ORIGINAL TITLEEyes Wide Shut
GENREPsychological drama · Erotic mystery
ABOUT THIS FILM
RUNTIME
159 min
FAMOUS QUOTE
“No dream is ever just a dream.”
Vibe
dreamlikeadultManhattaneroticominousChristmas-lightspsychologicalluxuriousalienatednocturnal
After Alice Harford confesses a sexual fantasy, her husband Bill wanders through a nocturnal Manhattan of parties, temptation and a masked secret gathering while Christmas lights saturate nearly every public space. Christmas as pervasive visual and social architecture around marital jealousy, consumption, secrecy and class privilege; public warmth versus private alienation.
MOVIE NIGHT RANK
#61 of 100
Watch for
- Christmas lights in almost every social setting
- Nicole Kidman's confession
- elite party versus hidden transaction
- deliberately unreal New York
Production notes
BFI identifies Kubrick as director/producer, Kubrick and Frederic Raphael adapting Schnitzler's Dream Story, 159 minutes, with Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman/Sydney Pollack.
Trivia
- Stanley Kubrick died only days after presenting the finished film to Warner Bros., making Eyes Wide Shut his final completed feature.
- The production famously used London-area locations and sets to stand in for New York; BFI has traced the geographic substitutions in detail.
- The source is Arthur Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle, relocated from fin-de-siècle Vienna to contemporary New York.
- Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman star as Bill and Alice Harford.
- BFI lists the film at 159 minutes.
Legacy
final Kubrick feature; reputation rose after polarized release; BFI now regularly discusses its perverse Christmas identity alongside authorship and censorship debates.