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Speaker 1: Hey, film Spotters, Josh and Adam.

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Speaker 2: Here.

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Speaker 1: Wednesdays are when we drop something in the feed from

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Speaker 1: the Giant Film Spotting archive. This week, we're sharing our

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Speaker 1: nine from ninety nine review of Eyes Wide Shut. I

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Speaker 1: don't know if you think of this as a Christmas movie, Adam,

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Speaker 1: holiday movie lately, but a lot a lot of people do,

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Speaker 1: and they tend to revisit it this time of year.

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Speaker 3: Yes, I think that that is only appropriate and it's

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Speaker 3: fitting for me because I may have treated myself to

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Speaker 3: an early Christmas present this year by buying the four

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Speaker 3: K Criterion Collection DVD.

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Speaker 1: Come on, you're one of those people, you, Debbie, does

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Speaker 1: this too? November one? You don't buy yourself anything? You're done?

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Speaker 2: Hold off?

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Speaker 1: You just you can wait till the next till January one.

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Speaker 3: Okay, well yeah yeah maybe so maybe so. But Josh,

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Speaker 3: maybe you get more Christmas presents that I do. Maybe

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Speaker 3: if I don't buy them for myself, nobody you will.

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Speaker 3: I'm going to talk about that note.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 3: I'm just fishing for listeners to send me stuff, that's all.

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Speaker 3: Just just send the cookies. I just want baked goods,

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Speaker 3: that's all I really want. Can't get that from Criterion

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Speaker 3: from September twenty nineteen. Here is our nine from ninety

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Speaker 3: nine review of iyse Wide Shut. You've never been jealous

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Speaker 3: about me, have you? No?

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Speaker 2: I haven't.

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Speaker 4: And why haven't you ever been jealous about me?

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Speaker 1: Well?

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Speaker 2: I don't know, Alice.

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Speaker 1: Maybe because you're my wife and I know you would

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Speaker 1: never be unfaithful to me.

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Speaker 4: You are very very sure of yourself, aren't you.

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Speaker 2: No, I'm sure of you.

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Speaker 4: Do you think that's funny?

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Speaker 1: I really don't bring this up to rub it in, Adam,

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Speaker 1: But when I was hanging out with our now mutual

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Speaker 1: friends Jason Eken and Brett Merriman at the film spotting

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Speaker 1: la made up this summer, one of the things we

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Speaker 1: debated was the supposed misanthropy of Stanley Kubrick's films, neither

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Speaker 1: of them quite by my theory that his movies mostly

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Speaker 1: despise people, and that the giant space baby at the

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Speaker 1: end of two thousand and one is coming to gobble

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Speaker 1: us all. I honestly don't remember if Eyes Wide Chut,

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Speaker 1: the latest film in our nine from ninety nine series,

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Speaker 1: came up in the discussion that night. We'd moved on

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Speaker 1: from the Brewery. At that point to a nearby Mexican spot.

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Speaker 1: Now ewhd Chut is probably the Kubrick film best poised

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Speaker 1: to puncture a hole in my argument.

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Speaker 2: Here's a movie that.

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Speaker 1: I found back in nineteen ninety nine, and upon this

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Speaker 1: rewatch to be yes clear eyed about the depravity of humankind,

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Speaker 1: but also brazenly positive about people, and dare I say

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Speaker 1: even a bit mushy? Iwhit Chutt is adapted by Kubrick

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Speaker 1: and Frederick Raphael from Arthur Schnitzler's nineteen twenty six novella

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Speaker 1: trom Noval, which they updated to contemporary New York City.

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Speaker 2: Then married.

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Speaker 1: Co stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman play an affluent

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Speaker 1: couple and parents of a young girl whose marriage changes

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Speaker 1: course during one woozy late night pot smoking session. Basically

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Speaker 1: told by Bill her husband that women don't have the

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Speaker 1: instinct for infidelity, Kidman's Alice launches into a searing confession

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Speaker 1: about a near affair she had with a naval officer

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Speaker 1: the summer before on a family vacation. Kidman's monologue, by

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Speaker 1: the way, my number two Stanley Kubrick's scenes smart pick

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Speaker 1: can't wait to hear what years sire Adam Ellis's eye

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Speaker 1: opening tale sends Bill on a strange odyssey through the

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Speaker 1: New York night, where he dabbles with various opportunities to

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Speaker 1: enact some sort of sexual revenge, including at the secret

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Speaker 1: High Society sex ritual.

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Speaker 2: He sneaks into that the movie has become notorious for now.

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Speaker 1: A lot of this is nasty, ugly stuff, and certainly

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Speaker 1: in line with a misanthropic reading of Kubrick's work. It

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Speaker 1: was also a turn off to many critics at the time.

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Speaker 1: Eyes White Shut only got mildly favorable reviews, and it

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Speaker 1: did earn some notable pans, including David Edelstein's for Slate,

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Speaker 1: which producer Sam Van Haugren referenced in this week's Film's

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Speaker 1: Body newsletter. Kubrick himself, it's worth noting, died shortly before

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Speaker 1: the film's release and didn't get to see its reception.

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Speaker 1: And yet if you stick with the picture, if you

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Speaker 1: make it through the masked orgy to the moment when

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Speaker 1: Bill drops his mask in response to Alice dropping hers,

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Speaker 1: you'll find, as I put it in nineteen ninety nine,

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Speaker 1: possibly the most moral movie ever to show this much skin.

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Speaker 1: I think it portrays marriage as something difficult, yes, but

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Speaker 1: also sensual and ultimately precious. Seeing Eyes White Hut in

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine, after I'd been married for four years,

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Speaker 1: I found that interesting encouraging. Watching it again in twenty nineteen,

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Speaker 1: after twenty four years of marriage, it nearly wrecked me.

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Speaker 1: I honestly let out a tiary gufaw at Kidman's perfect

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Speaker 1: final line. This struck me as devastatingly romantic. So Adam

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Speaker 1: am I wrong? Which means maybe Jason and Brett might

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Speaker 1: be right about Kubrick. Or did you too find this

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Speaker 1: odd sex odyssey from one of our quote unquote coldest

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Speaker 1: tours to be a work of real tenderness, passion, and compassion.

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Speaker 3: I would love nothing more than to tell you that

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Speaker 3: you're wrong, But in this case, you are dead on.

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Speaker 3: And I love starting with this because it gets right

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Speaker 3: at the heart of what I too, appreciate so much

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Speaker 3: about this movie. And I suppose the answer could depend

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Speaker 3: on one's definition of romantic. But the counter to your

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Speaker 3: take is pretty simple. This is a movie about a

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Speaker 3: married couple who don't share a ton of screen time

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Speaker 3: when they're together. Most of the wife's dialogue, Alice, as

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Speaker 3: you said, played by Kidman, concerns, fantasies about cheating with

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Speaker 3: other men, in one instance, so many men she can't count,

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Speaker 3: and ultimately trying to humiliate her husband when they aren't together.

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Speaker 3: The husband is trying to actually cheat with other women.

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Speaker 3: He's consistently thwarted, but he's trying. So sure, Josh, that

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Speaker 3: sounds really romantic.

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Speaker 2: Here's a great movie.

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Speaker 3: The proof that you're right, though, is this. This is

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Speaker 3: a movie about a married couple who, despite those fantasies

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Speaker 3: and thwarted attempts, is in a much healthier, honest place

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Speaker 3: than they were before. I think the key expression of

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Speaker 3: that sentiment comes in Alice's lines near the end of

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Speaker 3: the film when she says, the important thing is we're

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Speaker 3: awake now and hopefully for a long time to come.

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Speaker 3: And this, of course, tying back into the title of

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Speaker 3: the movie. If you set aside for now all the

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Speaker 3: talk of dreams and the undeniable dreamlike nature of really

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Speaker 3: the entire movie, and I'm sure we will talk about

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Speaker 3: that a bit, there's this kind of suggestion of sleepwalking

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Speaker 3: in their marriage right from the very beginning. Of course,

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Speaker 3: we get that incredible opening shot of Kidman naked as

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Speaker 3: her dress falls she's facing away from the camera and

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Speaker 3: she's just a stunning, sensual figure, statuesque in her pose.

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Speaker 3: And then we go from that a little bit of

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Speaker 3: a credit break into the scene of them getting ready,

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Speaker 3: and it's a very familiar conversation, probably to most of

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Speaker 3: us married people. Honey, have you seen my wallet? Isn't

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Speaker 3: it on the bedside table? He kind of groans when

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Speaker 3: he finds it. Of course, she's right, and that's exactly

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Speaker 3: where he left it. He points out that we're running

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Speaker 3: a little bit late. She says, I know, and she says,

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Speaker 3: how do I look? And he says perfect?

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Speaker 2: Is my hair?

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Speaker 3: Okay? It's great, And before she even says it, we're

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Speaker 3: all aware as viewers he's not even looking at her

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Speaker 3: when he says it. He's really not paying attention at all.

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Speaker 3: She then calls him on it. You're not even looking

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Speaker 3: at it. He says, it's beautiful, you always look beautiful.

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Speaker 3: Doesn't carry that much weight. He might mean it, but

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Speaker 3: in that moment, it doesn't really carry that much weight.

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Speaker 3: There's very little real connection there, I think, between them.

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Speaker 3: Which is it to say there's a wide chasm, or

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Speaker 3: that there's a total lack of love, not at all,

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Speaker 3: but we do see them going through the everyday motions

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Speaker 3: of a marriage. We see it too, I think in

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Speaker 3: Alice's looking into the mirror during a love making scene,

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Speaker 3: after the party, and by the end, Josh, they've awakened

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Speaker 3: to a couple things, the reality of relationships, of life

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Speaker 3: there for and as she says, the gratitude they should

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Speaker 3: probably feel that they didn't feel before, and seeing each

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Speaker 3: other as they really are, no more facades, no more masks,

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Speaker 3: and specifically seeing each other as individual sexual beings.

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Speaker 2: That's the key.

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Speaker 3: I think this is territory that is certainly more fraught

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Speaker 3: psychologically and emotionally. It's a little more dangerous, if you will,

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Speaker 3: but it's also way more exciting and stimulating. And what's

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Speaker 3: romance if not something that should be exciting and stimulating.

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Speaker 1: Josh, Yeah, it's romantic because it's a revival. I think

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Speaker 1: that's why I find it that way. The other line

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Speaker 1: she has in that final conversation you mentioned it to

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Speaker 1: be grateful. She says, maybe we should be grateful, grateful

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Speaker 1: that we've managed to survive. And there's a keyword as well,

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Speaker 1: survive through all our adventures, whether they were real or

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Speaker 1: only a dream. And so there's an honesty there in

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Speaker 1: a way that you get the sense there in the

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Speaker 1: most honest place, still a pretty terrible place. I mean,

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Speaker 1: they've got a lot to sort out. It's not like

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Speaker 1: they're going to walk out of that toy store where

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Speaker 1: they're Christmas shopping with their daughter in this final scene

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Speaker 1: and everything's gonna be hunky dory. There's gonna be a

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Speaker 1: lot of rough roads ahead, but you feel like this

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Speaker 1: is probably the most honest place they've ever been with

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Speaker 1: each other.

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Speaker 2: They're in their way more fulfilling path. Yeah, and I

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Speaker 2: find that romantic. I se with you, but it is.

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Speaker 1: It's the sort of experience where there are a little

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Speaker 1: dollops of this in a movie that is otherwise extremely

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Speaker 1: depressing in all the ways that you described watching them apart,

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Speaker 1: I do wish there had been more Kidman in this

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Speaker 1: because not only because she just takes such control of

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Speaker 1: those scenes she has, which are essentially monologues, but because

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Speaker 1: we kind of get stuck with Cruise for a long time,

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Speaker 1: who is good as well, Yes, but it is weighted

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Speaker 1: far more towards him, and so yeah, I maybe could

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Speaker 1: have used a little bit more of her, But there

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Speaker 1: are other romantic elements in this that the mirror scene

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Speaker 1: you mentioned the beginning to Chris Isaac's Baby did a bad,

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Speaker 1: bad thing, maybe more sensual than romantic, but at least

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Speaker 1: captures a fire that they do have of some sort,

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Speaker 1: mixed with a lot of other stuff going on.

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Speaker 3: I think that look, that look betrays something to me

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Speaker 3: that isn't So let's get to the performances.

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Speaker 1: Because Kidman's looks in this film, but what she gives

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Speaker 1: the camera with her face, she's always two and usually

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Speaker 1: three mental places at once, and I think that mirror

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Speaker 1: scene is the quintessential one for that. We see that

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Speaker 1: part of it is an attraction and connection with her husband.

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Speaker 1: Part of it is thinking about what happened at the party.

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Speaker 1: They just came from the cocktail party where she was propositioned,

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Speaker 1: and she's also suspicious of what he might have been doing,

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Speaker 1: so that's at play.

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Speaker 2: You also see.

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Speaker 1: Her seeming to consider all of those things at once

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Speaker 1: and asking herself, who am I? Who am I looking

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Speaker 1: at right now? And who are we together? Kidman gives

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Speaker 1: such a psychologically layered performance here and again with maybe

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Speaker 1: a third of the scenes that Cruz has, and just

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Speaker 1: makes those so potent so powerful that they do in

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Speaker 1: the end for me outweigh the miserableism that we see

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Speaker 1: Cruz's character mostly wading through.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to talk about the performances I suppose,

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Speaker 3: in particular Cruse here because I think you're exactly correct

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Speaker 3: about Kidman and her performance. And if we were going

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Speaker 3: to redo those Kubrick scenes, having now seen Eyes Wide

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Speaker 3: Shut again, I probably would have tried to fit that

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Speaker 3: exact scene on. That monologue for me, is the crux

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Speaker 3: of the entire film, and I love her delivery of it.

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Speaker 3: I think she's off a little bit. There's a sequence later,

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Speaker 3: that dream sequence where she's coming out of a dream

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Speaker 3: and she goes on another long explanation that doesn't ever

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Speaker 3: feel quite right to me. In fact, I don't really

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Speaker 3: like anything about that scene. It's a little bit too

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Speaker 3: on the nose, and it's Garden of Eden symbolism. I

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Speaker 3: felt that Kubrick was going for there, and she somehow

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Speaker 3: just wasn't as grounded as she is in that scene

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Speaker 3: where the camera is just trained on her and we

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Speaker 3: get the those glimpses, we get those cuts to Cruise

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Speaker 3: in those close ups, which I also love. Yes, I

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Speaker 3: think we get in those scenes, and we get it

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Speaker 3: in the taxikap to a little bit of that Kubrick

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Speaker 3: glare that he's famous for. It's that kind of almost

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Speaker 3: looking down face that you only get from Kubrick, emphasize

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Speaker 3: that way that suggests something more than just sorrow or

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Speaker 3: just basic sadness, something like true existential despair. And I

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Speaker 3: think you get it from Cruse. I certainly felt it

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Speaker 3: there in that bedroom scene. So I think Kidman and

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Speaker 3: Cruse are both great in that scene and very good

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Speaker 3: in this whole film. But Amy Nicholson in that Vanity

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Speaker 3: Fair article said something interesting about Cruse's performance that she

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Speaker 3: felt like it feels flat. She says, Cruise's blankness makes

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Speaker 3: eyes wide shut. Take on an element of Kubuki theater,

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Speaker 3: the art form where emotional perception, not projection, is key.

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Speaker 3: The whole film feels like an exercise in theatricality, as

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Speaker 3: though doctor Bill is not a person but a prop.

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Speaker 3: This isn't a movie about a human possessed with distrust

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Speaker 3: and jealousy. It's a movie about distrust and jealousy that

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Speaker 3: simply uses a human as it's conduit. With CRUs hidden

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Speaker 3: in a mask and robe, The tension is to hide

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Speaker 3: his individuality in the service of a larger ritualistic machine,

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Speaker 3: And she pointed out the critics then did kind of

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Speaker 3: pan the performance. It was like, Oh, he's the action

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Speaker 3: movie star, and yes he'd done Born on the fourth

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Speaker 3: of July, but he's out of his league here somehow,

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Speaker 3: and now again separated from that by twenty years and

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Speaker 3: looking over the expanse of Cruz's career, I don't feel

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Speaker 3: that way at all about this performance. I understand what

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Speaker 3: she's saying about the flatness and how it does ultimately

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Speaker 3: serve the story. And it gets to the question that

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Speaker 3: all of us as critics or viewers have about performances

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Speaker 3: in films when they work or don't work. Who gets

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Speaker 3: the credit? How much credit does the director get? How

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Speaker 3: much of it is the actor and the choices they're

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Speaker 3: specifically making. With Kubrick on this film, knowing what we

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Speaker 3: do know about his approach, I don't see how you

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Speaker 3: can't give the lion's share of the credit or discredit.

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Speaker 3: I would say, if that's what you perceive to Kubrick,

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Speaker 3: because you know he shot ninety five to one hundred

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Speaker 3: and fifty takes of everyone of these scenes, and tried

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Speaker 3: to get exactly what he wanted out of those sequences,

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Speaker 3: and how many takes that Cruz loved or that we

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Speaker 3: would love did he leave on the cutting room floor.

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Speaker 3: He wanted something that suggested more detachment that flatness. Perhaps

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Speaker 3: it's clearly this is all filling into this overall dream

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Speaker 3: like state of this film, and you can get on

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Speaker 3: that wavelength or not.

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Speaker 1: I suppose this is what's going on with Cruz, and

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Speaker 1: you're right Edelstein really went after him in that slate takedown.

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Speaker 1: He mostly aimed at Cruz and his supposed flatness. But

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Speaker 1: what I think is going on is that Kubrick cast

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Speaker 1: him for perhaps you know, the marriage element, but also

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Speaker 1: for his innate enthusiasm, the way that he is our

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Speaker 1: most enthusiastic actor, and then what he's going to do

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Speaker 1: is stifle that and force that to be drained out

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Speaker 1: of him. And watching that happen gives this movie and

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Speaker 1: gives the performance attention. And notice at the very beginning

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Speaker 1: when they go to that cocktail party, that holiday cocktail

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Speaker 1: party by Sidney Pollocks, the way Cruise shakes everyone's hands,

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Speaker 1: todd Field's pianist, when he sees him again, he's pumping

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Speaker 1: it up and down like it's the best thing that's

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Speaker 1: ever happened to the both of them, that they're meeting together.

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Speaker 1: He's greeting everyone this way, and eventually, as his world

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Speaker 1: starts constricting upon him or getting up ended, he just

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Speaker 1: gets tamped down more and more. But in those scenes

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Speaker 1: where he's supposedly flat, you can see underneath that enthusiasm

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Speaker 1: wanting to come out, that kind of energy, that rage,

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Speaker 1: but he does not know what.

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Speaker 2: To do anymore.

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Speaker 1: He's been completely discombobulated, and you see that cruise. It's

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Speaker 1: draining away, That smug cruise smile just goes further further away.

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Speaker 1: And it's all about that line Kidman gives or Ellis

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Speaker 1: gives to Bill in that first fight. You are very

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Speaker 1: very sure of your aren't you who's very very sure

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Speaker 1: of himself? Tom Cruise, Who's going to get taken to

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Speaker 1: the mat in this movie? Tom Cruise the character, build

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Speaker 1: a character, but all so Tom Cruise the persona, And

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Speaker 1: I think that is what Kubrick is going for now.

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Speaker 1: Just to jump back to what you said about Kidman

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Speaker 1: and Alice in that secondary when she wakes up from

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Speaker 1: the dream monologue, what I liked about it is that

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Speaker 1: I was never quite sure, and maybe this can be

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Speaker 1: read as an unsteadiness in the performance. I was never

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Speaker 1: quite sure what Alice was making up, what she actually dreamt,

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Speaker 1: what she was holding back from him that she did dream.

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Speaker 1: And the way I read it is she is deciding

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Speaker 1: as she's talking to him, how much of this dream

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Speaker 1: am I going to tell him? Because you could have

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Speaker 1: a dream like that and your spouse can wake you

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Speaker 1: up and mind you. When he comes into the room,

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Speaker 1: she's giggling. She seems to be having a fantastic dream,

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Speaker 1: but he wakes her up and she says, oh, I

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Speaker 1: was having a horrible nightmare.

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Speaker 2: The conversation circles down to that it is horrible. It

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Speaker 2: is horrible.

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Speaker 1: So maybe she's being honest and he being out all

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Speaker 1: right yet? And so what I like about that scene

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Speaker 1: is that that unsteadiness that I think she purposefully shows

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Speaker 1: us is that I don't know what I want to

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Speaker 1: say here.

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Speaker 2: I don't I don't know how I'm supposed to play this.

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Speaker 2: It's it's her unsteadiness.

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Speaker 4: We were in a deserted city and and our clothes

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Speaker 4: were gone, we were naked, and and I was terrified,

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Speaker 4: and I and I felt ashamed. Oh God, and and

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Speaker 4: I was angry because I thought it was your fault.

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Speaker 4: But you you rushed away to go and find fine

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Speaker 4: clothes for us. As soon as you were gone, it

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Speaker 4: was completely different. I felt wonderful.

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Speaker 1: Maybe this is where we can move into the formal.

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Speaker 1: I think it's fascinating that we have spent this much

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Speaker 1: time on a Stanley Kubrick film talking about performances and

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Speaker 1: not really gotten to the form I'm ready.

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Speaker 2: This has to be though. I think that's remarkable.

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Speaker 1: Though this has to be his most I don't want

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Speaker 1: to say effective use of actors, but of all the

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Speaker 1: films of his, I've seen where acting plays as prominent

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Speaker 1: a part in what the movie is trying to do.

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Speaker 2: Is that fair? Maybe? Maybe?

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Speaker 1: And that's not to downplay any of the other performances

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Speaker 1: that have been given. I mean great performances have been

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Speaker 1: given in his films. I just it's I can't imagine

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Speaker 1: any other movie of his we would start by talking

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Speaker 1: about the acting for this song.

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Speaker 3: No, probably not, And as we noted, a lot of

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Speaker 3: people would disagree with that, or certainly did back in

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Speaker 3: ninety nine. I hate to use the pun here, but

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Speaker 3: maybe it's a perfect marriage of that form and content,

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Speaker 3: or I suppose in this case, thinking about the camera

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Speaker 3: and how it works around the actors and supports everything

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Speaker 3: we're saying about these performances, and really how it informs

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Speaker 3: the psychology. I think our psychology is viewers more than anything.

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Speaker 3: And with Kubrick, I think we've always studied his frames

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Speaker 3: fairly carefully. I mean we as in anyone who watches

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Speaker 3: a Kubrick film we know to watch closely. I think

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Speaker 3: I watch a little more obsessively now in a post

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Speaker 3: Room two two seven world, right, that documentary that really

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Speaker 3: gets into all those theories about what every single thing

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Speaker 3: in the frame could possibly mean and all the symbolism

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Speaker 3: of it. And so right off the bat with this film,

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Speaker 3: I was doing that. I'm looking at Ziggler's party and

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Speaker 3: I'm seeing that eight pointed star that's lit up as

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Speaker 3: they walk in and they're doing the handshake scene. And

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Speaker 3: then man, we see that a few more times at

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Speaker 3: his house. He seems really into that symbol. What does

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Speaker 3: that mean? I promise myself I wasn't going to say

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Speaker 3: Illuminati again, so I'm not going to go down that path.

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Speaker 3: But I did start looking at it that way, and

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Speaker 3: you start to notice, of course it does, and take

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Speaker 3: long to realize that scene after scene you're seeing frames

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Speaker 3: populated by Christmas lights, and of course I start thinking, well,

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Speaker 3: what's the deep meaning of the Christmas lights? And I

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Speaker 3: completely dismissed it because I said, brilliant observation at him.

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Speaker 3: The movie takes place at Christmas, God forbid, people are

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Speaker 3: celebrating and recognizing Christmas. Of course that makes sense. But

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Speaker 3: the closer you start to pay attention, and you especially

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Speaker 3: realize not only does he really continue the motif in

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Speaker 3: a way that defies reality. I think it becomes a

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Speaker 3: hyper kind of reality with those Christmas lights, you also

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Speaker 3: start to notice when he doesn't employ the Christmas lights,

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Speaker 3: and there are some key scenes. And also then that

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Speaker 3: meshes with the fact that we get in that scene

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Speaker 3: when he is at the party and while she's dancing

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Speaker 3: with the Hungarian man, he's being taken away by those

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Speaker 3: two models, and it's weird. It's almost like something out

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Speaker 3: of the movie The Devil's Advocate, when Pacino's devil character

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Speaker 3: is trying to tempt Keanu Reeves, and I remember he's

401
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Speaker 3: got these you know, these witches or these demons, if

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Speaker 3: you will, who are super attractive women and they are

403
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Speaker 3: tempting him. That's almost what it feels like, because it's

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Speaker 3: such a such an odd state. They are just ready

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Speaker 3: to devour him as they're taking him away from his wife.

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Speaker 3: But I'm watching that scene. What do they say when

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Speaker 3: he asks where they're going? Their answer is, we're going

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Speaker 3: where the rainbow ends. And then, of course, when you

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Speaker 3: see the costume shop that he goes to to go

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Speaker 3: to the party, it's called Rainbow. And when they go

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Speaker 3: down into the basement and that whole charade plays out,

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Speaker 3: it's called under the Rainbow. And you think about how

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Speaker 3: those lights tie in with the primary colors of all

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Speaker 3: these Christmas lights in scene after scene after scene, and

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Speaker 3: for me, it does just all support this idea that

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Speaker 3: there's this real world that they inhabit, but it's ultimately

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Speaker 3: a fake world, right. It's adorned with these lights to

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Speaker 3: suggest joy, to suggest comfort, whatever you want those Christmas

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Speaker 3: lights to mean. And then there's this alter world. It's

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Speaker 3: a construct too, where this ritual is going on, this

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Speaker 3: whole power system is in place. It's a construct, but

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Speaker 3: it's where everyone reveals who they really are and everyone

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Speaker 3: shows their true primal instincts and their primal desires. And

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Speaker 3: in those scenes, of course, we don't get those primary colors.

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Speaker 3: We don't get the rainbow colors and the Christmas lights

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Speaker 3: in the orgy scene. We get those stark blacks and

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Speaker 3: reds in that scene. And how about those confession scenes,

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Speaker 3: anytime that they're in their bedroom, it's really striking how

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Speaker 3: those are lit right where. Yeah, it's this combination of blues,

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Speaker 3: icy blues.

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Speaker 1: See when she wakes up is in particular. Yeah, but

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Speaker 1: even in that first one you see softer and almost warmer.

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Speaker 1: It is warmer, but you see, for example, in shots

434
00:22:50,040 --> 00:22:53,160
Speaker 1: behind them of the bathroom or the hallway, there's always

435
00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:56,240
Speaker 1: this juxtaposition of a little bit of a yellow glow

436
00:22:56,600 --> 00:23:01,560
Speaker 1: with this real iciness that contrasts that which obviously speaks

437
00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:05,760
Speaker 1: to or underscores kind of what's going on with their relationship.

438
00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:07,720
Speaker 1: And when it gets to the end of the film,

439
00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:10,359
Speaker 1: when it gets to that moment where he's about to

440
00:23:10,440 --> 00:23:13,720
Speaker 1: walk in his bedroom, right and he sees the mask

441
00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:17,760
Speaker 1: and he says, I'll tell you everything. He reveals everything honestly,

442
00:23:17,800 --> 00:23:19,560
Speaker 1: or at least we're supposed to believe he does, because

443
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:22,160
Speaker 1: we don't get to hear his recount of the night

444
00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:23,760
Speaker 1: we were with him. We're going to trust that he

445
00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:26,080
Speaker 1: actually does tell her the entire truth. But what does

446
00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:28,560
Speaker 1: he do the last thing before he walks into his bedroom.

447
00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:30,120
Speaker 1: He shuts the Christmas tree off.

448
00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:33,840
Speaker 3: That's kind of that moment right where this rainbow fantasy

449
00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:35,840
Speaker 3: I think is really supposed to end, and everything we're

450
00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:38,840
Speaker 3: saying about their relationship, this new reality that they're about

451
00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:42,080
Speaker 3: to enter, it finally happens once they finally shut those

452
00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:42,640
Speaker 3: lights off.

453
00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:47,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, and for him then the final I don't accusation,

454
00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:48,560
Speaker 1: I don't know what you want to call it, but

455
00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:50,520
Speaker 1: the final decision is when he does see the mask

456
00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:54,040
Speaker 1: on the bed pillow next to her, which gives him

457
00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:56,600
Speaker 1: that moment of do I play this.

458
00:23:56,600 --> 00:23:57,360
Speaker 2: For more deception?

459
00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:00,880
Speaker 1: You could see there's a pause, sure, like how can

460
00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:03,600
Speaker 1: I get out of this? What can I say? And

461
00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:05,639
Speaker 1: in the face of that, he just sort of crumples.

462
00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:08,840
Speaker 1: So the Christmas light thing is I think you're absolutely

463
00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:13,840
Speaker 1: right in that they are this pretty sheen meant to

464
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:20,880
Speaker 1: attract and deceive. And that's kind of the nice topping

465
00:24:21,119 --> 00:24:23,240
Speaker 1: how you see, like this is kind of fun to

466
00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:25,879
Speaker 1: play out at that cocktail party where she's flirting with

467
00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:30,040
Speaker 1: the Hungarian, played we should say, by Sky Dumont, great Cambio.

468
00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:32,399
Speaker 2: It's a little longer than a cameo, but he's so

469
00:24:32,520 --> 00:24:33,000
Speaker 2: good in it.

470
00:24:33,359 --> 00:24:38,280
Speaker 1: And Bill is flirting with the two models briefly, and

471
00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:41,920
Speaker 1: I think this is where what we gradually see is

472
00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:47,159
Speaker 1: that the pretty, tantalizing lights and the tempting offer from

473
00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:52,920
Speaker 1: the Hungarian, and the harmless flirtations with the models, they're

474
00:24:52,960 --> 00:24:56,040
Speaker 1: all the first step towards other things. When you get

475
00:24:56,160 --> 00:24:58,719
Speaker 1: under the rainbow where all of the sudden it gets

476
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:03,000
Speaker 1: really a but it's the same trajectory, and I think

477
00:25:03,040 --> 00:25:05,639
Speaker 1: that's why this is actually I don't know if you

478
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:07,960
Speaker 1: would ever call this a prudish movie, but in a

479
00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:10,520
Speaker 1: lot of ways, it's like, that's why I call it

480
00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:12,520
Speaker 1: a moral film. I get it in the way it

481
00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:18,359
Speaker 1: talks about humans and sexuality. And what's fascinating to me

482
00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:21,919
Speaker 1: is how the cinematography plays into this the way that

483
00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:25,200
Speaker 1: you're talking about, but even you know, the cinematography in

484
00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:28,840
Speaker 1: that costume shop scene is so amazing. It's possibly that's

485
00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:32,840
Speaker 1: where the Christmas lights become sinister, and you have them

486
00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:37,679
Speaker 1: Christmas decorations on these mannequins, and it just seems perverse,

487
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:40,720
Speaker 1: like it doesn't make sense there, and sure enough we

488
00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:43,479
Speaker 1: find out it foreshadows what we learn about the owner's

489
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:46,520
Speaker 1: daughter played by Lee Sobieski, which I totally forgot that

490
00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:48,600
Speaker 1: she was in this as a kid and all of

491
00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:53,160
Speaker 1: a sudden everything curdles. It's like what the hungarian promised.

492
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:56,080
Speaker 1: Remember their first conversation where he starts talking about the

493
00:25:57,119 --> 00:25:59,880
Speaker 1: romantic poet ovid and kidman points.

494
00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:02,440
Speaker 2: Out, well, you know ended up alone in miserable. What's

495
00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:03,120
Speaker 2: his response?

496
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:05,960
Speaker 1: But he also had a good time first, a very

497
00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:09,040
Speaker 1: good time. And the question to ask yourself about ice

498
00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:12,720
Speaker 1: wide shot is okay, let's open that door, let's go

499
00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:17,960
Speaker 1: upstairs with this Hungarian, which Cruise does for the rest

500
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:20,720
Speaker 1: of the film in his trajectory, does anyone have a

501
00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:23,280
Speaker 1: very good time? And where we end up is the

502
00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:25,959
Speaker 1: basement of the costume shot. Right where we end up

503
00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:31,120
Speaker 1: is at the masked party, which is it's like cadavers

504
00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:32,440
Speaker 1: being resuscitated.

505
00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:35,320
Speaker 2: It is so grotesque.

506
00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:39,879
Speaker 1: And like somehow forced to enact some gruesome porn film.

507
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:43,040
Speaker 2: Please come forward.

508
00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:48,359
Speaker 3: That nine from ninety nine series was so much fun.

509
00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:52,720
Speaker 3: Fight Club being John Malkovich Magnolia, the Blair Witch Project,

510
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:56,280
Speaker 3: the Matrix and more. And of course, yes, Eyes White

511
00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:59,080
Speaker 3: Shut You can hear all of those conversations and a

512
00:26:59,119 --> 00:27:03,240
Speaker 3: few more I omitted Josh as part of that series

513
00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:06,200
Speaker 3: in the Film Spotting Archive. You get access to that archive,

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00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:09,080
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