Eyes Wide Shut: A Psychoanalytic Investigation

A.A. Brill Library Event:

Eyes Wide Shut: A Psychoanalytic Investigation

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

Presenter: Mary Wild

The Friends of the Brill Library are pleased to present “Eyes Wide Shut: A Psychoanalytic Investigation” with Mary Wild. During this presentation, Ms. Wild will discuss Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wild Shut and present clips from the film.

Eyes Wide Shut is an erotic drama film directed by Stanley Kubrick – released in 1999, it is the final feature he completed before dying that same year at the age of 70. Based on Arthur Schnitzler’s 1926 novella Traumnovelle (Dream Story), it depicts the ambivalent role of extra-marital fantasies revealed by a woman to her husband in a seemingly happy relationship. One would be forgiven to suspect that, over the course of his career, Kubrick was working his way to an investigation of female desire by first tackling less daunting subjects in earlier works (e.g., war, outer space, ultraviolence and horror)!

Starring the then-still-married actors Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, Eyes Wide Shut presents dark motifs of jealousy and sexual obsession, although Kubrick intended the film as a “hopeful” story about commitment and monogamous fidelity. The title is a reference to remarks made by Benjamin Franklin: “Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, and half shut afterwards” – a shorthand for a pragmatic attitude in terms of viewing a spouse’s inner life.

A pattern formed with the emergence of new Kubrick films; baffled critics angrily dismissed his vision, but the equalizing forces of word-of-mouth among audiences ensured that a cult following developed around his masterful cinema. Peter Bradshaw, writing in The Guardian, was one of Eyes Wide Shut’s biggest detractors, referring to it as “a grotesque, vulgar, preposterous flop that embarrassingly damages one of the most unimpeachable reputations in world cinema.” While The New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael raised herself from retirement to declare the film “a piece of crap.”

This lecture will interpret Eyes Wide Shut from a psychoanalytic perspective, relying on theoretical concepts such as the uncanny, primal scene, feminine jouissance, Eros, and Thanatos to approach the infuriating enigma of marital eroticism. On the 20th anniversary of Kubrick’s death coinciding with the film’s release, we will reflect back on the initial outraged response of film reviewers, and identify the director’s recurring iconic themes that, in a present-day appraisal, stand the test of time.

No CME or CE credits offered.

Mary Wild is the creator of the PROJECTIONS lecture series at Freud Museum London, applying psychoanalysis to film interpretation. Her interests include cinematic representations of mental illness, doppelgangers and the unconscious in the genres of horror, science fiction and documentary. Mary also co-hosts a film podcast on iTunes: PROJECTIONS Podcast.