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UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO

FACULDADE DE FILOSOFIA, LETRAS E CIÊNCIAS HUMANAS
DEPARTAMENTO DE LETRAS MODERNAS

Illusion and Reality in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Seminar: Literature and Cinema

Prof. Dr. Marcos Soares
Student: Dante Cabelho Passarelli
(NUSP 8975090)

SÃO PAULO
DECEMBER/2018
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This essay sets out to discuss portrayals of illusion and reality in the film Eyes
Wide Shut (1999) by Stanley Kubrick. Based on the 19 th century novel Traumnovelle
by Arthur Schnitzler (Dream Story), the very title already signals to a step further from
reality, or consciousness. As we will argue, the film contains elements who lead
viewers to question what is shown, much like the leading character himself. At the
end, notions of reality and illusion are debatable.

The film’s initial sequence is interesting in that sense because it plays with the
viewers: there are the opening credits fading in and out, then there is a rough cut to
Nicole Kidman undressing, another one to a shot of city, and then another one to
Tom Cruise again inside the apartment. It almost seems like the blinking of an eye:
one sees an image, then one blinks, and it is gone; after that there is a new one, and
so on. With regards to reality, this is important because they show a very clear sense
of it – and a mundane one at that: a woman undresses, a man seeks his wallet, she
is sitting on the toilet and wiping herself. This is not in the least glamourous and
actually contrasted to the classical music playing in the background. The result is a
somewhat ironic introduction to this couple. The camera follows both actors
constantly, which makes them focus and leads us automatically to them.
Interestingly, the two wide shots of the city right at the beginning perhaps mean it will
also play a part here, in terms of social affecting individual.

Additionally, from the initial scenes, the abundancy of red present in the film’s
color palette also stands out. The bed sheets, the curtains, Christmas ornaments, the
stage at the party, the hostess’ dress: there is even a general red filter in the scenes
– which denotes the film’s sexual tone. Both of them are objects of attraction from
different people at the party: at the end of this first sequence, they are implied to
have sex. But here, an important detail appears: when Alice looks at herself in the
mirror, she looks more terrified than lustful. By seeing herself, then, it is implied on
this very short moment that desire might actually be suppressed in her mind. She is
not used to seeing her deepest self (represented here by her reflection). In fact, we
see the couple through the mirror, which perhaps implies a relation between the
character’s name and Alice Through The Looking Glass. But the point is what is
internal, or unconscious, does not find an easy reality escape, including in the sexual
sphere. This parallels Freud’s thesis on mourning:
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It is a matter of general observation that people never willingly

abandon a libidinal position, not even, indeed, when a substitute is
already beckoning to them. This opposition can be so intense that
a turning away from reality takes place and a clinging to the
object through the medium of a hallucinatory wishful psychosis.
Normally, respect for reality gains the day. Nevertheless its cannot be
obeyed at once. They are carried out bit by bit, at great expense of
time and cathectic energy, and in the meantime the existence of the
lost object is psychically prolonged. Each single one of the
memories and expectations in which the libido is bound to the object
is brought up and hyper-cathected, and detachment of the libido is
accomplished in respect of it. (Freud: 1917, p. 244-45)

An additional example of that detachment is the oppositional sense between

the dream sequence -- in which Alice wakes up scared because she dreamt about an
orgy, in which she was taken by countless men -- and her Marine officer fantasy,
which we see with a grey filter, in opposition to ever-present red. Curiously, that is
the only occasion in a very sexually tense film where there is an actual visceral sex
scene, and yet the grey counterparts it. Fantasy, or illusion, is very different from
reality. We could, then, say perhaps that this would be the lost object to which Freud
refers, therefore leaving her in ‘mourning’. She is seemingly unhappy with her own
life: for instance, as Bill is out, she boringly watches television and goes to sleep. We
do not actually see her character outside of maternal or wifely duties. This is why her
revelation is highly important in terms of character and plot, because it is after
hearing it that Bill goes out to his wild orgiastic night. The thought of his wife with
another man haunts him throughout the film, and Kubrick often repeats the scene, as
a jealousy marker. This repetition once again expresses the film’s approach to
unconsciousness, as if it were Bill’s very mind. It is key to note that such revelation
comes after they couple smokes marihuana – a very clear inhibition-breaker symbol,
or as Freud would call it, a step closer to their Id. Barriers down, she confesses her
fantasy and he leaves for his.

A yet further metaphor in that sense is the fact that when Bill learns about the
secret party, he is sitting at a pub table with his college friend, where there is a lamp
which is highly reminiscent to crystal balls used by fortune tellers. This could be a
subtle, albeit ironic, implication that this is a journey to himself. Exacerbating this
point is the fact that the secret party is, of all places, in a house: one of the most
significant symbols in Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams: “the dream-phantasy has a
certain favourite symbol for the organism as a whole: namely, the house.” (Ibid:
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1900, p. 29). In it, we see virtually every sexual fantasy possible; and remarkably,
everyone is masked, except for women’s bodies. Then, again, this is a symbolic
reference to illusion and reality: what can and cannot be seen. In each of the rooms,
he is thus slowly reaching his most private self, which was propelled by Alice’s
confession and it is symbolized by this sequence. The female character who warns
him about the danger of his presence there perhaps could be his desire suppression
and self-consciousness. Also meaningful is the party’s password: Fidelio. The most
obvious relation would be to fidelity, regarding his own marriage its recent
problematics. A closer look points to a homonym opera by Beethoven, in which a
wife saves her husband. Considering that the masked woman offers herself to be
redeemed in his place, and still taking her as a consciousness warning, it could
perhaps mean that he was not prepared to face his most intimate self. And so, reality
calls back and he leaves the house not to return.

In one way, we could interpret this secret society as some of the world’s most
powerful people, as Ziegler implies at one point. So basically they could control
newspapers (with the model’s death), fake her death or actually murder her (it is not
actually proven that it is the same person), have his friend disappear, have Bill
followed and invade his apartment. Or it could be Kubrick’s irony taking shape in the
narrative: a big headline reads “Lucky to be alive”, which could then signal to the fact
that reality and illusion are once more at play. Either way, he then becomes paranoid
about the invasion’s aftermath, and the possible dangers these unknown, masked
people might cause him, and yet feels urged to solve the alleged conspiracy (who
killed the woman and why, and why his friend disappeared). In that sense, Cazdin
(2012) comes to mind:

Conspiracy theories are always wrong because they are less about
the conspiracy itself than about a desire to map an unmappable
system. […] But the desire to map out a conspiracy is always right,
right in the way that it expresses a wish to break out of an ever-
tightening discursive space. […] Why is it that capitalism cannot be
seen for what it is? Not as a good or bad system, but as a system
with a certain logic built right into its most fundamental part—not the
cold or warm hearts of its human subjects but the commodities that
must continually be bought and sold. Is not the conspiracy today
the very fact that there is no conspiracy today, but a system that
works precisely as it is intended to work? (Ibid.: p. 64-67).
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This is incredibly in touch with the film’s historical time. In its case,
commodities could include from Christmas gifts to actual prostitution. Filmed during
Bill Clinton’s administration, between 1996 and 1998, this is the historical time in the
United States which Fraser (2017) describes as “[the one who bears] heavy share of
responsibility for the weakening of unions, the decline of real wages, the increasing
precarity of work, and the rise of the two–earner family in place of the defunct family
wage.” Relevant to this analysis, Clinton’s policies were those who permitted the rich
to get richer and the poor to fall in great debt: the housing market crisis in 2008
comes as a direct result of those policies. And Eyes Wide Shut was filmed in the eye
of the storm, when economy was still going strong: Bill and Alice are great
representatives of privileged upper-class nuclear family – though not quite as
powerful as he would hope, or else he might have been invited to the party. This is
also interesting to note: the fact that Bill felt so compelled to attend is doubly
significant. First, in the more psychological sense we have been discussing; and
second, in a more socio-historical one. He is indeed a wealthy doctor, though the
need to use money as a resource (in the costume store, to the cab driver) perhaps
means he is quite insecure about his place in society. Pivotal to exemplify his not
belonging is the scene where he arrives at the party in a taxi and is required to walk
from the front gate to the door. Or furthermore, at the Christmas party, even though
the couple attend as guests, he has to work for the host during the party. This is,
then, an economic, not personal, relationship: in fact, a great number of relationships
portrayed in the film involve some type of economic exchange: babysitter, secretary,
prostitutes, driver, waiters, patients, etc.

The sequence involving the underage girl at the costume store is perhaps the
most meaningful, given its grotesque tone and the quantity of metaphorical layers to
the film’s themes. It could perhaps be considered a parable, since it does not directly
impact the plot. They are at a costume store, by definition a place one seeks
disguise; the relationship is by nature economic, and against the law at that; both
Asian customers are wearing make-up, in a yet further sphere of disguise; the father
seems angrier at the possibility of losing a customer than his daughter being a
prostitute. During the day, all act normally as if nothing had happened, and then the
girl cries for Bill’s help. These characteristics express a deep sense of psychological
and social issues (sex, suppression of psyche, gender, patriarchy, family relations,
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alienation due to money), thus enhancing the film’s approach to these themes and
enhancing our point.

Still on that matter, and now examining Bill and Alice’s marriage, theirs is a
very bourgeois reality: she is not shown to have any job, while he is a doctor. In fact,
patriarchal society is quite present in the narrative, most notably in the sequence on
the morning after the Christmas party, where Bill is seen working with his patients,
whereas Alice is seen taking care of their daughter; formally speaking, viewers
observe her naked, once more almost voyeuristically. Indicative of this argument is
when she asks, after they have a smoke, “so because I’m a beautiful woman, the
only reason any man ever wants to talk to me is because he wants to f--- me?”.
Again echoing Frasier’s (2017) argument on progressive neoliberalism, this is type of
notion being represented, and somewhat criticized here: in the micro sphere, the
male provider, through his insecurity about his wife’s sexual desires, goes out on a
hallucinatory night, seemingly in a revenge attempt. By the end, when he fragilely
cries in her arms, in a mother-son like image, it is she who has the power. The
ending is absolutely significant in that sense: “There is something very important we
need to do as soon as possible:/ […] F-ck.” Kubrick’s focus on her at the closing shot
is an additional argument that there has been a noticeable shift in their relationship’s
power dynamics.

Even so, the setting contradicts that, since they are “Christmas shopping” with
their daughter, perhaps one of the most capitalist symbols of all. Helena’s gift choices
include a baby stroller and a Barbie doll, which subtly but pungently shows that even
if there has been a slight power alteration, in the micro and macro realms, it is as
Frasier describes: the progressist neoliberal narrative puts women in positions of
power, as if that equaled capitalist hierarchy, instead of abolishing capitalism
altogether. So, patriarchic system is still present; and Cazdin (2012) comes to mind
again, regarding attempts to resolve an “unmappable system”, as they somewhat
tried with what he asks her at this final scene – “What do you think we should do?” -,
she has the power, he only follows: “[I am sure that] the reality of one night, let alone
of one whole lifetime, can never be the whole truth.” The script puzzles viewers,
again approaching matters of truth/lies, real/imagined.
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What we witness, then, is Kubrick thematically criticizing the establishment, via

using two of its biggest film stars. At the time real-life couple Nicole Kidman and Tom
Cruise are perfectly cast actors for such a metaphor of the time’s society, with 24-
hour news cycles, obsessed with celebrities, war and Wall Street. It added the public
to the film’s voyeur characteristic (for example, in the way we first Alice stripping her
clothes; or how Bill is an observer at the party) and brought that to a real sphere. In
fact, even the title connotes this idea. Illusion and reality are thus dealt with in an
even further-reaching aspect: the actors’ real lives and viewers’ expectations (or
illusions) towards them, which goes to show Kubrick’s mastery in his final film.

In terms of representing this sense of illusion, the choice to change the

narrative from the novel’s 19th century Vienna to Christmas-time New York City is
also notable. A close look at the different settings shows an abundance of Christmas
lights and several illuminated signs in general. Perhaps we could even point to a
relation between Christmas lights and brain neurons, as if Bill’s journey was internal,
and not external. This would further corroborate our thesis what is dealt with here is
illusion /reality. The farther he goes, the deeper inside he travels. The juxtaposition
between extremely lighted New York streets and the darkness of the road to the
mansion highlights this idea: on the first he is somewhat conscious, on the latter he
has reached unknown places, which is depicted formally via lighting.

After finally getting home from his psychological ordeal, Bill sees his mask
laying on his pillow, next to a fast sleep Alice. The tension-building piano soundtrack
provokes suspense, but a closer look at the film’s narrative, as we have argued,
shows that this might just be the perfect metaphor to Kubrick’s work. The elements
are all there: a couple’s bed, where one dreams; house; husband and wife; red;
mask. And then he bursts out crying, perhaps due to his weakness: in the macro
environment, in face of this unmappable system Cazdin refers to. And then they go
back to alienation: the one conclusion Alice comes to after hearing everything is that
the couple are supposed to take their daughter Christmas shopping. Is that not
another type of illusion?

We can only finish this essay by highlighting Stanley Kubrick’s command of

real and illusional spheres in Eyes Wide Shut, and not stating for certain whether
what happened was true or not. Though, as we have attempted to show, it does point
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to the latter: as that puts the film not only in a micro sphere, in which it would be
solely about the couple, but also in a macro environment, with all its contradiction
and issues present in 1990s American society, making it a masterful final portrait of a
genius’ work.

“Maybe I think we should be grateful that we’ve managed to survive through our adventures,
whether they were real or only in dream.” (Alice in Eyes Wide Shut)