Tuesday 22 December 2015

Eyes Wide Shut for Christmas

In the first year of Vraie Fiction, I once listed Eyes Wide Shut as one my my favourite Christmas movies. I am a huge Stanley Kubrick fan and I consider his last film a very underrated gem, if not a masterpiece. Well, I was happily surprised recently to find an article in Rolling Stone arguing not only that it is a great movie, but that it is actually a great Christmas movie, deemed even a holiday classic. It may not be obvious to see, after all Christmas movies are often deemed more innocent than this modern tale of troubled couple and fantasized (or maybe true) adultery, but it always made sense to me. Kubrick's last movie belongs to a Yuletide tradition of dark stories (such as this one) with bizarre and or supernatural elements, when life and love are placed in danger and when one's perception of himself and the world he inhabits are radically altered. This is, in essence, what happens in the Nativity story. In Eyes Wide Shut, however, diabolical forces, not divine ones, are mainly at work, forces that are conceived in the characters' mind before taking shape. If you have seen the movie, read the article and rewatch it with new eyes. If you have not seen it yet, do it, put it on your list of movies to watch during the season. Enjoy a true Christmas classic.

1 comment:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

I saw it when it was originally in the theatres and enjoyed it. It's time to watch it again, especially in light of this new interpretation! Thanks for the link to the article.