ESSAY
Tom Cruise as Bill Harford and
Nicole Kidman as Alice Harford during the pot-laced argument in their bedroom in
Stanley Kubrick's final film, "Eyes Wide Shut".
Old Blue "Eyes": Blue Is True All
Over In Stanley Kubrick's Final Film
An Interpretation of "Eyes
Wide Shut" (Part Three of Three)
By
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com SHARE
Thursday, April 2, 2009
As fans of Chelsea Football Club in England heartily chant, "blue is the color"
(although a "u" is added in the spelling of the word color) -- and in "Eyes Wide
Shut" there's never a more appropriate expression. "True blue" is also
apt, for the color blue represents cold hard truth and some melancholy
throughout Stanley Kubrick's final film, which has its tenth anniversary of
release this July. Note: In yellow lettering in several parenthetical
notes are observations of reverse-camera shots of the film's actors, or scenes
where a symmetrical aspect of the film's scenes can be detected.
In the opening scene after the credits, Alice Harford (Nicole Kidman) and
husband Dr. Bill (Tom Cruise) are in the bathroom of their swanky apartment on
Central Park West in Manhattan. "Is my hair okay?", Alice asks.
"It's great", Dr. Harford replies. "You're not even looking at it," Alice
rejoinders. And she's right. Bill has been preening himself in the
mirror. Alice grabs a light blue towel moments after she tells Bill that
he's not paying attention.
Blue is an important player again in the narrative in a scene where Mandy
(Julienne Davis) has been revived at the Zieglers' compound during their
Christmas party. Dr. Bill is summoned to revive the drugged-out
Mandy, who has been involved in adulterous sex with Victor Ziegler (Sydney
Pollack) . "You're gonna need some rehab. You know that, don't
you?", says Bill to Mandy, who wearily nods her head. She is wrapped in a
teal blue towel.
The Argument Between The
Harfords, Drugs Included
A wonderful blue-lit window evoking nighttime backlights Alice during part
of the Harfords' pot-fueled argument. During the argument Bill explains to
Alice why he is the exception that proves the rule about many men and their
proclivity to cheating on their spouses or girlfriends. "Because I would never lie
to you or hurt you," Bill says, sitting on the red sheets and covers of their
bed.
As Bill says the words "never lie to you" his eyes are closed.
He can't even look his wife in the eye. He is lying to Alice even as he
declares that he would never lie to her. The truth -- represented by
Alice, framed in blue background via a window that might
represent the soul -- is staring Bill right in the face. In fact, Bill
lies again to Alice later on, when he telephones her from prostitute Domino's
apartment, saying that the mourning gathering for the late Lou Nathanson went on
much longer than expected. Alice is wearing a blue night robe as she talks
on the phone to Bill. (Blue
as a wake up call.)
Moments later, Bill doesn't go through with the sexual
encounter that was a guarantee had it not been for Alice's timely and important
phone call.
Directly after the pot-induced argument, interrupted by the phone call to Bill
where he learns of the death of Lou Nathanson, Bill travels over to visit with
Nathanson's daughter Marion (Marie Richardson). There is the deep blue of
nighttime in a window behind Marion as she abruptly reveals her love for Bill.
"I don't want to go away with Carl", Marion confesses referring to her boyfriend.
"We hardly know each other," Bill says.
(Symmetry or opposite scene: the
shot of facial close-ups opposing can be found later in a scene where Domino is
kissing Bill. This time Bill is on the right hand side of the screen,
whereas in the Bill-Marion kissing scene Bill's face is on the left of the
screen.)
Bill's Nightwalk
When six young men in Greenwich Village walk the street and accost Bill on a
sidewalk they knock him into a blue car. "Merry Christmas Mary," one of
the men says, while other chant additional derogatory, offensive and homophobic
language at Bill. The truth here isn't necessarily whether Bill is a
latent homosexual or not -- it is about the six men -- for while one of them
boasts loudly of getting a Mexican lap dance from a woman at a bar, these six
men are all together in a group with not one woman amongst them. They
appear threatened by Bill's very presence on the sidewalk. The scene
appears to be more about a projection of their own latent tendencies and
homophobia and their pushing Bill onto the blue car is Bill's brush with that
insecurity within some men. "Go back to San Francisco where you belong,
man!," shouts one of the men as an insult as the group of men are offscreen in
the distance.
(Symmetry or opposite scene: later a hotel clerk played by Alan Cumming, comes
on fairly suggestively, flirting with Bill. The clerk is wearing a blue
jacket and light blue shirt. The scene is shot with reverse positioning to
a prior scene where Bill is talking to a female employee wearing a reddish or
peach-colored blouse at Gillespie's Cafe, adjacent to the Sonata Jazz club
during the day.)
Arriving Home
As Bill arrives home from the mansion orgy, Alice awakes from a nightmare and is
bathed in a light, tinted blue and shadows as she reveals the depths of her
night dream to Bill midway through the film. Near the end of the film Bill
says tearfully, "I'll tell you everything", as he sees the mask he wore at the
mansion orgy party laying on his pillow next to his sleeping wife. There
is a blue lighting and tint over Bill as he declares to "fess up" about the
night's events. The very next scene we see Alice's tearing bloodshot eyes.
A cigarette in hand, she is wearing a light blue sweater or cardigan and has
clearly been crying her eyes out after hearing from her husband. Bill,
wearing a dark blue sweater, has also been crying after truthfully revealing all
the events of a long night to Alice.
(Symmetry or opposite scene: when
Alice has her nightmare and then tells Bill about it as he lies down on the bed,
the camera is filming from one side. When Bill later says that he'll tell
Alice everything, the camera is positioned from the opposite side of the bed.
Throughout, Alice In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass,
Lewis Carroll's classic books, are represented in a cinematic way in "Eyes Wide
Shut". The film is like looking at both sides of a mirror, with symmetry
and or opposite shots consistently present.)
Another Scene
In another scene, a masked woman at the mansion warns Bill that "it could cost
me my life and possibly yours". A deep blue radiates through the window
directly behind her. The truth is that it did cost that very woman her
life in the film as we see near the end, a light blue neck rest propping up part
of her neck. The "possibly yours" reference is to Bill's marriage and
family life as well as to his literal life (he could possibly have been infected
with HIV/AIDS had he engaged in sex with Domino.) The masked woman, who
turns out to be Mandy, says of Bill during the mansion orgy that she is "ready
to redeem him". She saves Bill's life in a figurative way, just as he had
saved hers early on in the film when he revived her after being summoned by
Ziegler to the upstairs room where she has been lying unconscious in a red sofa
chair.
By the way, blue is also the color of the bars of the tall, imposing gate that
frames Bill as he receives a letter from a man who steps out of a car that has
driven from the mansion where the orgy was held the night before. Milich,
the owner of Rainbow fashions, is wearing blue the morning that Bill
returns the costume worn at the mansion and sees Milich's daughter (Leelee
Sobieski) and the two Japanese men she has been illicitly cavorting with.
There's probably endless amounts of truth, symmetry and "opposite" shots that
you can find in Stanley Kubrick's wonderful final film. If you watch the
film again, you will see a beautiful puzzle of color, fantasy, fear and
psychology and philosophy unfold. "Eyes Wide Shut", as with many of Mr.
Kubrick's films, was misunderstood in its initial theatrical release in July
1999 in the U.S. and Canada but in years to come it will become more and more appreciated by cineastes
and film critics, even as other members of the general public will continue to
disdain it as a pretentious work.
Previous "Eyes" interpretations:
Part One
Part Two
Anniversary
of "Eyes Wide Shut"
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