Eyes Wide Shut (1999) (dir. Stanley Kubrick)

Christmas, Sex & Capitalism through the eyes of one of our great directors.

“Fuck” - Alice, at the end of Eyes Wide Shut.

When I first saw Eyes Wide Shut back in 1999 at the Kerasotes Theater in Northwest Indiana, my friend and I laughed hysterically at the very last word we’ll ever hear in a Stanley Kubrick film. During the car ride home, I began talking about the fact that sex, technology, fractured masculinity and the absurdity of being alive, factor into the majority of Kubrick’s previous work. The late 90s was around the time that movies became more than just a reason to go out, I became an avid reader, thinker, analyzer and even experienced a few short-lived relationships. It wasn’t until a year later that I’d find myself in my first serious relationship where sex became something I could count on for pleasure and connection with another person. More on that later since I didn’t lose my virginity until I was 21.

It makes sense that my favorite Christmas film happens to be my favorite Stanley Kubrick film because it brings me back to a time when I started to maintain relationships, share opinions and ideas and even began making silly movies of my own. It was a time of growth and slowly learning to love my brain even for its imperfections. My body, not so much. That’s a whole other subplot to dive into when I write about James Mangold’s Heavy in the future. Let’s talk about the stuff that dreams are made of. This movie.

The first line of the film, “Honey, have you seen my wallet?” probably hasn’t been thought of as much. Though to be fair, there are probably a hundred or more YouTube videos analyzing every frame of Eyes Wide Shut, much like they have with The Shining. As much as the film is about sex (both real and imagined), there is an emphasis on status and capitalistic transactions as well. I think of the scene with cabbie in which Bill tears a $100 bill in half or the negotiation required for Bill to acquire a costume at such a late hour.

You can even frame the way Bill flashes around his medical license as a status symbol (“I’m a doctor, you can trust me, I make good money”). Some might read into the film’s depiction of Christmas trees and the way materialism is shown as taking precedence over the spiritualism of the season. And perhaps how money can provide the ability to have casual, orgiastic sex at a mansion full of other horny, rich people. Sex parties exist but I’m sure you need money to find the good ones. And this wild, wild orgy happens right before Christmas, no less. Right before they unwrap gifts with the kids at home.

Bill certainly wishes he could be a part of the world that his friend is allowed to take part in. One look at Ziegler’s home versus Bill’s clearly indicates otherwise. Bill’s insanely wealthy patient and compadre Victor Ziegler (Sydney Pollack) can go from gracious Christmas party host to having sex with a prostitute in the family bathroom upstairs. Bill and Alice - unlikely to be of that mindset with their young daughter around in that NY apartment.

You can see a parallel of their independent experiences of lust and curiosity taking control, whether it’s due to an over-consumption of champagne or not. Bill is tempted and flirting with two models walking down the hallway (mirroring what’s to come at the orgy only in a different context) while Alice is flirting with a rich, silver fox (probably a lot of men’s worst nightmares). Neither of them act on it of course at the party because right after they leave, they go home and immediately put on Chris Isaak and then proceed to make out in front of the mirror. We don’t see them fuck, so I assume it ends there.

Beware drinking too much or getting too high because that’s when people tend to get a little intensely honest or impulsive. The filter goes out the window for many. At the same time, there’s an incredible emotionality and vulnerability to the bedroom scene where Alice recounts her naval officer fantasy to Bill. Most moments before that involve laughter (whether uncomfortable or not) but the score changes tone towards the dramatic. It’s clear that Alice is serious about what’s she saying and Bill is overwhelmed. So out of sorts in fact that he spends the rest of the night thinking about what Alice might’ve done in a fantasy (even if she didn’t actually do it in reality).

The moment Bill arrives at the orgy, he is told by someone that he “doesn’t belong here.” He clearly doesn’t. Much like Alice, a fantasy should remain a fantasy, not something to be acted upon. But the sheer thought that Alice wanted to sleep with that naval officer is enough to fracture his ego to embark on an Edmond or After Hours-like pursuit of curiosity. As much as this odyssey could be driven by lust, it’s more akin to envy. Bill wants to use his income and status in hopes of sexual gratification but any time he tries, there is an interruption, sometimes by outside forces. I can vividly recall dreams where I would be having sex only to be interrupted and/or be unable to achieve orgasm. Rats!

Much can be said about temptation: “Don’t you think one of the charms of marriage is that it makes deception a necessity for both parties?” But the film ends up on a hopeful note, a discussion between Alice and Bill in the middle of a crowded toy store right before Christmas: “I do love you and you know there is something very important we need to do as soon as possible.” They need to be reminded of how much they want one another despite their “many adventures,” some of which likely only played inside the movies in their mind.

There’s a temptation for me to look at Eyes Wide Shut as a summation of all-things Kubrick. There are too many theories, many of them far-fetched to where it’s easy to do research and go down a rabbit hole to where you start looking for confirmation bias and clues. Some seem to think that Bill and Alice give up their daughter to a “sex cult,” at the end of the film and a painting hanging above Helena’s bed contains the word “sex” in it.

This reminds me of those who also seem to focus on the possibility that Jack in The Shining, sexually abuses Danny and that the bear fellatio scene is representative of that. Admittedly, it’s easy to think of Kubrick hinting at themes of the past, especially when you think of the little girl in the costume shop as being another Lolita-type figure, ready to be auctioned off by her father for the right price.

Eyes Wide Shut still plays as a fever dream. An American fever dream since capitalism still seeps into the story here. It’s also his most Lynchian film which likely explains my passion for it. Movies are not only empathy machines but they feel like extensions of the subconscious. Kubrick’s work is over-analyzed for a reason. People want to make sense of every layer, every choice, every symbol. At some point though, I realized that overthinking is a bit of a curse that sucks up far too much time. I’m not sure if my brain is wired to spend days and days decoding every frame in hopes of solving the mystery. Sometimes we should let the mystery remain unsolved. It can be more fun to let it linger on it rather than come up with a definitive conclusion as to what an artist intended. Honestly, we’ll never know anyway.

It’s not a movie that ties events up in a neat little bow. It presents a waking dream/nightmare – one of the normality of marriage and boredom and temptation leading to transgressions never fulfilled, sex becoming so sad and weird and slaughtered (again, that poor woman on the slab); and then, those lovely-creepy Christmas-lit houses and shops and clubs that, like Christmas, twinkle with excitement, but what happens after the bang of Christmas? Often depression. Eyes Wide Shut uses Christmas lights, trees and traditional Christmas colors with almost perverse relentlessness – it’s gorgeous, but it also can produce insanity-inducing yuletide anxiety. Fear.

Sex and death are near and the pall that hangs over this picture is fear: fear of betrayal, fear of yourself, fear of humiliation, fear of the unknown and the fear of knowing yourself. Do you want to know yourself? Do you want to be unmasked? But it’s also about being drawn towards that fear, towards that excitement, towards discovering what’s at the end of the rainbow. Perhaps it is death. Or, in a more positive reading, it’s a better understanding of your marriage.

One of the reasons Eyes Wide Shut is so complex and rich upon each viewing is – the idea of possibly cheating on your spouse (which seems like an easy plot point for a movie, but, here, isn’t) – brings up emotions that are as hard to navigate, mentally, as that topiary maze in The Shining. Bill may think he wants to stray, to experience a world he rarely visits because, as the model reminds him, he probably works too hard (and doctors do), but then… what is he seeking? Really? Beyond mended pride and masculinity and the fleeting pleasure of getting laid? - Kim Morgan

At the end of the film, Alice says to Bill, “The good thing is we are awake now”, addressing us, the audience, for waking up to the fact that this is really happening. As Paul Thomas Anderson said that same year in Magnolia, “this is something that happens.” Kubrick told the story of a society that is completely debased and corrupted by hidden forces, where humanity’s most primal urge, sexual passion, has been cheapened, fetishized and exploited to a point that it has lost all of its beauty, joy and wonder.

There’s also a willing denial of plain truths. Our eyes refuse to open, maybe because “no dream is ever just a dream.” Believe it or not, every time we close our eyes and go to sleep, our brains are creating an imaginary world to help us make sense of reality. Sounds a lot like filmmaking only without a budget nor a large crew to assist us. I’m a weirdo - I can’t wait to go to sleep at night and see what fucked up dreams my mind is going to provide even if I likely won’t remember them upon awakening.

I’ll also take a minute here to proclaim my love of Tom Cruise at this point in his career. A trifecta of fascinating performances starts with this then Magnolia and a couple years later, the underrated Vanilla Sky (another I’ll likely write about). I feel like each of the films comment on Cruise’s persona to a degree and all of them showcase a time when this actor took risks and became a bit more fearless. He definitely gave incredible performances before 1999 like in Rain Main and Born on the Fourth Of July, but he seemed to divest himself a bit from movie star status to really dive into the deep end. It’s almost as if he treated acting like therapy especially when you think of the breakdown by the father’s bedside in Magnolia. I miss this Tom Cruise as enjoyable as it is to watch him as an aging action star currently.

I know it’s weird to get shockingly personal here (I say this in jest), but going back to being a kid, I dreaded Christmas. It meant more people, more stimuli, more gifts that I was expected to enjoy. Over the years, when I attend parties or gatherings, you’ll likely find me being more of a wallflower that chooses a spot to take refuge in rather than actively engage. Of course, I enjoy people, especially listening to them. But I always felt introverted to a fault even as a kid. I wasn’t excited about Disneyland or Christmas, which made me feel like an alien. Then like I’ve said many times here on Substack, I discovered film, books and music. I could enjoy them with people too but they were a solitary solace that opened up my imagination. They would eventually become my outlet and a way to make friends and connections and relationships. (This comes up a lot for a reason).

Perhaps it’s because I'm a “less is more” person in general. There was even a long stretch of time where I would actively suppress sexual desire because it meant feeling “more” positive energy than I was used to. I never let myself feel that good because I didn’t think I deserved it. Growing up, things were often quiet and comfortable. I was certainly depressed with low self-esteem but there’s no set reason why my brain developed that way. My parents were both reserved in expressing their love for one another (though they did for me which I’m grateful for). Then again, I know they loved each other so perhaps they showed it when I would go to sleep especially in the basement when they’d play music loudly (maybe for a reason).

On New Year’s Eve in the year 2000, I finally “let go,” with my partner and of course there was awkwardness, clumsiness and the feeling that I should’ve done this sooner especially when there may have been opportunities in the past. Like most things, it just took me a long while to get comfortable with being vulnerable, naked and even emotionally expressive. Through writing and music and making silly home movies, that’s where my passionate energy came out. It didn’t always involve other people or a fear of being judged. Sex felt like the ultimate experience of judgment - that I wouldn’t be as good as other partners were. Again, insecurity and fear created a cyclical pattern of repressing what I actually wanted and wanted to be.

Alice seems to be saying that she and Bill can only, truly be together when they are fucking: intimate, naked and unthinking. Thus, at the end of the film, it is learned that a married couple who remain faithful to each other in body, but not in mind, must come to terms with both psychological illusions of paranoia and fantasy to ensure the security of their relationship. According to Lacan, that desire to persevere stems from the mysteries that the illusions hold (279-280). It is in our interpretation, or perception, of what we see that defines our lives. Fantasy becomes reality and the truth becomes unknowable, something that lies in the unconscious. This leaves us with consciousness as our perception, while the unknowable and traumatic truth lies in our unconscious.

By not knowing anything, you know the truth hence “eyes wide shut.” Seeing but not seeing — ego-consciousness. That is the solution, and it is a happy ending to the film. We know it is happy in the book with a reference to a “child’s gay laughter” and a “triumphant sunbeam”. The movie makes a reference to the child’s laughter of the book by placing the couple in a toy store, which is filled with laughing children as background noise to this exchange between Bill and Alice. In the end, Kubrick aims to show us that there is a transformation toward greater awareness in the relationship between Bill and Alice. It seems superficial fucking will protect them from their dreams. Alice seems to say that they should not meditate on paranoia and fantasy and just be together. This revelation only arises with the awareness of the power of the dream.

So long as individual minds wander in the world of sexual fantasy, you will have the kind of conflict that so disturbs the life of the central husband and wife characters in Eyes Wide Shut. So long as people struggle to maintain relationships in the face of conflicts caused by things as seemingly trivial as fantasy, you will have psychologists who will try to make sense of this. The search for understanding the psychology of couples and people in general is an ever-evolving science. - Hans Morgenstern

Let’s face it: monogamy is complicated for many. How many movies exist surrounding infidelity and the consequences of fulfilling a fantasy? There’s even a new movie coming out called Babygirl in which Nicole Kidman actually does fulfill the fantasy, only not with a naval officer, but with a young co-worker. In a way, it makes sense that Eyes Wide Shut was Kubrick’s last film because sex is a universal language we all speak (whether we’re asexual or polyamorous).

He tackled a lot of layers surrounding interpersonal human experiences and how we often become dehumanized by the expectations of society or certainly in something like 2001, the evolution of technology as being a potential threat. (I still see the monolith as being a stand-in for an iPhone, an HDTV, a movie screen). Or now I frame A Clockwork Orange even more differently than I did when I was younger as being an indictment against control, positive reinforcement and punishment towards a criminal mind.

Eyes Wide Shut remains one of my absolute favorite films because of what it made me think and feel the first time I saw it and how that feeling has stayed with me, upon each subsequent viewing. Not to mention it’s also the funniest of Kubrick’s work outside of Dr. Strangelove. The scene with Alan Cumming as the hotel clerk especially brings a smile to my face. I could go on analyzing further about the use of rainbows (see below: there’s even a lens flare rainbow at crotch level when Bill goes back to Domino’s apartment only to begin seducing her roommate).

Perhaps, the film contains allusions to Illuminati propaganda, thanks to Kubrick’s penchant for subliminal imagery. (See Room 237 for further proof). But I’d rather just let the experience of writing this as a stream-of-consciousness reflection stand as is. It’s how I wrote when I was younger (you can make the argument that I need an editor for that reason). Suffice to say, something about this film and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread speaks to me strongly about relationships in ways that are hard to simply sum up as hard as I try. The latter of which makes me cry, laugh and provide goosebumps at the delivery of the line, “Kiss me, my girl, before I’m sick.”

It’s funny to end on this note but Eyes Wide Shut is often a very funny film but to me, this final work of art from one of our best directors is the gift that keeps on giving. It’s one of the best Christmas presents I’ve ever received and the best thing is, unlike the dreams I dream, I can keep going back to it every year, finding joy and pleasure in watching Tom Cruise’s emasculation but also Nicole Kidman’s best performance (the bedroom scene alone). Every supporting turn is memorable, every blue hue contrasted by deep reds. That insanely ear-piercing piano score that my parents despised. Even watching ridiculous YouTube videos that hint at deeper meanings is a blast though for the most part, I’d say they are reaching. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Eyes Wide Shut says so much that I respond to in similar ways I experience with other favorite dreamlike films particularly Mulholland Drive. Face it: sex itself is often quite funny and it can create such fragile dynamics among people to where they do cheat, act on fantasies or simply dive into their imagination (or pornography) to appease curiosity of more experiences. Not to mention the sheer human need most of us share - that there is something very important we all hope to do with or without a partner. “Fuck”