An enormous phallus ... but founded in unstable sand

Rating: 10/10 (1 July 2001)

I am probably the last person who should write anything about this movie. I am a profound deep admiror of Schnitzler, and am very fond of Austrian decadentism. I was so amazed, happy, thrilled to find out at the end of the movie that the story was actually taken from Schnitzler, a writer whom I have always admired. The decadence of The Male is very well conveyed in this movie. I hope I am not forcing the interpretation, but I thought that Tom Cruise was very well chosen as his role is certainly that of a pathetic loser. Cruise's character is a sort of Ulysses restlessly traveling through the most trivial masculine sexual depravations. It is in the nature of things that most of the public didn't like the movie. It became so famous thanks to Kubrik's name and that of Cruise and Nicole Kidman. However, it's not typical Hollywood movie, and it's difficult to like it without some background. Personally it was a great experience, and I didn't have to put any effort to let myself navigate into the dreamy atmosphere. The part of the masuquerade was superbous. The musics, the masks, a perfect Freudian nightmare. Also, there is no room for women in the movie. They are represetned simply as the object of male's desires and aspirations. Nothing is dedicated to the explanation of their own world. It's a film all in the masculine gender, but extremely autocritical. I loved to watch the movie, I felt I was looking in a mirror, or sitting at a psychanalist who choses nice words to explain your own pathetic selfconscious