The Jealousy Movie: what lies beneath Eyes Wide Shut - Cracking the Kube Ep. 5
Eyes Wide Shut is regarded as Kubrick’s most personal film. But how personal is it indeed? And what's the film really about?
By analysing the film’s visual language, documents from the Kubrick Archive, and original interviews with key collaborators who knew Kubrick well, this presentation will show how Kubrick wanted to make a film dealing with marriage and jealousy since his youth, how marital infidelity was a deeply felt topic, and how Kubrick engaged with the work of other filmmakers who made films on the same subject.
Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
0:50 - Kubrick's most personal film?
1:55 - The subject is not original
2:17 - Kubrick's obsession with Traumnovelle
2:36 - The long road to Eyes Wide Shut
5:17 - Traumnovelle as Kubrick's favourite love story
6:38 - Why Kubrick liked Traumnovelle so much?
7:26 - Candia McWilliam's insight
8:29 - Jealousy is the key word
8:58 - Albert Brook's Modern Romance
9:57 - Eric Rohmer's Love in the Afternoon
10:30 - James Cameron's True Lies
11:04 - Paul Mazursky's Blume in Love
11:58 - Paul Mazursky's Next Stop, Greenwich Village
13:06 - James B. Harris's Some Call It Loving
14:24 - Jealousy is the subject
15:15 - Early projects dealing with jealousy
17:20 - How personal is indeed Eyes Wide Shut?
17:40 - Gerald Fried's insights
19:40 - Lies and betrayals
20:04 - The role of Ruth Sobotka
21:58 - The Schnitzler's factor
23:31 - Stability vs. adventures
24:49 - Kubrick's youth, echoes of Schnitzler
26:24 - Why Traumnovelle?
28:54 - Some Call it Loving as a Schnitzlerian story
29:36 - Schnitlzer, Zweig and Freud as teachers
30:00 - Two sibling works
32:17 - Taboo subjects in Kubrick's films
33:04 - Schnitzler as a soulmate
33:43 - Coda
Fifth episode in my series of academic lectures, slightly reworked from:
Filippo Ulivieri, “Infidelity troubled him deeply,” @ Behind Eyes Wide Shut, London College of Communication, London, 16 dicembre 2019.