My contribution to the thread on EWS.  I have posted this
message somewhere else too.  Sorry for the repeat.

        What struck me more than anything about EWS (besides the
almost empty theater in a suburban Connecticut town at 6:30 PM on a
week day) is the fact that watching *Eyes* was like watching a sample
of Italian cinema des auteurs between 1950-1972.  And a bit of Godard.
        More specifically:
        The relationship between Bill&Alice is Antonioni's trade mark
*incomunicabilità* (from 1950's *Cronaca di un Amore* to 1964's
*Deserto Rosso*) both at the level of form and content.  The
excruciatingly slow filming pace.   Alice's pot induced confession
utilizes an editing style where the two are never together in the
same frame.   However, she cannot top Monica Vitti.  More Antonioni,
from the Swinging London 1966's *Blow-Up,* with the mystery motif and
choice of colors.  Verging on Dario Argento too.
        *Bertolucci's 1970's *Il Conformista* in terms of musical
soundtrack, camerawork, and mise-en-scène as well as 1972's *Ultimo
Tango a Parigi* (the interior sex sequences between Bill&Alice).
        Visconti's 1969's *La Caduta degli Dei* (the meticulous
mise-en-scène of the orgy sequence) and a touch of 1960s Fellini's
surrealism.
        Godard references: Alice's recounting of her sexual dream and
Corinne's tale in *Weekend,* though in *Eyes* the extradiegetic sound
does not cover the words she utters, making the entire story a lot
less interesting.   The use of a number of situations that do not
advance the plot at all (the costume rental sequences, the daughter
of the dead patient, the prostitute en fourrure) but to which the
film returns a second time.
        About Victor's lengthy explanation to Bill in the billiard
room sequence: the relationship between restricted and unrestricted
narration was problematic.  The viewer would know how certain events
would unfold 5 minutes before the character did (Bill).  Victor
explains to Bill things that were already obvious to the spectator.
I imagined that there would be a sudden twist at the end of that
speech, to surprise the viewer who thought s/he had it all figured
out.  But no!
        Bill seems to stumble upon situations -- such as the
discovery of the "hooker" (Victor's dismissive word)'s identity with
a great degree of naiveté.  This becomes quite interesting in the
scenes with the homophobic Yale students and in the exchange at the
hotel.  Interesting because of the extradiegetic value of the
homosexual subtext vis-a-vis Tom Cruise.
        FYI, the Venice Film festival will open with *Eyes Wide Shut*
on 1 September in its original (not censored for the US market)
version.

        Gloria Monti

______________________________

gloria monti
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://pantheon.cis.yale.edu/~godard/index.html

When you make movies respectable, you kill them.
        Pauline Kael

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