I just watched Eyes Wide Shut for what feels like the first time. I have seen it before, but I forgot most of it.
Considering what I bring to the viewing experience, in this moment in time, I myself something of a spooky figure, the movie was a fun and weird experience, almost Zen in its pacing and soundtrack.
The movie is supposed to be scary, thrilling, and erotic. I found it to be the latter two and not the first. But of course, I’m desensitized by the internet like so many around my age. When the film came out at the end of the 90s. Nobody had heard of Epstein Island, Qanon, or the rest of it. Nevertheless, the movie goes deep down the rabbit hole of
Secret Societies,
sex orgies,
and the invisible and overwhelming power of Old and Ancient money.
I found the movie hypnotic. The atmosphere of the film is spot on. It looks real and dreamy at the same time. Others have noted the dream-like elements of the movie. In fact, the movie was based on a novella called, Dream Story. But I find it boring and tiring to say this and that sequence of the film was a dream sequence.
Ultimately, the director, the renowned Stanley Kubrick, intended the movie to be seen as real, surreal, definitely surreal, but ultimately real. The surreal elements are perfect when you consider the main character played by Tom Cruise, Dr. Bill Harford. He is like a kid in a candy store, he’s new to the world of elite sex parties. And perhaps the dreamy tones of the film are parallel to his own experience of the unfolding reality. Half the movie, the guy is so horned up, he is willing to zip around New York to get a costume and get up to Westchester, Nassau, or some other elite area code outside Manhattan just to get laid.
Kubrick died before finishing his cut of the picture. So, the final product is suspect on that regard, and his premature death has served as fodder for conspiracy lovers for years. The movie was ahead of its time.
And it makes you wonder what kind of hi-jinks and rituals the elites are up to right now. Surely, they’ve elevated their quasi-religious and sexual rituals to another level by this point?
In fact, I hear there are plenty of orgy parties happening in San Francisco right now. Many hosted by the tech illuminati. But also, plenty hosted and attended by more rank-and-file San Franciscans, you know, software engineers, HR managers, and attractive women in marketing and legal. It seems luxury experiences of the elites, much like luxury goods and services, have a way of seeping down from the top of the tree to the bottom like sap. Eventually, the common people get to enjoy the elite goodies, but only once they’ve moved on to other things, more avant garde, more esoteric, more weird-er-er. Elite Chauffeurs became Uber, Elite Travel became Airbnb, Elite Sex became ???
You get the idea? I’m sure you do. Because you’re smart. But I’ll spell it out for my own edification. Silicon Valley loves to repackage goods and services of the Super-Rich for the masses. And I personally think it’s a good business strategy. And one which has worked throughout time, and across regions and industries.
So, my question is, when are we getting Uber for Orgies?
A rare movie takes you down a primrose path to a place called Eyes Wide Open
all the more intriguing,
for a movie called
Eyes Wide Shut
