J.M.Q. Davies

The screenplay for Eyes Wide Shut in this volume seems to exactly correspond to the film as released, which makes me suspect that the text was actually conformed to the final cut of the movie. Of course, since Kubrick was the director, he was in a position to "enforce" the screenplay, but in any case, those curious for unscreened ideas from writers Kubrick and Raphael will be disappointed.

The script is bound with Arthur Schnitzler's novel Dream Story, of which it is in fact a rather show more faithful adaptation, transposing the narrative from its original setting of Vienna in the 1920s to New York City in the 1990s. There is no editorial apparatus or commentary to assist the reader in any contextualization or comparison of these two documents.

Schnitzler's novel has been alternately viewed as an precocious piece of Continental modernism, or as an advanced item of Viennese decadence, and it has features to credit either classification. It is certainly informed by the ideas of Freud, with whom Schnitzler had a significant dialogue. The doctor Fridolin (Bill in Eyes Wide Shut) is furnished with ample realism in the details of his medical practice--easily written by Schnitzler who himself had had a career as a physician before dedicating himself to writing.

Schnitzler's story is more explicit about the protagonist's confused hostility toward his wife, whereas the screenplay does a better job of communicating a pervading atmosphere of menace. The endings of the two versions also strike somewhat different notes, with a greater sense of closure in Schnitzler's original--not necessarily to its credit. The dream element is certainly more significant in Schnitzler, and the Freudian tone is overt in the characters' recurrent trepidation that "no dream is altogether a dream": that the play of fantasy always provides evidence of a self which is masked by waking responsibilities. show less

NOTE: This is a review of the film, rather than of reading of the screenplay itself, and how it differs from Arthur Schnitzler’s novella, Dream Story, which I’ve reviewed in detail HERE.

It was Stanley Kubrick’s final film, in 1999, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, who were still married to each other at the time (though they divorced soon afterwards). See imdb for details here.

The plot closely follows that of Dream Story, but it is a world away in time, place, and atmosphere. show more

The film is set in contemporary NYC, shortly before Christmas (rather than early spring in 1910s Vienna): there is an abundance of colourful lights and lavishly decorated trees in every home, shop, bar, and workplace. On a taxi ride, even ordinary street lights look like chains of festive lights.

Bill is less sympathetic on screen than Fridolin is on the page, and there is friction between him and Alice even before she confesses her fantasy (at his request).

The film is remarkably unerotic, despite plenty of nudity and brief glimpses of group sex.

But the most profound difference is that the film lacks the hypnotic, dreamy, enchanted aura of the book. This is partly because all Bill's adventures are unquestionably real, and hers unquestionably imagined. It lacks the subtle blurring of reality that is so distinctive in the book, though it indirectly acknowledges the possibility in the final scene, when they paraphrase several lines from the book. The realism of Bill’s exploits are partly because you see them on screen (without the visual or musical mist used for Alice’s), and also because there’s a new character, Ziegler, who connects many of the otherwise disjointed people and events.

There is sensual menace, though, at the secret society’s party, which is more of a mystical cult than I pictured from the book. Cold stone interiors, sinister masks, and a total lack of the festive gew-gaws that are ubiquitous in the rest of the film, collude to raise the pulse and seal the fear. show less

I picked this up in a university bookstore while getting books for my own courses that year. Another class was apparently going to study Eyes Wide Shut, so I decided to grab myself a copy for my own reading purposes. Took me a while to get to it, but here we are.

This is definitely a version of the script edited to match the final cut of the film, with each and every cutaway and establishing shot written in, so it is not the best version of the script for writers looking to learn the show more difference from script to screen, but it still works as a nice reference.

Additionally, this volume contains the novel that inspired the film, Dream Story (Traumnovelle) by Arthur Schnitzler. I had never read this story and I always find it fascinating to read the original source material for films, which is what makes this book a great pairing. You get to read through the script, then immediately read the original story on which it was based. I always enjoy seeing what stays the same, what was changed, and seeing if I can understand why those changes were made (often dealing with pacing or story structure).

I have to say, I really enjoyed Schnitzler's novel. It is a fascinating study of the character of husband and wife and how the two are coping with their lives together. show less

Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931) wrote Dream Story (1899). Stanley Kubrick died shortly after making the film Eyes Wide Shut. It features my favorite actress, Nicole Kidman. The movie is based on Schnitzler's book. It's all about repressed sexual apetite and declining moral values in turn of the century Vienna. Here's another good review. Full text of the movie, too. Chris Isaak's "Baby did a bad bad thing" is just part of the movie's soundtrack.

1. show more target="_top">http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/02/23/ornament.html
2. http://www.haro-online.com/movies/eyes_wide_shut.html
3. http://tinyurl.com/9ormn (Chris Isaak "Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing")
4. http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0085.html show less