Eyes Wide Shut 4K 1999

Eyes Wide Shut is, strictly speaking, a film about infidelity and self-deception. Therefore, the simplistic popular approach to viewing it as a means of identifying with Cruise's character guarantees disappointment precisely because of the unambiguous way in which it deals with the relationship between a man and a woman. In the end, the viewer is deprived of everything—the intrigue, the mystery, the aesthetics that seemed to be so carefully constructed throughout the film. And Pollack, leaning on the pool table, with his consonant “p,” completely destroys the obligatory climax, and Cruise's face in that scene is essentially a reflection of the viewer's face, with the same all-encompassing bewilderment and unwillingness to believe in the infantilism of the story that has unfolded.

And all because the film voices a beautiful cynical truth: men cheat with adventures, and women with fantasies. They love each other for these reasons, and they stop loving each other when they exhaust them in their relationship. Cruise, in search of intrigue, asks questions in half of his lines, while Kidman constantly walks around naked, and this is definitely not to lead the viewer to a dark deserted street, where a proverbial character in a long coat calmly pursues a doctor who has meddled in his own affairs.

The film is probably very sad at its core, indifferently stating how illusory love and interest are, and that all we can do is ask each other for forgiveness and go shopping for gifts for the holidays. But Kubrick, whose talent was perhaps entirely devoted to his ability to create atmosphere, and who became truly unattainable in this regard, chose the most contrasting and insane, albeit absolutely logical, style for this moral: he made a truly vulgar film, with some kind of deep scandal, which you watch with a clear conscience, and during the credits, you suddenly feel like all your intimate and personal stuff has been turned inside out and shown to you. And it's good if you watched it alone. Such a catachresis of vulgarity and sadness is somewhat reminiscent of the war between reason and instincts, when a person, to be honest, has not yet decided for themselves what is really more important to them. And here, this Freudian contradiction serves as the climax that the viewer was deprived of, but the shake-up of the brain is much more substantial. And Kidman says “fuck” better than anyone else.