Kubrick vs. Epstein: "Eyes Wide Shut" | ArtiFact 67: Christina Behnke, Alex Sheremet

Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" was never meant to be an erotic thriller, but a supreme glimpse into human psychology. Alice (Nicole Kidman) and Bill (Tom Cruise) are well-suited for each other's inner dreamscapes. In fact, the entire film should be seen as a kind of dream: from the improbable action, to the way that certain characters mirror one another, to the ways in which even fantasy is ultimately defanged. This is Kubrick's only real "relationship" film, and it remains one of the greatest depictions of marriage on screen.

More recently, Stanley Kubrick and "Eyes Wide Shut" have been the subject of conspiracy theories. Jeffrey Epstein's crimes entangled many otherwise "respected" elites, and filmmaker Alex Sheremet and actress/producer Christina Behnke break down the implications.

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Timestamps:

0:51 -- Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" is not an erotic thriller; Lolita vs. Kubrick's peak film psychology; the relationship film; picking at the Jeffrey Epstein connection

03:34 -- Christina Behnke's lifelong relationship with "Eyes Wide Shut"; identifying with the characters; "Eyes Wide Shut" is a much better title than its source material, the novella "Dream Story"; the autopilot of marriage

9:05 -- "Eyes Wide Shut" as a dreamscape; the mirroring of characters & situations; the lack of consummation; the film's many blondes; Stanley Kubrick's NYC is like his dream of New York City; impossible physical dimensions; this is not the real Greenwich Village

16:06 -- Tom Cruise as actor and character; playing with the public marriage of Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise; connecting to Mia Farrow in Woody Allen's "Husbands and Wives"

21:40 -- the use of ambient vs. diegetic sound via Shostakovich; logical vs. illogical action; "Nicole Kidman's lovely body"; Alice is bored at the party; the Hungarian vs. "two models" sequence; is Alice really in control while dancing; superficiality in Bill & Alice; Catullus vs. Ovid

30:20 -- the overdose scene; Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman get home; "plain" cinematography furthers the dreamscape; jealousy

38:20 -- is Alice's fantasy a form of infidelity; Christina on Alice's psychology; Alex thinks Alice's fantasy is out of bounds for her own true self; how Kubrick makes "marital psychology" digestible and understandable

49:33 -- Alice should not be taken literally; are men more romantic than women; is a lack of jealousy an issue for relationships; Alex identifying with Bill; PEACH, Alex, PREACH; do women pity men

1:02:00 -- Bill get propositioned by his patient's daughter; Tom Cruise is further fed the worst fantasies; cultivating fantasy

1:06:00 -- the Jeffrey Epstein connection; dismissing the Stanley Kubrick & Eyes Wide Shut conspiracy theories; the Epstein class is bored and boring; Ziegler is crude & rude; Nick Nightingale calls forth sexual imagery in Ziegler

1:12:20 -- the "boring" orgy as a critique of the POINT, rather than on the film; 1999 tabloids for Eyes Wide Shut; the edited vs. unedited versions; is there such a thing as a non-boring orgy; the symbolism of the password, FIDELIO; the ceremony feels more exciting than the action

Patron show topics: Stanley Kubrick and "Jewishness"; more on Epstein psychology; Alex gets REAL about his super knavish year; the importance of the bed-mask scene; "Eyes Wide Shut" has a great ending...