Here we see Nick Nightingale playing the song Backwards Priest, meaning that people in the ritual actually hear that music and that the whole thing is choreographed to it. May I have the password please? This peculiar Indian atmosphere, combined with the lascivious scenes witnessed by Bill as he walks around the house, ultimately points towards the most important, yet most hidden part of the movie: Tantric Yoga and its Western occultism derivative, Sex Magick. [5] Kubrick considered casting both Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger as Bill Harford and Alice Harford. [9][11] In an introduction to a Penguin Classics edition of Dream Story, Raphael wrote that "Fridolin is not declared to be a Jew, but his feelings of cowardice, for failing to challenge his aggressor, echo the uneasiness of Austrian Jews in the face of Gentile provocation. [83] The first footage was shown to theater owners attending the 1999 ShoWest convention in Las Vegas. Kubrick likes to keep things mysterious. Invitations were printed in reversed writing. In many ways, Eyes Wide Shut plays like a dark comedy more than it does a serious drama - after all, the basic . But it was three months before the movie was due to be released. For a few weeks, most of the rep houses in the city were screening Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut.The director's final film . DOLLY BACK . Kubrick.. After an argument with his wife, Dr. Bill Harford finds himself in a surreal succession of sexually charged encounters and mysterious rituals among the rich and powerful, who will do anything to maintain their secrets. Club was also highly positive, arguing that "the film's primal, almost religious intensity and power is primarily derived from its multifaceted realization that disobeying the dictates of society and your conscience can be both terrifying and exhilarating. Host Victor interrupts with news of an overdose by Mandy, a young woman he was having sex with. Eyes Wide Shut is a 1999 erotic mystery psychological drama film directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick.It is based on the 1926 novella Traumnovelle (Dream Story) by Arthur Schnitzler, transferring the story's setting from early twentieth-century Vienna to 1990s New York City.The plot centers on a doctor who is shocked when his wife (Nicole Kidman) reveals that she had . Geoffrey Stanton, Guide to Venetian Carnival Masks. He discovers that an ex-beauty queen, Mandy, has died from an overdose and identifies her at the morgue. About a secret party, the whore he meets. At one point during his strange night out, Bill meets his old friend Nick Nightingale at a jazz cafe. There was no basking because there was no awesome. ), she had important friends in the fashion and entertainment worlds, and she had an affair with a powerful fashion designer who got wowed by her private, seductive solo performances (typical behavior of a Beta Kitten). [48], Pook was hired after choreographer Yolande Snaith rehearsed the masked ball orgy scene using Pook's composition "Backwards Priests" which features a Romanian Orthodox Divine Liturgy recorded in a church in Baia Mare, played backwards as a reference track. A masked woman warns him he's in danger. Which may be the whole point. Eyes Wide Shut is a 1999 film about a New York City doctor who pushes himself on a harrowing and dangerous night-long odyssey of sexual and moral discovery after his wife admits that she once almost cheated on him.. Common Sense got this film wrong. As 1999 approached, what little was known about Eyes Wide Shut was almost indecently tantalising. Mentmore Towers was built in the 19th century as a country house for a member of the most prominent and powerful elite family in the world: The Rothschilds. UNCENSORED! High-ranking individuals in these fields are initiated in occult secret societies and deal with MK slaves. 'Eyes Wide Shut' Turns 15 & Audiences Still Think It's About - Bustle The director died six days later. Cruise and Kidman were married, and Tom had left the church temporarily (from 1992-2000), because Nicole would . Derived from a Beethoven opera, it was a unique password just for him. Furthermore, the High Priest has an unmistakable English accent. The Underappreciated Comedy Of 'Eyes Wide Shut' Eyes Wide Shut is more concerned with the self-centered side, as it pertains to human sexuality but also as it pertains to the stories we tell ourselves about the world and our place in it. [37] Larry Smith, who had first served as a gaffer on both Barry Lyndon and The Shining, was chosen by Kubrick to be the film's cinematographer. Nicole Kidman, one of the stars of the film, briefly wrote about the completion of the film and the release of the film being at the same time of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s death from her perspective: There was a lot of interest in Eyes Wide Shut before it was released. Citing contractual obligations to deliver an R rating, Warner Bros. digitally altered the orgy for the film's American release by blocking out graphic sexuality using additional figures to obscure the view in order to avoid an adults-only NC-17 rating that would have limited distribution, as some large American theaters and video store operators banned films with that rating. He had to show it to Tom and Nicole because they had to sign nudity releases, and to Terry Semel and Bob Daly of Warner Bros., but he hated it that he had to, and I could hear it in his voice that he did.[128]. This aspect of the movie, along with other hidden details, will be analyzed in the third and final part of this series of articles on Eyes Wide Shut. Eyes Wide Shut: Decoding Hidden Symbolism of Stanley Kubrick- Episode read also here: http://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/2009/11/28/eyes-wide-shut-no-8/, EDIT: and here http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/11/no-dream-is-ever-just-a-dream-eyes-wide-shut. In reality, these elaborate rituals often incorporate real attempts at Black Magick and include real blood sacrifices and other terrible acts. This last concept was imported by British occultist Aleister Crowley and is now at the center of the teachings of various secret societies: Aleister Crowleys connections with Indian Yoga and Tantra were both considerable and complex. Second Life Maps | Eyes Wide Shut The last scene of the movie takes place at a toy store a place full of highly symbolic items (more on it in the next article). Was Stanley Kubrick trying to warn the world about the occult elite and its depraved ways? The thing I remember most about Eyes Wide Shut, beside the great musical choices that were made for the soundtrack, was reading a review of the movie in a newspaper. that the dramatic climax of the novella is actually Albertina's dream, and the film has shifted the focus to Bill's visit to the secret society's orgy, whose content is more shocking in the film. [135] She also discredited Ermey's claims, saying to a user who asked about Kubrick's alleged comments, "[not to] believe that for a second."[136]. We saw that Bill and Alice Harford are a married upper-class couple that was not immune to the temptations of adultery. Who are these aristocrats whose limos take them to secret masked orgies in Long Island mansions? WikiLeaks The logo of WikiLeaks, an hourglass with a globe leaking from top to bottom Screenshot Screenshot of WikiLeaks' main page as of 27 June 2011 Type of site Document archive and disclosure Available in English, but the source documents are in their original language Owner Sunshine Press Created by Julian Assange Key people Julian Assange (director) Kristinn Hrafnsson (editor-in-chief . "[94] Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 68 out of 100 based on 34 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". It is classified as such in the book The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema, by Linda Ruth Williams,[57] and was described as such in news articles about Cruise and Kidman's lawsuit over assertions that they saw a sex therapist during filming. Dreams and the subconscious are powerful, and have the ability to transform our waking lives. Dr. Bill Harford: Marion, I don't think you realize. He gains entry but he gets found out later he's an intruder. At the end, he confesses all of his attempts to his wife, and she says "Well, good thing you didn't follow through on any of them! Kubrick obtained the filming rights for Dream Story in the 1960s, considering it a perfect text for a film adaptation about sexual relations. He revived the project in the 1990s when he hired writer Frederic Raphael to help him with the adaptation. [66] Michael Koresky, writing in the 2006 issue of film journal Reverse Shot, writes "this director, who defies expectations at every turn and brings genre to his feet, was setting out to make neither the 'erotic thriller' that the press maintained nor an easily identifiable 'Kubrick film'". [105] Many critics, such as Manohla Dargis of LA Weekly, found the prolific orgy scene to be "banal" and "surprisingly tame". The above quote stipulates that Tantric concepts were incorporated in two important secret societies: the A.:A.: and the OTO (Ordo Templi Orientis). Vigilant Citizen (VC) addresses secret society ritual in second article - pretty interesting stuff. [6][7] The project was revived in 1994 when Kubrick hired Frederic Raphael to work on the script, updating the setting from early 20th century Vienna to late 20th century New York City. Red Cloak : That's right, sir! It is also the first American home video release to feature the uncut version. Find the exact moment in a TV show, movie, or music video you want to share. [138], Debate over the film's state of completion, Lowenberg, Peter. Nelson notes that the sex ritual combines elements of Venetian Carnival and Catholic rites, in particular, the character of "Red Cloak" who simultaneously serves as Grand Inquisitor and King of Carnival. Eyes Wide Shut Posters for Sale | Redbubble That's like uh using a MAN to celebrate a day dedicated to women. The building used to film the outside scene is Mentmore Towers in the UK. http://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/2009/11/28/eyes-wide-shut-no-8/, http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/11/no-dream-is-ever-just-a-dream-eyes-wide-shut. [90], Shortly after its screening at the Venice Film Festival, Eyes Wide Shut had a British premiere on September 3, 1999, at the Warner Village cinema in Leicester Square. The next day, they go Christmas shopping with their daughter, and Bill apologizes to Alice. [42], After shooting had been completed, Kubrick entered a prolonged post-production process and on March 1, 1999, Kubrick showed a cut to Cruise, Kidman and the Warner Bros. executives. These acts were however not just for fun or to shock people as some sources might claim, the members were initiates of occult mysteries and their rituals were based in ancient rites involving invocations and other forms of black magick. One guess I had was that Nick was trying to set him up all along, as part of a blood sacrifice. Ones individual standing was immensely important for the perception of his or her entire family, and so naturally the pressure to act in accordance with the social morays governing ones social standing was immense and stifling. [10] In the film, Bill is taunted with homophobic slurs. It's because there was no second password. Welcome to /r/FanTheories! Asians are White. This is how Dr. William Harford managed to enter the orgy house in the amazing Stanley Kubrick's thriller "Eyes Wide Shut" (1999-Warner Bros, Stanley Kubrick. when they ask him what the second password is, and he admits he doesn't know, they say there is no second password. Eyes Wide Shut (1999): The 90-Second Trailer They go to a Christmas party where the other party guests flirt with them . UNCENSORED! The composer's work ended up having mostly string instruments including a viola played by Pook herself with no brass or woodwinds as Pook "just couldn't justify these other textures", particularly as she wanted the tracks played on dialogue-heavy scenes to be "subliminal" and felt such instruments would be intrusive. Nightingale is blindfolded because the profane cannot witness the occult rituals of the elite. "He told me it was a piece of shit", Ermey said in Radar magazine, "and that he was disgusted with it and that the critics were going to 'have him for lunch'. Most home videos remove the verse that was claimed to be cited from the sacred Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita (although it was Pook's reworking of "Backwards Priests" as stated above.) Eyes Wide Shut: Being kind is a superpower that not many people have! The film's depiction of sexual depravity and amorality could easily venture into the realm of camp in the hands of a lesser filmmaker, but Kubrick depicts primal evil in a way that somehow makes it seem both new and deeply terrifying. Of course, 'Eyes Wide Shut', the phrase itself, is a calling card among secret societies, meaning 'my eyes are shut to your misdeeds, brother.' This anonymity is required of participants, in order to cloak society's moneyed elite. Eyes Wide Shut Stanley Kubrick Poster. Kubrick died six days after showing the final cut of Eyes Wide Shut to Warner Bros., making it the final film he directed. [39] The paintings of Kubrick's wife Christiane and his daughter Katherina are featured as decorations. . You can attempt an explanation to all of his other films, but no absolute one is possible for this one. Bill returns home to find the rented mask on his pillow and confides in his wife, Alice, about the past two days. The regular guests had a very different password and the girls and the rest of the staff probably had a different set of passwords as well. "[73] Furthermore, he argues that "Eyes Wide Shut, though it was released in summer, was the Christmas movie of 1999. moment in a TV show, movie, or music video you want to share. As many masks as were used in the Venetian carnival were sent to London and Kubrick chose who would wear each piece. The password to enter the ritual is 'Fidelio', which means 'faithfulness . Stanley was absolutely thrilled with the film. The numbers put it as Kubrick's second-highest-grossing film in the country, behind 2001: A Space Odyssey,[89] but both were considered a box office disappointment.