From the Sidelines
Since my Netflix list was down to almost zero, I pondered what to re-watch and added Eyes Wide Shut (1999), the great Stanley Kubrick’s swan song. When the disc arrived and I saw the running time, more than two and a half hours, I was sure I would be nodding off. On the contrary, I was rivetted. I have no idea why I wasn’t impressed on first viewing. The subject matter is of great interest to me, and I’m a fan of the stars, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Maybe it was a matter of being envious of those to whom sex comes so easily. The only aspect I remembered was the masks. Kubrick and Frederic Raphael wrote the screenplay, inspired by Rhapsody: A Dream Novel (Traumnovelle its original title in German) by Arthur Schnitzler, published in 1926. The film is a cautionary tale about succumbing to the secret desires within, widening the boundary to a point that becomes dangerous. Several women make themselves available to Cruise’s character, a doctor, during the two days in which the narrative takes place. For one reason or another, he doesn’t follow through. During the second night, he is troubled by his wife’s account of a desire for a man in uniform she experienced years ago and which returned in a dream in which she has sex with multiple partners. Images of it dog him. When he manages to crash a private masquerade party, random coupling takes place. If there is a flaw in the film, it is the nature of the party, which is more like satanic ritual and carries a code of silence that, if broken, may lead to violence, even death. I would guess 99% of the people who take part in such practices are not part of what seems a cult, significantly different than being a swinger, although that too can damage a relationship. Then again, there are those who partake and remain married, the species infinitely surprising and varied. What is to be made of the title? My guess is that it refers to what is seen in dreams, when eyes are closed. Here are two interpretations I found on the web, neither having attribution: “… a person refuses to see something in plain view, because of preconceived notions of what this something should look like.” And: “… we think we see and understand clearly but we are actually, and possibly willfully blind in so many ways…” 319,000 users at IMDb have rated Eyes Wide Shut, forging to a consensus of 7.4 on a scale of ten. On a scale of five, I say four. It was successful financially, returning $162 million worldwide on a budget estimated at $65 million. It is a fitting farewell from a great filmmaker. There is abundant nudity, profanity and skillfully simulated sex. Anyone who is troubled by such should pass. Here are the leads, who were married at the time:
Here’s a choice “politicians in a nutshell” headline from nypost.com: “DHS pays over $455K to build ‘wall’ around Biden’s beach home.” Quid Pro Joe message to Texas and Arizona: Screw you!
Amusing tidbit from the column of NYP sports media critic Phil Mushnick: “The UNLV sideline now features a flashing 700-pound faux slot machine that summons UNLV players to watch it pay off after every home-team touchdown.”
Average return for the floating book shop on this overcast but pleasant day. My thanks to the young man who bought The Life and Death of Superman, a novel by Roger Stern, Outsmarting Overeating: Boost Your Life Skills, End Your Food Problems by Karen R. Koenig, a book on antiques, and 13 Fatal Errors managers make and how you can avoid them by W. Steven Brown; and to Monse`, who purchased Self-Scoring Personality Tests by Victor Serebriakoff; and to the woman who took home Sisters by Danielle Steele and Back to Eden by Jethro Kloss, which is believed to be the first book to tout natural foods, published in 1939; and to the woman who did a three-for-two swap of Russian titles.
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