Genre
The film was described by some reviewers, and partially marketed, as an erotic thriller, a categorization disputed by others. It is classified as such in the book The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema, by Linda Ruth Williams,[61] and was described as such in news articles about Cruise and Kidman's lawsuit over assertions that they saw a sex therapist during filming.[62][63] The positive review in Combustible Celluloid describes it as an erotic thriller upon first viewing, but actually a "complex story about marriage and sexuality".[64] High-Def Digest also called it an erotic thriller.[65]
However, reviewing the film at AboutFilm.com, Carlo Cavagna regards this as a misleading classification,[66] as does Leo Goldsmith, writing at notcoming.com,[67] and the review on Blu-ray.com.[68] Writing in TV Guide, Maitland McDonagh writes "No one familiar with the cold precision of Kubrick's work will be surprised that this isn't the steamy erotic thriller a synopsis (or the ads) might suggest."[69] Writing in general about the genre of 'erotic thriller' for CineAction in 2001, Douglas Keesey states that "whatever [Eyes Wide Shut's] actual type, [it] was at least marketed as an erotic thriller".[70] 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'".[71] DVD Talk similarly dissociates the film from this genre.[72]
Christmas setting
In addition to relocating the story from Vienna in the 1900s to New York City in the 1990s, Kubrick changed the time-frame of Schnitzler's story from Mardi Gras to Christmas. Michael Koresky believed Kubrick did this because of the rejuvenating symbolism of Christmas.[14] Mario Falsetto, on the other hand, notes that Christmas lights allow Kubrick to employ some of his distinct methods of shooting including using source location lighting, as he also did in Barry Lyndon.[73] The New York Times notes that the film "gives an otherworldly radiance and personality to Christmas lights",[74] and critic Randy Rasmussen notes that "colorful Christmas lights ... illuminate almost every location in the film."[75] Harper's film critic, Lee Siegel, believes that the film's recurring motif is the Christmas tree, because it symbolizes the way that "Compared with the everyday reality of sex and emotion, our fantasies of gratification are ... pompous and solemn in the extreme ... For desire is like Christmas: it always promises more than it delivers."[76] Author Tim Kreider notes that the "Satanic" mansion-party at Somerton is the only set in the film without a Christmas tree, stating that "Almost every set is suffused with the dreamlike, hazy glow of colored lights and tinsel."[77] Furthermore, he argues that "Eyes Wide Shut, though it was released in summer, was the Christmas movie of 1999."[77] Noting that Kubrick has shown viewers the dark side of Christmas consumerism, Louise Kaplan states that the film illustrates ways in which the "material reality of money" is shown replacing the spiritual values of Christmas, charity, and compassion. While virtually every scene has a Christmas tree, there is "no Christmas music or cheery Christmas spirit."[78] Critic Alonso Duralde, in his book Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, categorized the film as a "Christmas movie for grownups", arguing that "Christmas weaves its way through the film from start to finish".[79]
Use of Venetian masks
Historians, travel guide authors, novelists, and merchants of Venetian masks have noted that these have a long history of being worn during promiscuous activities.[80][81][82][83] Authors Tim Kreider and Thomas Nelson have linked the film's usage of these to Venice's reputation as a center of both eroticism and mercantilism. 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. As such, Nelson argues that the sex ritual is a symbolic mirror of the darker truth behind the façade of Victor Ziegler's earlier Christmas party.[84] Carolin Ruwe, in her book Symbols in Stanley Kubrick's Movie 'Eyes Wide Shut', argues that the mask is the prime symbol of the film. Its symbolic meaning is represented through its connection to the characters in the film; as Tim Kreider points out, this can be seen through the masks in the prostitute's apartment and her being renamed as "Domino" in the film, which is a type of Venetian Mask.[85] Unused early poster designs for the film by Kubrick's daughter Katharina used the motif of Venetian masks, but were rejected by the studio because they obscured the faces of the film's two stars.[86]
Artwork in the film
Paintings and sculptures appear throughout the film, some historical and others painted by Kubrick's wife Christiane Kubrick and step daughter Katharina Kubrick Hobbs.[87] The home of the Harford's contains the majority of the works painted by Kubrick's family members, with the exception being a painting of a nude reclining pregnant woman by Christiane Kubrick title Paula On Red that appears in Ziegler's bathroom during the overdose scene.[87] In the beginning of the film, as Bill and Alice are saying goodbye to their daughter Helena and the babysitter, a painting by Christiane Kubrick titled "View from the Mentmore" can be seen hanging next to the Christmas tree.[88] Mentmore Towers is an English country house in the south east of England that was used for filming the interior scenes of the Somerton house and the masked orgy.[89]
During Ziegler's party, Bill is summoned to the bathroom to deal with an apparent overdose, as he climbs the spiral staircase he passes Giulio Bergonzoli's sculpture Gli amori degli angeli (The Loves of Angels) which is at the foot of the staircase.[90] This sculpture is said to be inspired by a poem titled The Loves of The Angels by 19th-century poet Thomas Moore, the poem itself describes the story of three angels who fall in love with mortal women and share the password to heaven with them resulting in their banishment.[91] At the time of the poem's release, it was received with controversy due to the open eroticism throughout.[92] During the same party sequence, Bill is talking with the two models as they walk past a small reproduction of Gian Lorenzo Bernini's sculpture Apollo and Daphne sitting on a table.[93]
When Bill enters a cafe towards the end of the film, two Pre-Raphaelite paintings can be seen hanging on parallel walls, Ophelia by John William Waterhouse and Astarte Syriaca by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.[94] Waterhouse's Ophelia depicts the character by the same name in Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet moments before her death.[95] Astarte Syriaca depicts Astarte, the ancient Syrian goddess of love, as well as two symmetrical angels holding torches directly behind her.[94] Both paintings mirror events within the film and, as Robert Wilkes writes, reflect its "mood of sensuality, ritualism, and exoticism".[94] In the same cafe scene, a crystoleum print of Maude Goodman's Hush! (or, A Moment of Idleness) is seen behind Bill as he sits down with a newspaper, in the proceeding shot the print is replaced with what Wilkes describes as a "more chaotic, nightmarish image" as Bill reads about the ex-beauty queen's apparent overdose.[94]
When Bill is walking through a hospital hallway towards the end of the film, he walks past Jann Haworth's painting Aunt Gurdi Burning (1995).[96] The painting is oil on canvas and mounted on a screen, it is in the permanent collection of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where the scenes were filmed.[97][98]
