(My first post ever in HIVE 🤓)
Director Stanley Kubrick died unexpectedly just a few days after finally showing the final cut of Eyes Wide Shut to the producers (1999), in what could be labelled as a masterful (and definitely mysterious) ending to an already glorious career. Some of his works, like A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odissey or Barry Lyndon have already become absolute classics and belong in any "must watch" list for cinephiles. And it is my personal view that Eyes Wide Shut is the most perfect in a list full of perfectly crafted works of art. The fact that he himself called it his "greatest contribution to the art of cinema" should be enough to feel the need to take a closer look into it.
There is not so much to say about its plot: we follow Doctor Bill's (Tom Cruise) journey into the night after he discovers his wife (Nicole Kidman) has been toying with the fantasy of having sex with another man. It's as simple as that, and it's only that: fantasies (she never actually does anything). The mere idea of her wife having been unfaithful in her thoughts somehow destroys Doctor Bill's peace of mind and triggers his descent into a dangerous world of sex, masked parties, luxurious orgies, eerie persecutions and, eventually, the fear for his life and his loved ones.
It is through an old friend from medical school, Nick Nightingale, who never finished his studies and now works as a pianist for this wealthy (and, as we are about to learn, secretly deranged) exclusive society that Bill gets the password to enter one of these masked balls and, eventually, get himself in deep, deep trouble. This password, "Fidelio", has a powerful symbolic meaning, as it ironically refers to the "faithful" personality of Doctor Bill (which, apparently, is about to take a radical turn).
Doctor Bill's story is the story of a man who tried to go beyond his natural (imposed by society) boundaries, tempted by a simple, momentaneous glance at another world, a world of rich, nocturnal parties only known to a few, where he would meet beautiful women and enjoy all sorts of delicacies. Now that he has found out about it, he can't help himself and will go wherever it takes to taste it.
Kubrick's love for detail finds its way through the door of the country mansion where Doctor Bill joins a masked ball with apparently satanic rituals and music played by his pal Nick Nightingale, now blindfolded. Whatever it is that is going on here, neither us nor Bill could know, as we find ourselves suddenly witnessing an odd ceremony surrounded by individuals hiding behind venetian masks. As the minutes go by, and we walk around the house under doctor Bill's skin, a masterful shot of opulent rooms and carpeted corridors gives way to all sorts of pintoresque scenes of lascivious acts and Bacchanalia. This is definitely a deep inside the rabbit hole look.
A weird couple seems to have identified Bill as soon as he steps inside, which feels both disturbing and impossible at the same time (because he is just one masked individual among many, and nobody could possibly know his identity. At least, yet.).
But, one could wonder: what's actually going on here? What is Kubrick trying to tell us? Is this just a tale about some kind of secret society, and the lesson is we should never venture ourselves out there, if we don't want to take huge risks? As one of the girls from the masked ball tells doctor Bill (and, why not, us as spectators): "But you don't belong here". There, I believe, lies one of the keys to unravel the mystery of this film. He never should have fallen to the temptation. He doesn't belong to that secret society. He's just an ordinary man and he must go back home with his wife and kids. There are boundaries you can't break. Viktor Ziegler, his millionaire friend, is indeed one of them. But there's a huge distance between him and Ziegler. And if you try to cover that distance when you aren't entitled, everything will fail. And it is in that intriguing danger, in that sudden urge to break one's boundaries and chase wonders and pleasure, that lies the magic and beauty of Eyes Wide Shut.
