ErikLundegaard.com - Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

“If you want your art to matter, stay in touch with the world. Keep in the human drama, take walks, go to baseball games, chase women, argue with waiters, ride motorcycles, hang out with children, play poker, visit Paris as often as possible and always keep in touch with the craggy old guy with the bad cough who runs the news stand.

”Kubrick apparently did very little of this. The more invested he became in his secretive, secluded, every-detail-controlled, nothing-left-to-chance lifestyle in England — which he began to construct when he left Hollywood and moved there in the early '60s — and the less familiar he became with the rude hustle-bustle of life on the outside, the more rigid and formalized and apart-from-life his films became.“

--Jeff Wells, from his 2000 review of Stanley Kubrick's ”Eyes Wide Shut,“ recently resurrected on his Hollywood Elsewhere site after rewatching the film on Blu-Ray. He also quotes from David Thomson's review: ”It is a shock to find that the film is only 159 minutes. Every frame feels like a prison."

Tom Cruise in "Eyes Wide Shut"

Posted at 08:42 AM on Sun. Mar 11, 2012 in category Quote of the Day
Tags: Jeffrey Wells, Stanley Kubrick

COMMENTS

Colin Covert wrote:

I watch this film at least once a year since it appeared on DVD and I still don't feel I've cracked most of its riddles. Why did SK switch the masked actress who saves Cruise in the orgy mansion with a near-twin? Why did he employ deliberately artificial rear projection for the view out of Cruise's nighttime taxicab ride? Why are so many scenes lit by the rainbow glow of illuminated Christmas trees. Like every one of Kubrick's films, it grows in my estimation after each viewing. EWS is so bound up with musical cues and moods, it strikes me as closer to a concerto than a dramatic narrative.

Comment posted on Sun. Mar 11, 2012 at 11:49 AM

Extra-strength UncleVinny wrote:

This is on my list of movies to rewatch, since I've only seen it once and I took a very dim view of it at the time. I should rewatch Barry Lyndon someday, too. But really I'd rather re-re-re-watch The Killing, Paths of Glory, The Shining or even Full Metal Jacket.

With regard to Wells' point, this is worth remembering: http://unclevinny.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/stanley-kubrick-family-man/

Comment posted on Sun. Mar 11, 2012 at 01:54 PM

Erik wrote:

Good points, all. Although Christiane's comments don't necessarily contradict Wells' point, Vinny. One can remain isolated within a family.

One day (and that day may never come) I'll have to rewatch Kubrick. EYS is a good starting point because I remember so little about it, but I doubt it'll be one of my once-a-year movies, Colin. Not sure what is these days. THE INSIDER. THE THIN RED LINE.

Good topic for an article, though. What's your once-a-year movie?