Spoiler-filled Analysis-
It was only in my last viewing of Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick’s most controversial and polarizing film, at Cinema Rendezvous did I realize what the film-maker was really on about. I believe that Dr. Bill Harford’s journey here captures man’s first encounter with Helen, the second phase of the anima archetype. It is in this phase that man sees women to possess no virtue. Kubrick also addresses sexual incompatibility and the need for communication in a marriage in the film. Additionally, he talks of the necessity for a man to channelize the Warrior/Protector archetype to prevent his woman, his anima projection, from feeling defeminised, and inadvertently him from feeling emasculated, when she compensates by projecting her own animus elsewhere. The film released after Kubrick’s death, giving rise to several conspiracy theories surrounding the nature of his death. One of them suggested that he was killed by cult illuminati.
It was only in my last viewing of Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick’s most controversial and polarizing film, at Cinema Rendezvous did I realize what the film-maker was really on about. I believe that Dr. Bill Harford’s journey here captures man’s first encounter with Helen, the second phase of the anima archetype. It is in this phase that man sees women to possess no virtue. Kubrick also addresses sexual incompatibility and the need for communication in a marriage in the film. Additionally, he talks of the necessity for a man to channelize the Warrior/Protector archetype to prevent his woman, his anima projection, from feeling defeminised, and inadvertently him from feeling emasculated, when she compensates by projecting her own animus elsewhere. The film released after Kubrick’s death, giving rise to several conspiracy theories surrounding the nature of his death. One of them suggested that he was killed by cult illuminati.
I always saw Eyes Wide Shut as a psychosexual thriller that
revolved around Bill’s drive for sexual retribution. While that is partly
true, it is hardly his sole motivation. Re-watching the film multiple times helped
peel off the layers and see that there’s far more to it. I firmly believed that
Eyes Wide Shut pointed to Bill and Alice remaining oblivious to a seemingly
conspicuous distance that had crept in between the two of them. This time
though, I felt it was only Bill who was oblivious to the distance. And the
causes for this estrangement seem to bring him at fault. His inability to
sexually satisfy his wife, his non-possessive nature and his
non-confrontational nature would be three to name. He remains blind to the
effect they have on his wife and their relationship. Eyes Wide Shut might also
point to Bill being blind to the primal, animalistic nature of female
sexuality. But, more on that later.
