying uncontrollably. This wakes up Alice who places his
head on her breast. He tells her: "I'll tell you everything. I'll tell
you everything."
Cut to the early morning as we see Alice with no makeup sitting
on the sofa with a dangling cigarette (this is clearly a moment of
reality, not a dream any longer since Alice had always looked ravishing
through most of the film). Bill is then seen sitting on the adjacent
sofa full of remorse and shame, and we sense that Bill has told her of
his sexual escapades and near-death occurrences (Lucky to be alive
indeed). She reminds Bill, who is trying to comport herself, that they
need to go Christmas shopping with their daughter, Helena.
We see Alice wearing glasses and wearing a light blue sweater, Bill and Helena are in tow at a toy
store. Helena is hopeful she will receive a huge teddy bear from Santa. Bill finally gets the courage to speak
to Alice, asking what they should do. Alice tells him they should be
grateful that they survived all their adventures unscathed (of course,
Alice using the word "we" signifies she has had some adventures herself
outside of the Hungarian from Ziegler's party). Alice's next line is:
"Whether they were real or only a dream."
Alice then reassures him that
they are awake now and hopefully for a long time to come. Bill tells
her: "Forever." Alice smiles and then shakes her head, saying that the
word frightens her though she does love him. What follows is the
controversial last line by Alice in close-up that closes the film:
Alice: "But I do love you...and you know there is something very important we need to do as soon as possible."
Bill: "What's that?"
Alice: (pausing while staring at him) "Fuck."
The sound of the noise from the store fades out and there is an
abrupt cut to black with the title reading: "Produced and Directed by
Stanley Kubrick."
"Eyes Wide Shut" had its
share of detractors and admirers when released back in July 1999. I am
sure the film was not fully completed, despite the fact that Stanley
showed a rough cut in New York to Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman that was
considered finished. There was talk that Stanley intended to release the
film in August of 1999 to allow more time for fine-tuning. This goes
without saying considering how Stanley's past films have always had
minor trims and/or changes, particularly Dr. Strangelove (where he
deleted a pie-fight scene), "The Shining" (he deleted an alternate
ending with Shelley Duvall after the film's initial premiere), "A
Clockwork Orange" (where he deleted a graphic shot of Alex killing the
Cat Lady), and so on. There has been speculation as to what Kubrick
may have changed or deleted in "Eyes Wide Shut" had he lived to do the
fine-tuning. Perhaps the orgy scene could have been restored if Stanley
fought it. Some have suggested that the toy store ending is all wrong
and would have been deleted, but I think it is far too essential. It is
left open to interpretation but I think the scene shows that humans are
not civilized yet (or as evolved) to otherwise think that sex cures
problems in a marriage (or as Alice refers to women's sexual history as
"millions of years of evolution," a very Kubrickian theme) Alice's
inability to say their marriage is forever yet very able to say that sex
is something they have to look forward to shows that she is no
different than Bill - they both want sex but have trouble communicating
their feelings to each other in what seems to be a fragile marriage.
Some may see it as an optimistic ending - I see it as Kubrick's own joke
about marriages and sex. It has the right tone to it because as the
film ends abruptly, we are then back to our own reality - the spell or
trance that Kubrick kept us in has been broken. It works in the same way
as Arthur Schnitzler's novella - a dreamlike trance with moments of
reality.
I have been
describing the colors and compositions in the film with each sequence
since they correspond to Kubrick's intentions in telling this story of
sexual adventures and, in some cases, subtle foreshadowing of future
events as they unfold.
The color red
equals the decadence of sexual appetites and the possibility of some
harmless sexual fun - it is the color of Alice and Bill's bedsheets and
their curtains. Red is quite predictably prominent at the orgy in the
Somerton mansion. Domino, the prostitute, has a red doorway entrance to
her apartment. Ziegler has a red pool table (when they are usually
green).
Blue is the color
of purity and the color of home and hearth - whenever Alice is on screen
at her home, blue is prominent. Bill sees blue at the Somerton gate,
his office has blue carpeted areas and blue doors, his flirtatious
behavior with Domino's roomate has hints of blue, especially her light
blue shirt and blue eyeshadow. The apartment windows in every
character's house has blue light filtering through or sometimes flooding
through. I think that blue is an indicator of where Bill should be - at
home with his wife. It is at the end of the rainbow - the end of his
journey or odyssey. As for the pinkish glows from certain Christmas
trees or the light pinkish shirt color worn by the waitress at
Gillespie's corresponding with Alice's similarly colored shirt when
helping with her daughter's homework, one can assume that pink is
another indicator of where Bill should be at night - after all, pink is
also the color of the star on top of the Christmas trees. Maybe pink is
the Northern Star, a guide to the ethereal blue color of his home with
his family.
The film also has
distinctive rainbow effects, considering it is set during Christmas time
and so there are Christmas trees in practically every scene. Bill's
apartment has colors of the rainbow represented in different objects and
in paintings (the latter done by Kubrick's wife Christiane, who also created the paintings in "A Clockwork Orange"). Bill goes to the Rainbow
shop, and is told by two models at Ziegler's party that he should go
with them "where the rainbow ends." Perhaps at the end of the rainbow is
red (the color of sexual decadence) but Bill chooses a different path -
blue is clearly at the end of the rainbow for him. Consider two scenes
where a deliberate rainbow forms on screen: when Bill is attacked by a
homophobic gang, a rainbow forms at the bottom of the screen where blue
is most prominent (plus he falls back on a dark blue car parked on the
street). When he flirts with Domino's friend, a rainbow forms at the
bottom of the screen where blue is again prominent. Blue is a reminder,
and a sort of sexual blocking signal for Bill, who tries to act on his
sexual impulses and always gets interrupted.
The whole film has
a dreamlike effect - most significant are the pauses and repetitions in
the dialogue. The characters say their dialogue by dragging out each
syllable, and in some cases, repeating what they had just said. The film
is also shot in grainy colors - apparently most shots were filmed with
no real studio lights, sometimes only capturing light from whatever
available source or from the lights on Christmas trees. This is not that
different from Stanley's approach in the beautiful Barry Lyndon, which
was shot with special lenses from NASA so that a scene at night could be lit from
just the candles that were on display.
Another factor is
how much of the film is sexual, implicitly or explicitly. Kubrick has
never shown sex or copulation of any kind on film. The only example I
can only think of is the speeded-up romp in the hay Alex has with two
young girls in "A Clockwork Orange" to the tune of a speeded-up version
of the "William Tell" overture. Here is a filmmaker who has always
hinted at sex, especially in his adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's
Lolita, which has sexual entendres and connotations galore, but has
never truly shown it. Every scene in "Eyes Wide Shut" revolves around
sex in some form or another, and every encounter Bill has with other
characters is sexual or suggestive of some sexual nature, from the
romantic advances of Marion to the flirtations of Domino's roommate,
Sally, to the unexpectedly funny scene of the hotel desk clerk eyeing
Bill. Of course, the film was advertised as a sexual thriller where we
would get a chance to see Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman engaging in
full-frontal nudity while having sex (there were rumors prior to the
film's release that Cruise and Kidman played psychotherapists who have
sex with their patients.) But anyone who has studied Kubrick's career
knew that anything was further from the truth - the advertising promised
a film of "bad, bad things" and Kubrick teased us yet again. The
audience wanted outright fornication and only got as far as 158 minutes
of foreplay with no climax.
Finally, "Eyes
Wide Shut" is the kind of film that is left open to interpretation.
There is no clear resolution in the story and certain characters are
kept in an obscure light. One can ask what finally happened to Mandy,
the hooker? Was she intentionally killed or did she O.D.? What was so
secretive about the orgy in the mansion that would cause the leader, Red
Cloak, to threaten Bill's life and family? Was it an all an act to
scare him? Is Ziegler telling the truth about what went on the mansion,
or can we ever really trust anyone with a red pool table? Did Alice ever
get it on with the naval officer or did she only fantasize about it?
And what about the mask, how did it appear on Bill's pillow? Who put it
there? Did Alice find it in his study or did someone else place it
there, or is it not actually there since it is seen only from Bill's point-of-view? You can go insane trying to find the answers to such questions
when Kubrick purposely leaves them open-ended - this allows the audience
to come to its own conclusions, something which Hollywood rarely does
anymore.
"Eyes Wide Shut"
is a great film that becomes richer and more enveloping with each
viewing. It requires patience, demands attention, and allows one to
think about its characters and the subtle nuances in their dialogue
exchanges in the context of its theme about the possibility of marital
infidelity in a fragile marriage. Some have seen it once and hated it
only to gradually admire it on second viewing. Do yourself a favor: in
the mindless season after season of predominantly mediocre, bland films, check out Kubrick's last
film "Eyes Wide Shut." If you hated it or disliked it the first time,
you may find yourself at least admiring, on second viewing, the world
Kubrick has created on screen and how he fashions this world before our
eyes, as he has with all of his films. Keep those eyes wide open.
Selected Bibliography:
American Cinematographer: Oct 99, Stanley Kubrick Retrospective, author: Ron Magid.
Kubrick: Inside the Film Artist's Maze, Indiana University Express, author: Thomas Allen Nelson.
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