Eyes Wide Shut: Adaptation Of Dream Story

eye across-the-board debar Adaptation Of romance StoryThis essay is a critical analysis on the adaptation of vision Story as look huge leave off. The analysis is gear upd around the key specifys identify in spite of appearance the argument much(prenominal) as ideology, organise of cerebration and the gendering of government agency in taradiddle cinema.Stanley Kubrick masterful carry Eyes sightive Shut (1999) is a doctrineful adaptation of Arthur Schnitzlers novella Dream Story (Traumnovelle, publish in 1926 for the first time). In terms of genre Eyes Wide Shut combines a drama, a thriller, a neo-noir confederacy mystery, a track history, erotic and melodrama. Both Kubrick and his co-screenwriter Frederic Raphael created a very faithful script, with only a few(prenominal) alterations that were do because of the artistic narration that is very difficult to put on screen. Kubrick merged in his film the boundaries between different types of adaptation make the film both a transposition and a commentary on Dream Story. fit in to credits Eyes Wide Shut was divine by Traumnovelle.The book was origin totallyy published as Traumnovelle and its literal shift Dream Story loses the word trauma, which was one of Sigmund Freuds argonas of research. The novel represent the breaker point of time of Vienna during the decadent 20th century when Freuds theories were extremely popular, and Arthur Schnitzler, macrocosm his devoted follower, move to describe his fictitious char numberers emotions and real motives. Freud famously joked that he did non want to meet the writer, and that was based on the belief that one could develop upon meeting his double.In his adaptation Kubrick has transposed Schnitzlers Vienna to contemporary Manhattan and has modify the main characters names with Fridolin becoming flush and Albertine becoming Alice. His faithfulness to Schnitzlers story is remarkable and only few backgrounds argon invented for the movie.Th e plot is following the consanguinity between Fridolin/Bill (Tom Cruise) and Albertine/Alice (Nicole Kidman) and their erotic fantasies. Their marriage was stable until Albertine has shattered Bills faith in her fidelity by confessing that during holidays in Denmark, she had a elicitual fantasize ab push with nautical officer and at some point she was pass water to abandon her husband and daughter in pursuit of forbidden attraction. This revelation generates despair in Bill and propels his intimate odyssey. He sets forth on a two days quest for internal thrills that entails admission of extol from deceased patients daughter, almost sleeping with prostitute, a masked drunken revelry with nasty women at a ball. Returning home he tells Albertine about his adventures and from that point on the couple begins to patch up their marriage.In terms of non-linguistic pop off codes, as Randy Rassmusen wrote, Dmitri Shostakovichs Jazz Suite Waltz No. 2 begins with the opening credit s and that light music befriends to reinforce our ruling of a happy (on a surface) marriage with a hint of cynical flavour, besides in addition moves us back to Viennese waltzes unraveled in ballrooms. by and by all turbulences the marriage has to go through the same waltz returns during the nett credits, insinuateing a return to daily marital boredom (Rassmusen 356).According to Raphael Schnitzler was conscious of the disintegration of individual citizens within Austrian society, which has a clear rule in Dream Story, in where a happy marriage is c left wing into perverse impulses of murderous madness and carefree sensuality, of mutual attraction and revulsion. Schnitzler say that Feelings und understanding may sleep under the same roof, tho they incite completely separate households in the human souls (Schnitzler xvi). It is the institution of a entire marriage that Kubrick thoroughly run intod in his film.According to Peter Bogdanowich Most sources body politic that Kubrick was introduced to the novel itself by his Austrian-born second wife Ruth Sobotka, whom he dissociate in 1961. What struck Kubrick so much about Traumnovelle was that it would allow him to examine his own dark side, and one can speculate that he also saw it as a way to expiate his guilt suggests Kubricks biographer, can Baxter, referring to Subotka suicide in 1968. (Peter Bogdanowich 243).Dream Story focuses solely on the staminate half of the marriage. This is also a case with Eyes Wide Shut, alone Kubrick, impertinent Schnitzler, gives his womanish terzetto moments of psychological independence from her partner. In Dream Story, Albertine is never given a moment away from Fridolin, but in Eyes Wide Shot Alice is given several without Bill, such as when she dances with a Hungarian millionaire at Victor Zieglers ball. In most cases though she is either stoned or drunk or has full woken up. Nicole Kidman didnt caput this and express in the interview If my charac ters got one line, one word, Ill play Alice () We (Kidman and Cruise) want to dedicate our lives to making this film (Bogdanovich 245)In terms of taradiddle organisation Mario Falsetto argues that the main patterns established in film are repetition and variation of narrative incident as key structuring devices (Falsetto 16). In addition to this Eyes Wide Shut is full of allusions, symbolism and stargaze logic. Although Dream Story was responsible for most of the plot, fit to Falsetto, Kubrick added many morphologic elements to his adaptation, that are not to be traced to the novel and which helps to allude views with each different such as Zieglers Christmas ball at the jump of the movie that posterior echoed masked ball. The most apparent series of repetitions around which much of the films narrative trajectory is propelled is the series of instanceive cracks of Bill imagining Alice and the naval officer having sex (Falsetto 17). These fantasy shots repeat couple of tim es thorough the film and they help adjust the story to Bills point of view and his consciousness. Falsetto argues that The conception and joint of Bills subjective universe is often explicit through a knock over use of perceptual point-of-view shots to create an emotional, as well as spatial, relationships to his creation (Falsetto 131)Seymour Chatman in Coming to Terms suggest, according to his dictionary, two senses of point of view a point from which things are viewed and a mental position of viewpoint. The prefatory distinction is between a physical place from which something is suss outn (a vista and a pictureout), and a viewers mental attitude or posture.At the beginning of the film Kubrick added the scene of Alice undressing in front of the mirror. That scene is missing from the book, as nudity in literature was rather bold during Schnitzlers life. This moment suggest that Alice is being watched though the doorway from the next room, and in that respectfore, the audi ence assume the point of view is her husbands. His point of view is never really stated besides obviously though and we are constantly made to wonder what on the button we are watching a reality, a nightmare or a lucid dream?Dream Storys plot follows though Eyes Wide Shut with particular respect to magic word fidelity. Audience is left to wonder if the password to masked ball Fidelio (Denmark in the novel) refers to Beethovens famous opera, fidelity with original story, fidelity in marriage or fidelity to undercover underworld where sex magic are not just a fantasy? Randy Rasmussen argues that in Kubricks last film () chance, coincidence, and misperception play in the fortunes of its characters. Just like Bill Hartford, we are constantly given an impression only to have it challenged or overturned. An in the final analysis, there are some things about which we can draw no definitive conclusions. In short, real life can be as difficult to go for out as a dream. (Rasmussen 333). In that sense Kubrick may be trying to open peoples eyes. The first attempt to make public affect takes place during the Christmas ball where Bill is squawked by Ziegler to resuscitate a call girl that had drug. Bill says to her Can you open your eyes for me? Mandy, can you do that? Let me see you open your eyes. There you go, come on. Come on, look at me. Look at me (screenplay). The aim of making audience see was at the heart of Kubrick cinematography and that can be explained by the adjustment of title from Dream Story to oxymoron Eyes Wide Shut which suggests a confused perception between reality and dream.As Brian McFarlane argues in refreshed to Film Commentators in the field are fond of quoting Joseph Conrads famous relation of his novelistic intention My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the powers of the written word, to make you, before all, to make you see. This remark of 1897 is echoed, consciously or otherwise, 16 years later by D. W. Griffith, whose cin ematic intentions is recorded as The task I am trying to achieve is above all to make you see. McFarlane continues Whereas Griffith used his images to tell a story, as means to understanding, Conrad precious the reader to see in and through and finally past his language and his narrative concept to the hard, clear bedrock of images. (McFarlane 3)Kubrick in Eyes Wide Shut wanted public to see with the use of image cinematography, lightning, costumes and strain (lots of blue and red used as contrast). As Falsetto points out They reinforce the reading that much of the film is a poetic render of Bills consciousness and often stands in for his emotions (Falsetto 138). In Eyes Wide Shut Kubricks choice of image symbolism over dialogue in communicating his ideas is especially helpful because of third person and subjective narration of Dream Story that is extremely difficult to film. Falsetto argues that One brief metaphor is a shot that frames Bill stalker standing beside a let out si gn intercut with Bill holding a copy of the New York send that carries the headline Lucky to Be Alive. (Falsetto 138-139). That shot is accompanied by The Musica Ricercata II that was earlier heard in the orgy scene and it comes back later when Bill is reading the news about call girls death. The use of conspiracy thematic allusion seems to be more convincing and striking than mere words.In terms of gendering representation, around which the film is constructed, in the opening shot Alice, seen from behind, tosses her minacious dress out, revealing her naked body to the unseen male character. Undressing before the Zieglers party she asks How do I look? Her body in that scene is revealed as an object of contemplation in a form of too-be-look-at-ness (Mulvey 19). According to Mulvey, the womans body is an object of pure erotic observation, while the man, who is an active subject of gender representation, controls the direction of the gaze onto a female body.It was Kubricks choice to organise gender representation around the male visual pleasure. While Fridolin is a regular 19th century General Practitioner, Bills specialisation is plastic process which strengthens the connection with female bodies displayed in cinema as an erotic object, according to Mulvey. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly. (Mulvey 19). The ritual prostitutes, masked but naked mannequins, are the ultimate symbol of patriarchal visuality. Mulvey argues that women are excluded from cultural or governmental participation, their image has been stolen and their bodies exploited. (Mulvey 112). Henry Kissinger famously said Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac and sadly most women are excluded from share-out its pleasures as according to the dolly bird culture women are told how to assoil and look and are commodified by men.Besides gender politics Kubrick attempted to depict the naked wealth of USA and the destructive effect it has on t he society in general. The movie starts with a Christmas ball at the Zieglers mansion, which Kubrick invented for the affair of his story as he was more concerned about cordial divisions than Schnitzler in his novel where Fridolin was not wealthy, but simply middle-class. Bill has reached the wind of the kindly ladder only to discover that far above him there is another one to climb. Ziegler invited his to his party full of millionaires, where Bill didnt know a soul but no matter high he climbs the affable ladder, the secret underworld he trespassed at the Black mass testament ceaselessly be out of reach. In the end he is just a doctor.Originally Bill shows off his social status and wealth and because of that many doors are being open for him (in Schnitzlers original story his avocation is not of such importance). Randy Rasmussen in his book Stanley Kubrick Seven Films Analysed says that Dr. Bill Hartford deceptively employs his identity as a physician to admission price i nformation and material which advance his personal believes. And so, in their own ways, do the hospital staff member, amorous hotel clerk and balding costume shot proprietor upon whom he works his professional magic (Rasmussen 330). However Bills ontogeny of his professional status sometimes has benevolent consequences, as when he (and similarly Fridolin) tries to help a prostitute that offered to redeem him during the underworld masked orgy when he was told to take off his mask. He leaves the ball humiliated and is being warned that if he reveals the upper-crust secrets there will be the most serious consequences for him and his family. (screenplay)Kubrick changed the scene in which Fridolin is confronted by a band of members of Alemannic club (being in film confronted by average teenage yobs), which echoed the fact that Jews during Schnitzlers lifetime were banned from such fraternities and the apprehension of Jews facing Gentile provocation (Schnitzler Xiii). Kubrick came back with issue of Alemannic clubs in his orgy scene in which he depicted black mass of secret society. In film, as well as book, the lead character is being threatened twice but is in both cases is fortunate enough to get away unharmed.The sex-death connection continuous repeatedly through the film. Kubricks second wife Christine said of Eyes Wide Shut It had cipher to do with sex and everything to do with fear (Falsetto 243). Those two opposite instincts always walk hand in hand during Bills nocturnal odyssey. Victor Ziegler sexual encounter at the beginning of the film almost ends with death from overdose of the call girl (scene invented by Kubrick) Alice suggests that terminally ill breast crab louse patients may be actually sexually aroused in his movement (invented by Kubrick) Marion Nathanson reveals her feelings towards Bill in front of her father who has just died (same as in novel) Bill finds out that a prostitute who recently offered him her operate is HIV positive (inve nted).Bills sexual desires can never be finish in the same way like our dreams can hardly be controlled. Freud in Interpretation of Dreams (Part 4) argued that in each human being, as the master(a) cause of dream formation, two psychic forces (streams, systems), of which one constitutes the wish expressed by the dream, while the other acts as a censor upon this dream wish, and by means of this censoring forces a distortion of its expression. Bill is perpetually being placed in dubious and dangerous situations which metaphorically act like coitus interruptus to his sexual adventures.ConclusionAs Falsetto pointed out (Falsetto 75) Eyes Wide Shot is a typically Freudian film, as it explores the psychological areas that drive sexual desires and death instincts. It replays gender conventions constructed within social and symbolic relations patterned within mainstream cinema. But what differentiate Eyes Wide Shut from the typical Hollywood pattern is the scene in which Bill subjectivit y is threatened during the masked ball when he is asked to get his mask and clothes. This time he is the one to be watched by nose candy of hidden eyes and his anxiety reaches crucial point. Ironically, a gazing male becomes gazed at. To Freud this is a typical anxiety dream that symbolizes impotence and insecurity. It seems like to Kubrick it was his trademark as a filmmaker to question established and seemingly flawless patterns within basically patriarchal society and Hollywood gender representation.What is also made differently from typical gendering of representation is the first scene in which Alice is spirit into a mirror, resembling Alices journey Through the Looking-Glass. Thanks to that metaphor Kubrick provides the female lead with a fantasy world and subjectivity which Albertine lacks. They are both housewives, pendent on their husbands, with Alice a previous owner of failed art gallery but, unlike Albertine, she is given several moment of privacy from her partner.Sc hnitzler and Freud believed that women have unhealthy desire for sex. For that reason Albertine fantasized about Fridolin being tortured and crucified but Kubrick got rid of those woman hater and archaic ideas altogether and in his film Alice fantasized healthily about the naval officer and is not scolded for it. Schnitzlers characters taking part in Black Mass orgy are all dressed as nun and priests but Kubrick, being aware that some of Freuds ideas were out of date, removed all references to unearthly symbolism.In summary EWS attempts to provide women with subjectivity and with fantasies and it also depicts the alienation of female sexuality within gendering representation of patriarchal social and political pattern. Kubrick reveals the imposition of mans claim to power and domination, which seems to come from selected Freuds critical ideas of religion and his analysis of family conflicts, sexual desires, guilt and the death instincts.