EWS: A love letter to Christiane Kubrick?

[Acquisitn]

After staying up almost all night thinking about the film, and now this morning
starting to hear increasing reports that Kubrick and his wife Christiane appear
as extras in the film, I wonder if one of EWS's subtexts is a final love letter
to Kubrick's wife of 41 years. If anything the film would seem to be a
portrait of a marriage gone bad, something that both Stanley and Christiane
knew about since they had both been married to other people before they met.
Everything that was right about their marriage is hinted at by portraying
everything that is wrong with the Harford's marriage. It's like saying, "We
have a good relationship, but a lot of people around us do not."

[Marilyn J. Hadlick]

I wondered that myself, especially in light of how many of
Christiane's paintings appear in Bill and Alice's apartment -
and which (either Cruise or Kidman) said in a recent interview was
based on the layout and look of a previous apartment of Stanley &
Christiane's. Did anyone notice the huge cat painting in the hall?

And there there's the use of Pre-Raphaelite paintings in the coffee
house (all idealized portraits of women, especially Rosseti)

Marilyn

[Michael Ballard]

Kubrick's daughter also did some of the paintings.

Shane

[Ed Felstein]

Acquisitn wrote:
>
> After staying up almost all night thinking about the film, and now this morning
> starting to hear increasing reports that Kubrick and his wife Christiane appear
> as extras in the film, I wonder if one of EWS's subtexts is a final love letter
> to Kubrick's wife of 41 years. If anything the film would seem to be a
> portrait of a marriage gone bad, something that both Stanley and Christiane
> knew about since they had both been married to other people before they met.
> Everything that was right about their marriage is hinted at by portraying
> everything that is wrong with the Harford's marriage. It's like saying, "We
> have a good relationship, but a lot of people around us do not."

I think the film could very well be a Valentine to Mrs. K, but I
disagree that the EWS shows a marriage "gone bad". I see it as being
about those secret, unspoken undercurrents of illicit desire that exist
in ALL marriages, and that when openly confronted can -- given the time,
the place, the mood (and, in this case, sobriety) of the two principals
involved -- sometimes cause unexpected personal drama. I think that
with EWS, Kubrick may have been acknowledging the fact that marriage is
anything but an exact science. To the naive Bill, "forever" is a
reality and a necessity. The much more world-wise Alice knows better,
which is why the word disturbs her. Yet in the end, there is a sense of
mutual peace and contentment with the uncertainties that lie ahead for
both of them. It is one of the most genuinely "human" moments that I
have ever seen in a movie.

[Andrew Foley]

Michael Ballard wrote in message
<26009-37...@newsd-291.iap.bryant.webtv.net>...

Kubrick's daughter also did some of the paintings.

Which one of Kubrick's daughters?

[Ed Felstein]

Vantheman wrote:
>
> i agree with you ed totally...as a Kubrick fan i've been disappointed by his
> last three films but i feel he hit it out of the park with EWS. the biggest
> mystery surrounding the film, for me, was why he cast Cruise and Kidman, but
> now that i've seen it i understand completly. as a married couple
> Cruise/Kidman generate no sexual chemistry/tension. Why should Kubrick look
> any further then these two to illustrate a marriage that's off track. Notice
> the sexual tension when they are with other members of the opposite sex. it's
> pretty high, but together nil. I wonder if this was Kubrick's little "joke" on
> our famous couple?

Could very well be. There are so many dynamics at work in the
relationship between Bill and Alice that Kubrick's having cast Tom and
Nicole now seems not merely a brilliant idea, but an absolute
necessity. Because of our perceptions of Tom and Nicole (which may be
correct, partly correct, or entirely incorrect) -- as individuals, as a
married couple, and as movie stars -- an entire layer of depth is added
which would have been missing had the roles been played by unmarried
unknowns.

[Vantheman]

[LewisR]

Absolutely. Kidman says in her interview in Rolling Stone
that the apartment is a recreation of the Kubricks'
apartment in NY. What clinched it for me is that when Bill
is approaching the gay-baiters you can see painted on the
wall to his right: Thank you. I love you.

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