Eyes Wide Shut, and pub

[ciphergoth]

First off, come to the pub tonight!

Second, I watched Eyes Wide Shut on C5 last night. What was that all about then?

Lots of impressive but meaningless imagery, very very slow plot development, rather irritating incidental music and an inconclusive conclusion. I saw lots of sex-related imagery, but if there was a sexual morality fable in there, a warning against "empty, meaningless sex" or otherwise, then it passed me by. To me, it was a warning that if you gatecrash a party and someone warns you to get away before they kill you, do as they say. Also a warning against telling people you don't know very well about things you've been paid to keep secret; or against working for organisations that have people killed in the first place.

At one point, taxis refuse to pick him up because he's crossed the Bad Guys. What did they do, send a fax to every taxi driver in New York saying "don't pick this guy up, photo attached, signed the Bad Guys"? Or did they write "don't pick me up" on Tom Cruise's forehead while he slept, in a special ink that only taxi drivers can see?

I think EWS doesn't work for me because it depends on the audience imagining that sex parties are the most forbidden and secret thing there could ever be. I'd like to wave a little flag at this point and say that, in common with many of you reading this of course, I go to sex parties quite often, they're generally jolly good fun, and people hardly ever get murdered! After watching EWS, I wanted to write that on banners and hang them out the window.

Though it did make me wonder if an opening ceremony at a sex party might be a cool thing. Unfortunately that would require people turning up on time...

Comments

Typical American screen-writing problem

[pavlos.livejournal.com]

I briefly contemplated watching the film because I though it might be erotic or sex-positive, but quickly decided it would be as you describe. Casting Cruise and Kidman added to these fears, nor did the publicity around it.

The problem you describe seems to be a widespread problem with American screenplays. It goes like this:

• Characters undertake morally questioned activity (public sex, unusual relationships, raising dinosaurs).
• Characters are fall victims to straightforward criminal agression unrelated to the above.
• Everyone concludes that the original activity is disastrous.

Eh? Eh again! What sort of society thinks that way? It could only be a stupid one that's based on fear. Now wait a minute...

Pavlos

Re: Typical American screen-writing problem

[selectnone.livejournal.com]

You have a point. It's not dinosaur safari parks that are the problem, it's the people willing to sabotage them and cause dinosaur death rampages.