Nicole Kidman confirms that Stanley Kubrick finished Eyes Wide Shut before his death, having been editing for 18 months.
When Stanley Kubrick died just days after screening a cut of Eyes Wide Shut — and four months before its premiere — there were a lot of unanswered questions. What even was this film about? What would he do with Hollywood power couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman? Was he even done with the film? Even a quarter century after the release of Eyes Wide Shut, that last one is still debated, with some claiming that while Kubrick did shoot everything he intended to and screened what he had, he was nowhere near complete. But according to Kidman, her perfectionist director was well enough ready to release what would end up being his “haunting final masterpiece.”
When asked by the LA Times if the version of Eyes Wide Shut we all saw was in fact the version he intended for release, Kidman insisted, “Oh, yeah. He had been editing it for 18 months. It wasn’t like he didn’t have enough time. He was very happy with it. For him to show it to us, that is huge, if you know Stanley. And the Warners people were there. He wasn’t going back to the drawing board.”
By most accounts, this holds true, with it being agreed that a few clean-ups in the area of color correction and music cues still had to be fixed or added. But, really, it wouldn’t have been surprising in the least to find out that Stanley Kubrick wasn’t yet done with Eyes Wide Shut. After all, this is the guy who was making cuts on 2001: A Space Odyssey on the way to its premiere and The Shining after its release! Then again, with that 18-month editing stint on top of a record-setting 15-month continuous shoot, one would have to imagine Kubrick had everything he would need.
Eyes Wide Shut would end up being one of the most divisive movies in Kubrick’s filmography. But today, it’s generally considered an absolute masterpiece, a stunning finale to one of the greatest bodies of work in cinema history. Oh, and it’s *totally* a Christmas movie…
Where would you rank Eyes Wide Shut in the filmography of Stanley Kubrick? Give us the password and let us know in the comments section below.