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Eyes Wide Shut & Dream Story
Dream Story...is a sensual tale that explores the subconscious, forbidden desires of a husband and wife, in both their dreams and fantasies and their increasingly daring sexual adventures. Ahead of its time and marked by the deep influence of the author's contemporary, Sigmund Freud, Schnitzler's novel has become a modernist classic. In this volume the original story's themes of depravity and the elusive ambiguity of dream and reality can be compared to Kubrick's own transforming vision -- in the film that has become the culminating achievement of his career...
281 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1999
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About the author
Stanley Kubrick
41 books267 followersStanley Kubrick was an influential American filmmaker, screenwriter and producer. He directed a number of highly acclaimed and sometimes controversial films. Kubrick was noted for the scrupulous care with which he chose his subjects, his slow method of working, the variety of genres he worked in, his technical perfectionism, and his reclusiveness about his films and personal life.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Kubrick
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Kubrick
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January 3, 2017
NOTE: This is a review of the film, rather than of reading of the screenplay itself, and how it differs from Arthur Schnitzler’s novella, Dream Story, which I’ve reviewed in detail HERE.
It was Stanley Kubrick’s final film, in 1999, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, who were still married to each other at the time (though they divorced soon afterwards). See imdb for details here.
The plot closely follows that of Dream Story, but it is a world away in time, place, and atmosphere.
The film is set in contemporary NYC, shortly before Christmas (rather than early spring in 1910s Vienna): there is an abundance of colourful lights and lavishly decorated trees in every home, shop, bar, and workplace. On a taxi ride, even ordinary street lights look like chains of festive lights.
Bill is less sympathetic on screen than Fridolin is on the page, and there is friction between him and Alice even before she confesses her fantasy (at his request).
The film is remarkably unerotic, despite plenty of nudity and brief glimpses of group sex.
But the most profound difference is that the film lacks the hypnotic, dreamy, enchanted aura of the book. This is partly because all Bill's adventures are unquestionably real, and hers unquestionably imagined. It lacks the subtle blurring of reality that is so distinctive in the book, though it indirectly acknowledges the possibility in the final scene, when they paraphrase several lines from the book. The realism of Bill’s exploits are partly because you see them on screen (without the visual or musical mist used for Alice’s), and also because there’s a new character, Ziegler, who connects many of the otherwise disjointed people and events.
There is sensual menace, though, at the secret society’s party, which is more of a mystical cult than I pictured from the book. Cold stone interiors, sinister masks, and a total lack of the festive gew-gaws that are ubiquitous in the rest of the film, collude to raise the pulse and seal the fear.
March 4, 2013
[Reviewed in 1999]
Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut was shrouded in secrecy and hype for so long (and compounded by Kubrick’s unexpected death last March) that it was probably destined to disappoint critics and moviegoers. Predictably, the film had a stupendous opening weekend, but the few positive reviews it garnered weren’t enough to overcome bad word-of-mouth that sent the box-office grosses plummeting 70% within two weeks.
Warner Books has now published the screenplay (by Kubrick and Frederic Raphael) in a paperback edition that also includes a new translation of Arthur Schnitzler’s 1926 novella, Dream Story, upon which Eyes Wide Shut is based. While it isn’t likely to revive the film’s moribund box-office numbers, this is nevertheless the kind of snazzy little volume that one wishes were published more often. It’s wonderful to have a copy of Schnitzler’s novella, which heretofore hasn’t been easy to obtain, and having the opportunity to compare it closely with the screenplay should be a treat for any Kubrick film buff.
The book is being marketed as a fast-buck “movie tie-in” and includes 16 pages of cheesy black and white production photos, with particular attention given to the slinky shots of Nicole Kidman that have been reprinted ad nauseam.
Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931) was an Austrian playwright and novelist who wrote about lust and adultery among the bourgeoisie in turn-of-the-century Vienna. A man of prodigious sexual appetite, Schnitzler kept meticulous diary accounts of his female conquests, as well as a monthly tally of his orgasms. He was preoccupied, if not obsessed, with sex, and this is the landscape he wrote about in his plays and fiction. It’s not surprising to learn that Freud was fascinated by Schnitzler’s work and that the two men corresponded off and on over the years. Peter Gay, in his magisterial Freud: A Life for Our Time, writes that Schnitzler “secured Freud’s unequivocal applause for his penetrating psychological studies of sexuality in contemporary Viennese society.”
Kubrick reportedly was interested in making a movie of Schnitzler’s Dream Story as far back as the late 60s, but the project didn’t begin in earnest until 1994 when Frederic Raphael was hired to write the script. Raphael has recently published a memoir about working with Kubrick titled Eyes Wide Open, which is comprised of the screenwriter’s self-absorbed journal entries and unlikely “transcripts” of telephone conversations with Kubrick. The memoir shows all the cut-and-paste signs of having been written quickly and rushed into print. (Its publication was timed to coincide with the release of the film, which Raphael had not yet seen.) Unfortunately, there’s just enough worthwhile and interesting information in Eyes Wide Open to make it required reading for anyone curious about the process of adapting Schnitzler for the screen.
The novella and film derive similar flourishes from pulp genres such as murder mysteries and melodramas, not to mention James Frazer’s The Golden Bough, a hugely influential Victorian study of arcane religious folklore and fertility cults. The film’s narrative is updated from fin de siècle Vienna to modern-day New York, yet the shape and story line of the novella remain intact. In both stories, a wife taunts her husband with a sexually-charged memory of her desire for another man. The jealous husband then embarks on a late-night smorgasbord of urban erotica in an futile attempt to assuage his hurt pride and to satisfy his own unfulfilled urges.
Dream Story reads like Kafka with sex, and this is precisely the disorienting and eerie tone that Kubrick brings to the film. Even the truly odd masked orgy scene that critics like Michiko Kakutani have labeled “ludicrous” in the film, is taken wholesale from Schnitzler. In the novella, the protagonist Fridolin (Tom Cruise’s Bill Harford in the movie) wonders to himself: “Have I strayed into the gathering of some religious sect?” The novella’s orgy—just like the film’s—mingles mystical music, cult rituals, hooded figures, and naked women.
In some respects, Dream Story goes further than Eyes Wide Shut. When Fridolin returns home from the bizarre orgy, his wife Albertine (Kidman’s role of Alice) wakes up from a dream that curiously parallels Fridolin’s unnerving experience. The nightmare that Kidman tearfully relates in the film—involving intercourse with an endless crowd of strangers—is only a fraction of the elaborate 10-page dream that unfolds in Dream Story and which culminates on a chilling note: Albertine laughs while an angry mob prepares to torture her husband and nail him to a cross. Of course, the notion of Tom Cruise as a sacrificial Christ-figure is probably more than any movie audience would wish to endure, so perhaps Kubrick was wise to dispense with this.
A rumor circulated prior to the film’s release that there was a scene of Cruise kissing a woman’s corpse and being titillated by the “forbidden” allure of necrophilia. In reality, the morgue scene in Eyes Wide Shut doesn’t go this direction (instead Cruise seems to express a sort of mute compassion toward the dead woman who may have lost her life in order to help save him), but Schnitzler’s novella does indeed go the more lurid route of necrophilic attraction:
Undoubtedly there will be arguments for years to come over the artistic merits of Kubrick’s film. Where Schnitzler is overheated, Kubrick is clinical. One could almost imagine that Eyes Wide Shut was directed by Freud himself. Yet both Schnitzler and Kubrick are effective at suggesting something primal and unsettling lurking beneath the surface of middle-class complacency. As long as we have the capacity to be haunted by dreams of lost love and nightmares of inexplicable compulsions, then Eyes Wide Shut and Dream Story will no doubt have the power to disturb and move us.
Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut was shrouded in secrecy and hype for so long (and compounded by Kubrick’s unexpected death last March) that it was probably destined to disappoint critics and moviegoers. Predictably, the film had a stupendous opening weekend, but the few positive reviews it garnered weren’t enough to overcome bad word-of-mouth that sent the box-office grosses plummeting 70% within two weeks.
Warner Books has now published the screenplay (by Kubrick and Frederic Raphael) in a paperback edition that also includes a new translation of Arthur Schnitzler’s 1926 novella, Dream Story, upon which Eyes Wide Shut is based. While it isn’t likely to revive the film’s moribund box-office numbers, this is nevertheless the kind of snazzy little volume that one wishes were published more often. It’s wonderful to have a copy of Schnitzler’s novella, which heretofore hasn’t been easy to obtain, and having the opportunity to compare it closely with the screenplay should be a treat for any Kubrick film buff.
The book is being marketed as a fast-buck “movie tie-in” and includes 16 pages of cheesy black and white production photos, with particular attention given to the slinky shots of Nicole Kidman that have been reprinted ad nauseam.
Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931) was an Austrian playwright and novelist who wrote about lust and adultery among the bourgeoisie in turn-of-the-century Vienna. A man of prodigious sexual appetite, Schnitzler kept meticulous diary accounts of his female conquests, as well as a monthly tally of his orgasms. He was preoccupied, if not obsessed, with sex, and this is the landscape he wrote about in his plays and fiction. It’s not surprising to learn that Freud was fascinated by Schnitzler’s work and that the two men corresponded off and on over the years. Peter Gay, in his magisterial Freud: A Life for Our Time, writes that Schnitzler “secured Freud’s unequivocal applause for his penetrating psychological studies of sexuality in contemporary Viennese society.”
Kubrick reportedly was interested in making a movie of Schnitzler’s Dream Story as far back as the late 60s, but the project didn’t begin in earnest until 1994 when Frederic Raphael was hired to write the script. Raphael has recently published a memoir about working with Kubrick titled Eyes Wide Open, which is comprised of the screenwriter’s self-absorbed journal entries and unlikely “transcripts” of telephone conversations with Kubrick. The memoir shows all the cut-and-paste signs of having been written quickly and rushed into print. (Its publication was timed to coincide with the release of the film, which Raphael had not yet seen.) Unfortunately, there’s just enough worthwhile and interesting information in Eyes Wide Open to make it required reading for anyone curious about the process of adapting Schnitzler for the screen.
The novella and film derive similar flourishes from pulp genres such as murder mysteries and melodramas, not to mention James Frazer’s The Golden Bough, a hugely influential Victorian study of arcane religious folklore and fertility cults. The film’s narrative is updated from fin de siècle Vienna to modern-day New York, yet the shape and story line of the novella remain intact. In both stories, a wife taunts her husband with a sexually-charged memory of her desire for another man. The jealous husband then embarks on a late-night smorgasbord of urban erotica in an futile attempt to assuage his hurt pride and to satisfy his own unfulfilled urges.
Dream Story reads like Kafka with sex, and this is precisely the disorienting and eerie tone that Kubrick brings to the film. Even the truly odd masked orgy scene that critics like Michiko Kakutani have labeled “ludicrous” in the film, is taken wholesale from Schnitzler. In the novella, the protagonist Fridolin (Tom Cruise’s Bill Harford in the movie) wonders to himself: “Have I strayed into the gathering of some religious sect?” The novella’s orgy—just like the film’s—mingles mystical music, cult rituals, hooded figures, and naked women.
In some respects, Dream Story goes further than Eyes Wide Shut. When Fridolin returns home from the bizarre orgy, his wife Albertine (Kidman’s role of Alice) wakes up from a dream that curiously parallels Fridolin’s unnerving experience. The nightmare that Kidman tearfully relates in the film—involving intercourse with an endless crowd of strangers—is only a fraction of the elaborate 10-page dream that unfolds in Dream Story and which culminates on a chilling note: Albertine laughs while an angry mob prepares to torture her husband and nail him to a cross. Of course, the notion of Tom Cruise as a sacrificial Christ-figure is probably more than any movie audience would wish to endure, so perhaps Kubrick was wise to dispense with this.
A rumor circulated prior to the film’s release that there was a scene of Cruise kissing a woman’s corpse and being titillated by the “forbidden” allure of necrophilia. In reality, the morgue scene in Eyes Wide Shut doesn’t go this direction (instead Cruise seems to express a sort of mute compassion toward the dead woman who may have lost her life in order to help save him), but Schnitzler’s novella does indeed go the more lurid route of necrophilic attraction:
…[H]e intertwined his fingers with the dead woman’s as if to fondle them, and, stiff as they were, they seemed to him to be trying to move and to take hold of his; indeed he thought he could detect a faint and distant gleam in the eyes beneath those half-closed lids, as if trying to make contact with his own; and as if drawn on by some enchantment he bent down over her.
Undoubtedly there will be arguments for years to come over the artistic merits of Kubrick’s film. Where Schnitzler is overheated, Kubrick is clinical. One could almost imagine that Eyes Wide Shut was directed by Freud himself. Yet both Schnitzler and Kubrick are effective at suggesting something primal and unsettling lurking beneath the surface of middle-class complacency. As long as we have the capacity to be haunted by dreams of lost love and nightmares of inexplicable compulsions, then Eyes Wide Shut and Dream Story will no doubt have the power to disturb and move us.
April 8, 2015
I picked this up in a university bookstore while getting books for my own courses that year. Another class was apparently going to study Eyes Wide Shut, so I decided to grab myself a copy for my own reading purposes. Took me a while to get to it, but here we are.
This is definitely a version of the script edited to match the final cut of the film, with each and every cutaway and establishing shot written in, so it is not the best version of the script for writers looking to learn the difference from script to screen, but it still works as a nice reference.
Additionally, this volume contains the novel that inspired the film, Dream Story (Traumnovelle) by Arthur Schnitzler. I had never read this story and I always find it fascinating to read the original source material for films, which is what makes this book a great pairing. You get to read through the script, then immediately read the original story on which it was based. I always enjoy seeing what stays the same, what was changed, and seeing if I can understand why those changes were made (often dealing with pacing or story structure).
I have to say, I really enjoyed Schnitzler's novel. It is a fascinating study of the character of husband and wife and how the two are coping with their lives together.
This is definitely a version of the script edited to match the final cut of the film, with each and every cutaway and establishing shot written in, so it is not the best version of the script for writers looking to learn the difference from script to screen, but it still works as a nice reference.
Additionally, this volume contains the novel that inspired the film, Dream Story (Traumnovelle) by Arthur Schnitzler. I had never read this story and I always find it fascinating to read the original source material for films, which is what makes this book a great pairing. You get to read through the script, then immediately read the original story on which it was based. I always enjoy seeing what stays the same, what was changed, and seeing if I can understand why those changes were made (often dealing with pacing or story structure).
I have to say, I really enjoyed Schnitzler's novel. It is a fascinating study of the character of husband and wife and how the two are coping with their lives together.
February 26, 2015
!فیلم رو دیدم و فیلمنامه رو نخوندم- طبیعتا
صحنه های فیلم بسیار سیاه بود و آزاردهنده، به صورت بیمارگونه ای سکشوال و اروتیک و بسیار مبهم. خیلی درکش نکردم. بیشتر وحشت برم داشت از این همه آشوب مسلم - و تا حدود زیادی واقعی!
صحنه های فیلم بسیار سیاه بود و آزاردهنده، به صورت بیمارگونه ای سکشوال و اروتیک و بسیار مبهم. خیلی درکش نکردم. بیشتر وحشت برم داشت از این همه آشوب مسلم - و تا حدود زیادی واقعی!
December 11, 2016
This book provided an excellent opportunity to compare a famous movie with its original source material. EYES WIDE SHUT was Stanley Kubrick's last motion picture (1999), and TRAUMNOVELLE or DREAM STORY (1926) was the book that inspired it. Although I have enjoyed the movie on multiple occasions, I found the book to be the more satisfying of the two.
The movie is surprisingly faithful to the book that proceeded it by over 70-years. It accomplishes this by updating the situations to modern times ... all but one time when an update is desperately needed ... and therein lies its problem. The one section that is curiously not updated is the doctor's crashing a secret society's sex gathering. It seems so out of place that such a group exists and carries on such nefarious acts in the modern day world that it requires a follow-up scene of explanation that slows the film down to almost a dead stop. It seems very much in place in the book's time of the mid-1920's, so the explanation of what is happening can be abandoned. It is a staggering flaw in a film that could have been remarkable.
Otherwise, the updates are appropriate and powerful. I especially appreciated the visit with the prostitute that resulted in the news of her stay in a hospital for 7- or 8-weeks in the book, and a test that showed she was HIV-positive in the movie. Both were chilling in their different mediums. Then there is the wife's final remark about what she and her husband need to do next as a couple. Both responses are different, yet entirely appropriate to their period.
In both stories, marital dissatisfaction leads to the pursuit of sexual adventure for fulfillment, which is also a pursuit of dreams. The journeys introduce new relationships that are as insubstantial as the dreams pursued and realizations that need to be learned.
It was a great deal of fun to revisit the movie again through the screenplay ... I love the sequences with the doctor justifying his importance to others by displaying his medical card and the awe-inspired reactions to it! And it was fascinating to see how closely so many of the story points stayed to the original story. This was a very worthwhile read.
The movie is surprisingly faithful to the book that proceeded it by over 70-years. It accomplishes this by updating the situations to modern times ... all but one time when an update is desperately needed ... and therein lies its problem. The one section that is curiously not updated is the doctor's crashing a secret society's sex gathering. It seems so out of place that such a group exists and carries on such nefarious acts in the modern day world that it requires a follow-up scene of explanation that slows the film down to almost a dead stop. It seems very much in place in the book's time of the mid-1920's, so the explanation of what is happening can be abandoned. It is a staggering flaw in a film that could have been remarkable.
Otherwise, the updates are appropriate and powerful. I especially appreciated the visit with the prostitute that resulted in the news of her stay in a hospital for 7- or 8-weeks in the book, and a test that showed she was HIV-positive in the movie. Both were chilling in their different mediums. Then there is the wife's final remark about what she and her husband need to do next as a couple. Both responses are different, yet entirely appropriate to their period.
In both stories, marital dissatisfaction leads to the pursuit of sexual adventure for fulfillment, which is also a pursuit of dreams. The journeys introduce new relationships that are as insubstantial as the dreams pursued and realizations that need to be learned.
It was a great deal of fun to revisit the movie again through the screenplay ... I love the sequences with the doctor justifying his importance to others by displaying his medical card and the awe-inspired reactions to it! And it was fascinating to see how closely so many of the story points stayed to the original story. This was a very worthwhile read.
December 18, 2021
فیلم را باید بارها دید تا کم کم درکش کرد،چگونه یک خانواده خوشبخت(دو زوج که در بهشت هستند) در دنیای امروز بخاطر ارتباط با فردی نادرست و رفتن به مهمانی های وی بخطر میافتد(بنظرم میشود راحت فهمید که ساندور و آن دو دختر همان ابلیسی هستند که در کتابهای آسمانی بودنشان و گول خوردن ما ازشان را هشدار داده اند که البته گردانندگان پارتی فقط آن فضا را فراهم میاورند و زوج ها خودشان در آن بلا میفتند مثل بیل و آلیس) و این فیلم نشان میدهد فشارهایی که به دو طرف وارد میشود و چقدر ممکن است سخ�� باشد که یک ازدواج را محکم نگاه داشت ).دقت کنید وقتی بیل وارد خط آتش میشود و در آتش میفتد.بنظرم آتش جهنمی که میگویند همین است(فکر میکنم کوبریک به این فهم باستانی از ساختار روانی ذهن انسان اشاره دارد ) و رابطه با زنش که قبل از آن حرفها خوب بود او را(خاطره ای که از زنش و باوری که از او داشته بوسیله حرفهای او نابود میشود و بیل در آتش میافتد )میسوزاند و بیل را وارد ادیسه ای و ماجرایی میکند که آخرش را سیاستمدارهای آمریکا رفته اند("اسمشان را بهت نمیگویم اما اگر بدانی راحت نمیخابیدی")
و بیل وارد آنها میشود اما چون ذاتش خوب است از آن رها میشود.این فیلم در صحنه ها ذهن اورا نشان میدهد.مثلا جایی که با آن ددختر ماریانا کاری نمیکند و جواب رد به او میدهد بعد از آن زمان راه رفتن در خیابان 6 جوان که نماد فکر های او هستند به او حمله ور میشوند و به او بقولی میگویند خاک بر سرت کاری نکردی(برو به سانفرانسیسکو جایی که به آن تعلق داری.یعنی گی هستی خاک )
.کلا هر بار دیدمش (و مخصوصا متن و اسکریپت هم کمک حال بود)چیز تازه ای را دریافتم و این آخری فیلم دارد برایم باز میشود و فهم کلی از پیام هایی که کوبریک میخواسته برساند را دریافت میکنم.
و بیل وارد آنها میشود اما چون ذاتش خوب است از آن رها میشود.این فیلم در صحنه ها ذهن اورا نشان میدهد.مثلا جایی که با آن ددختر ماریانا کاری نمیکند و جواب رد به او میدهد بعد از آن زمان راه رفتن در خیابان 6 جوان که نماد فکر های او هستند به او حمله ور میشوند و به او بقولی میگویند خاک بر سرت کاری نکردی(برو به سانفرانسیسکو جایی که به آن تعلق داری.یعنی گی هستی خاک )
.کلا هر بار دیدمش (و مخصوصا متن و اسکریپت هم کمک حال بود)چیز تازه ای را دریافتم و این آخری فیلم دارد برایم باز میشود و فهم کلی از پیام هایی که کوبریک میخواسته برساند را دریافت میکنم.
February 12, 2013
I really enjoyed Dream Story and it's exploration of ideas of fidelity and the main character's feelings of trying to break out of middle age. He wasn't a wholly likable character, but engaging, and the internal dialogue was reminiscent of Milan Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being (which of course, came later--but I read Kundera first).
I saw Kubrick's rendition of this a couple of years after it was in theaters (so... c.2001)and thought it was crap. Now, after reading the original story, I KNOW it was crap. From what I remember, it didn't have any of the intriguing internal dialogue, but instead focused on (and magnified) the bewildering luridness, especially of the mysterious party. The one thing it did do better was explain who had 'redeemed' him for showing up uninvited, but that was not even important in the original story.
What did Kubrick get right? Casting: Tom Cruise's "Bill" in the role of the unlikable Fridolin, as well as the parallel real lives of the Kidman-Cruise relationship were spot on.
I saw Kubrick's rendition of this a couple of years after it was in theaters (so... c.2001)and thought it was crap. Now, after reading the original story, I KNOW it was crap. From what I remember, it didn't have any of the intriguing internal dialogue, but instead focused on (and magnified) the bewildering luridness, especially of the mysterious party. The one thing it did do better was explain who had 'redeemed' him for showing up uninvited, but that was not even important in the original story.
What did Kubrick get right? Casting: Tom Cruise's "Bill" in the role of the unlikable Fridolin, as well as the parallel real lives of the Kidman-Cruise relationship were spot on.
May 24, 2012
This edition included the script and the novella by Arthur Schnitzler and I was surprised at how faithful Kubrick and co writer Frederic Raphael were to the novel. Form-wise the novel was in a third person limited omniscience and explored the narrator's thoughts and insights on marriage, fidelity and sex. I have always believed Kubrick adapted novels or established works in order to create an even more immersive experience for the audience between literary text and performance text and also between the visuals encoded for our eyes. If you know me you know how I feel about Kubrick and his films. I think he was genius at creating dimensions of meaning to his films. And I feel you have to study his process and materials closely in order to understand his complex films.
October 11, 2008
Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and novella Dream Story by Arthur Schnitzler.
So the movie is nearly faithful to the novella , so what!
I am not concerned with whether the novella is deserving its obscurity but I am concerned with what SK does with it.
So the movie is nearly faithful to the novella , so what!
I am not concerned with whether the novella is deserving its obscurity but I am concerned with what SK does with it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 16, 2012
Was very interesting to read the screenplay and compare it to Traumnovelle.
January 2, 2023
It's interesting to have screenplay and source side by side here, particularly to compare how close some scenes and dialogue are considering the original is set in early 20th century Vienna and the adaptation in 1990s New York. Where changes are made by Kubrick & Raphael it works to the advantage of the narrative and in my opinion, as with Kubrick's adaption of Stephen King's The Shining, the film is better than the book. However Schnitzler's book is strange and engaging. As other reviewers have stated it does have the air of a more carnal Kafka. It's title of Traumnovelle - Dream Story is apt and I actually find Albertine's (Alice in film) description of her dream less oneiric than the events that unfold in her husband's life. There is an unsettling undercurrent that runs both in book and film and a slightly stilted pace that makes the narrative feel both somewhat realistic yet unreal.
June 22, 2025
Eyes Wide Shut by Stanley Kubrick, writer and director of 2001 – A Space Odyssey – my note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/06/... where I have another few thousand reviews
10 out of 10
Stanley Kubrick was one of the greatest film makers of all time, his magnificent talent is behind masterpieces like Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... and the aforementioned films
What is also extraordinary is that the glorious director and writer covered almost every genre, from Science Fiction, with the landmark 2001 – A Space Odyssey, to Comedy, Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb is both a science fiction tale and a comedy, showing us what Armageddon might look like
A rogue general decides to launch an attack on the Soviet Union – today, it is more likely to be the other way round, mad dog Putin or some other deepshit form Russia could decide to just annihilate the world – and then it looks like they cannot stop the apocalypse from coming, what with the Doomsday machine and all that
Full Metal Jacket https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/02/... is about war, in particular the one in Vietnam, though we have quite a bit on madness, extreme cruelty, as represented by the sergeant -nutjobs in the army, position of power in general – who pushes a recruit until it is too much
Lolita is yet another example of a master class in film making, the script is based on the chef d’oeuvre by Vladimir Nabokov https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/03/... the author wrote the script with a few others, and Lolita the book is among the top ten best books, as suggested by The Modern Library
Indeed, I think it is between the fourth and the sixth place, and what a story tat is, about Humbert Humbert, who has a crash on a teenager, Lolita, in what is a complex, outstanding magnum opus – incidentally, Nabokov was invited on the Bouillon de Culture show, and he agreed to participate, only if he brings his answers along
Another innuendo, is from The Kid Stays In The Picture https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/09/... written by the producer of The Godfather, Chinatown, Rosemary’s Baby and more, Robert Evans, who was interested in movie rights, and wanted to meet with the American-Russian writer
Eyes Wide Shut has two stars in leading roles, Nicole Kidman as Alice Harford and her then husband in real life, Tom Cruise, who is her spouse on screen, Dr. William Harford, but not for long, I mean Kidman and Cruise would divorce after the film would be finished, and she would also leave Scientology as a consequence
I mean, Tom Cruise is impressive, as an actor, but Oh My God, to be the public image for such a crappie, hideous religion, how could he live with himself – not that they do not have crazies elsewhere, evangelicals help put Orange Jesus in the White House once, and worse, they could do it again, the fool is favorite
It took a long time to film Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick was a perfectionist, took a long time (actually, not just a long, but immense amount of time) to prepare, would send teams to identify the best spots for various scenes, and that may have taken a toll on the marital relationship of the two stars, not that it made much sense
Nicole Kidman was superb in Dead Calm https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/... the Australian film that launched her career, she made a few films with Tom Cruise, and then they married, one of the celebrated couples, if not for that many years, again, Scientology, really?!
On the question of being a perfectionist, this is not recommended generally, in the case of Stanley Kubrick and a few others, it makes sense, for we benefit form their magnum opera, but for ordinary people https://notesaboutfilms.blogspot.com/... there is a different paradigm
There are two types of people, the satisfizers and the maximizers, we learn that from The Paradox of Choice, a classic of Psychology by Barry Schwartz about how overwhelming too many options could be, and then that the satisfizer group would accept the very good, and be happy, move on, while the others are frustrated
https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/07/... they buy a car, then find that there is another option, which is cheaper, and then what this model they see on the street, just as they leave the dealer, with a different color, that looks so much better, in short, they are always unhappy
And now for the Paradigm shift, which is sublimely defined in Vernon God Little, the Booker Prize Winner by DBC Pierre, in which the hero, Vernon, is told about this big change ‘imagine you enter a room, and find this stranger who has a finger up your grannie’s ass, what do you think?’ and the answer is a furious I will kill him
‘then you learn that in fact, this fellow knows about an immediate and present death danger, so he took all the measures he could to save your relative’s life, what about now?’ and of course, Vernon Little is so grateful, under the different circumstance, ergo the paradigm shift https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/...
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’
“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
10 out of 10
Stanley Kubrick was one of the greatest film makers of all time, his magnificent talent is behind masterpieces like Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... and the aforementioned films
What is also extraordinary is that the glorious director and writer covered almost every genre, from Science Fiction, with the landmark 2001 – A Space Odyssey, to Comedy, Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb is both a science fiction tale and a comedy, showing us what Armageddon might look like
A rogue general decides to launch an attack on the Soviet Union – today, it is more likely to be the other way round, mad dog Putin or some other deepshit form Russia could decide to just annihilate the world – and then it looks like they cannot stop the apocalypse from coming, what with the Doomsday machine and all that
Full Metal Jacket https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/02/... is about war, in particular the one in Vietnam, though we have quite a bit on madness, extreme cruelty, as represented by the sergeant -nutjobs in the army, position of power in general – who pushes a recruit until it is too much
Lolita is yet another example of a master class in film making, the script is based on the chef d’oeuvre by Vladimir Nabokov https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/03/... the author wrote the script with a few others, and Lolita the book is among the top ten best books, as suggested by The Modern Library
Indeed, I think it is between the fourth and the sixth place, and what a story tat is, about Humbert Humbert, who has a crash on a teenager, Lolita, in what is a complex, outstanding magnum opus – incidentally, Nabokov was invited on the Bouillon de Culture show, and he agreed to participate, only if he brings his answers along
Another innuendo, is from The Kid Stays In The Picture https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/09/... written by the producer of The Godfather, Chinatown, Rosemary’s Baby and more, Robert Evans, who was interested in movie rights, and wanted to meet with the American-Russian writer
Eyes Wide Shut has two stars in leading roles, Nicole Kidman as Alice Harford and her then husband in real life, Tom Cruise, who is her spouse on screen, Dr. William Harford, but not for long, I mean Kidman and Cruise would divorce after the film would be finished, and she would also leave Scientology as a consequence
I mean, Tom Cruise is impressive, as an actor, but Oh My God, to be the public image for such a crappie, hideous religion, how could he live with himself – not that they do not have crazies elsewhere, evangelicals help put Orange Jesus in the White House once, and worse, they could do it again, the fool is favorite
It took a long time to film Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick was a perfectionist, took a long time (actually, not just a long, but immense amount of time) to prepare, would send teams to identify the best spots for various scenes, and that may have taken a toll on the marital relationship of the two stars, not that it made much sense
Nicole Kidman was superb in Dead Calm https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/... the Australian film that launched her career, she made a few films with Tom Cruise, and then they married, one of the celebrated couples, if not for that many years, again, Scientology, really?!
On the question of being a perfectionist, this is not recommended generally, in the case of Stanley Kubrick and a few others, it makes sense, for we benefit form their magnum opera, but for ordinary people https://notesaboutfilms.blogspot.com/... there is a different paradigm
There are two types of people, the satisfizers and the maximizers, we learn that from The Paradox of Choice, a classic of Psychology by Barry Schwartz about how overwhelming too many options could be, and then that the satisfizer group would accept the very good, and be happy, move on, while the others are frustrated
https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/07/... they buy a car, then find that there is another option, which is cheaper, and then what this model they see on the street, just as they leave the dealer, with a different color, that looks so much better, in short, they are always unhappy
And now for the Paradigm shift, which is sublimely defined in Vernon God Little, the Booker Prize Winner by DBC Pierre, in which the hero, Vernon, is told about this big change ‘imagine you enter a room, and find this stranger who has a finger up your grannie’s ass, what do you think?’ and the answer is a furious I will kill him
‘then you learn that in fact, this fellow knows about an immediate and present death danger, so he took all the measures he could to save your relative’s life, what about now?’ and of course, Vernon Little is so grateful, under the different circumstance, ergo the paradigm shift https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/...
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’
“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
Read
September 16, 2021A very visual Eyes Wide Shut may surpass this literary work.
A perfect photon beaming a-visceral.
But eradicate its “ ’eroticity’ ‘femininity’ ‘mystery’ ", and it be mere ordinary opus.
Virtual doff’d each film noir ’s pulp magazine’s artistic effulgences.
This sexuality exceeds indeed.
That even the elite shan’t cognize, that by depicting decadence (predicating multiple forms of sexual orgies), they had advance an atavism back to animalism, tho unconsciously maybe, that they, in their psyches' deepest selves, harboring secret societies for revelry or for revolution - that nonetheless invites a decline, as after all each day unto death we decay, for how’s advancing our philosophy, science, arts co spirituality civilization with ’em decadent atavist animals abound?
This inevitably, if mass-ly influenced, still psychically, - n'syncs with serial killing mentalities.
Culminating in the greatest gothic/crime/mystery/fantasy refulging unto all posterity - the Whitechapel Murders.
Tho with a twist, for in lieu of a killing unto the poor, tis unto the rich directed!
And this perchance, paves a way, for a-retrospecting - Donatien Alphonse François Marquis de Sade’s The 120 Days of Sodom, or the School of Libertinism.
Western literature’s darkest literary work.
A perfect photon beaming a-visceral.
But eradicate its “ ’eroticity’ ‘femininity’ ‘mystery’ ", and it be mere ordinary opus.
Virtual doff’d each film noir ’s pulp magazine’s artistic effulgences.
This sexuality exceeds indeed.
That even the elite shan’t cognize, that by depicting decadence (predicating multiple forms of sexual orgies), they had advance an atavism back to animalism, tho unconsciously maybe, that they, in their psyches' deepest selves, harboring secret societies for revelry or for revolution - that nonetheless invites a decline, as after all each day unto death we decay, for how’s advancing our philosophy, science, arts co spirituality civilization with ’em decadent atavist animals abound?
This inevitably, if mass-ly influenced, still psychically, - n'syncs with serial killing mentalities.
Culminating in the greatest gothic/crime/mystery/fantasy refulging unto all posterity - the Whitechapel Murders.
Tho with a twist, for in lieu of a killing unto the poor, tis unto the rich directed!
And this perchance, paves a way, for a-retrospecting - Donatien Alphonse François Marquis de Sade’s The 120 Days of Sodom, or the School of Libertinism.
Western literature’s darkest literary work.
January 26, 2025
My favourite film all of times, of course my favourite book too I have it in many versions. This book edition is inspired in Stanley Kubricks Eyes wide shut film. What really got me addicted is how the story balances reality and fantasy, essencially you can never tell whats real and whats not. The style is kinda old school you have to pay much attention
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 12, 2008
Arthur Schnitzler,
So many happening in a short time, (New York area), almost unbelievable, at he same time interesting, also boring …
به احتمالی اغلب فیلم را دیده اند، و رمان را نخوانده اند. خواندن اثار آرتور شنیتسلر حوصله و حواسی جمع لازم دارد، با این همه این رمان مانند دیگر آثار او چنان جذبه و شکوه ندارد. با این همه زبان شیرین رمان در وصف پستی ها و بلندی های رابطه، بر روند قصه در فیلم استانلی کوبریک ارجحیت دارد. این همه واقعه برای یک زوج، در یکی دو شبانه روز، بنظر می رسد کنار هم چیده شده اند، و نتیجه ی نهایی نیز کمی غیر منتظره است. در مورد آثار سینمایی کوبریک در جایی دیگر مطلبی نوشته ام؛
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
So many happening in a short time, (New York area), almost unbelievable, at he same time interesting, also boring …
به احتمالی اغلب فیلم را دیده اند، و رمان را نخوانده اند. خواندن اثار آرتور شنیتسلر حوصله و حواسی جمع لازم دارد، با این همه این رمان مانند دیگر آثار او چنان جذبه و شکوه ندارد. با این همه زبان شیرین رمان در وصف پستی ها و بلندی های رابطه، بر روند قصه در فیلم استانلی کوبریک ارجحیت دارد. این همه واقعه برای یک زوج، در یکی دو شبانه روز، بنظر می رسد کنار هم چیده شده اند، و نتیجه ی نهایی نیز کمی غیر منتظره است. در مورد آثار سینمایی کوبریک در جایی دیگر مطلبی نوشته ام؛
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
February 14, 2008
اغلب کسانی که این فیلم را دیدند تنها برداشتشان یک فیل سکچوال خیلی هات بوده ...
همین
اما برای من منظرهای دیگری داشت ... اول از همه رسوخ موریانه وار و بیمارگونه سکس به زندگی و پول و سیاست و اجتماع که در این فیلم نشان داده میشد بی نهایت آزارم داد.
دوم معصومیت پنهان و فلاکت عریان زنان فاحشه این فیلم بود ... قربانیان اصلی که خواسته یا ناخواسته سلاخی میشوند.
و چه ملموس بود بعضی وقایعش در اجتماع ایران خودمان !
من با این فیلم فاصله انسان بودن و نبودن را میدیدم.
همین
اما برای من منظرهای دیگری داشت ... اول از همه رسوخ موریانه وار و بیمارگونه سکس به زندگی و پول و سیاست و اجتماع که در این فیلم نشان داده میشد بی نهایت آزارم داد.
دوم معصومیت پنهان و فلاکت عریان زنان فاحشه این فیلم بود ... قربانیان اصلی که خواسته یا ناخواسته سلاخی میشوند.
و چه ملموس بود بعضی وقایعش در اجتماع ایران خودمان !
من با این فیلم فاصله انسان بودن و نبودن را میدیدم.
October 25, 2017
Reading a screenplay by Stanley Kubrick isn't enough. Kubrick's genius was in his images and the way he shot a film. 4 stars out of 5 but only because the film is the true masterpiece. The screenplay is just the foundation.
Dream Story is an interesting read and I'm impressed that the Eyes Wide Shut was a rather faithful adaptation.
Dream Story is an interesting read and I'm impressed that the Eyes Wide Shut was a rather faithful adaptation.
January 10, 2014
Both frustrating and fulfilling in its restraint.
November 12, 2021
I think I’m one of the few people that absolutely loves the movie. It took revisiting a few years ago to do so. The movie is extremely faithful to the novella with the exception of location, time period, and ethnicity of the characters. In the novella I believe it takes Vienna during Mardi Gras and the main characters are Jewish. In the movie it’s 1999 NYC during Christmas time. If you thought the movie sucked, I recommend rewatching with a few things in mind: Tom Cruise was a huge movie star during this time who catapulted to stardom playing a Navy Fighter Pilot and is know to be on the shorter side in his stature and was married to 5’10” Nicole Kidman in this time. Who does Alice fantasize about in the movie? A Naval officer. What do the jocks he walks by make fun of him for? His stature and his sexuality which was questioned a lot in the tabloids in the 90s. I think Stanley Kubrick totally mind f-cked Tom and Nicole, more so Tom though. I just find it all fascinating. You can’t be married playing these roles and say the things their characters say to each other and not let it affect your marriage. Of course they got divorced after this. This is a new Christmas favorite to watch. The screenplay and novella are worth studying.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 19, 2019
This review does not cover the screenplay for Kubrick's film Eyes Wide Shut; rather, it is a review of the Arthur Schnitzler novel Dream Story on which it is based. Schnitzler's short novel has as its subject matter the curious dance between attraction and distaste that characterizes so much of men's attitudes toward sex.
Fridolin is a Viennese physician married to Albertine. He also is a major fantasizer on the subject of sex. In this tale, which takes place in a roughly twenty-four hour period, he is attracted to and repelled by his wife, the daughter of a dead patient, a young prostitute, a nude masked woman he meets at a secret ball. At no point in the book does he actually have sex, though the thought is never far from his mind.
I found the book to be realistic in terms of male fantasies, so realistic, in fact, that it almost seems to have been written yesterday. Highly recommended.
Fridolin is a Viennese physician married to Albertine. He also is a major fantasizer on the subject of sex. In this tale, which takes place in a roughly twenty-four hour period, he is attracted to and repelled by his wife, the daughter of a dead patient, a young prostitute, a nude masked woman he meets at a secret ball. At no point in the book does he actually have sex, though the thought is never far from his mind.
I found the book to be realistic in terms of male fantasies, so realistic, in fact, that it almost seems to have been written yesterday. Highly recommended.
Read
August 28, 2023It’s been almost 25 years since I read #dreamstory #traumnovelle by #arthurschnitzler which was originally published in 1926 and was the inspiration behind #eyeswideshut . I had forgotten how close the film is to the novella (except for the addition of the Ziegler character to explain things). #stanleykubrick was a genius and this is one of those rare times when the film is better than the book. I can see that some people might prefer the book because the husband’s story has more of a dream quality, whereas the film tends to treat anything that happens to the husband as ‘real’ and anything that happens to the wife as ‘imaginary’ but I think kubrick and #fredericraphael did a remarkable job adapting it.
December 31, 2018
A serviceable translation of Schnitzler's short work alongside the script for Eyes Wide Shut.
Unfortunately, that's all you'll get from this edition. An introductory essay to frame Dream Story, at least, and address some of its themes and what Kubrick's film drew from it (a lot more than I had expected) would have been very helpful, but the reader will have to look elsewhere for that.
Unfortunately, that's all you'll get from this edition. An introductory essay to frame Dream Story, at least, and address some of its themes and what Kubrick's film drew from it (a lot more than I had expected) would have been very helpful, but the reader will have to look elsewhere for that.
February 1, 2025
I can’t really review the screenplay. The film is a masterpiece; the screenplay just reminded me how much of the artistry of the film is on the screen and not the page.
Dream Story is the reason I picked this up. It’s fascinating to see what Kubrick took from the book and what he added. The novella itself is very good. There’s something about stories from the late Austro-Hungarian Empire that feel ever so relevant to contemporary America.
Dream Story is the reason I picked this up. It’s fascinating to see what Kubrick took from the book and what he added. The novella itself is very good. There’s something about stories from the late Austro-Hungarian Empire that feel ever so relevant to contemporary America.
March 7, 2022
Excellent idea to have both the screenplay and novella complied into one book; however, I did not appreciate the half-hearted images. I would also have preferred if they included the four screenplay drafts — it would have instantly bumped the book up to four if not five stars. It would have built a richer picture of the adaptation process. It is also a shame that the screenplay is undated.
April 19, 2025
clinical precision and restraint on dialogue and stage directions.
in as few words as possible, i felt i could see the story and feel the tension every step of the way.
aspirational discipline on the screenplay.
in as few words as possible, i felt i could see the story and feel the tension every step of the way.
aspirational discipline on the screenplay.
December 5, 2018
A fascinating juxtaposition of Kubrick's screenplay with the Arthur Schnitzler story that inspired it.
January 16, 2021
Of the two books in this volume, I read the first one, having not successfully found a copy with just the first book.
June 12, 2022
Ok !! Pareil que le film quoi
March 23, 2023
Eyes Wide Shut: 5 stars
Dream Story: 3 stars
Dream Story: 3 stars
January 2, 2024
I don't know why but it was perfect to my eyes.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews