(no subject)

[rm]

I've just seen Eyes Wide Shut and I don't know what to do with it. It was awful in any number of ways (I found the script irritated me for the same reasons that Dogville's did, which is somewhat odd) which I will no doubt enumerate tomorrow. A lot of it made me angry, and some of it was simply gorgeous. The only way I can describe my emotional state in the wake of it is "tainted."

It is probably the best case I've ever seen for the madness that encourages film, or that filn requires, not being cute. I make a lot of quasi-jests about art and control issues, and granted this film hit some of my buttons, but *shudder* -- I think it was awful and for reasons entirely unrelated to its awfulness I'm uncomfortable that it even exists.

Comments

[ali-highland.livejournal.com]

When I went to see this in the theatre I was really looking forward to it but by the time I emerged I felt like someone had stolen three hours of my life.
The only conclusion I could draw from it was that it had been so long since Kubric had made a movie that he was left with a sense of responsibility for creating a masterpiece that would stand as his testimony.
This seemed to result in Kubric attempting to out Kubric Kubric which left the movie disjointed and meladramatic.
A shame, a real shame

[splix.livejournal.com]

I hated that film in more ways than I can possibly describe, not least for the waste of potentially decent performances, or the total lack of attention to script. What a piece of crap. Argh.

[tinywarrior.livejournal.com]

Have you read the story that the movie is based on? It's by Arthur Schnitzler, if my memory serves...I've got it here in a collection of his stories somewhere. I have a sneaking suspicion that everything you found wrong with the movie, you might find right with the story.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I haven't, but I'd like to. I mean, it was clear that there was good material and interesting ideas buries in it.

[tinywarrior.livejournal.com]

Well, it's ridiculous for us to live so near and not meet sometime soon...so I'll brave my fear of the train system and go into the city. We could have lunch and I could loan you a book. : )

[rm.livejournal.com]

Sounds excellent, and I was going to suggest something similar. Are you on the NJ Transit trains or Path? THey are both very easy.

[tinywarrior.livejournal.com]

I'm almost positive it's NJ Transit. David can tell me how to get there and what to do. Once the house gets a little bit more organized (I've still got contractors here almost every day), I'm definitely going to do it!

[spiralflames.livejournal.com]

i hated it too. ALL that time, money, acting...wasted on an impotent tease. what IS it with the world that they can't figure out how to make a movie about bdsm which doesn't either turn it into a joke/disaster (like that massacre 'east to eden') (or was it east OF eden? i can never remember which is ann rice and which is steinbeck) or this one, all that build up and tease..for bullshit. arrrgh!

[rm.livejournal.com]

I didn't think it was about BDSM at all. And I do think it was realtively intelligent for not ever explaining what the fuck was up with that damn house.

I did think a lot of the acting was awful, and that the script involved lots of clunky explanation that wasn't a stylistic thing, but was just bad writing and a presumption that the audience was stupid.

[patashoqua.livejournal.com]

I saw about 5 minutes of it last night, also for the first time, and had a similar reaction. Yuck.

I also saw The Ring, which has me making the Jon Stewart "Whaaaa?" noise a lot.

[darkadaptedeye.livejournal.com]

i think one of the frustrating things about that movie is that simply because it was Kubrik (and had a full budget, full-priced cast, and was in/about New York), we wanted/hoped/expected it to be good. we wanted a swan song from one of the masters of the art.

the end result was something that felt as contrived as the Michael Jackson - Lisa Marie Presley marriage... we. just. didn't. buy. it.

in the end, we were left with the feeling of having sat through a 3-hour Tom Cruise celebrity-vehicle, not a Kubrik film.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not a huge fan of Kubrick anyway, but the whole thing felt like a personaly voyeuristic exercise on his part with some plot brushed over it like egg glaze so he could then show off his personal fixations to an a world comprised of the uncaring and the mindlessly adoring.

Wow, this film really pissed me off.