Last night Jess and I watched the film Interstellar. Neat movie and while it was less visually stunning as Gravity, it had much greater emotional impact. Doing that thing that all good sci-fi's should do, make you think about the human condition rather than oogle the pretty pictures. But it is no secret that Interstellar borrowed heavily from 2001 Space Odyssey which takes me to the topic of Stanley Kubrick and his films.
Kubrick's films commonly have a vein of the exotic when it comes to sexuality. Lolita and Eyes Wide Shut probably his best and most explicit examples. Jess and I watched Eyes Wide Shut again last week. It had been years since I've seen it last and that was well before our 'lifestyles' change. Seeing it again with new eyes had me catching undertones and themes that I did not before.
Unfortunately, the alternative sexual lifestyle is played as a common trope. That infamous orgy scene (which on retrospect is pretty tame by today's standards) is imbued with suspense and danger with enough occult and menace thrown in to play to the conventional audiences irrational fears about extra-marital sex. Indeed the orgy club member ship are portrayed as the ultimate puppet masters of drugs, prostitution and the legal system. They have all power and malice. Maybe these guys just aren't the swingers I know or met :)
However, as in all Kubrick's masterpieces, there are hidden messages as well. The couple sexual frustration and inability keep their eyes from wondering persist and this is something they do not escape at the conclusion of their respective character arc's. In fact, the only characters who aren't harmed are the people (Cruise's lawyer friend) who submit to the lifestyle and are part of the underworld as opposed to those who try to resist it.
I think Kubrick was trying to give a positive message about open sexuality while hiding it in the wide open of a more obvious and shallow plot device that could be consumed by the masses. Eyes Wide Shut, the title of the film, is truly describing most of its audience members and not the vibrant world of informed living. What do you think?
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2:47 am Monday, 24th November, 2014
I think that's a pretty fair analysis. A week or two ago there was some jocular exchange on these pages about tricks for knowing whether a stranger was a secret swinger and would be up for a shag. (Ideal for travelling salespersonsbusinesspersons using hotels :-) Then I remembered that someone had once told me that it was possible to acquire an official "swinger's lapel pin" that only the cognoscenti would recognize (in fact it may even have been advertised on this site at some point). By coincidence, this got me thinking about the secret society in EWS, and the rather whimsical notion that perhaps swingers are just "sexual Masons" (takes one to know one, and all helping each other out - or "helping people to get laid since 1998", if you will :-) |
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5:30 am Monday, 24th November, 2014
Eyes Wide Shut is one of my all time favourite films and not just because I had a Tom Cruise thing going on at one time. For those who are familiar with some of my profile pics (don't bother looking, they're all hidden) may recognise that they were inspired by some of the movie scenes (pathetic, I know), but I will admit to being captured by this fascinating tale of sexual fantasy long before EWS the movie was released. The film was based on a very controversial short story that was released early 1920s called Dream Story. Full of decadence, masked individualism, danger and of course, erotic sex. Books are always better than the movie In my (very) humble opinion.
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11:52 am Monday, 24th November, 2014
Kubrick himself borrowed from a number of people: the identical twins in The Shining were inspired by a photo taken by Diane Arbus, as were a number of facial close-ups in his other films. I think artists are always borrowing from others, but perhaps portraying similar themes in different lightssettings. |
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10:02 am Monday, 1st December, 2014
Ok admin, I give in, lol. |
