MovieChat Forums > Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Discussion > The sex looks so fake

The sex looks so fake

posted 8 years ago by !!!deleted!!! (12526472)
10 replies | jump to latest

All the sexual activity in the ogry looked so fake, like some cheap 80s/90s soft porn where they clearly are not actually having sex. I am not referring to the fact that you cannot see penetration, I mean that their bodily motions just don't look convincing. I found this to be so noticeable that the scenes became almost comical.

Before someone replies with "it looks fake because it is fake", I am suggesting that Kubrik surely could have got the simulated sex looking more convincing if he'd wanted.

Do you think this was intentional, for some symbolic reason? Or perhaps it was something to do with getting past the censors?

[–] tamsaunders 8 years ago

It's definitely faked intentionally to keep the scene symbolic. I can't believe Kubrick would let risk of censorship run things.

[–] !!!deleted!!! (12526472) 8 years ago

I considered this because he was contracted to keep it within an R rating in the US. People postulate that the orgy scene was all a dream of Bill's. I can't say that this would have occurred to me but if they are right, and Kubrick wanted a sense of unreality, maybe the unreal appearance of the sex was done because of this?

[–] eweland 8 years ago

Those "it was all just a dream" verdicts have ruined many sex-about movies, and movies about sex. Not expecting much from the past reviews for EWS, I was somewhat amazed how much I really liked it. Surreal. Disturbing. Real enough that I felt threatened inside Somerton.

I can't think of any other films Kubrick made where a character resorts to daydreams, except for Jack Torrance in THE SHINING. We accept that Jack's just hallucinating all of The Gold Room people like Lloyd and Delbert Grady from a period in the Overlook hotel's past. Until one of his "hallucinatory" harmless fantasy-people actually opens up a locked pantry door for Jack...

Kubrick wanted to turn all of those common "it was all just a dream" verdicts into a singular, psychotic, bloody-axe "reality nightmare." Keep dreaming it was all a fantasy, until Jack actually kills you. That's the real terror of THE SHINING: you don't know where you are in time, you don't know who to trust, and you really don't understand just how dangerous The Overlook Hotel actually is.

Actual sex never looks just like a porn film. Participants don't have perfect hair and full-makeup on, every time they decide to have sex.
_

Kubrick's film - will always be the definitive version of The Shining.

[–] bradhbbrd 8 years ago

"I can't think of any other films Kubrick made where a character resorts to daydreams, except for Jack Torrance in THE SHINING"

Alex has several daydreams in clockwork orange.

[–] eweland 8 years ago

You're right, I forgot ACO. But it's obvious Alex is daydreaming while reading the Bible. Many films today don't make that clear, and that's why so many people jump on the "just a dream" bandwagon.

It seems to have ruined many films, because many can no longer accept a film as reality, even when it's a fantastic vision.
_

Kubrick's film - will always be the definitive version of The Shining.

[–] Barbed_Wire_Strawberry 8 years ago

They also fail to understand that film can show abstractions visually like thoughts and feelings. 'Reality' in a film is a dream state.

Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride

[–] bradhbbrd 8 years ago

I think it was meant to look that way.
This is sex without love, sex as ritual.
It was definitely some pagan ceremony, the circle of girls kissing seemed to represent the yearly cycle with one season passing into the next.
Note twelve girls, twelve months.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] deathcreeper 8 years ago

Strange it looks fake when it's actually real.

No more dead Lannisters
No More dead Trolls

[–] Andy4444 8 years ago

Yes it looks fake. In my experience the masks are always way creepier. A horsehead mask is the minimum, and from there we move up to creepy clowns and keep going.