Re-releases

Eyes Wide Shut

Sexual desire takes a dangerous turn in Kubrick’s enigmatic swansong, starring Kidman and Cruise.

UK-USA 1999
Dir Stanley Kubrick
With Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollack, Todd Field
159min
Digital
A Park Circus release

The date of this re-release of Eyes Wide Shut isn’t accidental; it’s time to reappraise it as a Kubrickian Christmas movie. Kubrick’s final film, released posthumously, is an incredible display of precision and suspense, featuring a fragile relationship played out by (then) real-life couple Kidman and Cruise. When Alice Harford admits to her husband Bill that she’s having sexual thoughts about another man, it sets off an obsession in him to have an erotic encounter – which leads him into an unforgiving world that he isn’t prepared for. Shot over a mammoth 15-month period, and based on Arthur Schnitzler’s novella Dream Story, Eyes Wide Shut explores the seductive and dangerous sexual underbelly of New York’s elite.

Justin Johnson, Lead Programmer

Also available on BFI Player.

+ Never Just a Dream: Stanley Kubrick and Eyes Wide Shut
UK 2019. Dir Matt Wells. 8min.
A documentary exploring Kubrick’s enigmatic swansong.