Eyes Wide Shuttered

Photographed By Ellinor Forje

Lately, I have found myself in an increasingly existential frame of mind, orbiting the cinematic worlds of Stanley Kubrick and Tom Cruise. This state of reflection was reignited after watching "Room 237," which prompted a return to thoughts of "The Shining". I even considered revisiting it, but ultimately could not bring myself to do so. Its psychological intensity has a way of persisting beyond the viewing experience.

My renewed attention to Cruise began shortly before a trip to Italy, following a first viewing of "Collateral". Despite its earlier release, I had only recently encountered it, and its precision and restraint left a strong impression.

While in Venice, in search of a traditional Venetian mask, I found that imagery from "Eyes Wide Shut" repeatedly surfaced in my mind, particularly the masked sequence at the centre of its nocturnal world. At times, this association extended to "Vanilla Sky," reinforcing the sense of Cruise as a recurring figure across distinct yet thematically resonant cinematic landscapes. These connections, though incidental, subtly shaped my experience of the city.

Turning to the films themselves, much has already been written about "Eyes Wide Shut" (IMDB, dear reader) and it resists any final or sufficient interpretation. As the last completed work of Stanley Kubrick, it exemplifies his characteristic formal control and thematic ambiguity.

The film follows Dr. Bill Harford, played by Tom Cruise, and his wife Alice, portrayed by Nicole Kidman, within the enclosed world of affluent Manhattan society. After attending a Christmas gathering hosted by Victor Ziegler, played by Sydney Pollack, a conversation about desire and fidelity destabilises their relationship and propels Bill into a nocturnal journey marked by uncertainty and transgression.

What follows resists fixed interpretation. The narrative operates instead as an inquiry into perception, power, and moral ambiguity, where events remain deliberately suspended between reality and imagination.

In this sense, "Eyes Wide Shut" remains emblematic of Kubrick’s cinema: meticulously constructed, psychologically dense, and ultimately unresolved.