Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut
After Dr. Bill Harford's wife, Alice, admits to having sexual fantasies about a man she met, Bill becomes obsessed with having a sexual encounter. He discovers an underground sexual group and attends one of their meetings -- and quickly discovers that he is in over his head.
Mike reviewedOctober 11, 2024
Eyes Wide Shut is a mysterious and dreamlike film that extracts curiosity out of the viewer
"No dream is ever just a dream."
Just like any other Stanley Kubrick film, Eyes Wide Shut has beautiful cinematography. The strong color contrast and strong compositions, combined with the nervous making score, result in a technically great and mysterious film.
For me everything in the film evolved around the ritual scene, which is the key moment. The haunting song ‘Masked Ball’ by Jocelyn Pook makes it even better.
The shots of the masked characters after the ritual are really powerful. The shots visualize multiple strong emotions, with a beautiful golden section composition, while maintaining a static image. The camera doesn’t move, the masked characters don’t move and the masks don’t have movement in their facial expressions. Yet the facial expressions of the masks are all very exaggerated and therefore very present, which moves the focus to the strong emotions on the masks. This focus gets further enhanced due to the close-up shots, black clothing and intimidating blocking of the masked characters that are breaking the fourth wall. This gives the viewer the impression the masked characters are looking at them from within their comfortzone.
Letterboxd: Mike_v_E