Finally got a chance to read this article hyperpeople sent me. It’s a superb sociological analysis of Eyes Wide Shut, one of my favourite films ever, and certainly my favourite Kubrick.
I’d discussed the first line issues with Mark before (Alice’s first line is “How do I look?”; Bill’s is “Where’s my wallet?”). The rest of the article makes equally excellent observations about the nature of Kubrick’s commentary on late capitalist consumerism and the shallowness of a psychological response to this film. I loved it at the time: I commented to many people about the discussions of female desire that were rarely addressed in reviews. Despite the length of this essay, it doesn’t really address that here either. And given its stress on Alice as voyeuristic object, I would have thought her line about women’s desire (“If you men only knew…”) would be somewhat relevant, although it does mention that she is only an agent in her life when drugged or dreaming and this line is uttered while stoned. That (tiny) gripe aside, this is easily the best piece I’ve read on the film (some of the subtleties! I had no idea that when Szavost is trying to pick Alice up at the party at the beginning that he uses a pick-up technique that’s straight out of the Ovid book he asks if she’s read.)
The discussion at the end about audience projection also recalls for me the French film innocence that Jack and I saw at MIFF which implicates the audience in pedophilic desire where there is none on screen.
Note: this article contains spoilers for half of Kubrick’s films and a couple of others, but it’s a superb essay.