Well let me make this clear — I don’t like it. I don’t hate it. I’m just not interested. I don’t have to like it. Do I?? If I continue to dislike it till the end of my days, that means I’m a MORON?
Come on, Ben. That is WAY wrong to think about people that way. You’re joking right that you judge people like that?
Precisely, that’s why I posted the comment in the form of a Bill Murray quote which I presumed could not be taken too, too seriously.
Edit: granted, in truth I am also deeply judgmental, but I try not to show it.
Odi… if you’re a moron.. then you’re my favorite moron.
Followed by Steve Martin in The Jerk.
@Ben — Oh thank God! I’m not very good at reading certain kinds of humor over the net…
@Mary — :P (I’d do drool, but I think that’s enough with the emoticon thingy)
Ha! Sorry for the rise. And to think, I was only worried about offending fans of blood sausage.
I don’t have to like it. Do I??
Odi, are these chumps giving you any trouble? I can take them out if you want.
@Kate — lol! And I believe you’d do a thorough and merciless job of it! :D
EDIT — I’d make a better tactician in war than an assassin. Too much of a softy… I’m not the one who does the harsh disciplining with my kids, no surprise there…
@Ben — that’s ok! It’s a matter of things being lost in translation. And no, I’m not trying to bring that movie up for discussion.
There’s hate for Eyes Wide Shut? I thought everyone here, including myself, masturbated mentally and physically over this film. Kubrick. Film. We’re supposed to hail it as a masterpiece without thinking critically about it.
@James — there are better candidates for masturbation out there I believe, mental and otherwise… ;)
Like Salo!!!
Hmmm…. Alteration to line said to Tom Cruise: “TAKE OFF YOUR CLOTHES, MASTERPIECE!”
(master…. piece… bate…)
Sorry I couldn’t help that.
@James — well, yeah, if you want to go down the twisted, all-out route…
“there are better candidates for masturbation out there I believe, mental and otherwise”
Do you mean James shouldn’t masturbate, or that one shouldn’t masturbate while watching this movie?
@Matt — huh? I was just saying there were better movies than Eyes Wide Shut for such things, i.e. masturbation.
LOL I wasn’t commenting on James’ talents in this area or making a judgement on whether it should be done or not to a movie! (though please don’t pull a Pee Wee Herman, if you don’t want to be ridiculed that is).
Sheesh, we are frisky on a Monday, aren’t we? lol
James does seem like he might have some boundary issues, so . . .
Ha ha ha! Oh God… Please — “boundary issues,” keep all that away! lol
You know honestly I’m not the type of person who needs to read a lot about a film to appreciate it. I trust my instincts when I see a film, if there’s something interesting about it I can’t understand, then I explore further. But there has to be that interest in it, at least that if not outright liking the film.
If I were a film critic, I’d consider it my job to INTELLECTUALLY appreciate a film even if deep down inside I wouldn’t be interested in ever watching it again. Because that would be my job.
@Odilon – I couldn’t agree more. Such a great post.
One thing I know, the films that linger in my mind (even if it’s just certain images or scenes), those are the ones that mean something to me.
I just watched this for the first time last night. My initial response was that I was impressed but not blown away. I loved the dreamy atmosphere of the film, I found it very thematically engaging and just so gosh darn fascinating. The 12 minute long scene where Kidman and Cruise are smoking pot and Kidman confronts Cruise about his dismissiveness towards female sexuality and also opens up to him about the feelings she had towards the naval officer: that’s probably my favourite scene in any Kubrick film. I went back to rewatch that scene after the film had finished, which is a sign of how gripping and effective I found it.
When the film finished I would have given it four stars and said I tentatively loved it. But it’s burrowed into my mind. I’ve watched a lot of films these past few days and there’s the tendency for them to become a bit of a blur – I watch one, I let it settle in my mind for 45 minutes or so afterwards, then straight on to the next one. Yet I can’t stop going over scenes from this film, and thinking about it. And the article Brian P linked to on the previous page confirms for me many things that I was kind of wondering about the film and really helps the film open up for me. And thus it became five stars. I can’t bring myself to call it one of Kubrick’s very best films (for me his masterpieces, which is a word I feel awkward using, are 2001 and The Shining), but it’s certainly his most fascinating out of those I’ve seen and certainly the one I can see myself revisiting most often over the next few years.
It’s always interesting to me, Cecil, to see younger people list The Shining as one of Kubrick’s masterpieces without feeling the need to justify it. When I was about your age, The Shining was generally considered to be a minor work, sort of like Eyes Wide Shut has been up to that point, and has only gradually come to be fully appreciated in the interim.
^^But is EWS really the undisputed ‘classic’ that a few people in this thread are saying it is? Is it even considered a classic outside of the circle of Kubrick fanboys?
This is this annoying need to justify every single one of his films as masterpieces, especially because they were ‘ahead of their time’. please! Kubrick hadn’t been ‘ahead’ of the pack in decades. no way people were not appreciating the ‘genius’ of films like Shining and EWS for that reason.
and i like both films.
victorian melodrama simply placed into modern day with little connection to actual reality is hardly ahead of its time. One thing I HATE about the film is how out of touch it is with anything approaching reality, almost like an alien with no concept of human ideas and emotions made it. Sort of reminds me when Woody Allen tries to write young people who still worship jazz and old movies
“probably my favourite scene in any Kubrick film”
Could be for me too. The performance styles are fascinating, and even moreso from a married couple. And the performances are each ensconced in striking, clashing graphic frames (I think even moreso in the unauthorized Academy ratio framings)—the postures, color design, and lighting of their respective backgrounds.
I’m also continually killed by the fact that Alice EXPECTS Bill to remember the naval officer and reacts with surprise that he does not, that he does not harbor jealousy about it. She WANTS him to be jealous of the situation, and appears hurt that he was not, which in turn leads to his reaction of hurt throughout the rest of the movie.
…which makes it all the more tragic that Kidman has noted that it was really just the weed talking in her character. An extreme, hurtful mood shift due to a reaction to drugs. Granted, it seems like the couple is confronting genuine, long-standing problems in how they relate and communicate, so the conversation is a necessary catalyst for that.
“But is EWS really the undisputed ‘classic’ that a few people in this thread are saying it is?”
Obviously it’s not undisputed, or this thread would have died out long before now (which it kinda did only to get resurrected . . . .but anyway . . .), but the point is not that it was or wasn’t “ahead of its time,” but that, value judgements aside, most good films take a while to digest and for people to reach any kind of consensus as to whether they’re any good or not. The point was only that The Shining was once considered the epitome of minor Kubrick, and now it’s thought of differently, and the same sort of thing seems to be currently at work with opinions re: the merit of Eyes Wide Shut.
Ben Simington
Exactly! ;)
Different strokes for different strokes. I certainly hated EYES WIDE SHUT for years.