Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Watched it last night, admittedly not with my full attention after a certain point.

The acting in it is SO mannered (especially - actually, maybe exclusively - Nicole Kidman's) - obviously it's a deliberate choice but it's still quite irritating. I can see why some critics hated it at the time.

Do people talk about it in terms of its relationship to The Shining? The initial party scene, for example, is very reminiscent of the phantom ball in The Shining, and then of course there's the masked figure in the Shining that he glimpses through a door. The hidden corruption behind a luxuriant veneer. (Now I mention it, this is also something of a theme in Barry Lyndon.)

Kubrick was working on a holocaust film for many years. I think for anybody fascinated by the Nazis, there's this interesting 'paradox' (if it is) of this extremely civilised nation, the nation of Goethe and Beethoven et al, doing - or ignoring - some of the most evil things imaginable.

OH and Alex being a LVB nut in Clockwork Orange, of course!
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
It's a kind of genius to put Tom Cruise, the hawk-nosed face of Scientology, in the lead role in a film about a malevolent sex-cult.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
3.0 out of 5 starsFunny
9 June 2019
Colour: RedVerified Purchase
Good for a laugh but had to remove to eat!
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version

Well-known member
It's a kind of genius to put Tom Cruise, the hawk-nosed face of Scientology, in the lead role in a film about a malevolent sex-cult.

Kubrick's daughter was apparently a Scientologist too. That's what some people think the daughter disappearing at the end and more or less the whole film is about.

She's a Trump supporter and conspiracy theorist now.

https://twitter.com/ViKu1111
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Read that oral history of the orgy scene that's on vulture, it's pretty interesting how it began in concept as a sort of dance sequence and ended up with porn-style fucking. The women in the scene were models and actresses, not porn actresses so they had to be persuaded to do it (and some weren't).

Also apparently they used CGI to obscure some of the more explicit images to make the R rating Kubrick had promised.

Apologies if this has all been covered.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Penny for your thoughts -

What do you make of the opening shot of EWS?

Kidman disrobing.

Tittilation? Provocation? Joke at the horny viewer's expense? Something else?
 

poetix

we murder to dissect
Penny for your thoughts -

What do you make of the opening shot of EWS?

Kidman disrobing.

Tittilation? Provocation? Joke at the horny viewer's expense? Something else?

A kind of proof-of-work (proof-of-norks, perhaps) establishing the film's seriousness and arty credentials: she wouldn't do this for anyone but Kubrick, etc
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
A kind of proof-of-work (proof-of-norks, perhaps) establishing the film's seriousness and arty credentials: she wouldn't do this for anyone but Kubrick, etc

Also I think it's about the domesticity of the context. It's not a seductive disrobing, it's getting ready to go out. It's not slow and sinuous, it's like dropping your pants.
 

catalog

Well-known member
there's quite a big feature on 'eyes wide shot' in this month's sight and sound. 20 year anniversary thing. i've read about half of it, pretty interesting.
can't believe how long the shoot was.
 

luka

Well-known member
Don't have a telly. Saw a few clips on twitter. He's like a Harry Enfield character. Unreal.
 
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