Louis CK on Eyes Wide Shut

Louis CK reacts to Stanley Kubrick's 1999 masterpiece Eyes Wide Shut.
Source: Joe & Raanan Talk Movies
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[@williamthomas1]

"Never, ever go near power. Don't become friends with anyone who has real power. It's dangerous." ― Stanley Kubrick

[@Chad_Max]

He was a great film maker but a paranoid nutjob. Wouldn't surprise me at all if he was Asperger's or Schizotypal...

[@move_i_got_this5659]

My second favorite Kubrick movie, behind The Shining.

[@mattdavid716]

oh damn those are my top two... I wonder if the rest of our top tens align what are the odds, is 2001 your 3rd favorite? Dr. Strangelove 4th?

[@skelter1153]

This film was WAY OVER the public's heads when it was released. People didn't like it because they didn't understand it.. and it wasn't what they were expecting. Kubrick knew that it was going to take several years before people started to get into it and appreciate it. Funny thing is that some people who hated this film have since started to give it a chance, and the people who liked this film REALLY love this film now. Kubrick is CLEARLY telling the audience that the upper echelons of the Richest of the Rich still have problems, and they probably have problems that you and I will never know, just like we have problems that they will never understand. I'm certain there are thousands of other things that will come to light in regards to "meaning" just like all his other films. Kubrick Films are always the gifts that keep on giving.

[@samanthamitchell4115]

Wow you are so spot on. I didn't like it at first but love it now.

[@FutureBoy.]

The first time I saw Eyes Wide Shut it was the most disappointing film experience of my life. Over the years it has somehow become my favourite Kubrick film, and one of my favourite films in general. I don't know how it did it.

[@Hektagon7085]

I did understand it. Still think it´s Kubricks worst movie. Watched it twice with some years apart, second time was a cringe fest.

[@ajsabourin]

For anyone interested, this movie is inspired by Dream Story, by Arthur Schnitzler. Kubrick really nails the dreamlike tone of the book.

[@tonybennett4159]

It's amazing to me that not only do few people know this, but those who do won't consider reading the book so bound up are they on conspiracy theories about Kubrick discovering a secret cabal of NY socialites so dangerous that they had him killed and made it look like a heart attack. I've tried pointing stuff out, but no luck, conspiracy theorists double down when faced with facts. The one fact is that of all Kubrick's literary adaptations this one sticks with incredible fidelity to the original material.

[@propertymanager9149]

​@@tonybennett4159 first of all look at how Kubrick treated his film adaptations before you type nonsense bullshit like this. The only author who had anything positive to say about Kubrick film adaptation was 2001 space odyssey. Lolita, the shining, eyes wide shut are all films that might as well be "loosely" adapted from their literary source. it has very little to do with what the actual books were about

[@tonybennett4159]

@@propertymanager9149 Lolita was adapted from the novel when Nabokov himself had the main screen writing credit. Nabokov said "To be clear, I really like the Lolita movie, but even Kubrick himself admitted that it was a compromised project due to censorship". He may have preferred some sequences to be different, but then, as now, to make a fully accurate film of Lolita would fall foul of accusations of paedophilia. As it was, the tone of the film is not completely at odds with the tone of the novel. With A Clockwork Orange, where Kubrick and Anthony Burgess were credited as screen writers. Burgess wrote "Some of the brilliance of the film was a film director's response to the wordplay of the novel......technically brilliant, thoughtful, relevant, mind-opening, it was possible to see the work as a radical remaking of my own novel, not as a mere interpretation". Burgess is not saying here that Kubrick made radical changes to the themes of his novel, but a film maker's response is visual whereas an author's is literary. You presume that every film that Kubrick made based on a book went all over the place, playing fast and loose with the themes of the books. This is just not so, based on even a cursory comparison between film and book. He tried to reimagine them in filmic terms. Kubrick did not concoct things that were not true to the original. I have read both of those books, Dream Story and Thackery's Barry Lyndon, and to state that the resulting films had very little to do with what the actual books were about, is ludicrous. Even more bizarre is that you say that the only author who anything positive to say about Kubrick was Arthur C. Clarke, who, you must surely know wrote a short story entitled The Sentinel, about a monolith being excavated on the moon. The two then expanded the idea developing the script little by little, and at the same time Clarke worked on his own novel, using the ideas they had developed in tandem. Ironically enough Clarke and Kubrick did not see eye to eye about the closing sequence, and Clarke's novelisation differs in many respects from the screenplay. The film, though, was NOT based on Clarke's novel, it could even be argued it was the other way around. As this discussion began in response to Eyes Wide Shut, I can only ask if you have read the original novel, because if not, it is difficult to say anything about the themes and events otherwise.

[@vasilisvasiliadis3256]

Yes Kubrick was "crazy" there are no elites and evil stuff, no..definitely not,only love, caring and peace from the elites.

[@ziyaerolklc2649]

That's not what Louis said. He didn't mean the story, he meant the way he portrayed it, how he chose to tell it.

[@peeonthepenski4729]

What are you on about? I agree with you, but guess what so does louis CK I imagine. When he said he was crazy he just meant that Kubrick was sort of a bit insane and that insanity lent itself to his style.

[@mikeg4691]

I think his point was that Kubrick was out of touch from a humanistic standpoint. He goes into more detail on it on the podcast he was on.

[@pelodelperro]

Way to miss the point.

[@Magooch86]

Jesus christ do all Americans have some mental illness that they have to vomit their boring political slacktivism over every comment section?

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

I still want to see the version Kubrick ACTUALLY shot and edited and showed to the Execs at Warner Brothers.... who then cut the film before theatrical release, right after Kubrick's sudden and unexpected death..... These missing ca. 30 Minutes are essential.

[@jhghf9685]

There are not any minutes missing from movie. 160 minutes cut is exactly the one, that Kubrick delivered to Warner Bros. before he died! His family confirmed it.

[@tonybennett4159]

@@jhghf9685 Not to say that in many if not most cases, heart attacks are sudden and unexpected. Not that any of that matters to conspiracy theorists.

[@Orgotheonemancult]

Not sure why he keeps calling Kubrick 'deluded', 'fucked up' and 'crazy' every other breath.

[@ingvarhallstrom2306]

Because he fell for the myth of Kubrick being this mad and lone and deluded genius. Which simply is not true. He had his family and friends and his own studio people around him, and he wasn't mad in the slightest.

[@imambaybars3405]

because he is a mediocre idiot

[@briansimerl4014]

Sydney Pollack does the best Jeffrey Epstein performance ever.

[@rustneversleeps85]

Wow, Lous CK is painfully oblivious of Kubrick, calling him "crazy" and "living in seclusion", when I thought it was already established for over 20 years time now that that was the label the tabloids put on him simply because he was a man who valued privacy. Get with the times, CK!

[@SHNASTDOG]

Don't forget Kubrick busted out the truth about the secret elite societies. It's absolutely based on real life. Louis is either naive or covering up for it. He's a master filmmaker yes but her didn't pull that shit out of nowhere.

[@crazyralph6386]

And he paid with his life, for exposing the elite. This is exactly the type of deviant and decadent behaviour that went on at Epstein Island, among other locations.

[@vasilisvasiliadis3256]

Exactly

[@sgshumblecrumb6046]

Louis is too close to Hollywood to call it for what it is. I think it's telling that he keeps repeatedly calling Kubrick "crazy."

[@MAFion]

It's based on a century old Arthur Schnitzler short story Traumnovelle. It is surrealism. It has the sense of the Dreamworld.

[@docstranger9520]

Child sex abuse scenes were cut from the orgy. Why does Cruise come home after the orgy and weep while watching his children sleep? Because he saw children the same age being molested and raped in the lower levels of the orgy. That moment makes zero sense without the cut scenes which I believe were shot then removed.

[@hlysnan6418]

Louis is a great film critic.

[@CuccoBilli]

Eyes Wide Shut is a dream movie. It's even in the title, but also in the title of the original novella, "Traumnovelle" (Dream Story) by Arthur Schnitzler. Does Bill Harford ever get to sleep with any of the women that throw themselves at him?

[@zad0k91]

After he showed the original cut of the film to executives, Kubrick died of a heart attack later that week and 20 minutes of the film was cut out

[@SmartMonkey119]

Any source about these 20 minutes?

[@MAFion]

Not true. They just added digital cloaked figures to obscure the sex in the theatrical run however.

[@jhghf9685]

That's not true - there are not any minutes missing from the movie. 160 minutes cut is exactly the one, that Kubrick delivered to Warner Bros. before he died! His family confirmed it.

[@tonybennett4159]

@@jhghf9685There's an interview with Jan Harlan, Kubrick's brother in law and executive producer, where he said that the distributers didn't want to cut the movie but that something needed to be done to remove the restricted rating. This was in the orgy scene, so extra figures were CGI'd in to hide some of the nudity. It was then classified with a more friendly rating.

[@godisbollocks]

Some of the dialogue was painful, but the sheer craft of the film was great, as per usual with Kubrick. And all the supermodel calibre female nudity was appreciated, too.

[@wnjqsbxacsqasd7113]

eww bro

[@godisbollocks]

@@wnjqsbxacsqasd7113 Does overt heterosexuality offend you?

[@OGRE_HATES_NERDS]

@@wnjqsbxacsqasd7113ew gross boobs lol

[@montag4516]

For me the key telling moment in the film/story is when Dr. Bill comes home to find the mask on his bed. That signified that he has passed the initiation test. The mask was now his membership card to the insider's club. The mask waiting on his bed also was their way of telling him they could easily get to him and destroy him at any time if he were even to become difficult or to even think about exposing the club, it's structure and activities. When was the last time a president, head of state or upper elite assassinated or sent to hard time prison? They are all essentially playing for the same team. t's controlled opposition which makes the whole illusion more believable to the outsiders.

[@AlanCanon2222]

I thought that Alice had found the mask and laid it there as a question to Bill.

[@tomcat1020]

This was a movie about the private ownership of the Country/Usa / private wealth and its role in the formation of socioeconomic norms of behavior and its influence on the values of society and its ripple effects. Its a brilliant movie.

[@isaaclosh8082]

More specifically it’s about one thing: what is “where the rainbow ends / under the rainbow?” according to the movie?

[@EGarrett01]

In the late 1960's, Kubrick spent some time developing a farce film called "Blue Movie," about a "director who is so highly regarded that he is allowed to make a pornographic film with major Hollywood stars." Eyes Wide Shut is somehow related to that. I don't know if he was doing it on purpose to make the plot of Blue Movie real, or what. But something was up.

[@nebulous6660]

Harvey Keitel quit the film because Kubrick would do a ton of takes for simple shots & Keitel concluded that Kubrick was out of his mind.

[@likearollingstone007]

The last line of this movie is the best ever.

[@ScruffyWarlord]

Eyes Wide Shut is in my opinion Kubrick's best film. It's an experience and a world that you get immersed in. I've always found the The Shining a little bit on the overrated side but that's just me.

[@starwarsroo2448]

Yeah you're alone in that view of the Shining

[@michaelotis223]

I concur

[@Theomite]

THE SHINING is a bit clumsy in parts. You can tell he tinkered with the final edit a bit too much, but it's reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally subtle and you have to have watched *a lot* of Kubrick films *a lot* of times to notice it.

[@DiamorphineDeath]

I saw the “cult” scene from the end of the film as a younger kid, on IFC i believe. Had to have been about 7, and no other visual aspect stuck with me like that did. Left a major imprint, found this film as a teenager who was a big film buff and spent most of my time at the hollywood video grabbing old films and went through kubrick’s and was incredibly surprised to see this scene as I had no idea what film it was actually from. Visually, one of the most perfect films out there. Reminds me a lot of the ninth gate, another film I enjoy quite a bit, no where near as good, but major crossover as far as vibes. His use of red reminds of of a Carravagio painting as well throughout eyes wide shut, and his use of color and light specifically. Beautiful stuff. But it’s also interesting to consider Kubrick did work for the state department, creating propaganda films I believe if my memory serves me correctly, so he has a film that’s critical of the power structure, and yet he functioned within it.

[@mjlives5428]

@@starwarsroo2448 He is alone as I thought it totally sucked altogether not just in parts.Nothing happens.

[@Theomite]

Saw this film in theaters on opening day in '99. I still have yet to find a home video transfer that properly renders the grain the way it looked in that print.

[@jamesburke4358]

There was also a "crew gaffe". In the overdose bathroom scene you can see the reflection of crew members on the metal trim. Gone on the video releases.

[@Theomite]

@@jamesburke4358 I remember seeing that in theaters and I got a kick out of it because I knew Kubrick rarely missed things like that.

[@boxingandbulldogs6341]

​@@jamesburke4358how did you see that in the theaters?

[@nielssnoek3832]

Last time I saw this, it sort of struck me as very a very Bunuel-ish piece of work. It's dream-like, surreal and FUNNY. Because of those aspects it especially reminded me of 'That obscure object of desire', in which the male protagonist is walking around with the bluest of balls for most of the running time, trying to get laid and being frustrated about it, like Cruise is in Eyes Wide Shut. I like how Louie uses the word 'banal' here, since that's also what popped in my mind. Story-wise it's pretty banal, mundane and oddly low-stakes. Can't wait to give it a rewatch.

[@nipzie]

That film is a masterpiece

[@AlanCanon2222]

A friend offered me LSD at random when I was on my way to go see Eyes Wide Shut, and I (not normally into psychedelics, though I had done them) accepted, because when was I ever going to be able to trip at a Kubrick premiere again, so, what the hell. I love the film most of all for its visual style, especially the colors. Thanks for showing it in open matte ratio (4:3). Kinda cool that his last three films are in Silent aspect ratio (because cable television). Of course he made sure it looked great when cropped for cinema but it's nice to see everything he shot.

[@darj617]

I wish tom cruise did more interesting movies like in the 90s instead of these big moneymaking blockbusters with paper thin plots

[@edvinparmeza1298]

This movie and The Truman Show are scarier than all the horrors movies combined.

[@jamesburke4358]

Yes, at the time pondering these films existence, and what the 2000s had in store for humanity.

[@robonick3607]

Interesting take!

[@DD-sh1oy]

Making peace with Babylon? Hail Mary.

[@danwroy]

Louis CK is the only guy to have been railroaded to never achieve any degree of insightfulness afterward.

[@orpheus9037]

Let's just say Eyes Wide Shut is not a film that's found its cultural home / historical moment yet - that point at which the rest of the world finally catches up with it and sees something of itself reflected back. But there are genuine flashes of clarity: In this respect, Kubrick's The Shining, with its ghostly specters representing the earlier Gilded Age ("all the best people...") is instructive when compared with Eyes Wide Shut's well-heeled and masked sex party participants - the well-to-do of the current Gilded Age. Given the anonymity of the EWS's masked figures, in a sense suggesting they are both present and absent, such is also the nature of The Shining's ghosts, also signifying both presence and absence. These sinister figures guide fate with a near-invisible (and unaccountable) hand. Kubrick had a deep and critical distrust of plutocratic societies: their fundamental disposition is the demand of sacrifice which, of course, is a theme in both EWS and The Shining. Beware, Kubrick warns, because the demand of sacrifice is the real world theme of a growing global plutocracy. We seem, for example, to be living in an induced state of profound cognitive dissonance, urged on, for the sake of profit, to ignore the warnings of global climate change and embrace the insane prospect of humanity's own extinction. But who is guiding this madness? Who do we hold accountable?

[@chinchintabete]

Oh yea, gotta be on the lookout for that climate change... 😂

[@BookClubDisaster]

No. First of all was he really secluded just because he lived in England? Do we know he was a recluse in his house or did he actually go out and have friends? I'm guessing the latter. Also while the view of the world in Eyes Wide Shut is distorted, that doesn't necessarily mean Kubrick had a distorted view of the world, just that he wanted to give the movie a dreamlike, surrealist feel. So he wasn't actually trying to make it mirror everyday reality.

[@tonybennett4159]

His family vouch for him being sociable within his group of friends. Just like many of us, in fact. It's just that we don't own a big house with its own grounds.

[@isaaclosh8082]

Has anybody figured out what the movie means by “where the rainbow ends?” I have and it’s sick. The movie is very careful and very intentional. Nothing is by accident. There are two explicit references to “rainbow” in the movie and one that’s implicit.

[@need-to-know-]

Tell me if you don’t mind.

[@silencemeviolateme6076]

Boring

[@ramonecricket5183]

“The rainbow ends” probably means the Rainbow store where Bill buys his costume and mask for the party. And the owner of the store ends up allowing his teenage daughter to be prostituted to two much older Japanese men. So I’m guessing it’s all an allusion to child prostitution and paedophilia, which is (allegedly) rampant within the elite circles.

[@sheriffliberty9302]

It's weird and dreamlike but I don't think it's unrelatable just because it feels weird.

[@thomasmills339]

He's right. That movie is about a world that doesn't exist. It's fascinating.

[@evanbelisle8464]

So is Avatar. What’s the problem?

[@sdhomeguide6343]

Keep telling yourself that, you’ll sleep better.

[@vrushabhbhaskar1348]

@@sdhomeguide6343 exactly!

[@DaveyMulholland]

How t f would you know?

[@user-cq5sg9cb4t]

@@sdhomeguide6343 based

[@benjaminschwartz1242]

I like Louie, but he sounds like a moron here calling Kubrick deluded and crazy. Louie obviously just takes the movie at face value and he loves to hear himself talk so some pretty stupid things come out of his mouth sometimes. Eyes Wide Shut is a masterful movie and every little detail is intentional. As with all Kubrick films, the movie is about several different things all at once and it seems Louie didn't understand any of them

[@user-tm8jt2py3d]

Louie is always saying things where for the first 4/5 of the time I'm in complete agreement, then he says something totally I completely disagree with.

[@mc76]

This is my favorite full Kubrick film. Full Metal Jacket is my favorite half Kubrick film. While the boot camp section in FMJ is better than anything in Eyes Wide Shut, the second half of FMJ is a snoozefest. EYS was riveting throughout.

[@BookClubDisaster]

I think the second half of FMJ is meant to be a rebuttal to the first half. All the discipline shit they teach in basic training ends up being irrelevant in a jungle with a sniper you can't even see shooting at you every which way. War is chaos but the military tried to create the illusion of order.

[@Hektagon7085]

@@BookClubDisaster I think the movie is about the dehumanization that war creates. I always find i funny that people just like the first part, when the second half is an response to the first.

[@BookClubDisaster]

@@Hektagon7085 Right. I think the second half is saying all the things they tell you matter in basic training actually prove to be irrelevant once you actually get into combat. It's similar to how Godfather II is intended almost scene by scene to be a negative rebuttal of everything in Godfather 1.

[@TalonsOfFire]

Such a confounding movie, seen it 2 or 3 times and my opinion actually hasn't changed really. I've always thought it was great but far from my favorite Kubrick. It's very engrossing and mysterious, leaving a lot up to the imagination about why this secret society does what it does and what the movie means or is saying. The conversation with Sydney Pollack is basically the climax but he keeps everything very vague in his "explanation" if it can even be called that. If Kubrick had lived longer I bet he'd get tons of letters from conspiracy theorists thinking he understood and agreed with them haha

[@LachieDazdarian]

Wow, what a poor take on both the film and Kubrick. He was a private man, yes, but quite a regular family man as well. The only "weird" thing about him is that perhaps he was to precious about his filmography (check the documentary Filmworker for more insight). Anyway, this film is based on a novella by a Jew living in anti-semitic environment of early 20th century Vienna, and it's very much about repressed sexuality through the lens of someone being denied access due his identity.

[@spyrewind2187]

Original title: "Just Eyes Wide Shut'

[@theCalebQuinn]

Kubrick wasn't crazy, I still say this movie feels (slightly) unfinished. The B+W inserts with the sailor are terrible, the piano music is used so many times it becomes comical (it's like six or seven times, possibly more than he ever used a single piece in a film). I like it better now than I did, though.

[@jbliv831]

So other podcast conversations are set up to be original content for this “real conversation for “James Whale”?!”

[@Spookyjordan]

I completely disagree. Didn’t Spielberg edit the version we saw? And isn’t Spielberg, according to Crispin Glover, deeply involved with the type of stuff this movie was supposed to be about? I think he was killed and his movie was butchered because he was about to let the cat out of the bag. I don’t think there’s a way to watch this movie, because it’s not the movie Kubrick intended to make.

[@herbg4866]

So interesting that it was the film that killed him

[@lyndonferaud3965]

What a bunch of BS...he was not secluded or crazy at all, he had a big family and longtime close friends and collaborators, for a living he made Cinema, a truly collaborative Art, and looking at the results he was very good at collaborating with people to get such high results. He made his house out of London the production center of his films, wise choice i guess so he could stay near his family and far away from Hollywood shallowness and politics... and just because he avoided the usual Hollywood melodrama or sugar coating likeability that doesn't make him detached from reality or humanity...maybe quite the opposite.

[@roastbeefy0weefy]

Another NPR level take delivered with misleading eloquence

[@jvenom174]

There's an entire buildup to this part that was ignored. The two comedians Louie was talking to both thought the movie was pretentious and bad. Louie let them make their points, defended Kubrick and the movie, but in the end he extended an olive branch to avoid an argument. I think Louie would have spoken differently about the film if he was being asked by somebody who actually liked Stanley Kubrick films.

[@rustneversleeps85]

@@jvenom174 So he's a phony.

[@nihilosphere319]

We need more Louis giving his perspective on film. I always feel like I come away from it a bit enlightened.

[@ChrisDragotta]

Oh Louie, your not talking about what the movie is about. On purpose.

[@reeyees50]

The guy who was caught doing horrific things like you see in this movie has the nerve to call Kubrick crazy. Its in his own best interest to discredit Kubrick because in reality, he is part of this crazy elites.

[@clanofclams2720]

Horrific things like asking for consent for a sexual encounter.

[@alexalex13131]

The movie was long and incredibly immature but it did hold my interest all the way through. The set design and photography was superb.

[@samanthamitchell4115]

The thing that strikes me about the cult ceremony scene is that is looks so boring. Sex without connection to someone is sooo boring. All standing around watching randoms bump uglies....yawn. But whatever, go hard, at least they're not hurting anyone, it's all consenting adults. It's what might have been in those alleged cut minutes that concerns me. If they went all pizza gate then they all need exterminating.

[@isaaclosh8082]

Did you get the meaning of “rainbow” (it’s sick) and did you pick up on a particular decoration at the Christmas party in the beginning that is a symbol that explains what’s going on?

[@the_endgame]

@@isaaclosh8082 what decoration?

[@jvenom174]

To be fair, the orgy sequence was considerably toned down to avoid an NC-17 rating. I'm sure Kubrick wanted to go darker in those sequences, but he either held himself back or was held back by producers and or the MPAA.

[@mongolianqwerty123]

@@isaaclosh8082 Ishtar, man! Elite Babylonian rules. There is a strange handlebar xmas wreath with candles featured in Ziegler's home and at the cafe where Bill Cruise reads "Lucky to be Alive". The distinct shape perfectly resembles a Nordic sacrificial altar. That Alice Kidman is already initiated is often missed by viewers as well (she's on the other side of the looking-glass)

[@jhghf9685]

There are not any minutes cut from the movie. 160 minutes version is exactly the one, that Kubrick delivered to Warner Bros. before he died! His family confirmed it.

[@Mikeyswrite]

The plinking piano score was insufferable.

[@wfk3rd]

Well…it’s no “Pootie Tang.” This guy is a regular Roger Ebert.

[@leocasamento5742]

Who said I wanted to be funny goof ass!