Monday, March 25, 2013

The Filming Locations of Eyes Wide Shut

Scouting NY wrote Stanley Kubrick, The Shining, & New York City: The Filming Locations of Eyes Wide Shut. He has shots of the impossible Overlook Hotel from The Shining and then examines Eyes Wide Shut. There's a nice graphic map reconstruction of the set and how Dr. Bill Harford wanders around it. But in the end I have to agree with this:

"But to say that every single incompatible detail was part of some vast but subtle psychological scheme on Kubrick’s part is ridiculous. There’s a difference between very real artistic embellishments, and the constraints of practical studio filmmaking, where space is limited and you do your best to give scope where none exists – whether that’s adding an impossible window, or having Bill pass the same vacant lot three times in one night. As meticulous as he was, even Kubrick overlooked a pizza parlor once in a while."

I'm quite certain that Kubrick was insanely meticulous in the construction of each shot, he got that from his photography beginnings. I'm less convinced he felt that way about the layout of the worlds he created. Though the final battle in Full Metal Jacket is as good as it gets at capturing an accurate sense of space over several blocks. But that was an explicit goal of that one scene, I'm not sure about any other random scene in a film, let alone one about dreams.

Still I'm always down for crazy Kubrick analysis. :)

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