Eyes Wide Shut#Studio censorship and classification

Dr. William "Bill" Harford and his wife Alice live in New York City with their daughter, Helena. At a Christmas party hosted by Bill's patient, Victor Ziegler, Bill reconnects with his former medical school classmate, Nick Nightingale, now a professional pianist. Meanwhile, an older Hungarian guest attempts to seduce Alice, while two young models try to seduce Bill. Victor interrupts Bill's flirtation to handle an emergency involving Mandy, a young woman who overdosed during sex with him. Bill helps stabilize Mandy.

The following night, Bill and Alice smoke weed and discuss their unfulfilled desires. Bill dismisses the idea of Alice being unfaithful, believing women to be naturally loyal. However, Alice shocks him by confessing to fantasizing about a naval officer she observed while on vacation, even considering leaving Bill and Helena for him. Disturbed, Bill is called to a patient's home, where the patient’s daughter, Marion, confesses her love and tries to seduce him. Bill resists and leaves.

Wandering the city, Bill meets a prostitute named Domino. Before anything happens, Alice calls, prompting Bill to leave after paying Domino without proceeding further. Later, Bill encounters Nick at a jazz club. Nick describes masked orgy of a secret society at a mansion outside the city, where he will play piano blindfolded, and reveals the password to gain entry. Intrigued, Bill visits a costume store, formerly owned by one of his patients but now run by Mr. Milich, to rent an outfit. During the visit, Milich discovers his teenage daughter with two older men and locks them in a room, threatening to call the police.

Bill arrives at the mansion, provides the password, and witnesses a bizarre sexual ritual. A masked woman warns him that he is in danger. He is taken to a gathering where the master of ceremonies demands a second password, Bill is then exposed as an outsider. The masked woman intervenes, offering herself to save him. Bill is let go with a stern warning to remain silent.

Shaken, Bill returns home to find Alice laughing in her sleep. She tearfully recounts a dream of having sex with the naval officer and many other men while mocking Bill. The next day, Bill visits Nick’s hotel, but the clerk claims Nick was taken away by two threatening men. Returning the costume, Bill notices the mask is missing and learns that Milich now profits from prostituting his daughter, offering her services to Bill.

Consumed by jealousy and doubt, Bill revisits the mansion but receives an envelope warning him to stay away. That evening, he tries calling Marion but hangs up when her fiancé answers. He then visits Domino's apartment, only to find her roommate, Sally, who informs him that Domino has tested HIV-positive.

As Bill leaves, a mysterious figure follows him. Later, at the morgue, he identifies Mandy as the masked woman from the orgy after reading about her death from an overdose. Victor summons Bill and admits to being at the orgy. He explains that there was no second password and that Bill’s exposure was deliberate. Victor insists the secret society only seeks to intimidate him into silence but warns they are dangerous. He claims Nick has returned safely to Seattle and attributes Mandy's death to her drug addiction, dismissing foul play.

Returning home, Bill finds the missing mask placed on his pillow. Breaking down in tears, he confesses everything to Alice. The next day, the couple takes Helena shopping for Christmas. Bill apologizes to Alice, who suggests they take action to repair their relationship. When he asks what she means, Alice responds with a single word: "Fuck."

{{Cast listing|

• Tom Cruise as Dr. William "Bill" Harford
• Nicole Kidman as Alice Harford
• Sydney Pollack as Victor Ziegler
• Marie Richardson as Marion Nathanson
• Rade Šerbedžija as Mr. Milich
• Todd Field as Nick Nightingale
• Vinessa Shaw as Domino
• Alan Cumming as hotel desk clerk
• Sky du Mont as Sandor Szavost
• Fay Masterson as Sally
• Leelee Sobieski as Milich's daughter
• Thomas Gibson as Carl Thomas
• Madison Eginton as Helena Harford
• Julienne Davis as Mandy Curran
• Gary Goba as naval officer
• Abigail Good as mysterious woman
• Cate Blanchett as mysterious woman's voice (uncredited)
• Leon Vitali as Red Cloak

}}

Eyes Wide Shut was developed after Stanley Kubrick read Arthur Schnitzler's Dream Story in 1968, when Kubrick was looking for a project to follow 2001: A Space Odyssey.{{Cite web |last=Hobbs |first=Thomas |date=17 July 2024 |title=Eyes Wide Shut: The remarkable afterlife of a notorious 1990s misfire |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240716-eyes-wide-shut-the-remarkable-afterlife-of-a-notorious-1990s-flop |access-date=18 July 2024 |website=BBC}} Kubrick was interested in adapting the story, and with the help of journalist Jay Cocks, bought the filming rights to the novel.{{cite magazine|url=https://time.com/archive/6735812/cinema-all-eyes-on-them/|title=Cinema: All Eyes On Them|author-link=Richard Schickel |last=Schickel |first=Richard |date=July 5, 1999|magazine=Time|access-date=February 18, 2018|archive-date=November 7, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241107014246/https://time.com/archive/6735812/cinema-all-eyes-on-them/|url-status=live}} For the following decade, Kubrick considered making the Dream Story adaptation a sex comedy "with a wild and somber streak running through it", starring Steve Martin or Woody Allen in the main role.{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/eyes-wide-shut-woody-allen-bill-murray-stanley-kubrick-tom-cruise-dream-story-a9664411.html |title=Stanley Kubrick wanted Woody Allen or Bill Murray for Eyes Wide Shut role instead of Tom Cruise, new book reveals |last=White |first=Adam |work=The Independent |date=August 11, 2020 |access-date=May 8, 2021 |archive-date=June 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210627132320/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/eyes-wide-shut-woody-allen-bill-murray-stanley-kubrick-tom-cruise-dream-story-a9664411.html |url-status=live}}{{cite magazine|first=Michael |last=Herr |author-link=Michael Herr |url=http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/classic/features/kubrick-199908 |magazine=Vanity Fair |date=August 1999 |title=Kubrick |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120629212013/http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/classic/features/kubrick-199908.print |archive-date=June 29, 2012 |url-status=live}} Kubrick also considered Tom Hanks, Bill Murray, Dustin Hoffman, Warren Beatty, Albert Brooks, Alan Alda and Sam Shepard for the lead in the 1980s.{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/eyes-wide-shut-woody-allen-bill-murray-stanley-kubrick-tom-cruise-dream-story-a9664411.html | title=Woody Allen nearly starred in Eyes Wide Shut instead of Tom Cruise, new book reveals | work=The Independent | date=August 11, 2020}} The project was revived in 1994 when Kubrick hired Frederic Raphael to work on the script, updating the setting from early 20th-century Vienna to late 20th-century New York City.{{cite magazine|last=Raphael |first=Frederic |author-link=Frederic Raphael |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/frederic-raphael-reflects-writing-eyes-wide-shut-with-stanley-kubrick |title="This is confidential material. Where did you get it?" Frederic Raphael looks back at Eyes Wide Shut |date=November 22, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191114205728/https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/frederic-raphael-reflects-writing-eyes-wide-shut-with-stanley-kubrick |archive-date=November 14, 2019 |magazine=Sight & Sound |url-status=live}} Kubrick invited his friend Michael Herr, who helped write Full Metal Jacket, to make revisions, but Herr declined for fear he would be underpaid and have to commit to a long production.

Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 novella Dream Story is set around Vienna after the turn of the century. The main characters are a couple named Fridolin and Albertina. The couple's home is a typical suburban middle-class home. Like the protagonist of the novel, Schnitzler was Jewish, lived in Vienna, and was a doctor, although he left medicine to write.

Kubrick frequently removed references to the Jewishness of characters in the novels he adapted.{{harvnb|Cocks|2004|p=29}} In Eyes Wide Shut, Frederic Raphael, who is Jewish, wanted to keep the Jewish background of the protagonists, but Kubrick disagreed and removed details that would identify characters as Jewish. Kubrick determined Bill should be a "Harrison Ford-ish goy" and created the surname of Harford as an allusion to the actor.{{sfn|Raphael|2000|p=59}} In the film, Bill is taunted with homophobic slurs. In the novella, the taunters are members of an anti-Semitic college fraternity.{{harvtxt|Loewenberg|2006|pp=255–279}} In an introduction to a Penguin Classics edition of Dream Story, Raphael wrote that "Fridolin is not declared to be a Jew, but his feelings of cowardice, for failing to challenge his aggressor, echo the uneasiness of Austrian Jews in the face of Gentile provocation."{{cite book |title=Dream Story |last1=Schnitzler |first1=Arthur |last2=Fredric |first2=Raphael |year=1999 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-118224-7 |page=xiii}}

The novella is set during the Carnival, when people often wear masks to parties. The party that both husband and wife attend at the opening of the story is a Carnival Masquerade ball, whereas the film's story begins at Christmas time.

In the novella, the party (which is sparsely attended) uses "Denmark" as the password for entrance; that is significant in that Albertina had her infatuation with her soldier in Denmark; the film's password is "Fidelio". In early drafts of the screenplay, the password was "Fidelio Rainbow". Jonathan Rosenbaum noted that both passwords echo elements of one member of the couple's behavior, though in opposite ways.{{harvtxt|Rosenbaum|2006|pp=245–254}} The party in the novella consists mostly of nude ballroom dancing.

In the novella, the woman who "redeems" Fridolin at the party, saving him from punishment, is costumed as a nun, and most of the characters at the party are dressed as nuns or monks; Fridolin himself used a monk costume. This aspect was retained in the film's original screenplay,{{cite web |url=http://www.godamongdirectors.com/scripts/eyeswshu.htm |title=Eyes Wide Shut original screenplay |first1=Stanley |last1=Kubrick |first2=Frederic |last2=Raphael |via=Godamongdirectors.com |access-date=August 22, 2014 |archive-date=January 7, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107074154/http://www.godamongdirectors.com/scripts/eyeswshu.htm |url-status=live}} but was deleted in the filmed version.

The novella makes it clear that Fridolin at this point hates Albertina more than ever, thinking they are now lying together "like mortal enemies". It has been argued{{By whom|date=March 2023}} that the dramatic climax of the novella is actually Albertina's dream, and the film has shifted the focus to Bill's visit to the secret society's orgy, whose content is more shocking in the film.{{cite web |url=http://www.clas.ufl.edu/ipsa/2003/Greenwich%20conference.html |first=Rainer J. |last=Kaus |title=Notes on Arthur Schnitzler's Dream Novella and Stanley Kubrick's film Eyes Wide Shut |via=Clas.ufl.edu |access-date=August 22, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140902030345/http://www.clas.ufl.edu/ipsa/2003/Greenwich%20conference.html |archive-date=September 2, 2014 |url-status=dead}}

The adaptation created a character with no counterpart in the novella: Ziegler, who represents both the elevated wealth and prestige to which Bill Harford aspires, and a connection between Bill's two worlds (his regular life, and the secret society organizing the ball).{{sfn|Chion|2002|p=21}} Critic Randy Rasmussen interprets Ziegler as representing Bill's worst self, much as in other Kubrick films; the title character in Dr. Strangelove represents the worst of the American national security establishment, Charles Grady represents the worst of Jack Torrance in The Shining, and Clare Quilty represents the worst of Humbert Humbert in Lolita.{{Harvnb|Rasmussen|2005 |p= 332}}

More significantly, in the film, Ziegler gives a commentary on the whole story to Bill, including an explanation that the party incident, where Bill is apprehended, threatened, and ultimately redeemed by the woman's sacrifice, was staged. Whether this is to be believed or not, it is an exposition of Ziegler's view of the ways of the world as a member of the power elite.{{sfn|Cocks|2004|p=146}}

When Warner Bros. president Terry Semel approved production in 1995, he asked Kubrick to cast a movie star as "you haven't done that since Jack Nicholson [in The Shining]". Kubrick considered casting Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger as Bill and Alice Harford.{{Cite book|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=1SqXAAAAQBAJ&q=%22EYES+WIDE+SHUT%22+and+%22alec+baldwin%22&pg=PA82|title = Casting Might-Have-Beens: A Film by Film Directory of Actors Considered for Roles Given to Others|isbn = 9781476609768|last1 = Mell|first1 = Eila|date = 24 January 2015| publisher=McFarland |access-date = June 25, 2021|archive-date = June 25, 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210625045908/https://books.google.com/books?id=1SqXAAAAQBAJ&q=%22EYES+WIDE+SHUT%22+and+%22alec+baldwin%22&pg=PA82|url-status = live}}{{Cite web|url = https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/60365/20-eye-opening-facts-about-eyes-wide-shut|title = 20 Eye-Opening Facts About Eyes Wide Shut|date = 16 July 2019|website=Mental Floss|access-date = June 23, 2021|archive-date = June 24, 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210624210903/https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/60365/20-eye-opening-facts-about-eyes-wide-shut|url-status = live}} Cruise was in England because his wife Nicole Kidman was there filming The Portrait of a Lady (1996), and the pair eventually decided to visit Kubrick's estate.{{cite news|access-date=September 3, 2019|title=Eyes Wide Shut: 20 years on, Stanley Kubrick's most notorious film is still shrouded in mystery|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/eyes-wide-shut-stanley-kubrick-tom-cruise-nicole-kidman-marriage-film-plot-a9083926.html|date=September 1, 2019|work=The Independent|archive-date=March 4, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304035044/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/eyes-wide-shut-stanley-kubrick-tom-cruise-nicole-kidman-marriage-film-plot-a9083926.html|url-status=live}} After that meeting, the director awarded them the roles.{{cite video|title=Interview: Tom Cruise on Stanley Kubrick|work=Eyes Wide Shut Blu-Ray (2007)|date=1999|publisher=Warner Bros Home Entertainment}} Kubrick also managed to make both not commit to other projects until Eyes Wide Shut was completed. Kubrick offered Eva Herzigová a role in the film, but she declined.{{Cite news |last= |first= |date=1999-03-14 |title=Can a Star of Walk Be a Star Who Talks? |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/14/style/can-a-star-of-walk-be-a-star-who-talks.html |access-date=2023-06-19 |issn=0362-4331}}

Jennifer Jason Leigh and Harvey Keitel each were cast in supporting roles and filmed by Kubrick. Reportedly due to scheduling conflicts, both had to drop out.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.ew.com/article/1999/07/23/behind-scenes-eyes-wide-shut|title=Behind the scenes of Eyes Wide Shut|last=Svetkey|first=Benjamin|date=July 23, 1999|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|access-date=October 24, 2012|archive-date=June 6, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606171235/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20471622_272431,00.html|url-status=live}} Keitel was first with Finding Graceland,{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M-gCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA11|title=Keitel's Heartbreak Hotel|date=April 21, 1997|access-date=August 22, 2014|magazine=New York Magazine|last1=Landman Keil|first1=Beth|last2=Mitchell|first2=Deborah|archive-date=June 27, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140627194243/http://books.google.com/books?id=M-gCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA11|url-status=live}} then Leigh with eXistenZ.{{cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1999/04/27/hyper-existenz/|title=Hyper 'Existenz'|date=April 27, 1999|first=Gary|last=Dretzka|work=Chicago Tribune|access-date=October 25, 2012|archive-date=June 2, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150602084308/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1999-04-27/features/9904270063_1_existenz-allegra-geller-virtual-reality|url-status=live}} They were replaced by Sydney Pollack and Marie Richardson, respectively, in the final cut. Decades later, Keitel said that he had quit after feeling like Kubrick had "disrespected" him; Gary Oldman added that the breaking point was after Kubrick asked Keitel to do dozens of takes for a scene of his character walking through the door.{{Cite magazine |last=Alexander |first=Katherine Jane |date=2019-07-30 |title=Debunking the Myths Around Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick's Final Film |url=https://www.anothermag.com/design-living/11844/debunking-the-myths-of-eyes-wide-shut-stanley-kubricks-final-film |access-date=2022-07-24 |website=AnOther Magazine}}{{cite magazine |first=Swapnil Dhruv |last=Bose | url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/gary-oldman-stanley-kubrick-difficult-director-harvey-keitel/ | title=Gary Oldman explaining why Stanley Kubrick was a difficult director to work for |magazine=Far Out Magazine | date=June 2021}} Among the other supporting cast, Alan Cumming later said that he auditioned six times for his small role in the film.{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMdVy-nF6cs|title=Alan Cumming on "Standing Up" to Stanley Kubrick|date=April 16, 2009|website=Hudson Union Society |via=YouTube|access-date=March 27, 2018|archive-date=August 17, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817055702/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMdVy-nF6cs|url-status=live}}

In 2019, it was revealed that Cate Blanchett had provided the voice of the mysterious masked woman at the orgy party. Actress Abigail Good could not do a convincing American accent, and Cruise and Kidman ended up suggesting Blanchett for the dubbing, which occurred after Kubrick's death.{{cite web |title=Cate Blanchett Lent Her 'Warm and Sensual Voice' to Eyes Wide Shut |date=27 June 2019 |url=https://www.vulture.com/2019/06/cate-blanchett-eyes-wide-shut-cameo.html |website=Vulture |access-date=June 27, 2019 |archive-date=June 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190627171343/https://www.vulture.com/2019/06/cate-blanchett-eyes-wide-shut-cameo.html |url-status=live}}

File:Mentmore Towers from angle.jpg, one of the settings used by the film|alt=A mansion with four towers.]]

Principal photography began in November 1996. Kubrick's perfectionism led to script pages being rewritten on the set, and he intentionally filmed many scenes multiple times to try to break down the actors involved and have them give a more authentic performance. One scene of Cruise walking through a door was filmed 95 times. As a result, the shoot went on for much longer than expected. The actress Vinessa Shaw was initially contracted for two weeks and one scene but ended up working for two months.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/07/eyes-wide-shut-tom-cruise-nicole-kidman|title=Eyes Wide Shut at 15: Inside the Epic, Secretive Film Shoot that Pushed Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman to Their Limits|last=Nicholson|first=Amy|date=July 17, 2014|magazine=Vanity Fair|access-date=February 18, 2018|archive-date=November 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124185109/https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/07/eyes-wide-shut-tom-cruise-nicole-kidman|url-status=live}} Due to the relentless nature of the production, the crew became exhausted and were reported to have been impacted by low morale.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.ew.com/article/1997/10/17/closing-their-eyes-wide-shut|title=Closing Their 'Eyes Wide Shut'|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|first=Dave|last=Karger|date=Oct 17, 1997|access-date=October 27, 2012|archive-date=June 6, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606183445/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20471622_289898,00.html|url-status=live}} Cruise developed an ulcer but did not tell Kubrick.{{Cite news |last=Nicholson |first=Amy |date=2024-08-27 |title=The Year Tom Cruise Gave Not One but Two Dangerously Vulnerable Performances |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/27/movies/tom-cruise-eyes-wide-shut-magnolia.html |access-date=2024-08-29 |work=The New York Times |url-access=subscription}} Filming finally wrapped in June 1998. The Guinness World Records recognized Eyes Wide Shut as the longest constant movie shoot that ran "...for over 15 months, a period that included an unbroken shoot of 46 weeks".{{cite book|title=Guinness World Records 2001|page=[https://archive.org/details/guinnessworldrec00enfi/page/93 93]|year=2000|isbn=978-0-85112-102-4|title-link=Guinness World Records}}

Given Kubrick's fear of flying, the entire film was shot in England.{{Sfn|Ronson|2013|p=170, 174}} Sound-stage works were completed at London's Pinewood Studios which included a detailed recreation of Greenwich Village. Kubrick's perfectionism went as far as sending workmen to Manhattan to measure street widths and note newspaper vending machine locations.{{cite news|last1=Jacobs|first1=Matthew|title=13 Facts You May Not Know about Stanley Kubrick's 'Eyes Wide Shut'|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/facts-about-eyes-wide-shut_n_5598973|work=Huffington Post|access-date=August 18, 2014|date=July 18, 2014|archive-date=February 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219090132/http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/facts-about-eyes-wide-shut_n_5598973|url-status=live}} Real New York footage was also shot to be rear projected behind Cruise. Production was followed by a strong campaign of secrecy helped by Kubrick always working with a short team on set. Outdoor locations included Hatton Garden for a Greenwich Village street,{{sfn|Adams|2004|p=24}} Hamleys for the toy store from the film's ending,{{sfn|Adams|2004|p=16}} and Mentmore Towers and Elveden Hall in Elveden, Suffolk, England for the mansion.{{cite book|page=[https://archive.org/details/worldwideguideto00reev/page/70 70]|title=The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations|first=Tony|last=Reeves|publisher=Chicago Review Press|year=2001|isbn=978-1-55652-432-5|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/worldwideguideto00reev/page/70}} Larry Smith, who had first served as a gaffer on both Barry Lyndon and The Shining, was chosen by Kubrick to be the film's cinematographer. Wherever possible, Smith made use of available light sources visible in the shots such as lamps and Christmas tree lights, but when this was insufficient he used Chinese paper ball lamps to softly brighten the scene, with other types of film lighting if needed. The color was enhanced by push processing the film reels (emulsion) which helped bring out the intensity of the color and emphasize highlights.{{sfn|Pizzella|1999|loc=[http://www.theasc.com/magazine/oct99/sword/pg1.htm p. 1]}} This effect is evident in the Christmas party scene at Ziegler's house, with Smith noting that the push processing "made the lights appear to be much brighter than they were" and created a "wonderful warm glow."{{sfn|Pizzella|1999|loc=[https://theasc.com/magazine/oct99/sword/pg3.htm p. 3]}}

Kubrick's perfectionism led him to oversee every visual element that would appear in a given frame, from props and furniture to the color of walls and other objects.{{sfn|Pizzella|1999|loc=[http://www.theasc.com/magazine/oct99/sword/pg1.htm p. 1]}} One such element were the masks used in the orgy which were inspired by the masked carnival balls visited by the protagonists in the novel. Costume designer Marit Allen explained that Kubrick felt they fit in that scene for being part of the imaginary world and ended up "creat[ing] the impression of menace, but without exaggeration". As many masks as were used in the Venetian carnival were sent to London and Kubrick chose who would wear each piece.{{sfn|Ciment|2003|p=177}} The paintings of Kubrick's wife Christiane and his daughter Katherina are featured as decorations.{{cite magazine|url=http://sensesofcinema.com/2002/23/ornament/#b6 |title=The Ornamentation of Nicole Kidman (Eyes Wide Shut) and Mita Vashisht (Kasba): a Sketch |first=Laleen |last=Jayamanne |magazine=Senses of Cinema |date=December 2002 |number=23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121117054130/http://sensesofcinema.com/2002/23/ornament/#b6 |archive-date=November 17, 2012 |url-status=live}}{{cite magazine|last=James|first=Nick|date=September 1999|title=At Home with the Kubrick's|magazine=Sight and Sound|volume=9|issue=9|page=12}}

Nicole Kidman revealed that her explicit scenes with the naval officer, played by Gary Goba, were filmed over three days and that Kubrick wanted them to be "almost pornographic".{{cite news |title=Goodbye Tom Cruise, hello sailor |work=The Age |page=35 |via=www.newspapers.com |date=July 17, 1999 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/123478959/ |access-date=5 August 2022}}

After shooting had been completed, Kubrick entered a prolonged post-production process, and on March 1, 1999, Kubrick showed a cut to Cruise, Kidman and the Warner Bros. executives. Kubrick died suddenly six days later.{{cite AV media|first=Jan |last=Harlan |author-link=Jan Harlan |title=Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures |year=2001 |publisher=Warner Bros.}}

Jocelyn Pook wrote the original music for Eyes Wide Shut, but, like other Kubrick movies, the film was noted for its use of classical music.{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/eyes-wide-shut-mw0000242501|title=Eyes Wide Shut|last=Ruhlmann |first=William|website=AllMusic|access-date=October 22, 2012|archive-date=April 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190421075708/https://www.allmusic.com/album/eyes-wide-shut-mw0000242501|url-status=live}} The opening title music is Shostakovich's Waltz No. 2 from "Suite for Variety Stage Orchestra", misidentified as "Jazz Suite No. 2". One recurring piece is the second movement of György Ligeti's piano cycle "Musica ricercata".{{sfn|Powrie|Stilwell|2006|p=7}} Kubrick originally intended to feature "Im Treibhaus" from Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, but the director eventually replaced it with Ligeti's piece feeling Wagner's song was "too beautiful".{{cite book|title=Music, Sound and Filmmakers: Sonic Style in Cinema|first=James|last=Wierzbicki|pages=147–148|publisher=Routledge|year=2012|isbn=978-0-415-89894-2}} In the morgue scene, Franz Liszt's late solo piano piece, "Nuages Gris" ("Grey Clouds") (1881), is heard.{{cite book|editor-last1=Arnold |editor-first1=Ben |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2002 |page=169 |isbn=978-0313306891 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_jZs6zP6R6gC&dq=Eyes+Wide+Shut+nuages+Gris&pg=PA169 |title=The Liszt Companion |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112004124/https://books.google.com/books?id=_jZs6zP6R6gC&pg=PA169&lpg=PA169&dq=Eyes+Wide+Shut+nuages+Gris&ct=result&resnum=10#v=onepage&q=Eyes%20Wide%20Shut%20nuages%20Gris |archive-date=January 12, 2021 |url-status=dead}} "Rex tremendae" from Mozart's Requiem plays as Bill walks into the café and reads of Mandy's death.{{cite journal|last1=Kubrick |first1=Stanley |last2=Lombardi |first2=Riccardo |year=2004 |title=Stanley Kubrick's swan song: Eyes wide shut |url=https://pep-web.org/browse/document/ijp.085.0209a |journal=International Journal of Psychoanalysis |volume=85 |pages=209–218 |doi=10.1516/GWE7-0ECT-DKVY-NETN |pmid=15005902 |via=PEP Web |access-date=July 2, 2012 |archive-date=June 7, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120607120449/http://pep-web.org/document.php?id=ijp.085.0209a |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}

Pook was hired after choreographer Yolande Snaith rehearsed the masked ball orgy scene using Pook's composition "Backwards Priests" – which features a Romanian Orthodox Divine Liturgy recorded in a church in Baia Mare, played backwards – as a reference track. Kubrick then called the composer and asked if she had anything else "weird" like that song, which was reworked for the final cut of the scene, with the title "Masked Ball". Pook ended up composing and recording four pieces of music, many times based on her previous work, totaling 24 minutes. The composer's work ended up having mostly string instruments – including a viola played by Pook herself – with no brass or woodwinds as Pook "just couldn't justify these other textures", particularly as she wanted the tracks played on dialogue-heavy scenes to be "subliminal" and felt such instruments would be intrusive.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/27/style/27iht-pook.t.html|title=Kubrick's Approval Sets Seal on Classical Crossover Success : Pook's Unique Musical Mix|work=International Herald Tribune|first=Mike|last=Zwerin|date=October 27, 1999|access-date=November 12, 2012|archive-date=April 10, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160410181159/http://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/27/style/27iht-pook.t.html|url-status=live|via=The New York Times}}{{cite journal|url=https://cnmsarchive.wordpress.com/2013/06/23/jocelyn-pook-on-eyes-wide-|title=Jocelyn Pook on EYES WIDE SHUT|first=Rudy|last=Koppl|journal=Soundtrack Magazine|volume=18|number=71|year=1999|access-date=December 27, 2019|archive-date=December 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227053602/https://cnmsarchive.wordpress.com/2013/06/23/jocelyn-pook-on-eyes-wide-shut/|url-status=live}}

Another track in the orgy, "Migrations", features a Tamil song sung by Manickam Yogeswaran, a Carnatic singer. The original cut featured a scriptural recitation from the Bhagavad Gita, which Pook took from a previous Yogeswaran recording.{{cite web|url=http://www.themusicmagazine.com/newsnov.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302202837/http://www.themusicmagazine.com/newsnov.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 2, 2012|title=Ears wide open |website=The Music Magazine |access-date=July 2, 2012}} South African Hindu Mahasabha, a Hindu group, protested against the scripture being used,{{cite web|url=http://www.hindunet.org/anti_defamation/eyes/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303180126/http://www.hindunet.org/anti_defamation/eyes/|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 3, 2016|title=AHAD Gives Voice to Hindu Sentiments Against Eyes Wide Shut |publisher=American Hindus Against Defamation|access-date=November 12, 2012}} Warner Bros. issued a public apology,{{cite web|url=http://www.cscsarchive.org:8081/MediaArchive/art.nsf/(docid)/BEA4055D27D443E165256940004BD72D|title=Warner Bros apologises to Hindus|author=Press Trust of India|work=The Times of India|date=August 9, 1999|access-date=November 12, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322145537/http://www.cscsarchive.org:8081/MediaArchive/art.nsf/%28docid%29/BEA4055D27D443E165256940004BD72D|archive-date=March 22, 2012}} and hired the singer to record a similar track to replace the chant.{{cite journal|url=http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/dharma.htm|title=The Dharma Blues|first=Robert|last=Castle|journal=Journal of Religion and Film|volume=6|number=1|date=April 2002|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303204051/http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/dharma.htm|archive-date=March 3, 2016}}

The party at Ziegler's house features rearrangements of love songs such as "When I Fall in Love" and "It Had to Be You", used in increasingly ironic ways considering how Alice and Bill flirt with other people in the scene.{{sfn|Powrie|Stilwell|2006|p=17}} As Kidman was nervous about doing nude scenes, Kubrick stated she could bring her own music for the filming. When Kidman brought a Chris Isaak CD, Kubrick approved it, and incorporated Isaak's song "Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing" to both an early romantic embrace of Bill and Alice and the film's trailer.{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jul-26-ca-59623-story.html|title='Bad Bad Thing' Is Good Indeed for Isaak|work=Los Angeles Times|date=July 26, 1999|access-date=October 22, 2012|archive-date=December 21, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131221224900/http://articles.latimes.com/1999/jul/26/entertainment/ca-59623|url-status=live}}

The film was described by some reviewers, and partially marketed, as an erotic thriller, a categorization disputed by others. It is classified as such in the book The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema, by Linda Ruth Williams,{{cite book | title= The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema | first= Linda Ruth | last= Williams |page= 397 | publisher= Indiana University Press| year= 2005 |isbn=978-0253347138}} and was described as such in news articles about Cruise and Kidman's lawsuit over assertions that they saw a sex therapist during filming.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/apr/24/ameliagentleman|title=Erotic thriller Hollywood couple sue over sex claims|first= Amelia|last= Gentleman|newspaper=The Guardian |date=April 24, 1999 |access-date= December 17, 2016|archive-date=April 1, 2017|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170401061249/https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/apr/24/ameliagentleman|url-status=live}} The positive review in Combustible Celluloid describes it as an erotic thriller upon first viewing, but actually a "complex story about marriage and sexuality".{{cite web |url=http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/archive/eyeswide.shtml |title= Eyes Wide Shut (1999) |first=Jeffrey M. |last=Anderson | website= Combustible Celluloid Review|date=July 16, 1999 |access-date=May 24, 2015 |archive-date=February 4, 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150204234036/http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com//archive/eyeswide.shtml |url-status=live}} High-Def Digest also called it an erotic thriller.{{cite web |url=http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/273/eyeswideshut.html |title=Blu-ray Review: Eyes Wide Shut | website= Bluray.highdefdigest.com |access-date=July 2, 2012 |archive-date=July 19, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719105300/http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/273/eyeswideshut.html |url-status=live}}

However, reviewing the film at AboutFilm.com, Carlo Cavagna regards this as a misleading classification,{{cite web |url= http://www.aboutfilm.com/movies/e/eyeswideshut.htm |title=Eyes Wide Shut (1999) | website= AboutFilm.Com |access-date=July 2, 2012 |archive-date=June 18, 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120618070113/http://www.aboutfilm.com/movies/e/eyeswideshut.htm |url-status=dead}} as does Leo Goldsmith, writing at notcoming.com,{{cite web |url=http://www.notcoming.com/reviews/eyeswideshut |title=Eyes Wide Shut | website= notcoming.com |date= March 14, 2010 |access-date= July 2, 2012 |archive-date=May 21, 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120521082153/http://notcoming.com/reviews/eyeswideshut |url-status=live}} and the review on Blu-ray.com.{{cite web |url=http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Eyes-Wide-Shut-Blu-ray/509/#Review |title=Eyes Wide Shut Blu-ray |website=Blu-ray.com |access-date=July 2, 2012 |archive-date=July 8, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120708052509/http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Eyes-Wide-Shut-Blu-ray/509/#Review |url-status=live}} Writing in TV Guide, Maitland McDonagh writes "No one familiar with the cold precision of Kubrick's work will be surprised that this isn't the steamy erotic thriller a synopsis (or the ads) might suggest."{{cite web |url=https://www.tvguide.com/movies/eyes-wide-shut/review/2030211164/ |first=Maitland |last=McDonagh |author-link=Maitland McDonagh|title=Eyes Wide Shut Review |website=TVGuide.com |access-date=July 2, 2012 |archive-date=May 31, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531215221/http://movies.tvguide.com/eyes-wide-shut/review/134111 |url-status=live}} Writing in general about the genre of 'erotic thriller' for CineAction in 2001, Douglas Keesey states that "whatever [Eyes Wide Shut{{'s}}] actual type, [it] was at least marketed as an erotic thriller".{{cite journal |url= https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-79981141 |title=They Kill for Love |journal=Cineaction |last=Keesey |first=Douglas |date=June 22, 2001 |access-date=May 26, 2015 |archive-date=July 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200723072037/https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-79981141/they-kill-for-love |url-status=dead}} Michael Koresky, writing in the 2006 issue of film journal Reverse Shot, writes "this director, who defies expectations at every turn and brings genre to his feet, was  ... setting out to make neither the 'erotic thriller' that the press maintained nor an easily identifiable 'Kubrick film{{'"}}.{{cite web |url=http://www.reverseshot.com/article/eyes_wide_shut |title=Eyes Wide Shut |first=Michael |last=Koresky |website= ReverseShot.com |date=May 11, 2006 |access-date=May 26, 2015 |archive-date=August 20, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140820050153/http://www.reverseshot.com/article/eyes_wide_shut |url-status=live}} DVD Talk similarly dissociates the film from this genre.{{cite web |url=http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/31748/eyes-wide-shut/ |title=Eyes Wide Shut (Blu-ray) : DVD Talk Review of the Blu-ray |publisher= | website= DVD Talk |access-date=July 2, 2012 |archive-date=July 5, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120705214248/http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/31748/eyes-wide-shut/ |url-status=live}}

In addition to relocating the story from Vienna in the 1900s to New York City in the 1990s, Kubrick changed the time-frame of Schnitzler's story from Mardi Gras to Christmas. Michael Koresky believed Kubrick did this because of the rejuvenating symbolism of Christmas.{{cite web |url=http://www.reverseshot.com/article/eyes_wide_shut |title=Wake Up Call | first=Michael | last= Koresky |date= Spring 2006 |publisher= | website= ReverseShot.com |access-date= December 15, 2011 |archive-date= December 15, 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111215002459/http://reverseshot.com/article/eyes_wide_shut |url-status=live}} Mario Falsetto, on the other hand, notes that Christmas lights allow Kubrick to employ some of his distinct methods of shooting including using source location lighting, as he also did in Barry Lyndon.{{cite book |title=Stanley Kubrick: A Narrative and Stylistic Analysis |last=Falsetto |first= Mario |year=2001 |publisher= Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn= 978-0-275-96974-5 |page=137 }} See also the section on "Disappearing Film Grain" at {{cite web| url= http://kubrickfilms.tripod.com/id79.html |title=Was Eyes Wide Shut completed? |access-date=December 15, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120126164713/http://kubrickfilms.tripod.com/id79.html |archive-date=January 26, 2012}} The New York Times notes that the film "gives an otherworldly radiance and personality to Christmas lights",{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/16/movies/film-review-bedroom-odyssey.html |title=Film Review; Bedroom Odyssey | first=Janet| last= Maslin |author-link=Janet Maslin |date=July 16, 1999 |access-date=March 4, 2015 |newspaper=The New York Times |archive-date=March 5, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150305034721/http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/16/movies/film-review-bedroom-odyssey.html |url-status=live}} and critic Randy Rasmussen notes that "colorful Christmas lights  ... illuminate almost every location in the film."{{sfn|Rasmussen|2005|p=333}} Harper's film critic, Lee Siegel, believes that the film's recurring motif is the Christmas tree, because it symbolizes the way that "Compared with the everyday reality of sex and emotion, our fantasies of gratification are  ... pompous and solemn in the extreme  ... For desire is like Christmas: it always promises more than it delivers."{{cite magazine |url=http://www.indelibleinc.com/kubrick/films/ews/reviews/harpers.html |title=What the critics failed to see in Kubrick's last film | first=Lee | last= Siegel |magazine=Harper's | via= indelibleinc.com |access-date= December 15, 2011 |archive-date= December 23, 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111223092621/http://www.indelibleinc.com/kubrick/films/ews/reviews/harpers.html |url-status=dead}} Author Tim Kreider notes that the "Satanic" mansion-party at Somerton is the only set in the film without a Christmas tree, stating that "Almost every set is suffused with the dreamlike, hazy glow of colored lights and tinsel."{{harvnb|Kreider|2006}} Furthermore, he argues that "Eyes Wide Shut, though it was released in summer, was the Christmas movie of 1999." Noting that Kubrick has shown viewers the dark side of Christmas consumerism, Louise Kaplan states that the film illustrates ways in which the "material reality of money" is shown replacing the spiritual values of Christmas, charity, and compassion. While virtually every scene has a Christmas tree, there is "no Christmas music or cheery Christmas spirit."{{cite book |title=Cultures of Fetishism |last=Kaplan |first=Louise |year=2006|publisher=MacMillan |isbn= 978-1-4039-6968-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/culturesfetishis00kapl/page/n75 61]| url= https://archive.org/details/culturesfetishis00kapl|url-access=limited}} Critic Alonso Duralde, in his book Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, categorized the film as a "Christmas movie for grownups", arguing that "Christmas weaves its way through the film from start to finish".{{cite book |title=Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas |last=Duralde |first=Alonso |year= 2010| publisher= Limelight Editions |isbn= 978-0-275-96974-5 |page=33}}

Historians, travel guide authors, novelists, and merchants of Venetian masks have noted that these have a long history of being worn during promiscuous activities.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fTIuAAAAYAAJ&q=venetian+masks+history&pg=PA311|title=Sketches from Venetian History| first=Edward| last= Smedley|date=March 13, 2018| publisher=Harper|via=Google Books| access-date=November 11, 2020| archive-date=January 12, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112004245/https://books.google.com/books?id=fTIuAAAAYAAJ&q=venetian+masks+history&pg=PA311|url-status=live}}{{cite book |title=Frommer's Portable Venice |first1=Darwin |last1= Porter |first2=Danforth |last2= Prince |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hkuNDff0RscC&q=venetianmaskshistory&pg=PA150 |isbn=978-0-470-39904-0 |date=March 16, 2009 |publisher=Wiley |access-date=November 11, 2020 |archive-date=January 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112004204/https://books.google.com/books?id=hkuNDff0RscC&q=venetianmaskshistory&pg=PA150 |url-status=live}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qjpduEh-ajAC&q=venetian+masks+history |title=The Venetian Mask: A Novel |date=March 25, 2008 |access-date=August 22, 2014 |isbn=978-0-307-41018-4 |last1=Laker |first1=Rosalind |publisher=Crown |archive-date=January 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112004209/https://books.google.com/books?id=qjpduEh-ajAC&q=venetian+masks+history |url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=http://www.magicofvenezia.com/servlet/the-template/maskstory/Page |title=Magic of Venezia Mask Story |publisher= | website= Magicofvenezia.com |access-date=July 2, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120621223111/http://www.magicofvenezia.com/servlet/the-template/maskstory/Page |archive-date=June 21, 2012}} Authors Tim Kreider and Thomas Nelson have linked the film's usage of these to Venice's reputation as a center of both eroticism and mercantilism. Nelson notes that the sex ritual combines elements of Venetian Carnival and Catholic rites, in particular, the character of "Red Cloak" who simultaneously serves as Grand Inquisitor and King of Carnival. As such, Nelson argues that the sex ritual is a symbolic mirror of the darker truth behind the façade of Victor Ziegler's earlier Christmas party.{{sfn|Nelson|2000|pp=288–289}} Carolin Ruwe, in her book Symbols in Stanley Kubrick's Movie 'Eyes Wide Shut', argues that the mask is the prime symbol of the film. Its symbolic meaning is represented through its connection to the characters in the film; as Tim Kreider points out, this can be seen through the masks in the prostitute's apartment and her being renamed as "Domino" in the film, which is a type of Venetian Mask.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_dfKY3D7cuEC&q=Eyes+Wide+Shut |title=Symbols in Stanley Kubrick's Movie 'Eyes Wide Shut' | via= Google Books |date=July 30, 2000 |access-date=July 2, 2012 |isbn=978-3-638-84176-4 |last1=Ruwe |first1= Carolin |publisher=GRIN Verlag |archive-date=January 12, 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210112004209/https://books.google.com/books?id=_dfKY3D7cuEC&q=Eyes+Wide+Shut |url-status=live}} Unused early poster designs for the film by Kubrick's daughter Katharina used the motif of Venetian masks, but were rejected by the studio because they obscured the faces of the film's two stars.{{cite web| authorlink= Katharina Kubrick| last= Kubrick | first= Katharina | url= https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/interviews/katharina-kubrick-eyes-wide-shut | title= 'When you hold a mirror to society it rebels': Katharina Kubrick on Eyes Wide Shut |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20191114205722/https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/interviews/katharina-kubrick-eyes-wide-shut |archivedate= November 14, 2019 | work= Sight & Sound | date= November 2019| publisher=| url-status= live| accessdate=}}

Paintings and sculptures appear throughout the film, some historical and others painted by Kubrick's wife Christiane Kubrick and stepdaughter Katharina Kubrick Hobbs.{{Cite web |date=2018-02-13 |title='Eyes Wide Shut': A Tense, Nightmarish Exploration of Marriage and Sexuality in Kubrick's Ultimate Film |website=Cinephilia & Beyond |url=https://cinephiliabeyond.org/eyes-wide-shut-tense-nightmarish-exploration-marriage-sexuality-kubricks-ultimate-film/ |access-date=2023-12-21}} The home of the Harfords contains the majority of the works painted by Kubrick's family members, with the exception being a painting of a nude reclining pregnant woman by Christiane Kubrick titled Paula On Red that appears in Ziegler's bathroom during the overdose scene. In the beginning of the film, as Bill and Alice are saying goodbye to their daughter Helena and the babysitter, a painting by Christiane Kubrick titled "View from the Mentmore" can be seen hanging next to the Christmas tree.{{Cite web |title=Eyes Wide Shut (1999) |url=https://www.filmsite.org/eyeswideshut.html |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=www.filmsite.org}} Mentmore Towers is an English country house in the southeast of England that was used for filming the interior scenes of the Somerton house and the masked orgy.{{Cite news |date=2022-03-16 |title=Mentmore: Men arrested after burglary at 'Batman mansion' |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-60764492 |work=BBC News |access-date=2023-12-21}}

During Ziegler's party, Bill is summoned to the bathroom to deal with an apparent overdose, as he climbs the spiral staircase he passes Giulio Bergonzoli's sculpture Gli amori degli angeli (The Loves of Angels) which is at the foot of the staircase.{{Cite web |title=Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut - An Analysis, Part One |url=http://idyllopuspress.com/idyllopus/film/ews_one.htm |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=idyllopuspress.com}} This sculpture is said to be inspired by a poem titled The Loves of the Angels by 19th-century poet Thomas Moore; the poem itself describes the story of three angels who fall in love with mortal women and share the password to heaven with them resulting in their banishment.{{Cite web |title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of Thomas Moore, by Stephen Gwynn. |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34930/34930-h/34930-h.htm |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=www.gutenberg.org}} At the time of the poem's release, it was received with controversy due to the open eroticism throughout.{{Cite journal |last=Hawthorne |first=Mark D. |date=1975 |title=Thomas Moore's "The Epicurean": The Anacreontic Poet in Search of Eternity |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25599975 |journal=Studies in Romanticism |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=249–272 |doi=10.2307/25599975 |jstor=25599975 |issn=0039-3762|url-access=subscription }} During the same party sequence, Bill is talking with the two models as they walk past a small reproduction of Gian Lorenzo Bernini's sculpture Apollo and Daphne sitting on a table.{{Cite web |title=After Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) Apollo and Daphne… |website=Drouot.com |url=https://drouot.com/en/l/19878309-dapres-gian-lorenzo-bernini-di |access-date=2024-01-02}}

When Bill enters a cafe towards the end of the film, two Pre-Raphaelite paintings can be seen hanging on parallel walls, Ophelia by John William Waterhouse and Astarte Syriaca by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.{{Cite web |last=Wilkes |first=Robert |date=2015-09-08 |title=The Kubrick Connection: some Pre-Raphaelite references in 'Eyes Wide Shut' |url=https://dantisamor.wordpress.com/2015/09/08/the-kubrick-connection-some-pre-raphaelite-references-in-eyes-wide-shut/ |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=Pre-Raphaelite Reflections}} Waterhouse's Ophelia depicts the character by the same name in Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet moments before her death.{{Cite web |title=Waterhouse's Versions of Ophelia |url=https://www.victorianweb.org/painting/jww/paintings/moore1.html |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=www.victorianweb.org}} Astarte Syriaca depicts Astarte, the ancient Syrian goddess of love, as well as two symmetrical angels holding torches directly behind her. Both paintings mirror events within the film and, as Robert Wilkes writes, reflect its "mood of sensuality, ritualism, and exoticism". In the same cafe scene, a crystoleum print of Maude Goodman's Hush! (or, A Moment of Idleness) is seen behind Bill as he sits down with a newspaper; in the following shot the print is replaced with what Wilkes describes as a "more chaotic, nightmarish image" as Bill reads about the ex-beauty queen's apparent overdose.

When Bill is walking through a hospital hallway towards the end of the film, he walks past Jann Haworth's painting Aunt Gurdi Burning (1995).{{Cite web |title=Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut - An Analysis, Part Seven |url=http://idyllopuspress.com/idyllopus/film/ews_seven.htm |access-date=2024-01-02 |website=idyllopuspress.com}} The painting is oil on canvas and mounted on a screen; it is in the permanent collection of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where the scenes were filmed.{{Cite web |title=Aunt Gurdi Burning {{!}} Art UK |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/aunt-gurdi-burning-178555 |access-date=2024-01-02 |website=artuk.org}}{{Cite web |title=Eyes Wide Shut Film Locations |url=https://onthesetofnewyork.com/eyeswideshut.html |access-date=2024-01-02 |website=onthesetofnewyork.com}}

Warner Bros. heavily promoted Eyes Wide Shut, while following Kubrick's secrecy campaign – to the point that the film's press kits contained no production notes, not even the director's suggestions to Semel regarding the marketing campaign, given one week prior to Kubrick's death.{{cite news|last1=Campbell|first1=Duncan|title=Mouths wide shut for new Kubrick film|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jul/10/duncancampbell|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=February 18, 2018|date=July 10, 1999|archive-date=February 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219090158/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jul/10/duncancampbell|url-status=live}} The first footage was shown to theater owners attending the 1999 ShoWest convention in Las Vegas. TV spots featured both Isaak and Ligeti's music from the soundtrack, while revealing little about the movie's plot.{{cite news|last1=Natale|first1=Richard|title=ShoWest to Get Quick Glimpse of Kubrick's 'Eyes Wide Shut'|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-mar-09-ca-15328-story.html|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=March 9, 1999|access-date=February 18, 2018|archive-date=November 16, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116031144/http://articles.latimes.com/1999/mar/09/entertainment/ca-15328|url-status=live}} The film also appeared on the cover of Time magazine, and on show business programs such as Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood.{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jul-05-ca-53039-story.html|title=The Way Kubrick Would Have Wanted|work=Los Angeles Times|date=July 5, 1999|author=Welkos, Robert W.|access-date=October 27, 2012|archive-date=July 23, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140723090716/http://articles.latimes.com/1999/jul/05/entertainment/ca-53039|url-status=live}}

Eyes Wide Shut opened on July 16, 1999, in the United States. The film topped the week-end box office, with $21.7 million from 2,411 screens.{{cite web|url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=1999&wknd=29&p=.htm|title=Weekend Box Office: July 16–18, 1999 Weekend|website=Box Office Mojo|access-date=October 22, 2012|archive-date=October 17, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017211414/http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=1999&wknd=29&p=.htm|url-status=live}} These numbers surpassed the studio's expectations of $20 million, and became both Cruise's sixth consecutive chart topper and Kubrick's highest opening week-end as well as the highest featuring Kidman and Cruise together.{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jul-19-ca-57357-story.html|title='Eyes' Sees Its Way to Top Spot|date=July 19, 1999|first=Richard|last=Natale|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=October 22, 2012|archive-date=September 3, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150903222955/http://articles.latimes.com/1999/jul/19/entertainment/ca-57357|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/398234.stm|date=July 19, 1999|title=Eyes Wide Shut opens on top|work=BBC News|access-date=October 28, 2012|archive-date=October 15, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015222816/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/398234.stm|url-status=live}} Eyes Wide Shut ended up grossing a total of $55,691,208 in the US. The numbers put it as Kubrick's second-highest-grossing film in the country, behind 2001: A Space Odyssey,{{cite web|url=http://www.the-numbers.com/person/80270401-Stanley-Kubrick|title=Stanley Kubrick – Box Office History|website=The Numbers|access-date=November 9, 2012|archive-date=October 4, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004035532/http://www.the-numbers.com/person/80270401-Stanley-Kubrick|url-status=live}} but both were considered a box office disappointment.{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-jun-12-ca-9258-story.html|title=Remembering a Difficult Genius|work=Los Angeles Times|date=June 12, 2001|author=King, Susan|access-date=November 9, 2012|archive-date=November 13, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113070731/http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jun/12/entertainment/ca-9258|url-status=live}}

Shortly after its screening at the Venice Film Festival, Eyes Wide Shut had a British premiere on September 3, 1999, at the Warner Village cinema in Leicester Square.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/437224.stm|work=BBC News|date=September 3, 1999|title=Stars flock to Kubrick premiere|access-date=October 22, 2012|archive-date=October 2, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002213942/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/437224.stm|url-status=live}} The film's wide opening occurred the following week-end, and topped the U.K. charts with £1,189,672.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-box-office-1120316.html|title=FILM: BOX OFFICE|date=September 19, 1999|work=The Independent|location=London|access-date=August 27, 2017|archive-date=February 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219090208/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-box-office-1120316.html|url-status=live}}

The international performances for Eyes Wide Shut were more positive, with Kubrick's long-time assistant and brother-in-law Jan Harlan stating that "It was badly received in the Anglo-Saxon world, but it was very well received in the Latin world and Japan. In Italy, it was a huge hit." Overseas earnings of over $105 million led to a $162,091,208 box office run world-wide, turning it into the highest-grossing Kubrick film.{{Cite web|url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/name/nm0000040/|title=Stanley Kubrick|website=Box Office Mojo|access-date=December 22, 2019|archive-date=December 22, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191222143803/https://www.boxofficemojo.com/name/nm0000040/|url-status=live}}

Eyes Wide Shut was first released on VHS and DVD on March 7, 2000.{{cite press release|url=http://kubrickfilms.warnerbros.com/news/press/ews_pressrelease.html|title='Kubrick's Definitive Film & Haunting Final Masterpiece' and 1999's Most Talked About Film Debuts on VHS and DVD|publisher=Warner Bros. Home Entertainment|date=February 24, 2000|access-date=November 9, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130617155937/http://kubrickfilms.warnerbros.com/news/press/ews_pressrelease.html|archive-date=June 17, 2013|url-status=dead}} The original DVD release corrects technical gaffes, including a reflected crew member, and altering a piece of Alice Harford's dialogue. Most home videos remove the verse that was claimed to be cited from the sacred Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita (although it was Pook's reworking of "Backwards Priests" as stated above). In the UK, Warner Home Video's 'rated 18' [no video altering] 1999 DVD release was in 4:3 full frame aspect ratio, with a note at the beginning that this was as Kubrick intended it to be shown [ratio as shot]. However, the film's length on this UK DVD is only 153 minutes, as opposed to the 159 minutes of other available DVD and Blu-ray versions. This is due to the transfer being done at 25 frames per second rather than 24 as shot; no actual footage was cut.

On October 23, 2007, Warner released Eyes Wide Shut in a special edition DVD, plus the HD DVD and Blu-ray disc formats.{{cite web |last=McCutcheon |first=David |url=http://www.ign.com/articles/2007/08/03/kubrick-overload |title=Kubrick Overload! |website=IGN |date=August 3, 2007 |access-date=August 22, 2014 |archive-date=May 26, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526011649/http://www.ign.com/articles/2007/08/03/kubrick-overload |url-status=live}} This is the first home video release that presents the film in anamorphic 1.78:1 (16:9) format (the film was shown theatrically as soft matted 1.66:1 in Europe and 1.85:1 in the US and Japan). The previous DVD release used a 1.33:1 (4:3) aspect ratio. It is also the first American home video release to feature the uncut version. Although the earliest American DVD of the uncut version states on the cover that it includes both the R-rated and unrated editions, in actuality only the unrated edition is on the DVD.

Eyes Wide Shut received generally positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of {{RT data|score}} based on {{RT data|count}} reviews, with an average rating of {{RT data|average}}. The website's critical consensus reads, "Kubrick's intense study of the human psyche yields an impressive cinematic work."{{Cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/eyes_wide_shut|title=Eyes Wide Shut|website=Rotten Tomatoes|publisher=Fandango|access-date={{RT data|access date}}|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210106203548/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/eyes_wide_shut|archive-date=January 6, 2021|url-status=live}}{{RT data|edit}} Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 69 out of 100 based on 34 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.{{Cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/eyes-wide-shut |title=Eyes Wide Shut |website=Metacritic |access-date=January 8, 2021 |archive-date=May 20, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190520195211/https://www.metacritic.com/movie/eyes-wide-shut |url-status=live}} Over 50 critics listed the film among the best of 1999.{{cite web|url=http://uk.ign.com/articles/2000/02/10/eyes-wide-shut-dvd-press-release|title='Eyes Wide Shut' DVD Press Release|last=Head|first=Steve|date=February 24, 2000|website=IGN|access-date=February 18, 2018|archive-date=July 23, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200723072038/https://www.ign.com/articles/2000/02/10/eyes-wide-shut-dvd-press-release|url-status=live}} French magazine Cahiers du Cinéma named it the best film of the year in its annual "top ten" list.{{cite web|url=http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~ejohnson/critics/cahiers.html|title=Cahiers du Cinema: Top Ten Lists 1951–2009|last=Johnson|first=Eric C.|website=alumnus.caltech.edu|access-date=December 17, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120327102838/http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~ejohnson/critics/cahiers.html|archive-date=March 27, 2012|url-status=dead}} However, audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D−" on an A+ to F scale.{{cite web|url=https://www.cinemascore.com|title=Find CinemaScore|format=Type "Eyes Wide Shut" in the search box|website=CinemaScore|access-date=April 7, 2021}}

In the Chicago Tribune, Michael Wilmington declared the film a masterpiece, lauding it as "provocatively conceived, gorgeously shot and masterfully executed ... Kubrick's brilliantly choreographed one-take scenes create a near-hypnotic atmosphere of commingled desire and dread."{{cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1999/07/16/the-sexy-scary-stylish-eyes-wide-shut-is-stanley-kubricks-final-masterpiece/|title=The Sexy, Scary, Stylish 'Eyes Wide Shut' Is Stanley Kubrick's Final Masterpiece|last=Wilmington|first=Michael|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=July 16, 1999|access-date=April 7, 2017|archive-date=April 7, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170407234023/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1999-07-16/entertainment/9907170013_1_cruise-and-kidman-sexual-alice-harford|url-status=live}} Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club was also highly positive, arguing that "the film's primal, almost religious intensity and power is primarily derived from its multifaceted realization that disobeying the dictates of society and your conscience can be both terrifying and exhilarating. ... The film's depiction of sexual depravity and amorality could easily venture into the realm of camp in the hands of a lesser filmmaker, but Kubrick depicts primal evil in a way that somehow makes it seem both new and deeply terrifying."{{cite web|url=http://www.avclub.com/review/eyes-wide-shut-18794|title=Eyes Wide Shut|last=Rabin|first=Nathan|author-link=Nathan Rabin|work=The A.V. Club|publisher=Onion, Inc.|date=July 16, 1999|access-date=April 7, 2017|archive-date=April 7, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170407233917/http://www.avclub.com/review/eyes-wide-shut-18794|url-status=live}}

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a score of three and a half stars out of four, writing, "Kubrick's great achievement in the film is to find and hold an odd, unsettling, sometimes erotic tone for the doctor's strange encounters." He praised the individual dream-like atmosphere of the separate scenes, and called the choice of Christmas-themed lighting "garish, like an urban sideshow".

Reviewer James Berardinelli stated that it was arguably one of Kubrick's best films. Along with considering Kidman "consistently excellent", he wrote that Kubrick "has something to say about the causes and effects of depersonalized sex", and praised the work as "thought-provoking and unsettling".{{cite web |url=http://preview.reelviews.net/movies/e/eyes_wide.html |title=Review: Eyes Wide Shut |website=Reelviews.net |last=Berardinelli |first=James |author-link=James Berardinelli |date=March 7, 1999 |access-date=September 1, 2016 |archive-date=August 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805101338/http://preview.reelviews.net/movies/e/eyes_wide.html |url-status=live}} Writing for The New York Times, reviewer Janet Maslin commented, "This is a dead-serious film about sexual yearnings, one that flirts with ridicule yet sustains its fundamental eeriness and gravity throughout. The dreamlike intensity of previous Kubrick visions is in full force here."{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/library/film/071699eyes-film-review.html | work=The New York Times | title='Eyes Wide Shut': Danger and Desire in a Haunting Bedroom Odyssey | access-date=February 16, 2017 | archive-date=February 9, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160209174039/http://www.nytimes.com/library/film/071699eyes-film-review.html | url-status=live}}

Some reviewers were unfavorable. One complaint was that the movie's pacing was too slow; while this may have been intended to convey a dream state, critics objected that it made actions and decisions seem laboured.{{cite web|last1=Tatara|first1=Paul|title='Eyes Wide Shut' - All undressed with no place to go|url=http://edition.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/Movies/9907/15/review.eyeswideshut/|website=CNN|date=July 15, 1999|access-date=February 18, 2018|archive-date=February 17, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180217124849/http://edition.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/Movies/9907/15/review.eyeswideshut/|url-status=dead}} Another complaint was that it did not live up to the expectation of it being a "sexy film" which is what it had been marketed as, thus defying audiences' expectations.{{cite journal|last1=Kreider|first1=Tim|jstor=1213735|title=Review|journal=Film Quarterly|date=Spring 2000|volume=53|number=3|pages=41–48|doi=10.2307/1213735}} Many critics, such as Manohla Dargis of LA Weekly, found the prolific orgy scene to be "banal" and "surprisingly tame".{{cite web|last1=Dargis|first1=Manohla|author-link=Manohla Dargis|title=Peep Show|url=http://www.laweekly.com/film/peep-show-2130925|website=LA Weekly|access-date=February 18, 2018|date=July 14, 1999|archive-date=February 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219031707/http://www.laweekly.com/film/peep-show-2130925|url-status=dead}} While Kubrick's "pictorial talents" were described as "striking" by Rod Dreher of the New York Post, the pivotal scene was deemed by Stephen Hunter, writing for The Washington Post, as the "dullest orgy [he'd] ever seen". Hunter elaborates on his criticism, and states that "Kubrick is annoyingly offhand while at the same time grindingly pedantic; plot points are made over and over again, things are explained till the dawn threatens to break in the east, and the movie stumbles along at a glacial pace".{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/eyeswideshuthunter.htm|title=Kubrick's Sleepy 'Eyes Wide Shut'|last=Hunter|first=Stephen|author-link=Stephen Hunter|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=July 16, 1999|access-date=April 7, 2017|archive-date=September 27, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150927160725/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/eyeswideshuthunter.htm|url-status=live}} Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly complained about the inauthenticity of the New York setting, claiming that the soundstage used for the film's production didn't have "enough bustle" to capture the reality of New York.{{cite magazine|last1=Gleiberman|first1=Owen|author-link=Owen Gleiberman|date=July 23, 1999| title=Eyes Wide Shut|url=http://ew.com/article/1999/07/23/eyes-wide-shut-5/|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|access-date=February 18, 2018|archive-date=February 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219090344/http://ew.com/article/1999/07/23/eyes-wide-shut-5/|url-status=live}} Paul Tatara of CNN described the film as a "slow-motion morality tale full of hot female bodies and thoroughly uneventful 'mystery{{'"}}, while Andrew Sarris writing for The New York Observer criticized the film's "feeble attempts at melodramatic tension and suspense".{{cite web|last1=Sarris|first1=Andrew|author-link=Andrew Sarris|title=Eyes Don't Have It: Kubrick Turgid Finale|website=The New York Observer |url=http://observer.com/1999/07/eyes-dont-have-it-kubricks-turgid-finale/|access-date=February 18, 2018|date=July 26, 1999|archive-date=February 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219090526/http://observer.com/1999/07/eyes-dont-have-it-kubricks-turgid-finale/|url-status=live}} David Edelstein of Slate dismissed it as "estranged from any period I recognize. Who are these people played by Cruise and Kidman, who act as if no one has ever made a pass at them and are so deeply traumatized by their newfound knowledge of sexual fantasies—the kind that mainstream culture absorbed at least half a century ago? Who are these aristocrats whose limos take them to secret masked orgies in Long Island mansions? Even dream plays need some grounding in the real world."{{cite magazine|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/1999/07/the_naked_and_the_dead.html|title=The Naked and the Dead|last=Edelstein|first=David|author-link=David Edelstein|magazine=Slate|date=July 16, 1999|access-date=April 7, 2017|archive-date=April 7, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170407235033/http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/1999/07/the_naked_and_the_dead.html|url-status=live}} J. Hoberman wrote that the film "feels like a rough draft at best."{{cite news|url=http://www.villagevoice.com/film/i-wake-up-dreaming-6421330|title=I Wake Up Dreaming|last=Hoberman|first=J.|author-link=J. Hoberman|newspaper=The Village Voice|date=July 20, 1999|access-date=April 7, 2017|archive-date=April 7, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170407233711/http://www.villagevoice.com/film/i-wake-up-dreaming-6421330|url-status=dead}}

Lee Siegel from Harper's felt that most critics responded mainly to the marketing campaign and did not address the film on its own terms. Others felt that American censorship took an esoteric film and made it even harder to understand.{{cite web |url=http://www.moviecitynews.com/festivals/sundance_2006/dp_060125.html |title=For Movie Folks Who Considered Burning Down The Ratings Board When The Adjustment Was Enuf |website=Movie City News |date=January 26, 2006 |access-date=April 15, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071224055634/http://www.moviecitynews.com/festivals/sundance_2006/dp_060125.html |archive-date=December 24, 2007 |url-status=dead}} In his article "Grotesque Caricature", published in Postmodern Culture, Stefan Mattesich praises the film's nuanced caricatured elements, and states that the film's negation of conventional narrative elements is what resulted in its subsequent negative reception.{{cite journal|last1=Mattessich|first1=Stefan|title=Grotesque Caricature: Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut as the Allegory Of Its Own Reception|journal=Postmodern Culture|date=2000|volume=10|issue=2|pages=1–8|doi=10.1353/pmc.2000.0006|s2cid=143503711|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/41945|access-date=February 18, 2018|archive-date=February 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219031233/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/41945|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}

For the introduction to Michel Ciment's Kubrick: The Definitive Edition, Martin Scorsese wrote: "When Eyes Wide Shut came out a few months after Stanley Kubrick's death in 1999, it was severely misunderstood, which came as no surprise. If you go back and look at the contemporary reactions to any Kubrick picture (except the earliest ones), you'll see that all his films were initially misunderstood. Then, after five or ten years came the realization that 2001 or Barry Lyndon or The Shining was like nothing else before or since."{{sfn|Ciment|2003|p=viii}} In 2012, Slant Magazine ranked the film as the second greatest of the 1990s.{{cite web |url=http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/feature/the-100-best-films-of-the-1990s/334/page_10 |title=The 100 Best Films of the 1990s |date=November 5, 2012 |website=Slant Magazine |access-date=August 22, 2014 |archive-date=July 16, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130716145813/http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/feature/the-100-best-films-of-the-1990s/334/page_10 |url-status=live}} The British Film Institute ranked the film at No. 19 on its list of "90 great films of the 1990s".{{cite web|title=90 great films of 1990s|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/90-great-films-1990s|website=bfi.org|date=18 July 2019|access-date=July 18, 2021|archive-date=July 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210719124320/https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/90-great-films-1990s|url-status=live}} In 2022, IndieWire named the film the best movie of the 1990s.{{Cite web |url=https://www.indiewire.com/gallery/best-90s-movies/ |title=The 100 Best Movies of the '90s |date=2022-08-15 |access-date=2024-05-01 |website=IndieWire |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220831003948/https://www.indiewire.com/gallery/best-90s-movies/ |archive-date=2022-08-31 |url-status=live}} The film was listed at number 61 in the BBC's list of the 100 greatest American films of all time.{{cite news |url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150720-the-100-greatest-american-films|title=The 100 greatest American films |work=BBC |date=July 20, 2015|access-date=October 6, 2015|archive-date=September 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916105535/http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150720-the-100-greatest-american-films|url-status=live}}

Though Warner Bros. insisted that Kubrick had turned in his final cut before his death, the film was still in the final stages of post-production, which was therefore completed by the studio in collaboration with Kubrick's estate. Some have argued that the work that remained was minor and exclusively technical in nature, allowing the estate to faithfully complete the film based on the director's notes. However, decisions regarding sound mixing, scoring and color-correction would have necessarily been made without Kubrick's input. Furthermore, Kubrick had a history of continuing to edit his films up until the last minute, and in some cases even after initial public screenings, as had been the case with 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining.{{cite web|last=Allman|first=Marshall|title=Kubrick's Final Film Reimagined|url=https://www.eyeswidecut.com/inspiration/|access-date=August 24, 2018|archive-date=August 25, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180825041252/https://www.eyeswidecut.com/inspiration/|url-status=live}}

Writing for Vanity Fair, Kubrick collaborator Michael Herr recalled a phone call from the director regarding the cut that would be screened for the Warner Bros. executives four days before his death:

{{blockquote|text=... there was looping to be done and the music wasn't finished, lots of small technical fixes on color and sound; would I show work that wasn't finished? He had to show it to Tom and Nicole because they had to sign nudity releases, and to Terry Semel and Bob Daly of Warner Bros., but he hated it that he had to, and I could hear it in his voice that he did.}}

Garrett Brown, inventor of the Steadicam, has expressed that he considers Eyes Wide Shut to be an unfinished film:

{{blockquote|text=I think Eyes Wide Shut was snatched up by the studio when Stanley died and they just grabbed the highest number Avid edit and ran off as if that was the movie. But it was three months before the movie was due to be released. I don't think there's a chance that was the movie he had in mind, or the music track and a lot of other things. It's a great shame because you know it's out there, but it doesn't feel to me as it's really his film.{{cite web |url=http://www.moviegeeksunited.net/kubrick.htm |title=Movie Geeks United! - The Kubrick Series |publisher=Movie Geeks United! |access-date=2017-01-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170107170417/http://www.moviegeeksunited.net/kubrick.htm |archive-date=2017-01-07 |url-status=dead}}}}

Nicole Kidman, one of the stars of the film, briefly wrote about the completion of the film and the release of the film being at the same time as John F. Kennedy Jr.'s death from her perspective:

{{blockquote|text=There was a lot of interest in Eyes Wide Shut before it was released. But the weekend it came out, July 16, 1999, was the death of JFK Jr., his wife and her sister – a black, black weekend. And for Stanley to have died [on March 7, 1999, at age 70] before the film opened... Well, it all felt so dark and strange. Stanley had sent over the cut he considered done to us, Tom and I watched it in New York – and then he died.{{cite magazine |last1=Ginsburg|first1=Merle|title=Nicole Kidman on Life with Tom Cruise Through Stanley Kubrick's Lens|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/nicole-kidman-stanley-kubricks-lens-382186|date=October 24, 2012|magazine=The Hollywood Reporter|access-date=24 November 2012|archive-date=February 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219031242/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/nicole-kidman-stanley-kubricks-lens-382186|url-status=live}}}}

Jan Harlan, Kubrick's brother-in-law and executive producer, reported that Kubrick was "very happy" with the film and considered it to be his "greatest contribution to the art of cinema".{{cite web |url=http://www.dvdtalk.com/janharlaninterview.html |title=On Kubrick – A Talk With Kubrick Documentarian Jan Harlan |website=DVD Talk |access-date=August 22, 2014 |archive-date=November 9, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141109010216/http://www.dvdtalk.com/janharlaninterview.html |url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://timessquare.com/Film/Film_Interviews/Jan_Harlan_Keeps_His_Eyes_Wide_Open_On_New_Ideas/ |title=Jan Harlan Keeps His Eyes Wide Open On New Ideas | Times Square New York City |website=Timessquare.com |date=November 7, 2007 |access-date=July 2, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120226124101/http://timessquare.com/Film/Film_Interviews/Jan_Harlan_Keeps_His_Eyes_Wide_Open_On_New_Ideas/ |archive-date=February 26, 2012}}

R. Lee Ermey, an actor in Kubrick's film Full Metal Jacket, stated that Kubrick phoned him two weeks before his death to express his despondency over Eyes Wide Shut. "He told me it was a piece of shit", Ermey said in Radar magazine, "and that he was disgusted with it and that the critics were going to 'have him for lunch'. He said Cruise and Kidman had their way with him – exactly the words he used."{{cite web|url=http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/2010/03/kubrick-says-cruise-kidman-ruined-eyes-wide-shut|title=Kubrick says Cruise and Kidman ruined EWS|date=March 2, 2010 |website=FilmDrunk |publisher=Uproxx|access-date=April 8, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100419035751/http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/2010/03/kubrick-says-cruise-kidman-ruined-eyes-wide-shut|archive-date=April 19, 2010|url-status=dead}}

According to Todd Field, Kubrick's friend and an actor in Eyes Wide Shut, Ermey's claims do not accurately reflect Kubrick's essential attitude. Field's response appeared in an October 18, 2006, interview with Grouch Reviews:

The polite thing would be to say 'No comment'. But the truth is that  ... let's put it this way, you've never seen two actors more completely subservient and prostrate themselves at the feet of a director. Stanley was absolutely thrilled with the film. He was still working on the film when he died. And he probably died because he finally relaxed. It was one of the happiest weekends of his life, right before he died, after he had shown the first cut to Terry, Tom and Nicole. He would have kept working on it, like he did on all of his films. But I know that from people around him personally, my partner who was his assistant for thirty years. And I thought about R. Lee Ermey for In the Bedroom. And I talked to Stanley a lot about that film, and all I can say is Stanley was adamant that I shouldn't work with him for all kinds of reasons that I won't get into because there is no reason to do that to anyone, even if they are saying slanderous things that I know are completely untrue.{{cite web|url=http://grouchoreviews.com/interviews/187|title=Todd Field – Little Children|date=October 18, 2006|website=grouchoreviews.com|access-date=August 10, 2018|archive-date=August 10, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180810205522/http://grouchoreviews.com/interviews/187|url-status=live}}

Citing contractual obligations to deliver an R rating, Warner Bros. digitally altered the orgy for the film's American release by blocking out graphic sexuality using additional figures to obscure the view in order to avoid an adults-only NC-17 rating that would have limited its financial viability. This alteration antagonized both film critics and cinephiles,{{cite news | url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/film/072899eyes-movie.html |last=Weinraub |first=Bernard | work=The New York Times | title=Critics Assail Ratings Board Over 'Eyes Wide Shut' | access-date=November 9, 2012 | archive-date=May 30, 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130530041334/http://partners.nytimes.com/library/film/072899eyes-movie.html | url-status=live}} who argued that Kubrick had never been shy about ratings (A Clockwork Orange was originally given an X rating). The unrated version of Eyes Wide Shut was released in the United States on October 23, 2007, on DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray formats.

Roger Ebert heavily criticized the technique of using digital images to mask the action. In his positive review of the film, he said it "should not have been done at all" and it is "symbolic of the moral hypocrisy of the rating system that it would force a great director to compromise his vision, while by the same process making his adult film more accessible to young viewers."{{cite web|last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |title=Eyes Wide Shut |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/eyes-wide-shut-1999 |date=July 16, 1999 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925034240/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F19990716%2FREVIEWS%2F907160302%2F1023 |archive-date=September 25, 2012 |url-status=live}} Although Ebert has been frequently cited as calling the standard North American R-rated version the "Austin Powers" version of Eyes Wide Shut – referring to two scenes in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery in which, through camera angles and coincidences, full frontal nudity is blocked from view in a comical way{{cite news|url=http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/07.15.99/eyeswideshut-9928.html |work=Metro Silicon Valley |title=Adulterers Only |last=von Busack |first=Richard |author-link=Richard von Busack

|date=July 15, 1999 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606225445/http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/07.15.99/eyeswideshut-9928.html |archive-date=June 6, 2011 |url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.filmblather.com/review.php?n=eyeswideshut |website=FilmBlather |title=Eyes Wide Shut (1999) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100923052226/http://filmblather.com/review.php?n=eyeswideshut |archive-date=September 23, 2010 |url-status=dead}} – his review stated that this joke referred to an early rough draft of the altered scene, never publicly released.

• List of Christmas films

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Adams|first=Mark|title=Location London|publisher=Interlink|year=2004|isbn=978-1-84330-478-4}}
• {{cite book|title=Eyes Wide Shut|first=Michel|last=Chion|publisher=BFI Publishing|year=2002|isbn=978-0-85170-932-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/eyeswideshut0000chio}}
• {{cite book|last=Ciment|first=Michel|year=2003|title=Kubrick: The Definitive Edition|publisher=Faber and Faber|isbn=978-0-571-21108-1}}
• {{cite book|title=The Wolf at the Door: Stanley Kubrick, History, & the Holocaust|first=Geoffrey|last=Cocks|publisher=Peter Lang|year=2004|isbn=978-0-8204-7115-0}}
• {{cite book|title=Depth of Field: Stanley Kubrick, Film, and the Uses of History |editor-last1=Cocks |editor-first1=Geoffrey |editor-last2=Diedrick |editor-first2=James |editor-last3=Perusek |editor-first3=Glenn |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-299-21614-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/depthoffieldstan0000unse}}
• {{harvc |last=Kreider |first=Tim |c=Introducing Sociology |in1=Cocks |in2=Diedrick |in3=Perusek |year=2006 |pages=280–297 }}
• {{harvc |last=Loewenberg |first=Peter |c=Freud, Schnitzler, and Eyes Wide Shut |in1=Cocks |in2=Diedrick |in3=Perusek |year=2006 |pages=255–279 }}
• {{harvc |last=Rosenbaum |first=Jonathan |c=In Dreams Begin Responsibilities |in1=Cocks |in2=Diedrick |in3=Perusek |year=2006 |pages=245–254 }}
• {{cite book|title=Directors Close Up 2: Interviews with Directors Nominated for Best Film by the Directors Guild of America: 2006–2012|last=Kagan|first=Jeremy|publisher=Scarecrow Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0-8108-8391-8|location=United Kingdom|pages=362}}
• {{cite book|first=Thomas Allen | last=Nelson | title=Kubrick: Inside a Film Artist's Maze. New and Expanded Edition | year=2000 | publisher=Indiana University Press | isbn=978-0-253-21390-7}}
• {{cite journal|url=http://www.theasc.com/magazine/oct99/sword/pg1.htm|title=A Sword in the Bed|first=Stephen|last=Pizzella|journal=American Cinematographer|issue=33|date=October 28, 1999|access-date=November 18, 2012|archive-date=June 21, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130621112726/http://www.theasc.com/magazine/oct99/sword/pg1.htm|url-status=live}}
• {{cite book|last1=Powrie |first1=Phil |last2=Stilwell |first2=Robynn Jeananne |year=2006 |title=Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-Existing Music in Film |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. |isbn=978-0-7546-5137-6}}
• {{cite book|first=Frederic|last=Raphael|title=Eyes Wide Open. A Memoir of Stanley Kubrick and Eyes Wide Shut|publisher=Orion Publishing|year=2000|isbn=978-0-7538-0955-6}}
• {{cite book| last=Rasmussen | first=Randy | title=Stanley Kubrick: Seven Films Analyzed | publisher=McFarland & Company | year=2005 | isbn = 978-0-7864-2152-7}}
• {{cite book|title=Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries|last=Ronson|first=Jon|publisher=Picador|year=2013|isbn=978-1-4472-6471-2|location=London|pages=170, 174}}

{{sister project links|d=Q209481|c=category:Eyes Wide Shut|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|wikt=no|s=no|species=no|display=Eyes Wide Shut}}

• {{IMDb title}}
• {{Mojo title}}
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• {{Metacritic film}}
• {{Rotten Tomatoes}}
• {{AFI film}}
• [https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150451242 Eyes Wide Shut] at the British Film Institute
• {{TCMDb title}}

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