20 Things You Didn't Know About Eyes Wide Shut

Eyes Wide Shut is based on Traumnovelle, a 1926 novella written by Austrian Arthur Schnitzler, translated in English as Rhapsody: A Dream Story.

The film remained surprisingly faithful: Fridolin, a doctor, is tempted towards infidelity when his wife Albertina describes her sexual fantasies of other men, which leads to old friend Nachtigal and the orgiastic masquerade party. Albertina ultimately forgives him and tells him to 'not worry about the future.'

There was, however, an alternate version of this story in one of Schnitzler's earlier works, Das Weite Land, first written in 1908, a full 17 years before Dream Story. In this recently discovered earlier draft, featured in The Guardian, “He confesses his adventure to her. She chases him away.” Albertina is not so forgiving, reflecting Schnitzler's own disastrous marriage.

"A notorious womaniser in his younger years, Schnitzler later found himself at the receiving end of romantic infidelity. [His wife] Olga’s affair with the composer Wilhelm Gross is said to have been the final straw for an already frail relationship and they separated."

Composer Jocelyn Pook's most recognisable piece will undoubtedly be 'Backwards Priests,' a mesmerising mixture of strings, timpani and vocal chants. These chants are actually recordings of a Romanian Orthodox Divine Liturgy, an Eastern European religious service, with the monastic chants played in reverse and was originally used merely as a reference track on set.

Kubrick liked it so much that he used further Pook material (from her album Deluge) in the final film, including the Tamil inspired Migrations, although the track had to be altered after receiving complaints for its use of Hindu scripture in such a 'profane setting.'

Tales of Kubrick's perfectionism are legendary. There is a thirteen minute sequence in which Bill speaks with friend and wealthy socialite Victor Ziegler (Sydney Pollack) over a billiard table, warning Bill against any further investigation of the Masonic-like orgy.

This took in excess of three weeks to film in a manner satisfactory to Kubrick. It has been suggested that as Pollack was himself a director, he had preconceived ideas of his own which ran counter to Kubrick's, resulting in time wasting disagreements, although given Kubrick's reputation this seems unlikely.

Vincent D'Onofrio, a Kubrick veteran, told Kidman and Cruise to "Rent a house or apartment, because you're going to be in England for a while."

To create the illusion of a marriage in conflict, Cruise and Kidman, married in reality, would be subjected to an extraordinary regime, including an enforced secrecy between the couple, who would normally share notes when working together.

In this case, Kubrick maintained that they share NOTHING with each other, especially the sequence in which Kidman's Alice recounts her sexual fantasies of a naval officer, much to her husband's distress.

During the six day shoot, Kidman was forbidden to discuss anything that went on, thus intentionally creating a degree of mistrust between the two, something which Kubrick believed would spill out into their performance in the film.

Before you rush to check, no, Harrison Ford does not feature in Eyes Wide Shut. Kubrick did, however, originally express an interest in Harrison Ford for the lead role of Bill Harford.

Rejecting the period setting and Austrian language of the source material, Traumnovelle, also meant ditching the character's original name, Fridolin. Instead, he Frankensteined Ford's name, conjoining 'Har' in Harrison and 'Ford,' in, erm, Ford, to make 'Harford.'

Where the 'Bill' came from will perhaps be the least enigmatic aspect of the production as Kubrick simply wanted the most 'vanilla' American name he could think of for the central protagonist.

Asking for an autograph is one thing, asking world famous celebs for ID? That's got to be an awkward, especially when said celeb was one of the most recognisable faces in the world.

When Tom made his way to a Hertfordshire Blockbuster video rental shop in 1998 to hire a movie, he was apparently refused service without the necessary forms of ID required to set up an account. Asking the world's most recognisable movie star for the requisite two forms of ID to watch a film must've been quite an experience. The original BBC news story, with a statement from Blockbuster is still online:

"We always ask for two forms of ID. Our staff member was simply following company sign up procedures."

Good for them.

Stanley Kubrick had a fear of flying, so far, so normal but when you're making a movie set in Manhattan and you live in the UK, problems may occur.

To get around this, Kubrick went as far as recreating the streets of New York with an old movie-making technique: Using background plates of NY projected behind Cruise, the actor then walked on a treadmill, feet out of shot, seen in the sequence in which he is followed by a sinister bald man.

Greenwich Village, NY was also painstakingly reconstructed for additional filming at Pinewood Studios, with Kubrick using accurate measurements taken from the actual Manhattan streets and pavements to complete the illusion.

The voice of the mysterious woman who comes to Harford's rescue at the sinister orgy, possibly played by English actor Abigail Good (more on that controversy to come) was re-dubbed by Australian legend Cate Blanchett, a fact that only came to light in June 2019, via Leon Vitali, an assistant to Kubrick, when speaking with Vulture in June 2019:

"It was Cate Blanchett! We wanted something warm and sensual but that at the same time could be a part of a ritual. Stanley had talked about finding this voice and this quality that we needed. After he’d died, I was looking for someone... She was in England at the time, so she came into Pinewood and recorded the lines."

This idea was the suggestion of Kidman and Cruise, both familiar with Blanchett at the time.

Kubrick's reputation bred intense enthusiasm from Hollywood, so when Eyes Wide Shut was being cast, multiple names would become attached.

As Kubrick wanted to cast a married couple, this narrowed the list considerably. Kim Basinger and then husband Alec Baldwin were apparently Kubrick's favourites with rumours of Johnny Depp or even Woody Allen being discussed. Both Harvey Keitel and Jennifer Jason Leigh filmed scenes but had to be replaced when the production lengthened considerably.

Steve Martin was also considered during early stages of development in the 1970s - EWS was rumoured to have started out as a 'sex comedy.' Carry On Kubrick?

On March 7 1999, the world lost one of the greatest film directors since the invention of modern cinema. To complicate the situation, he had just presented Warner Brothers with his first (and only) cut of the finished film, four or possibly six days (reports vary) before his death from a heart attack.

This led to a debate over the legitimacy of the cut released in 1999; his brother in law Jan Harlan had stated that Kubrick considered it to be his "greatest contribution to the art of cinema," while others, including Garrett Brown, inventor of the Steadicam, have maintained (via Wiki) that they "... don't think there's a chance that was the movie he had in mind."

Rumours that Sydney Pollack, himself also a director, completed the final cut still circulate although as the entire production was so secretive, it's only Kubrick himself who could end this speculation.

R Lee Ermey was a drill sergeant in the US Army, serving in Viet Nam and appearing in Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now before being cast by Kubrick as Sergeant Hartman in 1987s Full Metal Jacket.

On the release of EWS, Ermey weighed in on the film with some controversial opinions, featured in a Radar Magazine interview, via the Guardian:

"Stanley called me about two weeks before he died. We had a long conversation about Eyes Wide Shut. He told me it was a piece of s**t and that he was disgusted with it and that the critics were going to have him for lunch. He said Cruise and Kidman had their way with him - exactly the words he used."

Actor Todd Field (Nick Nightingale) countered in Groucho Reviews:

"The polite thing would be to say 'No comment'. But the truth is that ... you've never seen two actors more completely subservient and prostrate themselves at the feet of a director. Stanley was absolutely thrilled with the film. He was still working on the film when he died. And he probably died because he finally relaxed."

Movie productions tend to last, on average, around three months. Eyes Wide Shut would run for considerably longer, a possibility both Cruise and Kidman were both prepared for, yet nobody could conceivably predict that this shoot would last for more than FOUR HUNDRED DAYS.

The stars signed open ended contracts, essentially a promise to remain on the project no matter what happened. Filming began in November 1996 and did not wrap until June 1998; the exhausted crew, some only contracted for two weeks ended up shooting for two months, with Cruise and Kidman's kids even developing British accents, that's how long a shoot this was.

Eyes Wide Shut now holds the Guinness world record for the longest consecutive movie shoot EVER.

The ubiquitous Venetian mask makes for a great party piece yet its origins have darker connotations within the film. Often associated with sexual promiscuity amongst Venetian nobility, its use was both practical and aesthetic, concealing identity and presenting an impression of tantalising mystery.

Duality and deception are the central themes of the film so, unsurprisingly, Kubrick hand picked every one, who would wear them and which would feature most prominently in the ritualistic orgy, a mirror of the glitzy Christmas shindig that opens the film.

The mask theme continues throughout the movie; there are masks upon the wall of the prostitute Domino's bedroom, Domino is also a name for a specific type of Venetian mask.

With a shoot lasting for more than four hundred days, Kubrick's perfectionism played a large role in the creation of this unique movie. His reputation for an eye-watering amount of takes is legendary and this didn't just extend to the starring couple.

Actor Vinessa Shaw, who played the role of Domino, was contracted for two weeks and ended up shooting for TWO MONTHS - the insanity didn't end there. Cruise was made to walk a doorway over NINETY FIVE TIMES, all for one simple shot.

Kubrick, according to the Guardian, simply looked up from his monitor and said, "Hey, Tom, stick with me, I'll make you a star."

Tom Cruise was easily one of the most bankable stars in the world by 1996; he didn't need to make the Kubrick film, he wanted to do it.

The open ended contracts on the project had both Cruise and Kidman inextricably tied to the film, no matter what. Combine that with the strain and emotional impact of having ones own marriage under intense scrutiny, not only from the public but from the psychoanalysts paid to hold sessions with both the lead stars and Kubrick himself, the results of which have never been made public.

As a result, Cruise developed stomach ulcers from the stress, yet opted to tell Kubrick nothing, fearing it might affect the project.

In the closing act of the movie, Bill, to his horror, finds his Venetian mask has been placed upon his pillow, next to his sleeping wife, Alice.

Who placed it there and why? The obvious answer is Alice, she put it there to show Bill that she knew where he'd been but can it be that simple?

It's possible that it was placed there by the perpetrators of the orgy as a warning but why then didn't Alice mention it? There third option could possibly be that the presence of the mask is entirely in Bill's head - a symbol of his guilty conscience.

The final possibility is that Alice was involved in the orgy; she does describe a nightmare in which she is with multiple men, although this would inconsistently alter the concurrency with the source material.

During the filming of Eyes Wide Shut, reports began circulating of problems with Cruise and Kidman's marriage. It did not help of course that the plot is largely focused on the theme of infidelity and extramarital sex.

The Guardian reported in early 1999 that Cruise and Kidman were suing the US Star Magazine for an article in which it was claimed that the couple had to have sex therapy in order to 'manage' the steamier love scenes Kubrick required of them. Their frustration didn't end there - the Express were also piling on the paper-selling scandals:

"In October (1998) the couple sued and won damages from the Express for having falsely claimed that their marriage was a 'hypocritical sham' undertaken either to conceal their homosexuality or as a business arrangement."

The couple divorced in 2001.

Nudity clauses are very much part of a larger conversation now and rightly so, but this was not always the case. Kidman was understandably concerned, yet was reassured as the production commenced, telling the New York Times in 2020:

"When I went to work with Stanley Kubrick, he was like, I’m going to want full frontal nudity, and I was like, Ahh, I don’t know. So we came up with a great agreement, which was contractual. He would show me the scenes with the nudity before they made it into the film. Then I could feel completely safe... I’d wanted to make sure that it wasn’t going to be me standing there nude and everyone laughing at me. I was protected, so I got to explore a complicated marriage... I would never think of not wanting the storytelling to be told properly. Having them say, “Once you’re OK with it, great, that’s it” — what a fantastic place to be in as a woman."

The mysterious woman who saves Bill's life after he's exposed at the orgy is thought to be Mandy, the very girl who's life he had saved from an overdose in the film's opening high society Christmas party scene.

The girl at the party (who's face is clearly visible) is actress Julienne Davis, however, another actress, Abigail Good, has claimed that it is in fact her body visible at the orgy, face obscured by a mask, as revealed by the Independent in 2011:

"I spent a year working on that movie. I was the one at the wrap. My scenes with Tom were the last Stanley ever shot and I got a credit, as the mysterious woman. Stanley's nephew even signed a photograph of me on the back with the words `To the mysterious woman who was later revealed to be the wonderful Abigail.'"

Davis countered with:

"No, it's all me. Abigail Good was just an extra. And anyway, she's English."

IMDB has them listed as two different characters played by two different actors. Are they then NOT the same person?

Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire, constructed between 1852 and 1854 by the Rothschild banking family, has featured in several Hollywood movies (Batman Begins) and was used as the location of Kubrick's masquerade orgy. Was this purely aesthetic or did it have a deeper hidden significance?

In 1972, the Rothschilds, notorious for out-sizing both governments and monarchies of power and capital, held what would be the socialite party of the century, though not in Mentmore Towers. The Chateau de Ferrières in France, commissioned by Baron James de Rothschild, was "a Mentmore but twice the size."

This Surrealist themed extravaganza, attended by Audrey Hepburn and Salvador Dali, was rumoured to be particularly risqué and possibly the inspiration behind the debauchery featured in EWS.