Kubrick

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Re: Tangled Thread

Postby Dreams End » Sat Dec 10, 2005 9:41 pm

Hello all. Quick comments. <br><br>To the Larouche thing...I commented earlier on that. The "documentation" that Kubrick was a subscriber is just an unsupported assertion, and there is nothing else on the web by "Loen Weber", nor is the first name "Loen" even recognized. I think it was an actual Larouche follower trying to make the connection.<br><br>I wanna go back to my theory, but I haven't had the benefit of a second viewing. <br><br>tom and Nicole are Scientologists. We know that. He fears losing her to a "naval officer" in the film. In real life, Jack Parsons lost his girlfriend to L. Ron Hubbard, a naval officer. There are scenes relevant to this in the film, all in front of a boat. L. Ron actually stole Parson's girlfriend AND his boat...several boats, in fact.<br><br>Jack and L. Ron actually conjured this woman (they claim) at their "Babalon working". According to Parsons, he went straight home and there was this woman. The "scarlet woman" with blazing red hair. Hence, the redheaded women in the film.<br><br>In Scientology "over the rainbow" was the code name of L. Ron's headquarters complex in Hemet, California. If you were asked to meet with him, you were literally sent "over the rainbow." <br><br>Actually, I think it likely that Kubrick incorporated a variety of secret organization "models" into his screenplay, but the Scientology connection can't be an accident. In addition, I imagine that with Scientology's Hollywood connection, he may have heard some interesting inside information.<br><br>It's also worth noting that Scientologists in the town of Clearwater, which they basically control (or did...not sure about now) they killed a woman in the process of "treating" her drug addiction. Inquests showed the woman was maltreated and possibly abused, but I don't think charges ever resulted.<br><br>ALL THAT, with two Scientologists actually in the film! Maybe I'll give it a second viewing, but I wonder if there are other such sly connections....<br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Tangled Thread

Postby Col Quisp » Sat Dec 10, 2005 10:47 pm

Thanks, all, for the compliments! I feel like a detective. <br><br>When Ziegler (the "Victor") explains Kelly's death to Bill, he says, "she got her brains fucked out, and that's all," it's like he's saying she was mind-fucked. As are we all.<br><br>Jeff: You made a good point about the recovered memory. I hadn't thought of that. <br><br>Great posts, everyone!<br><br>Sad that Kubrick didn't stick around to read this thread! <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Kubrick

Postby Et in Arcadia ego » Sat Dec 10, 2005 11:07 pm

Dreams end: <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>"It's also worth noting that Scientologists in the town of Clearwater, which they basically control (or did...not sure about now) they killed a woman in the process of "treating" her drug addiction. Inquests showed the woman was maltreated and possibly abused, but I don't think charges ever resulted."</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>You got that right. I lived in Clearwater at the time and remember this woman's story. She was held apparently against her will and there were allegations of starvation and bedsores. The low-down was she wanted out, but the Scientologists don't like giving up their own..The Scientologists claimed she was incapable of rational thought or some shit like that, and basically kept her under lock and key until she died. There was alot of smoke, but I never saw the fire.<br><br>I loved living in Clearwater, but I absolutely loathed driving through downtown and seeing all those wackos in their flight attendant/pilot outfits..They owned a substantial amount of real estate in Clearwater and were generally disliked by everyone I knew or spoke to about them.. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: mc moments

Postby Rigorous Intuition » Sun Dec 11, 2005 1:50 am

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>"Jeff, doesn't he find actual evidence at one point, doesn't he find her mask at the end of the film? Or does she find his? Sorry, I haven't seen it in awhile, but after reading all of this I want to see it again. It's just so damn triggering."</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>PW, he finds his own mask on his pillow next to her. It had gone missing when he returned the costume. It seems to me to be a final warning - <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>you're not safe here, either</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> - and also a message: set next to his peacefully sleeping wife, it seems to say, <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>she's ours, too</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->.<br><br>I used a still of it to illustrate the final part of my interview with Kathleen Sullivan. It struck me how Alice's face is lit in the scene to also resemble a mask.<br><br><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v226/JeffWells/eyeswideshut-mask.jpg" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Tangled Thread

Postby Rigorous Intuition » Sun Dec 11, 2005 2:12 am

That's amazing stuff re the Hubbard/Scientology angle, DE.<br><br>FWIW, transcribed from <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Sex and Rockets</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> here's a Jan 4, 1946 letter from Parsons to Crowley about Hubbard, after Hubbard had already stolen his girlfriend (known to all as Betty, but whose real name was Sara Northrop and came from a wealthy family, according to a reporter named Nielson Himmel who shared the house at the Agape Lodge). <br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Most Beloved Father,<br><br>About 3 months ago I met Capt L Ron Hubbard, a writer and explorer of whom I had known for some time... He is a gentleman, red hair, green eyes, honest and intelligent and we have become great friends. He moved in with me about two months ago, and although Betty and I are still friendly, she has transferred her sexual affections to him.<br><br>Although he has no formal training in Magick he has an extraordinary amount of experience and understanding in the field. From some of his experiences I deduce he is in direct touch with some higher intelligence, possibly his Guardian Angel. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>He describes his Angel as a beautiful winged woman with red hair</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> whom he calls the Empress, and who has guided him through his life and save him many times.....Recently, he says, because of some danger, she has called the Archangel Michael to guide us.... Last night after invoking , I called him in, and he described Isis nude on the left, and a faint figure of past, partly mistaken operations on the right, and a rosewood box with a string of green beads, a string of pearls with a black cross suspended, and a rose.... He is the most Thelemic person I have ever met and is in complete accord with our own principles. He is also interested in establishing the New Aeon, but for cogent reasons I have not introduced him to the Lodge.<br><br>We are pooling our resources in a partnership that will act as a limited company to control our business ventures. I think I have made a great gain, and as Betty and I are the best of friends there is little loss. I cared for her deeply but I have no desire to control her emotions, and I can, I hope, control my own.<br><br>I need a magical partner. I have many experiments in mind.... The next time I tie up with a woman it will on my own terms.<br><br>Thy son, John.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Tangled Thread

Postby Et in Arcadia ego » Sun Dec 11, 2005 4:22 am

Agreed, Jeff. This was the hammer on the nail for the Dr to back the hell off and go about his business.<br><br><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v226/JeffWells/eyeswideshut-mask.jpg" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br><br>The mask, btw, was the one he wore at the ceremony that apparently went missing requireing him to compensate the Store Owner.<br><br>Appearance of this mask next to his wife is analagous to the horsehead in the bed of that famous Godfather Scene, and makes several direct insinuations:<br><br>We know who you are.<br><br>We know where you live.<br><br>We know how to hurt you most, ie: your family is not safe..<br><br>Ivading his privacy to make such an omnious threat with such elegence reinforces their percieved superiority to Cruise's character. <br><br>That such malice can be delivered by a simple display..No wonder they brush off the encounter. The magnitude of implication short-circuited their own place in the Machine. Funny how they find solace at the end with each other when they see just how nasty it realy can be outside their relationship.<br><br>You play, you pay..<br><br>One other observation about Zeigler: He was little people in this group if anything. His references to 'these' people contained as much dread in his description as threats to the doctor. Maybe this is why they sent him direct to deal with Cruise; he's rank was a low one, and subject to the performance of menial tasks like intimidation of potential threats to the group's secrecy..<br><br><br><br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: mc moments

Postby Project Willow » Sun Dec 11, 2005 4:50 am

Thanks Jeff, hammer on the nail indeed et. That really seals it, he knew what he was doing. Her face looks made up to look like a mask.<br><br>Stunning suff Parsons/Hubbard. <p></p><i></i>
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Overnight dreams

Postby Pants Elk » Sun Dec 11, 2005 6:26 am

I mentioned before about the format mirroring the music, 4:3, 3/4 ... but there's more: how many words in the title of the movie? How many letters in each word?<br>Why does Kubrick hammer us over the head with these numbers, in so many ways, in so short a time?<br><br>I'm also starting to believe that Alice's "dreams" are absolutely real, and Bill's "reality" is all a dream. This satisfies the mirror system of the movie, and it makes some kind of narrative sense. It's all Bill's dream, but Alice's reality intrudes upon it.<br><br>I'm not so sure that the mask on the pillow is a final warning (in fact, I'm sure as I am about anything in this movie that it's not); as the Somerton letter shows, two warnings should be adequate for him to give up his "investigations". Alice found the mask; it's her way of telling him she knows; that's why he breaks down and says he'll "tell her everything", and why she's not surprised to see the mask there. The mask is who Bill really is; some men come home to find their wives in bed with another man. Bill comes home to find his wife in bed with his real self. It was his <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>mask</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->, remember, that made him recognised as an outsider at the ritual.<br><br>Going back to that word "investigations"; Bill is a cop, dreaming of being a doctor. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>C</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->lown, <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>O</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->fficer, <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>P</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->ilot. The hotel clerk gives it away: "You're not a five-o, are you?" Bill denies it - he's working undercover, the doctor schtick is a mask. The doctor he dreams of being does the stuff you'd dream of doing if you believed you were a doctor; play-acting. Playing doctors and nurses. Being a cop, he shows his badge/card at every opportunity, because that's what he's used to doing, to get into places and to make people talk. "<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Investigations</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->"?<br><br>I agree about the synthesis of secret societies; I've had an email about this, saying that Kubrick took his references for the secret society from variious sources; we can see Scientology and Masonry there, and black magic ... and the Illuminati ... his secret society is a generic elite. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=pantselk>Pants Elk</A> at: 12/11/05 3:29 am<br></i>
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Re: mc moments

Postby Sweejak » Sun Dec 11, 2005 6:27 am

In the screenplay:<br>                                V.O.<br><br>                He thought he must have dropped it in<br><br>                the morning when he packed the<br><br>                costume away, and Alice had found it<br><br>        and placed it on the pillow beside her,<br><br>        as though it signified _his_ face, the face<br><br>                of a husband who had become an<br><br>                        enigma to her.<br><br>======================<br><br>But I think the scene is so in you face comparable to the famous scene from the Godfather that the implied threat can't be missed. <br><br>Then again you'd have to go thru an imaginative scenario to figure how someone broke into the apartment, found the mask in the locked cabinet [according to the screenplay] and put it on the pillow.<br><br>There was some speculation somewhere that Alice was in on it, and was at the party. I don't think so. <br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Tangled Thread

Postby jamesredford » Sun Dec 11, 2005 6:31 am

Dreams End wrote:<br><br>""<br>Hello all. Quick comments. <br><br>To the Larouche thing...I commented earlier on that. The "documentation" that Kubrick was a subscriber is just an unsupported assertion, and there is nothing else on the web by "Loen Weber", nor is the first name "Loen" even recognized. I think it was an actual Larouche follower trying to make the connection.<br><br>I wanna go back to my theory, but I haven't had the benefit of a second viewing. <br><br>tom and Nicole are Scientologists. We know that. He fears losing her to a "naval officer" in the film. In real life, Jack Parsons lost his girlfriend to L. Ron Hubbard, a naval officer. There are scenes relevant to this in the film, all in front of a boat. L. Ron actually stole Parson's girlfriend AND his boat...several boats, in fact.<br><br>Jack and L. Ron actually conjured this woman (they claim) at their "Babalon working". According to Parsons, he went straight home and there was this woman. The "scarlet woman" with blazing red hair. Hence, the redheaded women in the film.<br><br>In Scientology "over the rainbow" was the code name of L. Ron's headquarters complex in Hemet, California. If you were asked to meet with him, you were literally sent "over the rainbow." <br><br>Actually, I think it likely that Kubrick incorporated a variety of secret organization "models" into his screenplay, but the Scientology connection can't be an accident. In addition, I imagine that with Scientology's Hollywood connection, he may have heard some interesting inside information.<br><br>It's also worth noting that Scientologists in the town of Clearwater, which they basically control (or did...not sure about now) they killed a woman in the process of "treating" her drug addiction. Inquests showed the woman was maltreated and possibly abused, but I don't think charges ever resulted.<br><br>ALL THAT, with two Scientologists actually in the film! Maybe I'll give it a second viewing, but I wonder if there are other such sly connections....<br>""<br><br>I also caught the Scientology connection some time ago:<br><br>Re:War of the Worlds<br>« Reply #22 on: June 30, 2005, 04:35:24 am »<br><br>http://anti-state.com/forum/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=14243;start=20 <p></p><i></i>
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Re: original screenplay

Postby Pants Elk » Sun Dec 11, 2005 6:33 am

I love the way the original screenplay acts as a mirror to the transcript, reflecting it so we can see it from a different viewpoint. And I'm <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>really</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> glad Kubrick decided to dump the voice-over! <p></p><i></i>
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Re: original screenplay

Postby Sweejak » Sun Dec 11, 2005 6:54 am

I think he could have pulled off the voice over and most audiences would have appreciated it. Sure would have screwed with the pounding piano notes though. It seems that no one including myself had any idea of what they were watching. I never studied film in a formal way but this thread has been pretty amazing. A glass onion.<br><br>Your last take on Bill is pretty compelling. About Alice being 'in on it', how did she get home and in bed before Bill.... or does that matter. It does solve some oddities; like you say Alice seems very nonchalant about the freakin mask on her pillow. And the constant badge flashing... and the really silly doctor scenes that do seem so make believe, curing an OD with a few words. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Tangled Thread

Postby Col Quisp » Sun Dec 11, 2005 12:05 pm

Jeff said, quoting Parsons describing Hubbard:<br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>He is a gentleman, red hair, green eyes, honest and intelligent and we have become great friends</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>In the film, the model, Gayle, remarks that doctors always seem so "knowledgable." Bill says doctors know a lot of things. She also called him a gentleman. He makes a big deal to Alice about how he would never lie to her (although he does). Funny, these traits are things Bill tries to project, but he isn't really any of them. Also, he has no friends.<br><br>Perhaps Bill signifies L. Ron, the charlatan? But the naval officer looks like Hubbard. I don't think it's an accident that Kubrick chose these two Scientologists for his main roles. The joke is on Cruise, who is constantly belittled, e.g., the gay-bashing in the "Village." Cruise has been alleged to be homosexual, as we all know, which he vehemently denies.<br><br>In the beginning of the film, Helena is wearing an angel costume. Parsons said Hubbard had a "winged angel" who protected him. In the end, Helena picks out a doll wearing an angel costume. <br><br>I saw the eye on Bill's back when he comes home from Somerton. Spooky! There's also a weird symbol on his pelvis when he enters Somerton. It's a series of three red blobs that could either be a civil defense symbol, a devil's head, or a uterus with ovaries. It moves around the room as he enters. Definitely not an artifact.<br><br>There are some pretty weird things in Helena's room, which Bill wants to enter, but is frozen at the door, when he comes back from Somerton: A clown on the mirror, a Care Bear (with a rainbow on its stomach), and some really scary paintings with phallic symbols and eye imagery. There's also a painting of a red circle above her bed, with some small black figures outside it. Why can't he step inside? Is there a force field? What was he going to do in there?<br><br>Why does he lingeringly touch the dead people's heads and shoulders? Is this a Scientology reference? It looked ritualistic. The Raelians' initiation involves the master pressing the palm on the initiate's forehead while also pressing the nape of the neck (perhaps to implant something). <br><br>I was wondering why he changed the name Bletchley to Somerton. Somerton could be an anagram for O, Monsters! (the "O" being an eye). Or these:<br><br>Sermon to (or To sermon)<br>Sort omen<br>Men roost<br>Men rot so<br>Me so torn<br>Torso men<br>Moon rest<br>Moor nest<br>Nest room<br>Omen sort (what we're doing here!)<br>One storm<br>Some torn<br><br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Tangled Thread

Postby Rigorous Intuition » Sun Dec 11, 2005 12:50 pm

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>One other observation about Zeigler: He was little people in this group if anything. His references to 'these' people contained as much dread in his description as threats to the doctor. Maybe this is why they sent him direct to deal with Cruise; he's rank was a low one, and subject to the performance of menial tasks like intimidation of potential threats to the group's secrecy..</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>Good observation. Perhaps that's why, when we see him at the ceremony, he's in the balcony. He's not inner circle. Another menial task to please his betters may be his recommending Nightingale. <p></p><i></i>
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Adapting Traumnovelle

Postby morganwolf » Sun Dec 11, 2005 1:16 pm

I found the following analysis in Literature Film Quarterly -- Dream Oddyssey's: Schintzler's Traumnovelle and Kubrick's Eye's Wide Shut, by Charles Helemtag (sorry if it's been posted already).<br><br>It is fascinating to read about how the novel was adapted to Kubrick's vision.<br><br>Season/Setting:<br><br>[Traumnovelle] begins near the end of Karneval or Mardi Gras, a departure from everyday reality, and thus underscores the themes of adventure and illusion. Schnitzler reminds the reader of the season again in the fourth chapter when the Hausmeister tells Fridolin that it is not that unusual for people to rent costumes late at night since it is Fasching (Schnitzler 45<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START 8) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/glasses.gif ALT="8)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> . The film takes place during the Christmas season. Christmas trees appear in almost every scene: in the couple's living room, in the ballroom at Ziegler's apartment, at the Sonata Cafe, even in the prostitute's tiny apartment. According to Seesslen, each appearance of the Christmas tree leads to a new phase of the doctor's alienation (287). Christmas trees and the Christmas story also suggest the sanctity of the family, which is being tested here.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3768/is_200301/ai_n9219395">www.findarticles.com/p/ar...i_n9219395</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Old Europe and EWS -- <br><br>The locales in Traumnovelle are all places in Vienna with which Schnitzler was thoroughly familiar. In transferring the story from early twentieth-century Vienna to late twentieth-century New York, Kubrick used a number of locales from his own past. Therefore Nelson calls Eyes Wide Shut Kubrick's most personal film: "Kubrick's father was a New York City doctor; Kubrick and his family-like the Harfords-once lived in an apartment on Central Park West . . .; as a young photographer and aspiring filmmaker, Kubrick lived in Greenwich Village, where he was a frequent habitue of Village jazz clubs such as the Sonata Cafe" (Nelson 32<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START 8) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/glasses.gif ALT="8)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> . Yet despite the shift of the action to New York, the film contains several allusions to Vienna: The soundtrack begins and ends with a Viennese-style waltz by Shostakovich. The final credits list Rudolf Sieczynski's "Wien, du Stadt meiner Traume" 'Vienna, City of My Dreams' and Mozart's Requiem, and the password for the orgy is no longer "Danemark," which reminds Fridolin of his wife's imagined adultery, but "Fidelio," which Kubrick uses to remind the viewer of Beethoven and Vienna and of marital fidelity. The chic Christmas ball at Ziegler's, the figure of the Hungarian Lothario Szavost, and the Schloss-like setting of the orgy sequence remind Walker of Schnitzler's Vienna (350, 35<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START 8) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/glasses.gif ALT="8)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> , while Herr characterizes the costume shop owner Milich as "a remarkable relic of old Europe" (Kubrick 87). As Walker states, "The movie derives its strange atmosphere from this feeling of contemporary America overlaid by fin de siecle decadence" (351).<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3768/is_200301/ai_n9219395">www.findarticles.com/p/ar...i_n9219395</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Color Coding --<br><br>Nicole Kidman is excellent in this scene, which is essentially a monologue. Her every gesture and facial expression reveals Alice's conflicting emotions: fear, desire, aggression (Seesslen 286). At the beginning of her speech where she is fairly calm, she is standing in front of the dark blue master bathroom. Then she gradually moves toward the red drapes in the bedroom, finally sitting on the floor in front of them, where she delivers the more emotional lines.7 The slow, deliberate rhythm and the precise use of color in such scenes have been compared to the films of Krysztof Kieslowski, whom Kubrick admired. Kubrick's striking blues, reds, and yellows seem the perfect vehicle for Schnitzler's prose and for Alice and Bill's state of mind (Koerte). Kubrick uses the color red, for example, as a symbol for passion and danger, Schnitzler's familiar combination of Eros and Thanatos: on the door to the prostitute's apartment, on the staircase that leads into the Sonata Cafe, on the cloak of the leader of the secret society, on the carpets at the villa, and on the cover of the billiard table at Ziegler's. As Falsetto notes, a deep blue background is also featured in the scene between Bill and Marion and in the episode where Alice recounts her dream: "The cooler tones . . . are associated with a cold, tawdry view of sexuality" (137).8<br><br>Bill's Sexuality --<br><br>After he leaves the dead patient's apartment, the doctor encounters a group of unruly students. One of them bumps into him. This encounter makes Fridolin fantasize about challenging the young naval officer to a duel. Raphael indicates that these fraternity men insult Fridolin because he is a Jew and an outsider, but that Kubrick wanted to remove any reference to Jewishness from the story (Eyes 59). In the film the student taunts Harford about his sexuality, which anticipates the later scene where-in another departure from the novella-the hotel clerk "comes on" to him. In the novella women and girls throw themselves at Fridolin; in the film women, girls, and men try to seduce him.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3768/is_200301/ai_n9219395/pg_2">www.findarticles.com/p/ar...19395/pg_2</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>The Mask - <br><br>In the film, unlike the novella, the doctor is forced to remove his mask; his identity is exposed while in the novella Fridolin thinks it would be much worse to be the only person in the room without a mask than to be naked in a group where everyone else was clothed: "Tausendmal schlimmer ware es ihm erschienen, der einzige mit unverlarvtem Gesicht unter lauter Masken dazustehen, als plotzlich unter Angekleideten nackt" (46<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START 8) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/glasses.gif ALT="8)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> . In one of his aphorisms Schnitzler stated that the exposure of one's feelings was more offensive than the exposure of the body: "Viel anstossiger als die Entblossung des Korpers ist die der Gefuhle."10 According to Seesslen, Fridolin has always attempted to disguise his true self and now is mercilessly unmasked. Finally, when he sees his mask lying on the bed next to his wife, he reveals his true face for the first time (287).11<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3768/is_200301/ai_n9219395/pg_3">www.findarticles.com/p/ar...19395/pg_3</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>The Sacrifice - <br><br>After Harford has removed his mask, the man in the red cloak orders him to take off his clothes. When he refuses-when Fridolin refuses to remove his mask in the novella-a door opens and a woman dressed like a nun lets her habit fall to the floor and offers to "redeem him." In the film the woman appears on a balcony, naked except for a mask and G-string. At this point the leader of the secret society tells the doctor he can go. As Pocock notes, "The startling image in the film of the masked nude mysterious woman, standing like a crucified Jesus framed by a window as she accepts her sacrifice, is electrifying. She is not transformed from a whore to a saving virgin. She is both at the same time. The Madonna and the Whore are united in an unresolvable paradox" (89).<br><br>Alice's Dream - <br><br>Once the doctor gets home, he awakens his wife from a strange dream. Kubrick shows us the doctor's dreamlike nocturnal adventures but not his wife's fantastic dream in which she has sex with the naval officer while her husband is crucified. Alice merely recounts the dream and in much less detail than in the novella. Farese notes the cathartic function of Albertine's dream. Through her dream she is able to free herself of her hatred of her husband's lack of understanding. At the same time the dream forces him to reflect upon his own infidelity and seek his wife's forgiveness (Farese 269).<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3768/is_200301/ai_n9219395/pg_3">www.findarticles.com/p/ar...19395/pg_3</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Music in EWS:<br><br>For the ritualized orgy scene, Kubrick engaged his nephew Dominic Harlan to play the pounding piano music of Gyorgy Ligeti's "Musica Ricercata."15 The scene also contains original music by British composer Jocelyn Pook,16 who provided the themes "Dream," "Naval Officer," "Migrations," and "Masked Ball" to accompany the appropriate scenes in the film. Bill's encounter with the corpse of the mysterious woman in the morgue is accompanied by Marian's mournful rendition of Franz Liszt's "Grey Clouds." Kubrick also included rock ("Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing") and popular music in Eyes Wide Shut. As the Harfords arrive at Ziegler's party, the band is playing "I'm in the Mood for Love," signaling that husband and wife are both open to a little romantic adventure. We hear "It Had to Be You" while Szarost first speaks to Alice and "When I Fall in Love (It Will Be Forever)" when he invites her upstairs. "Maybe not just now," the dutiful wife replies tipsily.17 We hear "I Only Have Eyes for You [i.e., her husband]" when she shows Szarost her wedding ring, breaks away from him, and goes back to Bill.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3768/is_200301/ai_n9219395/pg_4">www.findarticles.com/p/ar...19395/pg_4</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>EWS: a morality play?<br><br>Both in Traumnovelle and in Eyes Wide Shut the fundamental ideal of love and family is contrasted with the loose morality of the society in which husband and wife live (Seesslen 283). Fridolin's and Harford's dream odysseys serve to solidify the marriage that they and their wives had begun to take for granted. The couple's erotic adventures take on a therapeutic function in Traumnovelle (Urbach 3<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START 8) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/glasses.gif ALT="8)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> and in Eyes Wide Shut as well. As Magris has pointed out, everything that Fridolin and Albertine experience in their dreams is merely a partial truth and does not negate the greater, more complex reality of their marriage (74-75). At the end of the twentieth century Kubrick's film brings the same message.<br><br>Arthur Schnitzler, perhaps the most famous portrayer of adultery in literature written in German, has frequently been called a moralist who simply described his society as he saw it without making judgments pro or con. In an online review for Amazon.com, Jessica Jernigan has observed about Stanley Kubrick:<br><br>What some critics have seen as amorality in Kubrick's films . . . is in fact a tenacious insistence on presenting several views of a single moral situation. . . . He refused to make movies that judged their characters, choosing instead an arena in which people-the players and the audience-could explore complex and important themes. Stanley Kubrick's most important contribution to film is not his "cool demeanor" or his "icy elegance," but his radical morality and his insistence on making human, thinking actors of his audience.<br><br>Borchardt points out that Kubrick, "like Schnitzler, tests the boundaries of convention, posing moral questions in examining the power of eros and fantasy" (10). Anya Kubrick, one of Kubrick's daughters, considers Eyes Wide Shut "a very personal statement from my father. He felt very strongly about this subject and theme, and he honed down in it exactly the ideas, principles and moral philosophies he had lived by" (Schickel 70). Thus, it is not surprising that Kubrick was attracted to Schnitzler's Traumnovelle, that he treated the novella as he did, and that this adult film about sexual temptation, fantasies, and adventures is basically a very moral film. Both the novella and the film show the fluid relationship of dream, fantasy and reality, and the fragility and potential of the marital relationship.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3768/is_200301/ai_n9219395/pg_4">www.findarticles.com/p/ar...19395/pg_4</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>
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