by 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>