The most memorable sequence in Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Eyes Wide
Shut’ was certainly the ritual orgy sequence. While it is sexually charged, and
can be offensive for certain viewers, it is one of Kubrick’s most atmospheric and
beautiful scenes in all his films. The only unfortunate flaw is that there some
CGI-generated images were inserted into the scenes by the studio in fear of the
award of a NC-17 rating. For this sequence, which I would call ‘1999: A Sex
Odyssey’, it was seen through Bill’s subjective viewpoint. Through the use of a
steadicam-style tracking shot and a wide-angle lens, the audience, just like
Bill, was like observers when they were penetrating and exploring the dangerous
world of sex. During this sequence, all
sort of sexual acts have been seen, yet what was rather ironic was these sexual
‘scenes’ were more like artifices – it would generate awe rather than any
sensational emotions from the audience (and probably Bill too). The sexual acts
were detached, and they were almost devoid of emotion. It would not be too
ridiculous to say that these actions were almost mechanical, as if there were
some ‘sex robots’ carrying out their assigned programs (see later). I can think
of Lars von Trier’s recent film, ‘Nymphomaniac’, to this end. In the film, the
female protagonist, Joe, had an unstoppable impulse for sex, yet she could not
find any true love or relationships from any of her encounters with other men –
which many of them were scumbags in the first place. Sex was always detached in
Joe’s scenario. She would have to be subservient to the power of Eros, and the
destructive power this impersonal energy would exert on her. Joe’s tragedy was
that she could not transform Eros into a more positive element to her life,
such as a fulfilling relationship.
While the orgy scene is atmospheric, it is also a very
chilling scene, as the viewers are experiencing the entanglement of two
powerful and impersonal forces – that of Eros and the mechanical dehumanization
of institutions. In the lushly-colored rooms, filled with books and nicely
designed furniture, powerful patrons and the ‘sex slaves’ – the poor naked
ladies, all masked to ensure anonymity, were engaging in decadence and all
forms of perverse sexual acts. The power of Eros, like Schopenhauer’s Will, was
penetrating the room like a great and destructive force. Kubrick, being a
brilliant satirist, made the sex acts so sterile and unattractive that the
audience members were more than certain that that was nothing enjoyable from
the ladies’ perspective. They have been dehumanized by the institutions, and
they were nothing more than tools to fulfill the big brasses’ thirst for sexual
perversions and exploitations. No matter how many books – the symbol for
knowledge of human wisdom – and how clean and well-decorated the room was, with
paintings and expensive furniture, very much like ‘Barry Lyndon’, this ‘high
culture’ failed to conceal the monstrous and dark side of humanity.
The theme of mechanical dehumanization has been explored in
almost every Kubrick film since ‘2001’, and like in ‘Barry Lyndon’, ‘Eyes Wide
Shut’ employed a very similar strategy to explore this rather chilling reality.
Kubrick has been heavily influenced by Freud’s ideas, not only in terms of
dreams, the unconscious and the Oedipal theme, but also on civilization. Freud,
in his famous work ‘Civilizations and its Discontents’, has stated that
repression was required by civilization on its members so that all the members
could serve a peaceful and non-chaotic co-existence. However, this control
would certainly be against one’s instinctual urge and impulse, which was often
irrational, dangerous, and could cause harm and destruction to others. Kubrick
expanded on Freud’s ideas, yet he did not totally agree to Freud’s conclusions.
While Kubrick appreciated the contribution of civilization to human
intelligence, he felt that the instinctual urge demanded by humans would
continue to threaten and destabilize civilization. He did not serve the
optimism that civilization could win out the battle of barbarism at the end.
The two forces will continue to battle and intimidate each other, and it is
what Kubrick’s work is often about.
The development of institutions, which is an important
element of a civilized world, will inevitably lead to mechanical
dehumanization. Many people are not aware of the power of the social machine
and the cultural machine, and they accept these values without questioning or
thinking about them. In a number of Kubrick’s films, most notably ‘A Clockwork
Orange’ and ‘Full Metal Jacket’, he showed that humans could be conditioned and
programmed to serve instrumental purposes. Many viewers have noticed the
weirdness of certain characters in EWS, as if they were some sort of programmed
or brain-washed individuals. While it cannot be accurately verified, there has
often been conspiracy theories (mostly in fiction, bad news if in reality) that
has used brain-washing or programming techniques to condition human individuals,
to control them, and they become tools for whatever selfish purposes, be it political,
exploitative, and so on.
Now, while the idea of turning humans into automatons can be
a bit outlandish, we cannot underestimate the impact caused by mechanical
dehumanization, which individuals are employed as instruments rather than
respectable human beings. The mask is an important motif in the film, most
obviously during the ritual orgy scene. The mask is used to conceal the
identity, on the rich patron’s side that is because they do not want to take
any responsibilities in all these perverse sexual acts. Obviously, these rich
guys have no reservations about helping themselves to exploit those lower on
the social ladder than themselves, who are the masked and naked ladies for the
sacrifice. For these sex slaves, they are masked because the authority wanted
to eliminate any forms of identity or subjectivity from them, and they became
instruments to provide sexual pleasures to the patrons, and to comply with the
ritualized movement they have to do during the ceremony. In a sense, they are
very much like the soldiers in ‘Barry Lyndon’ and ‘Full Metal Jacket’, which
all of them are branded together like a machine or instrument to do the job,
only this time we have a sex machine in this decadent mansion. The use of masks
not only alienate the poor ladies, it also served a constitutive power to brand
them up, so that all of them became selfless and participated in this hideous
acts.
When we speak of mask, we can also associate to the idea of
performance. When I start to think more about Kubrick’s cinema in general, I
start to appreciate the flip side of the coin – if his films are not merely
about mechanical dehumanization, then it is also about performance, and the two
concepts do go hand in hand.
Aren’t we all wearing mask, after all? In a sense, we take
on different personas to perform well in a certain role. These are all demanded
by the cultural and social machines that govern our lives. Being a doctor, Bill
believed that he could quench all sorts of sexual desire even when he was
inspecting a naked woman during practice, because he felt all these things were
very impersonal and objective. Victor, the billionaire who invited Bill and
Alice to the party, believed well in a polite society by praising whatever
women he has encountered, even if the statement had absolutely no significance
to him. Through the family institution, Alice
did every duties a normal housewife had to perform, even if her psyche was rift
with discontents. Even in the orgy, all these powerful patrons, the ‘best
people out there’ in the society if we recalled ‘The Shining’, was of a lower
rank to the master of the ceremony, and they all stood there silently, all
wearing masks to ensure an impersonal presence. The characters led the
appropriate performance because they wanted to fit into the picture, just like
the various aristocrats trying to fit into the painterly 18th
century Europe in ‘Barry Lyndon’. If you were
not a good enough actor to fit into the narrative, you were doomed to be
marginalized by the others. Yet, Kubrick questioned, did all these performances
really fit nicely into the perfect system humans claimed to have created, and
could things go wrong?
If we have a civilized world, if we can develop instruments
to lead to a better control of our lives, and if we can pull performance to fit
into the setting, then why do the battle between barbarism and civility never
seize? Kubrick’s films often remind us the reason. It is the sad fact that our higher
cognitive abilities - which have led us to our ego and hubris, has also caused
us to be oblivious of our limitations - our animalistic and mechanistic nature.
Though we might be more intelligent than most of the organisms, we can never
escape from our animal instincts, and the mechanistic designs that define homo
sapiens. Instinctive urge is uncontrollable and potentially destructive,
because it cannot be explained in a rational manner. It is a part of us, which
is intuitive and is ingrained into our genetic design. Such is the case for the
need of sex, violence and the carving for power and control. In Kubrick’s cinema,
many scenes remind us of our true nature. The presence of bathrooms, in one
occasion a hideous act or exploitation has almost led to the death of a woman
in EWS; all the eating scenes, reflecting our biological needs, and also the
constant threat to corporeality. Disturbingly, it is often the bodily aspect of
humanity that has led to our limits, and through a perverse sense of creativity,
that has also led to many approach to control others - as we can especially see
in ‘A Clockwork Orange’. The bodies in ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ have been exploited -
prostitution and sexual beta kittens in the orgy, and even the costumer’s
daughter, whom he was willing to pimp her out to an unwilling Bill. Humanity is
nothing more than the mannequins that are neatly organized in the costumer’s
shop. The powerful ones wanted these people to have their eyes wide shut. They
did not want them to question the motivations behind these acts. They wanted
them to be docile to do what they were conditioned to (think of the Stepford
Wives). They also wanted the observers to have their eyes wide shut, too, so
that no one would challenge their actions and they would continue be benefitted
from their advantaged position. Culture, customs and other rituals are merely
tools to divert our visions to something else – so that these horrendous
legacies of our dark sides will not be confronted by our glaring visions.
When a mask is fallen off, a dress down is inevitable.
Throughout the film, Bill has been dressed down in a number of occasions. To
put it anther way, masculinity, embodied by Bill in this film, has been
challenged by various parties just like many of the male characters in
Kubrick’s film. Not only he was forced to take his mask off and exposed his
true identity to every one during the orgy, he was also forced to take his
clothes to serve as a humiliation. He was harassed by a bunch of college boys,
who accused him of being homosexual. Throughout his night of Odyssey and the
morning after, he was challenged by people from the different parts of the sex
spectrum, to see whether he was brave to take them on. For a number of times,
he had to resort to his professional social status to get what he wanted and
continued his journey. Even Alice
taunted him an challenged his claim that he had no desire on the various women
he saw during work. But for our Dr. Bill, rational as he was, was just a human.
He showed all the human attributes of jealousy, desire, and emotion as anyone
was. After Alice ’s
confession, Bill has imagined again and again, also like replaying a scene in a
film, the scenario between Alice and the naval officer, as if a sort of
self-punishment. Even in his imagination, the naval officer looked strong and
handsome – a celebration of masculinity.
When Bill was asked to take off his mask, another individual
was also willing to do this metaphorically. At the point Bill was about to take
off his clothes and subject to some forms of punishment, one of the masked
woman stood on the balcony and declared that she was willing to accept the
punishment incited on Bill. This woman has already warned Bill some time ago
that he should leave the place as soon as possible, and although her identity
was ambiguous, many audience members believed her to be Mandy, the prostitute
saved by Bill from an overdose in Victor’s bathroom at the start of the film. When Mandy expressed her will to sacrifice for
Bill, this action served as a tremendous challenge to the system where these
powerful people they have firmly established. Her action was devastating
because by singling herself out Kubrick
made this visually by having her standing alone at the center of the balcony,
she asserted her individuality. The other members, by contrast, were forming a
circle to signal a sort of unity for the private club, with no intention to
assert any form of singular identity. The subjectivity that the institution has
tried to undermine has been retrieved and brought up by her. It was clear that
Mandy has been the protector of Bill at the point he entered the Somerton mansion,
first asking him to run away. Yet, controlled by his desire and curiosity, Bill
decided to penetrate further into this dangerous horizon until he was being
caught. Remembering that Bill has served her life once, she did all this out of
compassion. Through the selfless sacrifice, Mandy transformed herself from a
pre-assigned function of erotic flesh to a compassionate love. To me, Mandy is
probably one of the most courageous characters in the film, and probably in the
whole Kubrick cinema. We had no idea about how harsh the punishment would turn
out to be, we only knew that eventually Mandy died from an alleged overdose.
While the middle man, Victor, tried his very best to deny the secret
organization responsibility and said Mandy died circumstantially from another
overdose, and said all that happened in the orgy was merely a charade to scare
the hell out of him . he audience and Bill had no final answer offered to them.
Apparently to blackmail Bill further, the mask that Bill has somehow misplaced
was mysteriously appeared on his bed, and Bill broke down and decided to tell Alice everything. Or, it
could be a signification of the end of the dream...
I have said in the previous passages the barbarism and civility
were forever locked in a struggle at war with each other. There is another dueling pair, also
attributed to Freud s ideas. It is the battle between the 2 forces that define
human existence .Eros and Thanatos. Eros and Thanatos are situated closer than one may ever
imagine – they are entangled like an organic unity, locked in a Viennese waltz.
In Eyes Wide Shut, sexual desire (Eros) and the death instinct (Thanatos) was intertwined,
and the threat of death was always lurking from behind. The satiric aspect of
the film was that Bill s erotic encounter to the female characters, imaginary t
not, would eventually lead to their destruction. Bill has encountered 3 times,
and curiously, she was naked all 3 times. As Alice has questioned Bill in their bedroom, a
force of desire should have most likely to be arisen from Bill’s psyche. What
was rather tragic was that all 3 incidents were tied to death the first time Mandy was at a near death from
overdose, the second time would like to lead to her punishment and eventual
sacrifice, the third time Bill was watching her corpse in the morgue. When Bill
rejected the call girl Domino s sexual advance due to Alice s interrupting phone call, he knew the
next day that Domino was diagnosed HIV positive. Has the sexual intercourse
been taking place, it would certainly lead to Bill’s destruction. Bill, with
the audience, would be thrilled to learn that that death has always been
lurking behind the sex drive and pleasure fulfillment.
It may seem absurd to imagine that, if our instincts demand
us to survive and preserve the life drive, why would we be obsessed with its
arch-nemesis, the death instinct? Upon much thinking and experiencing of the
unprecedented First World War, which was unprecedented in history in terms of scale, fire power and casualties,
this tragedy of human history motivated
Freud (he even did a correspondence with Einstein) to make sense of all these
human aberrations. Freud thus proposed the existence of the death instinct,
which was a manifestation of our violent side, reflecting the dark side of us.
Since no one wants to harm himself, the death instinct is exerted by harming
others. Freud believed that the battle between Eros and Thanatos, and more
sophisticated ways and technologies to execute things in the modern world,
Thanatos stood a higher chance to win out. He believed that many people had a
sense of despair or felt unhappy in modern life, because in their minds they
were starting to be aware of thus awful truth. Kubrick, by showing these truths
in a visual term, asked us not to be discouraged. He did not offer us a simple
and happy ending to cheer us up, he motivated us to think about these
questions, which would generate self knowledge, which are insights that will
enrich us, and may eventually lead us to have a fundamental change.
What can we learn from ‘Eyes Wide Shut’? For Kubrick, Eros
and desire are not something wrong per se. He disagreed to the fact that ‘true
love’ – or those banal phrases like ‘I love everyone’ - was normal, and as some
humanists would have said, Eros and desire were dirty, obscene or aberrant. If
someone claims that he/she does not have desire, then he/she is either
defective or hypocritical. Yet, Kubrick asked us to contemplate the fact that,
even if Eros is part of human nature, it is an impersonal force and can be
destructive. It is very much like his view on violence, if we cannot get away
from our true nature, we can at least divert it to cause less destruction to
ourselves and others. What we need to do with Eros is to channel and transform
this energy to a more positive direction, that of romantic love or relationship
based on compassion and mutual respect. Then, no matter how banal or mundane
our existences are, it will lead to a road of happiness and fulfillment.
by Ed Law
27/8/2017
Film Analysis
