The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, December 9-15
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Despite Kubrick’s acclaim, an insufficient amount of attention has been paid to his sociological attitudes. Some settle with calling him misanthropic, while others complicate the label, but relationships among people in different social spheres are a key motif of Kubrick’s work and at least as interesting as his attitude toward his characters. Nowhere is this clearer than in Eyes Wide Shut, which deploys an “Introducing Sociology” textbook prominently in the frame during an early scene. In the film, Kubrick explores the connection (or lack thereof) among culture, wealth, and morality in a discreet and non-polemical manner. Potentially straightforward readings are disrupted by contradictions in parallel plots, resulting in a film that creates a world rather than proves a thesis. All of this, of course, is accompanied by the director’s characteristically exquisite mise-en-scène. Forrest Cardamenis (Deceber 11, 12, midnight at the Nitehawk)