269 – Eyes Wide Shut

This Had Oscar Buzz

Joe and Chris

Tv & Film

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 25 December 2023

⏱️ 175 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Listeners have been asking for this episode for years and today, Santa is bringing it to you! Happy Holidays, it’s time for Eyes Wide Shut! In 1999, the film was hotly anticipated for many reasons: it starred Hollywood’s most famous couple, it was the final film of master of masters Stanley Kubrick, its very long production was hounded by the press, and it promised lots of onscreen sex. Adapted from Arthur Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle, the film cast Tom Cruise as a doctor who goes on an odyssey of sexual obsession after his wife (a haunting Nicole Kidman) confesses to an unrequited sexual fantasy about a stranger. A ritual orgy, Todd Field playing jazz piano, and a flirty Alan Cumming followed, and baffled audiences reacted viciously.

This episode, we discuss the film’s initial negative reaction from audiences and critics alike and its contemporary reassessment. We also talk about its formative place in Kidman’s emphasis on auteurs, how the film unpacks Cruise’s screen persona, and the film’s mystery box marketing.

Topics also include Sidney Pollack barechested in suspenders, the film’s censored orgy, and the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards.

Follow Us on Twitter!@Had_Oscar_BuzzJoe: @joereidChris: @chrisvfeil

Transcript

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0:00.0	Oh, wrong house.
0:02.0	wrong.
0:03.0	The right house.
0:05.0	Oh, wrong house.
0:07.0	Oh, wrong house.
0:12.0	No, the right house. I didn't get nominated.
0:15.0	Mill and Hack.
0:17.0	And Frank and friends. I'm from Canada water.
0:25.0	I'm from Canada water. Dick Poopop.
0:36.0	I have seen one or two things in my life, but never, never anything like this. Maybe it's a bad bad thing.
1:03.0	Maybe it's a bad bad thing.
1:08.0	Hello and welcome to the The Set Oscar Buzz podcast,
1:10.0	The Only Podcast that couldn't have even happened here on Sunday because we're closed on Sundays.
1:16.4	Every week on this had Oscar Buzz, we'll be talking about a different movie that once upon a time
1:19.9	had lofty Academy Award aspirations, but for some reason or another it all went wrong.
1:25.7	The Oscar hopes died and we're here to perform the autopsy. I am your host, Chris File, Merry Christmas, and I am here as always with my horny Hungarian Joe Reed
1:36.7	So horny okay that's a debonair yes, but also the scene with the two of them where they first meet, where he first meets
1:47.2	Nicole Kidman's character.
1:48.9	I'm like, I get that she's also like several shampains into the evening but like it's the most and
1:56.2	I'm pretty sure this is intentional or it's just sort of a sign of like Nicole Kidman breaking down
2:01.9	under Kubrick's, you know, insane, multiple takes or whatever.
2:07.3	Neither one of them are behaving like actual human beings where they're just like she's so like,
	...

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