THE CINEMA OF ART: Eyes Wide Shut (1999) - Sex and Identity

Hey guys!

So, I've decided to go on a Kubrick binge and watch all the Kubrick films. Some films I've seen before, some I haven't. Last night, I watch Kubrick's last film: Eyes Wide Shut. The film stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman and is 2 and a half hours long. However, those 159 minutes feel more like 20 seconds with the visionary filmmaking style of one Stanley Kubrick. Now I'm gonna give my thoughts and observations about the film.

PLOT:

The film follows Dr. Bill Harford and his wife Alice through three days in New York City at Christmas time. Beginning with a prolonged opening sequence of ballroom dance in the high society of New York. There Bill meets an old friend of his and a textbook smooth guy tries to hit on Bill's wife. The next night, while high on some pot, Bill's wife details a sexual fantasy she had for another man. Soon, we find Bill roaming the streets of New York and so begins a night full of chance sexual encounters. 

THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE FILM AND SOME MATURE CONTENT

The first thing I noticed about this film is how each and every action in this film is guided by sex. Everyone is in pursuit of being with the prettiest woman or the most handsome man.  In the opening scene, where the Hungarian man is hitting on Alice, he makes it clear that his intention is only sex. At the same time, two models are trying to seduce Bill, and they almost even succeed. Later that night, Bill is called away by Victor, the host of the party, to take care of a hooker who had passed out after ODing on drugs in his bathroom. It is heavily implied that Victor had had a sexual encounter with the hooker.

The next night, when both of them are high on pot and discussing the party of the night before, Bill tells Alice that the only reason men talk to her is to have sex with her. She applies the same convoluted and obviously wrong logic on him and he tries to deny it. Then, he says that he has full faith in Alice and knows that she would never do such a thing.  Alice bursts Bill's bubble by telling him about the fantasy. She says, "I thought if he wanted me, only for one night, I was ready to give up everything..." Here, everything refers to her marriage and her child. This makes Bill incredibly insecure about his identity as Alice's husband. 

There are two major takeaways from this scene: 1) Bill and Alice love each other immensely, and 2) Bill's profession as a doctor keeps him away from sexual activity that may occur in the workplace.

Later, when he is called out to the city as one of his patients passed away, he is plagued by thoughts of his wife with the other man and keeps on imagining the two having sex. Upon arriving at the patient's house, he is greeted by that man's daughter, who is to be wed soon and moving out of town. She confesses and immense love for Bill and kisses him. Bill is stunned by this and almost seems to enjoy the kiss before breaking away. Here we see Bill's identity completely intact, he remains faithful in his role as a husband towards Alice. 

Later, he is prowling the streets of New York, he is approached by a sex worker, who he accepts, but he seems reluctant about it. The thought of his wife with another man eggs him on to be with the other woman. In their entire interaction, we do not see Bill tell the woman his name, his identity is ambiguous. The scene then cuts away from Bill to show a part of Alice's life. Then when we cut back to Bill, he is kissing the woman, though their clothes are still intact. He gets a call from his wife upon which, the sex worker remarks a very strange comment "Is that Mrs. Dr, Bill?" I clearly remember him not giving her his name when they were together in the beginning, so maybe he told her while the audience looked at Alice's life. As soon as the sex worker said the words "Mrs. Dr. Bill", it seemed as though his identity came back to him. He claimed that he had to leave, paid her for spending time with him, and then leaves.

He comes upon the jazz club where his piano player friend was playing that night. On talking to him, the friend tells Bill about a weird club where he is made to play blindfolded and needs a password to enter. One time when his blindfold fell, he saw many gorgeous naked women and on hearing this, Bill coerces his friend to give him the location and password. His friend tells him to come in a cloak and a mask, to maintain anonymity. In this entire sequence, Bill's identity is not affirmed and he is willing to have a sexual encounter, outside of his marriage. 

Later that night, Bill shows up to the mansion and dons his mask and cape and enters to see several naked women all participating in a ritual with a red-hooded masked figure at the centre. Slowly, each of the women picks a person up from the crowd and lead them all to different places in the manner. All the women were nothing but masks, while everyone else wears a cloak. One of the women chooses Bill and she immediately seems to recognize that he doesn't belong there. She leads him through various rooms where all kinds of sexual activities are taking place. All the while, she warns Bill and tells him to leave while he still can and that they are in "great danger". Bill's identity isn't affirmed towards the climax of the sequence, where he is forced to reveal his identity in front of everyone and his desire to have the extramarital affair is crushed, simply by the loss of anonymity and the threat to his life and that of his family. He is saved as the woman who warned him earlier wanted to "redeem him". It is greatly implied that in doing so, she will be taking great pain upon herself to save Bill.

The next day, he can't seem to focus on anything and cancels all his appointments. He tries to meet his pianist friend at his hotel, but he can't because he checked out of his hotel that morning and that two men who "you wouldn't wanna mess with" were accompanying him. He also seemed to have a bruise on his face. Bill assumes the worst in this and moves on. Or tries to. Later in the night, when he is reading the newspaper, he sees that a gorgeous woman is found dead in her apartment. Intrigued by this, he visits the local hospital to see her body in the morgue and recognizes it as that of the hooker in Victor's bathroom. Bill is called over to Victor's house, who explains to him that he was among the members of the sex cult. He assures Bill that no harm came to his pianist friend who was simply put on a plane home. He also reveals that the woman who "redeemed" Bill was the same one who was in Victor's bathroom. He also says that it was all a charade to scare Bill to not talk about these topics to anyone and no harm would come to Bill and his family. When asked about the girl's death, Victor simply says that she was a junkie and that it was bound to happen sooner or later. 

Later that night, Bill goes home to his wife and tells her of all the events that transpired in the last two days. She seems shocked but then realizes that they are powerless to do anything and whatever was to happen would happen. The only thing that is certain is that she is his wife, she loves him, and they must have sex.

If you noticed, each time Bill's identity is affirmed in the film and he is made aware of his status as a doctor and a husband, his desire for sex dies down. Now, I want to focus on a few encounters that take place, that are not driven by sex. Some of them have the ultimate motive of having sex but are mainly platonic in nature. 

The first one happens when he goes to buy his costume at a store, he introduces himself as the Doctor of the ex-owner of the store. In the store, he is given the opportunity of a sexual encounter, with the owner's daughter clearly being attracted to him. He shows ZERO sexual interest here, he was just confirmed of his status as a doctor,

The second one is when he goes to find out the whereabouts of his pianist friend at a nearby coffee shop. The barista there is also clearly interested in Bill, but he shows no interest. And can you guess what he did at the beginning of this scene? YES! He confirmed his identity as a doctor!

(There's also the incredibly prominent theme of people just throwing themselves at Tom Cruise throughout the film, which parallels what he said about Alice in the beginning, with people only wanting him for sex)

There are several other instances where Bill denies sexual encounters, even though he wants one, just because his identity as a doctor and his relationship with Alice is mentioned.

CONCLUSION

I had a very long discussion with a friend of mine today, about this film, and he seems to think that sex is a very on the surface level examination of the film, and at the time, I was saying that the film was saying that sex is the major driving factor in most of our actions. I realize I was wrong. After thinking about it more, I feel that the film is saying that sex is a major part of our identity, and when he lose the safety of our identity, we lose that objective of having sex. Now, that is not the only thing the film is saying, it also has very prominent themes of the upper class and the problems of excess, but on my first viewing, this is what I thought of the film. But in the end, what happens is out of our control, what happens behind closed doors, to that, our eyes truly remain, wide shut.

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