Kubrick's haunting, psychosexual masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (5 November 2007)

EYES WIDE SHUT (1999)
Number 1 - 1999
Top 10 - 1990s
Top 100 - All Time
Stanley Kubrick's ultimate film is many things. A compelling psychosexual journey, a haunting, surrealistic experience and a fascinatingly chilling study of the darker aspects of humanity.
This is a satisfying conclusion to the career of one of the greatest figures in the history of cinema. Eyes Wide Shut is no ordinary film. It is a stunning, spectrum of dreams and opportunities avoided. This is what Kubrick should be remembered for; daring, outrageous film-making, graphic, unbelievable scenes, moments, words...
The anticipation to this film had been groundbreaking. CRUISE.KIDMAN.KUBRICK. was the tagline... Critics were ready to praise or scrutinise the great director's work, and they did. Eyes Wide Shut, like most of Kubrick's films (including 2001, A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket) was met with mixed reviews.
Some critics were ecstatic, awarding the film a five star rating, while others were severely critical. This is an important thing for Kubrick films; they are strange, personal, mystical, ambiguous pictures that may provoke or bore - this is what makes Stanley Kubrick the great filmmaker that he was and shall ever be.
Classifying 'Eyes Wide Shut' as an erotic thriller does not do it justice. This is an intense, visceral study of humanity, the bonds that bring us together and the lusts that disintegrate us as a society. I refuse to believe that Stanley Kubrick spent his time making a film just to display graphic sexuality and nudity. This film is about so much more.
Kubrick studies how the various functions and derivatives in our society cause us to become depersonalised, dehumanised and become mere primitive animals enganging in crude acts.
The famous orgy scene, which was subjected to ludicruous digital altering for the American cinemas is something splendidly unusual. It is a vivid, visual orgy, a mad orchestration of colours, lighting, costumes and music, a sequence that remarkably reminds of the kind of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick is.
As Dr. Bill Harford (Tom Cruise), wonders through the halls, passing near masked men and women that engage in sexual acts - here sex is nothing more than a sinful, pleasurous activity. The human element of love and passion in sexual intercourse is completely stripped in this stunning, intoxicating sequence. There are probably important people behind that mask, hiding behind a layer of plastic that is covering their identity, and if revealed, it would be disastrous...
Kubrick plays special attention to each scene; he doesn't roll them together, he pauses, like each scene is like a dream or rather a nightmare. The perfectionist that is Kubrick is apparent in every camera angle in this film.
Perhaps Kubrick wants to tell us that everything is so easy to access for the affluent. Sex, drugs, fantasies, yet nothing seems enough at the end.
The film is two and a half hours long, it's structured beautifully and with passion across every scene, and of course there's no denying that this is strictly an adult film that collides with elements of psychological thriller, intense drama and perhaps at times surrealistic horror.
This is no small feat. Kubrick departed the pantheon of cinema in glorious fashion, with his last intoxicating masterpiece. Ironically, the last word ever uttered on a Stanley Kubrick film is F*CK...
10/10