• Home
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Lists
    • Yearly Top Tens
    • Trailers
    • Contact
    • Hire Me
    • About
Menu

World of Reel

Street Address
City, State, Zip
Phone Number
Home
IMG_5228.jpg
Kevin Costner’s $100M Gamble on ‘Horizon’ Now Mired in Legal Dispute
IMG_5226.png
Madonna Biopic is Now A Netflix Limited Series
IMG_5227.jpg
Cristian Mungiu's ‘Fjord' Acquired by Neon for 2026 Release
Capture (1).png
Andy Muschietti to Direct Sci-Fi ‘Drift'
Screenshot 2025-05-12 112348.png
‘Shadow Force': Joe Carnahan's $60M Action Movie Bombs With $2M Opening
Featured
Capture.PNG
Aug 19, 2019
3-Hour ‘Midsommar' Director's Cut Screened in NYC
Aug 19, 2019

This year’s 12th edition of the Scary Movies festival at Film at Lincoln Center premiered Ari Aster’s extended version of “Midsommar” this past Saturday.

Aug 19, 2019

World of Reel

  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Lists
  • More
    • Yearly Top Tens
    • Trailers
  • About
    • Contact
    • Hire Me
    • About

Nicole Kidman Talks Stanley Kubrick's ‘Eyes Wide Shut,' 25 Years Later

July 16, 2024 Jordan Ruimy

Back in May 2020, I polled 175 critics, asking them to name their personal best films of the 1990s, Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut” was #5.

I love how Kubrick’s final film, initially met with mixed reviews, is now seen by many as this colossal masterpiece. Christopher Nolan called it “the '2001' of relationship movies.” An apt description for a film that continues to reveal its depth-filled layers some 25 years since its release.

As part of their ongoing series, looking back at 1999, the L.A. Times has decided to interview Nicole Kidman, who co-starred with Tom Cruise in “Eyes Wide Shut.” It’s a fascinating interview recounting the film’s record-breaking shoot, which lasted two years. Kubrick then went on to edit the film for 18 months, Not too long after a final cut was shown to Warner Bros, in March 1999, the filmmaker passed away.

When asked whether the cut that was released in theaters was the one Kubrick intended to be seen, Kidman doesn’t even hesitate in saying that it was:

Oh, yeah. He had been editing it for 18 months. It wasn’t like he didn’t have enough time. He was very happy with it. For him to show it to us, that is huge, if you know Stanley. And the Warners people were there. He wasn’t going back to the drawing board.

It’s well known that Kubrick was a demanding director, infamous for doing an innumerable amount of takes and driving some of his actors totally mad. In fact, this obsessive control, on every minutia detail, lasted up until his final film. Harvey Keitel, who was originally supposed to play Victor Ziegler in “Eyes Wide Shut,” recently admitted that he quit the film, in the middle of production, after Kubrick made him shoot a walking scene 68 times.

I instantly fell for “Eyes Wide Shut” which is masterfully constructed, and gorgeously shot film about a man’s crucial search for symmetry after his wife shares a sexual fantasy that shatters his self-worth.

A near 3-hour hypnotic journey, oozing with dream-like atmosphere, about going against society’s set upon values and paving a path for your own conscience, and subconscious, Kubrick’s film is a distillation of how dreams can turn out as authentic as reality.

Martin Scorsese wrote: "When “Eyes Wide Shut” came out a few months after Stanley Kubrick's death in 1999, it was severely misunderstood, which came as no surprise. If you go back and look at the contemporary reactions to any Kubrick picture (except the earliest ones), you'll see that all his films were initially misunderstood. Then, after five or ten years came the realization that “2001: A Space Odyssey” or “Barry Lyndon” or “The Shining” was like nothing else before or since."

← Glen Powell to Star in ‘Backdraft' RemakeMadonna Writing & Directing Biopic About Herself, Starring Julia Garner →

FOLLOW US!


Trending

Featured
IMG_4571.jpg
David Fincher & Brad Pitt Reunite for ‘The Continuing Adventures of Cliff Booth' + Plot Details
IMG_4549.png
Warners Bros. Chief Admits Missteps on ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’: “We Misread the Room”
IMG_4541.jpg
Scorsese’s Next Film? Hawaiian Mob Epic With Dwayne Johnson Eyes 2026 Shoot
Capture.png
Jim Caviezel to be De-Aged in ‘The Resurrection of the Christ'
IMG_4465.png
Harmony Korine Says Hollywood Struggling Because “Movies Suck Today”

Critics Polls

Featured
Capture.PNG
Critics Poll: ‘Vertigo’ Named Best Film of the 1950s, Over 120 Participants
B16BAC21-5652-44F6-9E83-A1A5C5DF61D7.jpeg
Critics Poll: Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ Tops Our 1960s Critics Poll
Capture.PNG
Critics Poll: ‘The Godfather’ Named Best Movie of the 1970s
public.jpeg
Critics Poll: ‘Do the Right Thing' Named Best Movie of the 1980s
Critics Poll: ‘Mulholland Drive' Named Best Film of the 2000s
g4.jpg
Critics' Poll: ‘Goodfellas' Named Best Movie of the 1990s
Critics Poll: ‘Mad Max: Fury Road' Named Best Movie of the 2010s
World of Reel tagline.PNG
 

Content

Contribute

Hire me

 

Support

Advertise

Donate

 

About

Team

Contact

Privacy Policy

Site designed by Jordan Ruimy © 2023