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Eyes Wide Shut: Stanley Kubrick and the Making of His Final Film
Twenty years since its release, Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut remains a complex, visually arresting film about domesticity, sexual disturbance, and dreams. It was on the director's mind for some 50 years before he finally put it into production. Using the Stanley Kubrick Archive at the University of the Arts, London, and interviews with participants in the production, the authors create an archeology of the film that traces the progress of the film from its origins to its completion, reception, and afterlife. The book is also an appreciation of this enigmatic work and its equally enigmatic creator.
248 pages, Paperback
Published June 5, 2019
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301 people want to read
About the author
Robert P. Kolker
23 books66 followersRobert Phillip Kolker, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland, taught cinema studies for almost 50 years. He is author of A Cinema of Loneliness, The Extraordinary Image: Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and the Reimagining of Cinema, and editor of 2001: A Space Odyssey: New Essays and The Oxford Handbook of Film and Media Studies.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 1, 2022
This is a comprehensive look at the genesis, making of, and legacy of Stanley Kubrick’s last film. It benefits from Stanley Kubrick’s archive having been opened to the public a few years ago, though as the authors’ note, the filmmaker communicated mainly by fax or telephone and all that is lost to history.
First comes the attempt to determine when Kubrick first discovered and read Arthur Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle, as there are competing accounts dating from the 1940s all the way to the 1960s. Once Kubrick read the book, it haunted him for years and he was not only interested in adapting it into a film, but he made reference to it in letters to various people. Once Kubrick began the processing of making a film in the 1990s, he hired Frederic Raphael to assist with the screenplay, and the authors draw on Raphael’s own memoirs, but they are also able to show changes made to the evolving script from Kubrick’s side.
The section on filming gives some insight into why this set a record for the longest filmshoot, running well over a year. The book does much to refute the popular perception that Kubrick was a petulant perfectionist in terms of his demands on his actors, rather the delays were often due to issues of the set. Also informative is the section on how complete a film Eyes Wide Shut can be regarded, since Kubrick died before the film’s release. Based on accounts from Kubrick’s assistant Leon Vitali and others, the book makes a good case that the film can be regarded as finished, though the possibility remains that Kubrick could have made additional slight changes close (or even after) the release date.
The authors are great fans of Kubrick’s entire body of work and perceptive about it. A strong point of this book is that they go beyond Eyes Wide Shut to identify some motifs and obsessions that occur in many of the director’s films. When I eventually go back through Kubrick’s full output, my appreciation will likely be deepened by having read this.
This book isn't perfect, however. The chapter on the film’s legacy tries to list even the pop culture references to Eyes Wide Shut, which quickly grows dull, though even here they miss some. When the authors get to the conspiracy theories about the film – these anticipated Pizzagate – I was initially excited to see this get some scholarly attention, but this section of the book is slapdash and unfocused, little more coherent than those incoherent internet ravings. There are also some typos here and signs of incomplete peer review, but sadly quality at Oxford University Press has declined in recent years.
First comes the attempt to determine when Kubrick first discovered and read Arthur Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle, as there are competing accounts dating from the 1940s all the way to the 1960s. Once Kubrick read the book, it haunted him for years and he was not only interested in adapting it into a film, but he made reference to it in letters to various people. Once Kubrick began the processing of making a film in the 1990s, he hired Frederic Raphael to assist with the screenplay, and the authors draw on Raphael’s own memoirs, but they are also able to show changes made to the evolving script from Kubrick’s side.
The section on filming gives some insight into why this set a record for the longest filmshoot, running well over a year. The book does much to refute the popular perception that Kubrick was a petulant perfectionist in terms of his demands on his actors, rather the delays were often due to issues of the set. Also informative is the section on how complete a film Eyes Wide Shut can be regarded, since Kubrick died before the film’s release. Based on accounts from Kubrick’s assistant Leon Vitali and others, the book makes a good case that the film can be regarded as finished, though the possibility remains that Kubrick could have made additional slight changes close (or even after) the release date.
The authors are great fans of Kubrick’s entire body of work and perceptive about it. A strong point of this book is that they go beyond Eyes Wide Shut to identify some motifs and obsessions that occur in many of the director’s films. When I eventually go back through Kubrick’s full output, my appreciation will likely be deepened by having read this.
This book isn't perfect, however. The chapter on the film’s legacy tries to list even the pop culture references to Eyes Wide Shut, which quickly grows dull, though even here they miss some. When the authors get to the conspiracy theories about the film – these anticipated Pizzagate – I was initially excited to see this get some scholarly attention, but this section of the book is slapdash and unfocused, little more coherent than those incoherent internet ravings. There are also some typos here and signs of incomplete peer review, but sadly quality at Oxford University Press has declined in recent years.
October 20, 2019
Eyes Wide Shut was one of the most anticipated movies of the decade, something only compounded by Kubrick’s death, cementing it as his final film. In the last 20 years, there have been two schools of thought. One, it’s a boring, pretentious piece of shit and two, it’s an underrated masterpiece. Both these are wrong. Eyes Wide Shut is a fascinating final work from an old master but far from his greatest. Given all this and it’s long production, a deep dive is fascinating. In fact, all 11 of Kubrick’s movies should have one (2001 has the great Space Odyssey). I was shocked to learn how sick Kubrick was and how this movie pretty much killed him. There are some tangents and analyses that are a little dull but if the movie interests you, so will this.
February 20, 2021
Comprehensive look into the making of a very “literary” film. Worth a read to deepen appreciation of Eyes Wide Shut and the work of Stanley Kubrick.
May 27, 2025
This book was less of a making of and more of an analysis of why Kubrick chose to adapt “Dream Story” and how him and the author are way more connected then you might think.
The part of the book I enjoyed the most was probably when he analyzes the themes of sex and death in Kubrick’s films which were present in more than I would’ve thought. Sure there’s the obvious ones like “A Clockwork Orange” and “Eyes Wide Shut” but the author points out more subtle examples like in “Fear and Desire” and the somewhat in your face, “Full Metal Jacket”.
It gets 3 stars because (as mentioned before) it’s more of an analysis of the underlying theme of many Kubrick films and a brief biography of Arthur Schnitzler (the author of “Dream Story”). It’s interesting for sure but not what I was looking for. I was looking for an in depth look at the making of the film and that’s not really what’s presented here.
I hope we can get a great making of book for Eyes Wide Shut, there is so much material and background stories that we only get glimpses of in documentaries. Taschen just put out that uber-deluxe “The Shining” book so maybe someone over there will put out one on Eyes Wide Shut but probably not.
As professor Farnsworth famously said, “A man can dream though, a man can dream.”
3/5
The part of the book I enjoyed the most was probably when he analyzes the themes of sex and death in Kubrick’s films which were present in more than I would’ve thought. Sure there’s the obvious ones like “A Clockwork Orange” and “Eyes Wide Shut” but the author points out more subtle examples like in “Fear and Desire” and the somewhat in your face, “Full Metal Jacket”.
It gets 3 stars because (as mentioned before) it’s more of an analysis of the underlying theme of many Kubrick films and a brief biography of Arthur Schnitzler (the author of “Dream Story”). It’s interesting for sure but not what I was looking for. I was looking for an in depth look at the making of the film and that’s not really what’s presented here.
I hope we can get a great making of book for Eyes Wide Shut, there is so much material and background stories that we only get glimpses of in documentaries. Taschen just put out that uber-deluxe “The Shining” book so maybe someone over there will put out one on Eyes Wide Shut but probably not.
As professor Farnsworth famously said, “A man can dream though, a man can dream.”
3/5
October 9, 2020
Some previously unknown facts emerge in this interesting volume.
June 30, 2021
A good book about a great movie. However, I did not expect it to leave me going down a rabbit hole of Kanye West interviews; Stanley Kubrick truly was a genius.
June 8, 2024
The historical aspect of how the film was made (a majority of the book, I believe) is fun to read. But the more interpretive theorizations are frustrating to say the least.
"Textual analysis has always depended on the text in itself, on the film that critics see, see again and again, and talk about what they have seen within the critical context and argument they construct. Ideally, there should now be a mix of the kind that we are attempting in this book, of close research, interpretation, and textual analysis ..."
I see this as an Oedipalizing response to the freak paranoia that this film has garnered in the form of conspiracy and insanity (seeing as they spend the previous 5ish pages condemning such lunacy as irresponsible and unintellectual). Yet, they hit the mark when they go on to state: "In Eyes Wide Shut, as in Psycho, the rational explains nothing."
This book reeks of Lacanianism - the subtle references to Zizek cements this; a movie like this is SUPPOSED to take you to insane places, to bolster paranoia, and to think of nothing but shadowy bodies of power indulging in the obscene and the grotesque behind red velvety curtains. Film theory (insofar as it has remained within the domain of Lacan) absolutely repudiates the taking of such tendencies and the breaking through of textual barriers. Of course, movies like this do not necessarily entail one choose the path of the insipid idiotic insane assuming the empty contours alone, but to theorize around such a movie must entail a theorization along the lines of a drug-infused insanity. This work refuses to do so - there are prisons to build after all.
"Textual analysis has always depended on the text in itself, on the film that critics see, see again and again, and talk about what they have seen within the critical context and argument they construct. Ideally, there should now be a mix of the kind that we are attempting in this book, of close research, interpretation, and textual analysis ..."
I see this as an Oedipalizing response to the freak paranoia that this film has garnered in the form of conspiracy and insanity (seeing as they spend the previous 5ish pages condemning such lunacy as irresponsible and unintellectual). Yet, they hit the mark when they go on to state: "In Eyes Wide Shut, as in Psycho, the rational explains nothing."
This book reeks of Lacanianism - the subtle references to Zizek cements this; a movie like this is SUPPOSED to take you to insane places, to bolster paranoia, and to think of nothing but shadowy bodies of power indulging in the obscene and the grotesque behind red velvety curtains. Film theory (insofar as it has remained within the domain of Lacan) absolutely repudiates the taking of such tendencies and the breaking through of textual barriers. Of course, movies like this do not necessarily entail one choose the path of the insipid idiotic insane assuming the empty contours alone, but to theorize around such a movie must entail a theorization along the lines of a drug-infused insanity. This work refuses to do so - there are prisons to build after all.
November 25, 2025
One of the best books about a film that I've ever read, although I expected nothing less, given how much I'm enjoying Kolker & Abrams' larger biography of Kubrick, which I aim to finish before too much longer - certainly before the year's out.
This wisely dismisses the absolute veracity of the more deranged conspiratorial theories about this film, but - even more wisely - admits that their mere presence does lend a certain frisson to the act of picking a film like this apart and examining what works about it, and why. I am more certain than ever that this is my favorite Kubrick film, and I guess now the only question is whether or not it's going to become an inner-circle personal favorite as well. I think we may be there!
Looking forward to revisiting via the Criterion 4K whenever it makes its way here, probably after Thanksgiving. Love sinking into this film over and over again and getting pleasurably lost. I certainly saw it for the first time when I was FAR too young to grasp anything Kubrick was after, but I think that's part of why it retains such a mythic hold over me. That this book is a worthy consideration of the film's genesis, production, and legacy is no mean feat, and one which deserves both applause and gratitude.
This wisely dismisses the absolute veracity of the more deranged conspiratorial theories about this film, but - even more wisely - admits that their mere presence does lend a certain frisson to the act of picking a film like this apart and examining what works about it, and why. I am more certain than ever that this is my favorite Kubrick film, and I guess now the only question is whether or not it's going to become an inner-circle personal favorite as well. I think we may be there!
Looking forward to revisiting via the Criterion 4K whenever it makes its way here, probably after Thanksgiving. Love sinking into this film over and over again and getting pleasurably lost. I certainly saw it for the first time when I was FAR too young to grasp anything Kubrick was after, but I think that's part of why it retains such a mythic hold over me. That this book is a worthy consideration of the film's genesis, production, and legacy is no mean feat, and one which deserves both applause and gratitude.
April 17, 2022
An essential yet flawed read, strange that Kolker neglects to explain why conspiracy theorists flock to Kubrick's films while identifying the brilliant fictional backstory Raphael provided for the masked party - that actually fooled Kubrick! This little episode illustrates how Kubrick remains on the vanguard of media. He formatted a new genre that hints at the deep illusions of narrative - his films are repeating, doubling, mirroring gestures that differentiate reactions and meanings. Of course conspiracy theory would flood the gaps between these explanations since there is no stability, you choose what to accept as an explanation and the explanations are as fluid as how aware one is.
December 11, 2022
well it all makes sense now,,, yessiree
October 16, 2024
An interpretation and analysis of director Stanley Kubrick's 'Eyes Wide Shut' as the culminating cinematic vision of his career.
February 22, 2025
great read, glad I also read Eyes Wide Open by Frederic Raphael to get a wider take on this immense project.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews