I have seen Eyes Wide Shut several times and consider it to be a complete failure. Kubricks worst, if you will, which is sad given the sheer talent on offer and the sheer effort put into it. The visuals ARE stunning, but I can't tell you what it is they are trying to say nor understand the motivations of the characters or the actions that result. I just can't get it and, truth be told, I think the title is truly truly awful: contradictory and simpleminded in equal measure that denote little more than a true mess.

I think, for all his sweep and grandeur, Kubrik is one of the few directors who gets true, deep, and immediate intimacy between human beings and I found this wholly absent from EWS. Barry Lyndon is a masterwork in this respect... As is Lolita. But I don't just mean intimacy of a sexual manner, as we fashion the word nowadays, but that intimacy when two or more people are deeply connected, even if they are working against each other. I'm thinking of Paths Of Glory which I think may yet be Kubriks crowning masterpiece (and, yes, I realize what a statement that may be....) where every participle of dialogue contains plot, sub-plot, text and sub-text and we see, blatantly, all of it all at once. It's a marvel to see the generals try to manipulate each other, knowing what they are doing, knowing that they know what they are doing and their fecklessness and their men trying to respond with courage and duty and the utter utter mess that results. It's a near perfect film. A Clockwork Orange, I think, sees this from the other side of that kind of mess, the afterwards, and is as masterful...