With Some Kind of Light in Their Eyes

A lot of people list Eyes Wide Shut as their ironic favourite Christmas movie. Is it really so ironic, though? Like a lot of Christmas movies, it's about family bonds being tested. And it gets at something most Christmas movies lack the courage to--the questionable reality of any feeling of connexion between two human beings.

I guess I've written about this movie enough already. I wrote a long analysis back in 2007. I've certainly read plenty of analyses. In earlier attempts to write about the film, I've focused on Tom Cruise's character, Bill Hartford, as being a kind sexual alien. Yes, maybe he is, but I find him much more sympathetic now, perhaps because I've lost more of my youthful confidence that two people can ever truly know each other. People have impressions, and sometimes we seek to validate the impressions other people have of us because we like them or at the very least don't want them to feel disturbed. That's why Alice (Nicole Kidman) wears her mask. Bill is so innocent he doesn't even realise he wears a mask until a literal mask is put on him and he's forced to take it off.

It's brilliant how the film continually presents new situations that test the boundary between sexual motives and chaste interaction. To establish a doctor as the main character, a man whose profession requires him to examine naked women from time to time, is a perfect choice. Here's a man with complete confidence in how he's compartmentalised his life. He finds that confidence continually undermined as he finds himself put off-balance again and again.

Actually, I only wanted to talk about the Christmas lights to-day. If the movie doesn't make you believe in the true meaning of Christmas, it can at least make you believe in the power of Christmas lights. My goodness, Stanley Kubrick knew what he was doing. All that diffuse, colourful light is simultaneously fantastic and ordinary, sensuous and childish, hedonistic and civilised.

I hope you're enjoying your Christmas or one of the other holidays celebrated on December 25 or 26. Eyes Wide Shut is available on Netflix in Japan (and yes, it's the rated X version).