Eyes Wide Shut

"Payment is expected at the time of treatment unless other arrangements have previously been made"
                    -Sign in Dr. Bill Hartford's Office

Stanley Kubrick's final film, "Eyes Wide Shut," explores the complex relationship between class, power, and sexuality. Using the philosophical tenets of critical theory and cultural Marxism, the film dissects a social and economic structure in which gender roles lead to the exchange of power for sex, a reality that has led to the mass objectification of women. These concepts are explored within the confines of marriage and also within the financial and social relationships between other characters. "Eyes Wide Shut" also comes to terms with how our instinctual sexual desires and need for power within relationships creates inherent temptations, fantasies, and combative struggles. In fact, these fantasies and struggles are a necessary and intrinsic part of marriage because they channel and often relieve our ancient, instinctual desires. Echoing Freud's "Civilization and its Discontents," Eyes Wide Shut" examines how social institutions attempt to control the baser instincts of humanity, a repressive and often unsuccessful goal that causes perpetual difficulties and unhappiness. Yet, for Kubrick, the fact that human beings encounter these selfish tendencies but transcend them in order to remain together in relationships is admirable. In a canon of films that mostly questions the darker side of the human condition, "Eyes Wide Shut" stands together with "2001: A Space Odyssey" as an optimistic Kubrick film. 

The film begins with a married couple, Bill and Alice Hartford, getting ready for a high society party. Bill is a doctor and Alice an unemployed housewife who takes care of their child, Helena. These gender roles, Bill the provider and Alice the attractive child-bearer, are explored throughout the film. As they ready themselves, one can see their gender roles taking shape. Alice continually looks in the mirror to check herself and then asks how she looks, as she does during the entire movie. Bill, mirroring his role, asks where his wallet is and his wife knows immediately. We are left wondering whether Alice married Bill for the social status and wealth that comes from being a physician (Dr. Bill = Dollar Bill). Their relationship is the first suggestion in the film that sex can be traded for money and power---the wife as prostitute. We see Alice undressing before the party, which is counterintuitive---people usually dress before they attend a party. Her undressing is a foreshadowing of what will happen later in the evening. Alice will, in a sense, bare her sexuality to men, not only to manipulate them, but also to satisfy her own instinctual desires and sense of self worth. Later, upon their return, Alice is seen dressing herself, as if she is now covering up her sexuality and returning to motherhood. Bill also will play his own brand of sexual politics at the party, relying on his social status as a doctor to impress and flirt with women. While this social structure and gender roles are tied to the circumstances of the prehistoric world, they remain ingrained in men and women and in our present social structure.

The opulent party, given by one of Dr. Hartford's wealthy patients named Victor Ziegler, is the inciting event of the film, setting the stage for philosophical discussions on wealth and power and their relation to sexuality. This party is revisited twice more in the film, once more in a heated argument and the other in a metaphorical mansion orgy. At this point, it is important to point out the color schemes and subliminal objects that Kubrick places in the film as part of the story. Beginning with "The Shining," Kubrick studied the subliminal placement of objects in film as a way of creating a narrative for the unconscious mind. In "Eyes Wide Shut," two sexual worlds created by different strata of wealth and power are delineated by separate color schemes, both of which represent a different set of mores. The first domain includes the poor and middle class, both of which are represented by multicolored Christmas lights, a sign of diversity. In a way, this segment can be considered a servant class as it is consists of everyone from prostitutes to doctors, all of whom provide services as their livelihood. While someone like Bill can achieve a certain level of wealth, he is certainly not part of the elite class like Ziegler. The other domain is the elite class---some would say the Illuminati---and is represented by bright white lights or no lights at all, both of which symbolize homogeneity. Additionally, Ziegler's house is festooned with Illuminati and ancient occult symbolism, which foreshadows the orgy later in the film. The house resembles a Masonic temple and the walls are covered with eight pointed stars which are similar to the Star of Ishtar, the Babylonian god of sex and fertility. The elite class is defined in the film by the unbridled fulfillment of pleasure without consequence. With money, comes power, which then allows for the complete realization of desires, often by the exploitation of others. Interestingly, while there are parts of the film in which each world dominates, many of the scenes feature both multicolored and white lights, suggesting a blurring of both spheres.

From the beginning of the film and especially when they attend the party, Bill and Alice are under the spell of the elite. When we see their Manhattan apartment, it immediately looks way beyond the means of a family doctor. Just like Ziegler, the Hartfords have some Illuminati symbols in their home indicating that they desire to model themselves on their perceived betters. Examples of the symbolism include a shot showing Nicole Kidman between two pillars and a triangular curtain, which some argue resembles the all seeing eye in freemasonry. Indeed, "Eyes Wide Shut" chronicles both Bill and Alice's temptation and fascination with the opulence and freedom of the ultra wealthy. As Bill commences his odyssey later in the film through unabashed demonstrations of power and money, he is curious and envious.

Bill and Alice enter Ziegler's soiree, which is bathed in almost pure white light, and are each tempted by the unfettered sexual mores of the elite. Alice is approached by a debonair Hungarian tycoon named Sandor Szavost who drinks from her Champagne class, symbolic of sharing fluids during intercourse. Almost immediately, Alice conforms to her gender role and becomes totally submissive. She speaks with a high pitched tone, exposes her neck, and aggressively flirts with Szavost, all creating a charged sexual connection, culminating in his invitation to take Alice upstairs. As they dance, Alice uses her allure to manipulate Szavost into recommending her for a publishing job, an example of her trading sex for power. Yet, in many ways, manipulation seems to be Alice's end in itself. When she arrives home after the party, she gives a look of satisfaction into the camera as the song "Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing" plays and she looks away engrossed in her triumph. 

As Szavost entices Alice upstairs, he denounces the idea of marriage given that his elite status allows him to sleep with whomever he wants with no consequence. He quotes Ovid's "The Art of Love," a Roman work advising both men and women how to manipulate each other in relationships. Specifically, Ovid advises women to flirt with new sexual interests and to create artificial jealousy with long term partners to keep them doting and interested. Alice follows Ovid's advice to the letter, flirting with Szavost and later manipulating Bill by telling him about her desire for another man. Questioning the transient nature of flings, Alice asks, "Didn't Ovid wind up all by himself, crying his eyes out in some place with a very bad climate?" Szavost answers "But he also had a good time first. A very good time." He continues his assault on monogamy by asking "Don't you think one of the charms of marriage is that it makes deception a necessity for both parties? May I ask why a beautiful woman who could have any man in this room would want to be married?" This comment opens up a major theme of the film, which is the inherent deception that occurs in marriage and monogamy, a conglomeration of purposeful lies and unconscious fantasies. 

Bill is also charmed by the elite and enjoys brandishing his status as a doctor. Citing Bill's profession, one of the women at the party states that the best part of doctors is that "they are so knowledgeable." Many times in the film, Bill uses his medical credentials to gain access into places and to convince people into trusting him. In fact, the whole reason why Bill is at the party is for his medical prowess. When Bill enters, Ziegler praises his abilities and thanks him for recommending an osteopath who cured his tennis elbow. Likewise, Alice asks Bill "why does Ziegler invite us every year?" He answers, "That's what you get for making house calls." During the party, Bill sees a friend from medical school, Nick Nightingale, who has now become a jazz pianist. What becomes clear is that both he and Nightingale work for Ziegler, who summon both of them both at different points during the party. Bill and Nightingale's mandated social standing relative to Ziegler is evident in one of their exchanges, which becomes ironic when viewed through the lens of wealth and power. In talking about their medical school experience, Bill says, "Once a doctor, always a doctor," which is followed by Nightingale's retort "Never a doctor, never a doctor." While Bill has some social status as a physician, he is not part of the elite like Ziegler. At one point during the party, Bill is called by Zeigler upstairs to treat a prostitute who overdosed on cocaine and heroin. Ziegler can have sex with a prostitute at his own party in his own home and can avoid consequences because of his money and power. Bill ensures that she returns to consciousness and, on Ziegler's insistence, keeps the ordeal a secret. Later that night, Alice tells Bill to thank Ziegler for hosting them and Bill answers quickly, "I've taken care of that," meaning that he used his medical knowledge and discreteness as his currency and gratitude. In the end, Bill is effective in demonstrating the status he does possess as two women invite him to go "over the rainbow," or, in other words, to exit his usual monogamous sexual world delineated by multicolored lights and enter the unfettered world of the elite bathed in white light.

After they return home, Bill and Alice smoke marijuana and discuss the evening in a more uninhibited manner, dissecting each other's motives. It is during this conversation that the couple wrestles with the pervasiveness of sexuality within the social structure and incite jealousy for power within their relationship. They begin questioning each other's intentions and those of others at the party. Alice reveals her insecurities about Bill's imagination and desire in everyday situations: "Let's say, for example, you have some gorgeous woman, standing, in your office, naked and you're feeling her fucking tits. Now, I want to know what you're thinking about when you're squeezing them." Bill assures her that he acts professional and, thus, nonsexual. Alice then questions the inner feelings of Bill's female patients by asking "Now, when she is having her little titties squeezed, do you think she ever has any little fantasies about what handsome Dr. Bill's dickie might be like? Hmm?"

Alice's questions begin to reveal a larger sexual structure regulating human relations. Can anyone really compartmentalize sex from the rest of one's life? She thinks not. Bill lukewarmly agrees with her and cites the gender roles ingrained in nature: man the pursuer and woman the nester. Alice sums up Bill's view of evolution and the natural order: "Millions of years of evolution, right? Right? Men have to stick it in every place they can, but for women... women it is just about security and commitment and whatever the fuck else!" Confronted by the system that has historically objectified women, Alice embraces her own sexuality to gain power by telling of a man she greatly desired while married to Bill:

"If you men only knew...Well... I first saw him that morning in the lobby. He was checking into the hotel and he was following the bellboy with his luggage... to the elevator. He glanced at me as he walked past; just a glance. Nothing more. And I... could hardly... move. That afternoon, Helena went to the movie with her friend and... you and I made love. And we made plans about our future. And we talked about Helena. And yet, at no time, was he ever out of my mind. And I thought that if he wanted me, even if it was only... for one night... I was ready to give up everything. You. Helena. My whole fucking future. Everything. And yet it was weird because at the same time, you were dearer to me than ever. And... and at that moment, my love for you was both... tender... and sad. I... I barely slept that night. And I woke up the next morning in a panic. I don’t know if I was afraid that he had left or that he might still be there. But by dinner... I realized he was gone. And I was relieved." 

At that point, Bill is forced to confront the fact that Alice is a sexual being, capable of the sexual predation he thought was only characteristic of men. While Alice's story is a confession, it also acts as a weapon in their relationship. To punish Bill's flirting at the party and his nonchalant lack of jealousy towards her, she turns her sexual role on its head and evolves from submissiveness to attain power to asserting the freedom to fulfill her own sexual desires.

  

Alice's admissions about her thoughts and fantasies profoundly wound Bill because it lessens his control in the relationship and questions the status he generates from his gender role as provider. The argument spurs him to commence his own adventure of sexual self-discovery, revealing secrets within himself and the prurient nature behind society's veil of civilization. After the argument, Bill is called to the home of a patient who has died. En route to the house, he begins to experience disturbing images of his wife cheating on him with the man she described earlier. Alice intended that Bill have these disturbing fantasies to project her own jealousy onto him. An important question in the film is whether there is a difference between fantasy and reality, or whether near misses or "threatened reality" constitutes a form of cheating. In other words, can intended action or fantasy equal something that actually happened? Although Alice never consummated her desires, it seems very real to Bill who is plagued by jealousy and the horror of seeing his wife with another man in his mind's eye. Is this real? Does it matter? Human beings are hardwired toward jealousy and even violence toward a relationship interloper. This violence not only stems from jealousy, but also  from humiliation, as cuckolding leads to a reduction in social status. Later in the film, Alice recounts another sexual dream and told Bill that she was laughing at him while having intercourse other men. She uses ingrained hardwiring as a tool for regaining control in their relationship.

Within a marriage or serious relationship, there are actions and thoughts behind closed doors. Partners have thoughts and desires within their minds that are not always communicated. To Kubrick, these private, inner worlds are unavoidable as they exist within everyone. You can never see into the mind of your partner, a troublesome realization because intimacy and trust is necessary for a relationship. Bill encounters an example of this dilemma outside his own situation when he arrives at the home of his deceased patient. Bill comforts the man's daughter while they are waiting for her boyfriend to arrive. While highly emotional, she kisses Bill and confesses that she's in love with him. She does not want to move away with her boyfriend who was just awarded a professorship. When Bill explains that she is just emotional, the woman reluctantly returns to her relationship plans with her boyfriend. She will live with regrets and longings and her partner will never even know of their existence.

Bill walks around a city teeming with sexuality. He sees a couple passionately kissing and then is knocked over by a group of sex obsessed fraternity boys who proceed to call him a "faggot." Bill has now tuned into the the fact that sex underlies much of society's doings. Eventually, he meets a prostitute named Domino. She, as any prostitute, represents the exchange of sex for money or power. In fact, Bill immediately asks the flirting Domino if they should discuss money first. It is worth noticing the masks on the wall in Domino's apartment, foreshadowing the ultimate objectification of women that takes place later at the mansion orgy. Before Bill and Domino begin to kiss, he receives a call from his wife and is coaxed away from cheating. Bill, however, still fulfills his role as provider and pays Domino her fee. Later in the film, we find out from Domino's roommate that she has been diagnosed with HIV, a fearful reality that shows Bill how dangerous random sex outside a marriage can be. From Bill's experience, his world has real consequences.

After meeting Nick Nightingale at Cafe Sonata, Bill learns of a bizarre, ritualistic party at which Nightingale plays music blindfolded. Bill is intrigued and extricates the password from his friend so he can attend. Bill has to obtain a tuxedo, a cloak, and a mask to attend the party, so he seeks out a costume shop. It's crucial that the name of the shop is "Rainbow." As discussed earlier, "Eyes Wide Shut" has a color scheme that includes both multicolored and white light. At Ziegler's party, women asked Bill if he wanted to go "over the rainbow," meaning into the world of aristocratic sexual mores. Bill's decision to attend the party represents him going over the rainbow. It is worth noticing as well that the shop has both multicolored and white lights. Not only is the shop a nexus of two worlds, it is also a place of hidden prostitution. While Bill is getting his costume, the owner, a Russian immigrant, discovers that his teenage daughter is engaging in sexual activity with two wealthy businessmen. He chases them out exclaiming, "she's just a child." Later, however, when Bill returns the costume, he again sees those businessmen with the daughter, this time with approval from the father because they had paid. The owner adds, "The good doctor needn't wear a mask if he wants services here." The point is perverse acts were sold to wealthy people in private, power traded for sex. Such acts take place fittingly "behind a mask," whether literal or metaphorical.

Bill's mask is actually a cast of Ryan O'Neal's face from another Kubrick movie called "Barry Lyndon," a story which also deals with characters operating according to the confines of a social structure. Barry is a middle class man who wishes to rise in eighteenth century Irish society by exploiting what's available to him: the military, gambling, and marrying into money. Additionally, in the costume shop, some of Barry's clothes are displayed in the background. Kubrick often hides easter eggs in his films. In "A Clockwork Orange," for example, Alex goes to a record shop that clearly sells the soundtrack to "2001: A Space Odyssey." In addition to allusions from "Barry Lyndon," a DVD of "Full Metal Jacket" can be seen on Bill and Alice's nightstand, further suggesting themes of dehumanization and control.

After ripping a $100 bill in half to force a cab driver to wait for him, and, thus, flex his power through wealth, Bill enters a party at an elegant mansion. He uses the password "Fidelio," a Beethoven opera  in which a woman disguised as a prison guard named Fidelio rescues her husband, Florestan, from death in a political prison. "Fidelio" is latin for "faithfulness," especially in the context of marriage. As Bill wanders around the mansion, he sees masked guests having sex. Echoing the satanic self gratification occuring at the orgy, the background music played by Nick Nightingale is “Backwards Priests," a Romanian Orthodox Divine Liturgy played backwards. The reversal or inversion of sacred objects is typical of black magic and satanic rituals. In many ways, the mansion orgy is a revisiting of Ziegler's previous party with the underlying motivations and social realities laid bare. Women are objectified and commanded by the red cloak to have sex with random affluent men. All of the women ceremoniously disrobe to bare their sexuality just as Alice did in the beginning. Everyone at the orgy wears a mask so they can be anonymous. At Ziegler's party, all of the sexual activity and exchanges of money for sex occurs privately so the people in question could be perverse while maintaining their social status and power. One can even hypothesize that the red cloak is Ziegler, or at least symbolic for Ziegler. Pointing to this fact later in the film: when Ziegler invites Bill to his home, he hits billiard balls and chalk on a pool table twice, much like red cloak with his staff at the mansion.

Some of the disguises at the party are plague doctor masks with long beaks used in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to protect physicians from catching the plague and to aromatize foul odors with herbs, flowers, and spices (a modern equivalents of this could be AIDS and "protection" from the lower class). All the other masks are from the Carnival of Venice, an event dating from the twelfth century to celebrate a Venetian victory in battle. Although the exact purpose of the masks are debatable, they were historically used mainly for disguise or class distinction during the festival, which occurred around the Christmas holiday, the same time setting in "Eyes Wide Shut." In the film, the masks serve a Machiavellian purpose: for the elite to maintain social and moral status while also engaging in carnal desires. Note: One of the masks is shaped like a triangle with an eye in the middle, echoing an Illuminati or Masonic symbol that appears on currency.     

The aristocratic orgy serves as a metaphorical temptation for Bill, who believes that the elite class can do whatever they want without consequences because of their wealth and power. Is the party real, or is it a fantasy or dream? Either way, it represents experimentation and temptation outside marriage for Bill. Throughout the party, a woman tries to warn Bill that he is in "great danger." Later, when Bill is discovered, he is threatened by the red cloak who says:

"Mister... you are free to go. But I warn you... if you make any further inquires, or if you tell a single soul about what you've seen here tonight... there will be very dire consequences for you and your family! Do you understand? No one can change her fate now. When a promise has been made here, it should always be kept. As for you... you are free. Go!"

While the phrase "dire consequences for you and your family" can be interpreted in a violent light, the remark is actually speaking to Bill's unfaithfulness which could lead to the destruction of his family. Echoing the plot of "Fidelio," a woman sacrifices herself to free Bill from the consequences of his presence at the party. "Faithfullness" saves Bill. The woman at the orgy was probably the prostitute at Ziegler's party who almost overdosed. Just as Bill saved the woman's life through his medical knowledge, that same woman redeemed his life at the party by letting him exit that salacious world.

Bill's experience at the orgy and the events that follow show him that sexual exploration does, indeed, have consequences. The red cloak clearly warned him about the possible dissolution of his family. As Bill returns home, he goes immediately to check on his daughter, realizing that cheating could have impacted her life. Additionally, Bill sees a newspaper article about a model (called a "beauty queen") who died from an overdose and makes the connection to the woman who sacrificed herself at the party. Victor Ziegler, who also attended the party, invites Bill to his home and warns him about the "kind of trouble [he was] in last night." Ziegler continues, "Who do you think those people were? Those were not just ordinary people there. If I told you their names – I’m not gonna tell you their names – but if I did, I don’t think you’d sleep so well.” Bill brings up the fact that Nick Nightingale disappeared after the party with a black eye and that a woman was coincidentally found dead who matched the description of the woman from the party. Answering Bill's conspiracy theory, Ziegler says the whole production was a charade to demonstrate power. He explains:

"Okay Bill, let's cut the bullshit, alright? You've been way out of your depth for the last 24 hours! You want to know what kind of charade? I'll tell you exactly what kind. That whole play-acted, "take me" sacrifice that you've been jerking off with had nothing to do with her real death. The truth is, nothing happened to her after you left that hadn't happened to her before. She got her brains fucked out. Period."

It doesn't occur to Ziegler that the prostitute's overdose, even if it didn't involve foul play, was still connected to the elite group that continually objectified and exploited her. Throughout the entire movie, she has an expressionless countenance of nonexistence. She is exploited and, thus, disposable. We see her unconscious, wearing a mask, and then dead in a morgue---lifeless and plastic in all contexts.    

   

Society has created gender roles, institutions, and repressive mores to counteract and even mask intrinsic desires in the name of social order. This system is maintained by power relationships in which money and sex are constantly traded for each other. While gender roles have their origin in the physical realities of the ancient world, they have persisted as a method of social control. These roles have led to the objectification of women, which is why Alice is continually preoccupied with her outer attractiveness. Alice even teaches her daughter, Helena, how to conform to the female gender role. Not only does Helena often groom herself in a mirror with Alice, which inculcates her role by example, her education is given through the lens of gender inequality. In one subtle scene, Alice teaches Helena math by giving her this problem: "If Joe has this much money and Mike has this much, how much more money does Joe have than Mike." It's as if Helena is being taught how to choose and attract a husband from an early age. Near the end, when the family is Christmas shopping in a toy store, Helena is seen playing with toys that reenforce gender stereotypes including a play stove and baby dolls. Perhaps most unsettling, Kubrick repeats imagery found in Domino's apartment in Helena's surroundings, implying that she is slowly being objectified. Both Domino and Helena wear the color purple and have the same stuffed tiger. Finally, in the toy store, Helena walks by a board game called "The Magic Circle," which is reminiscent of the circle of women at the mansion orgy.

The main theme of "Eyes Wide Shut" is the realization that we are all blind, even willfully so, to the realities surrounding sexuality and relationships. Underneath our attempts at civility and intimacy lurks instinctual desires that are unavoidable. While Bill explores his own desires for power and sexual freedom at an elite orgy, he realizes that his wife has the same desires hardwired in her mind. She tells Bill of a disturbing dream in which she cheats on him in a similar setting to Bill's experiences. Most tellingly, the story has Adam and Eve imagery, which represents the limiting power of religious institutions on sex, which inevitably fails when in competition with instinctual desires:  

“We were in a deserted city and our clothes were gone. We were naked and I was terrified and I felt ashamed. And I was angry because you rushed away to find clothes for us. As soon as you were gone it was completely different. I felt wonderful. Then I was lying in a beautiful garden stretched out naked in the sunlight and a man walked out of the woods. He was the man from the hotel I told you about – the Naval officer. He stared at me and he just laughed. He just laughed at me….He was kissing me and then we were making love, then there were all these other people around us – hundreds of them everywhere – they were all fucking. And then I was fucking other men, so many I don’t know how many I was with. I knew you could see me in the arms of all these men…and I wanted to make fun of you, to laugh in your face. And so I laughed as loud as could. And that must have been when you woke me up.”

Marriage is one institution that limits unfettered sexual action of men and women. But that institution is beset on all sides by inner and outer forces within our nature that continually test its integrity and the ability of its participants to go against their own nature. After Alice discovers Bill's mask, the couple has along discussion about the realties of their relationship that have now become visible. Fantasies, desires, and even the occasional need for flirting and valuation are necessary mechanisms for continuing relationships. With newfound wisdom, Alice says "Maybe I think we should be grateful. Grateful that we've managed to survive through all of our adventures. Whether they were real or only a dream." She continues by saying that "the reality of one night, let alone that of a whole lifetime, can ever be the whole truth," to which Bill adds that "And no dream is ever just a dream." In other words, dreams and fantasies represent our baser needs which underlie our constructed lives. At the end of the film, while discussing the future of the relationship, Alice says something to Bill that takes into account the realties of marriages: "I do love you. And you know, there is something very important that we need to do a soon as possible--- Fuck.” Alice knows that her successful connection to Bill depends on both a civilized and animalistic factors.

Stanley Kubrick said before his death that "Eyes Wide Shut" was his best film, quite a statement given his celebrated filmography. His message is that institutions which celebrate outward shows of civility ironically fail to actually civilize people who will still privately seek power at the expense of others. Sadly, that reality is also true for individuals who wear masks of civility while inhabiting secret worlds of desire. Despite the pervasiveness of those difficulties, human beings are capable of overcoming them with an awareness that the problems exist. Looking back on all of Kubrick's films which dealt with obsession, disappointment, war, the illusion of progress, the nature of evil, social climbing, the horrors of the past, and violence, it is fitting that he should end his artistic run with a theme that trumps all of the darker aspects of human existence and makes life worth living: love.