{"id":367042,"date":"2025-12-25T01:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T01:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/367042\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T01:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T01:01:09","slug":"paul-schrader-dismisses-eyes-wide-shut-as-a-descent-into-crazyland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/367042\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Schrader Dismisses ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ as a Descent Into ‘Crazyland’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Schrader<\/a> doesn\u2019t shy away from airing his views on Facebook<\/a>, even when that means ruffling feathers. <\/p>\n

Last week, right in time for the holidays, the \u201cMaster Gardener\u201d and \u201cFirst Reformed\u201d director took aim at Stanley Kubrick<\/a>\u2019s \u201cEyes Wide Shut<\/a>,\u201d despite it being considered a masterpiece by many of his industry peers<\/a> and a tried-and-true Christmas classic.<\/p>\n

\u201cEYES WIDE SHUT. I watched the Criterion reissue so see if my opinion (not positive) had changed over time. The first hour is brilliants, razor sharp dialogue, top notch performances by Kidman and Cruise. After that it falls into woowoo Bosch Imperiati sex party crazyland,\u201d Schrader posted<\/a> on his social media platform of choice. \u201cAfter aother half hour EWS stuggles to right itself on the rails but cannot. It\u2019s like someone who tries to convince you something illogical makes sense only to make it seem even crazier. The Criterion extras make a big deal about how Kubrick replicated NYC but even that seems false: wrong extras, body language, street lighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Raphael<\/a> \"'Song<\/a> <\/p>\n

The director was referring to the Criterion Collection\u2019s 4K restoration of Kubrick\u2019s erotic thriller, released last month. In addition to correcting color and lighting issues, the restoration overseen by director of photography Larry Smith<\/a> returns the film<\/a>\u2019s once-censored sex scenes to their original glory<\/a>. But it\u2019s likely not the removal of the hooded digital figures, which were added to \u201cEyes Wide Shut\u201d to block onscreen penetration in 1999, that Schrader was taking issue with, since previous rereleases did the same. Instead, he seems to have a problem with the entire premise of the film, which sends its protagonist, Dr. Bill (Tom Cruise), on a dreamy journey into the world of an elite sex cult, the film probing the politics of marriage along the way.<\/p>\n

On top of critiquing the fantasy portion of \u201cEyes Wide Shut\u201d for being illogical and unrealistic, Schrader\u2019s comments also seem to imply he\u2019s in a camp of people who believe Kubrick wasn\u2019t finished perfecting the film when he died right before its release. (Kubrick\u2019s collaborators on the feature broadly dispute this point.) Or that Kubrick, Cruise, and Nicole Kidman lost control of the film after an hour in.<\/p>\n

Schrader\u2019s Facebook page is far from the only reason he\u2019s a controversial figure; this year, the director made headlines for assault allegations made by his former assistant<\/a>. Since releasing the Richard Gere-led \u201cOh, Canada\u201d in 2024, Schrader also wrapped shooting \u201cThe Basics of Philosophy,\u201d with Jack Huston and Sofia Boutella, and is looking for more ways to use AI in his films.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Schrader doesn\u2019t shy away from airing his views on Facebook, even when that means ruffling feathers. Last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,157236,1554,157237,115473],"class_list":{"0":"post-367042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-eyes-wide-shut","12":"tag-film","13":"tag-paul-schrader","14":"tag-stanley-kubrick"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}