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There are quite a few classic movies that tend to come up in an, "is this a Christmas movie?" debate: Die Hard (1988), Gremlins (1984), and even The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)are just a few that come to mind. However, Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick's 1999 erotic thriller starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, might be one of the more controversial additions to that list.

Set at Christmastime, Eyes Wide Shut follows New Yorker Dr. Bill Harford (Cruise) as he decides to infiltrate a secret sexual society after learning that his wife (Kidman) has considered having an extra-marital affair. Fans of the film have discussed whether the psychosexual flick can be regarded as a holiday movie, citing both the film's setting and themes as evidence. However, some people argue that the events of the story have nothing to do with the holidays. So, is Eyes Wide Shut a Christmas movie? Is Kubrick's final film,...

Tom Cruise fans can always be thankful that they never have to wait too long for something new. Ever since he walked into Hollywood in the early ‘80s, he has consistently been cast (or cast himself) in major blockbusters, earning his spot among the greatest movie stars of all time. Since his debut in 1981, Cruise has averaged a movie a year, starring in a whopping 44 motion pictures so far. That’s quite an impressive streak, considering that he had lead actor roles in most of these projects, requiring him to be on set for months. And when you consider the fact that he mostly does his stunts, you feel compelled to applaud.

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*Availability in US Release Date July 16, 1999Director Stanley KubrickCast Marie Richardson, Todd Field, Sydney Pollack, Nicole Kidman, Tom CruiseRuntime 159 minutes

Cruise has a preference for action films, but so far, he...

Stanley Kubrick's films were the antithesis of conventional Hollywood storytelling. From 2001: A Space Odyssey to The Shining and A Clockwork Orange, Kubrick's attention to detail and obsessive need for perfectionism left behind a collection of cinematic achievements that many consider far ahead of anything that's been made before or since and is synonymous with depth and complexity. It's been 25 years since the release of his final film, Eyes Wide Shut, and discussion regarding the film's content still exists among scholars, critics, and cinephiles, all of whom have their own unique interpretations.

Eyes Wide Shut, starring Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise and featuring a supporting role from acclaimed director Sydney Pollack, thrives on the most basic task assigned to the viewing audience of any film: perception. It combines the tumultuous relationship of a wealthy doctor and his wife, who project outward appearances to cloak what occurs behind closed doors,...

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Sanctuary is a psychological thriller directed by Zachary Wigon from a screenplay by Micah Bloomberg. Starring Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott in the lead role of a dominatrix and Hal, who is soon becoming the CEO of a large corporation and that’s why he wants to end his relationship with the dominatrix as he fears that it will come out later. This starts off a dark and twisted night that will leave you gasping for air. Sanctuary stars Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott. So, if you loved the intensely thrilling story, inappropriate relationships, and compelling characters in Sanctuary here are some similar movies you should check out next.

Secretary (Tubi & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Lions Gate Films

Secretary is an erotic romantic drama film directed by Steven Shainberg from a screenplay by Erin Cressida Wilson. Based...

Music in movie trailers can make or break the film, as it sets the tone and draws in the audience effectively. Choosing the right song for a trailer can add emotion and depth to a scene, enhancing the overall viewing experience. Familiar songs in trailers can create a sense of nostalgia and intrigue, keeping viewers engaged and interested in the film.

Although movie trailers are a form of marketing, they have evolved to be an art form in and of themselves, leading to exciting music choices. Scoring and soundtrack decisions can make or break a piece of cinema, and this starts with the trailer. Some of this comes down to budget, as the more high-profile a song is, the more expensive it will be. However, there are instances when musicians appreciate the art and allow their work to be featured in a lower-budget project. This can be a saving grace...

At the end of Eyes Wide Shut, Dr. Bill Harford and his wife Alice come together in that most normative of spaces: an Fao Schwarz toy store. As they watch their daughter look at potential presents, Bill feebly tries to explain his sexual sojourn through the city we just watched, one prompted by Alice’s confession of lust for a random sailor. Upon the completion of Bill’s story, Alice declares, “There is something we need to do as soon as possible.” What’s that, her husband and the audience asks? Fuck.”

The camera holds on her face for a beat or two and then cuts to black. End of movie.

Between Nicole Kidman’s percussive line delivery, Tom Cruise’s bewildered expression, and the sudden cut to credits, Alice’s statement feels definitive. Yet, like every other part of Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick’s final film, the word is both precise and beguiling,...

No matter how old you are, or where you are in life, it's never too late to pursue a passion, as seen in Food and Romance. The Swedish romantic comedy revolves around a woman who discovers her husband's cheating on her at the same time he goes into the hospital with a major injury. While there, she's reunited with a high school friend, putting her on a path of breaking out of her shell and forging a new life for herself.

Marie Richardson leads the cast of Food and Romance alongside Carina M. Johansson, Sussie Ericsson, Björn Kjellman, Ida Engvoll, Maria Sid, and Peter Stormare. Full of heart, charm, and some truly appetizing dishes, the film is sure to bring as many laughs as it is to create growling stomachs.

Related: Keanu Reeves’ Constantine 2 Return Is A Massive Win For DC

In honor of the film's release, Screen Rant...

Peter Stormare and Marie Richardson in Food And Romance

Promoting a film is hard work. There’s either far too much to do, or it’s distressingly difficult to drum up interest. Although people making films for the love of it usually retain their passion, they are often low on energy when it comes to interviews. I have never met anybody in the industry quite as enthusiastic about his work as Swedish/American actor Peter Stormare, who is determined to squeeze as much as he can into the time we have for talking about Food And Romance, and who gives the strong impression that he’d be happy to keep talking about it all day if he didn’t have people trying to move him on to his next meeting. It’s easy to see how he has made such an impression on directors he has worked with in the past,...

Sometimes the seemingly most tragic events in a person’s life can ultimately lead them to find their true happiness and fulfillment. That’s certainly the case for actress Marie Richardson’s protagonist of Karin in the new romantic comedy, ‘Food and Romance.’ Samuel Goldwyn Films is distributing the Swedish feature in U.S. theaters and on VOD and […]

The post Watch an Exclusive Clip From Romantic Comedy Food and Romance appeared first on Shockya.com.

The first thing one notices about Food And Romance is how the baby boomer generation is reshaping perspectives on ageing. A few years ago, films about women discovering themselves after years of marriage and experiencing late life romance had heroines in their forties. Here, Karin (Marie Richardson) has a daughter who is about to turn 40. She and her friends are dealing with care provision for their peers, the death of parents and the weight of relationships which have defined so much of their lives that it’s difficult to imagine anything else. Past the point of panicking about changes in their appearance, they’re contending with the fact that they likely to have only a decade or two of active life left. If it is truly going to be lived, that has to happen now.

First seen preparing food for a garden party in celebration of her ruby wedding anniversary,...

Screen Rant is excited to present an exclusive new clip from the upcoming romantic comedy, Food and Romance. Originally known as Tisdagsklubben or Tuesday Club in its native Sweden, the film centers on a woman who takes a second chance at life and love when a surprise revelation brings her world falling down around her. It's based on the best-selling novel by Anna Frederiksson, who also wrote the screenplay, and directed by Annika Appelin. Food and Romance stars Marie Richardson (Eyes Wide Shut) and Peter Stormare (Fargo and Constantine), and it will release in theaters and on VOD from December 2nd.

When Karin (Richardson) discovers her husband has been cheating on her, she's forced to re-evaluate her entire life. Unwilling to accept that her life has an expiration date, she looks to friends (played by Sussie Ericsson and Carina M. Johansson) to help her move on and forward. Reminded of a love of food,...

"I dreamed of working with food, but then I got pregnant early." Samuel Goldwyn Films has revealed an official US trailer for an indie romantic comedy from Sweden titled Food and Romance, which is the very generic English title for this movie originally known as Tuesday Club (or Tisdagsklubben) in Swedish. A sudden change discovering her husband is cheating forces Karin to re-evaluate her life. With the help of friends, food and passion she refuses to accept that life has an expiration date and takes the second chance she is given to explore her passions and find new love. This almost seems like Sweden's version of Eat Pray Love. Of course she'll find love again when she gets obsessed with food!! This stars Marie Richardson, Peter Stormare, Ida Engvoll, Björn Kjellman, Sussie Ericsson, Carina M. Johansson, & Maria Sid. It looks charming and spunky, with an unexpected twist of Stormare being...

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“You Either Care Or You Don’T Care”

By Raymond Benson

[Much of this review is culled from a Cinema Retro 2018 review by the author of the Kino Lorber DVD release.]

Tony Zierra’s fascinating documentary that premiered at Cannes in 2017 (and was released theatrically in 2018) is about an unsung hero in the lore of legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick—Leon Vitali, who describes himself not as an “assistant,” but as a “filmworker.”

Vitali, now in his seventies, began his career as an actor in the 1960s, appearing in various British films and television programs. After being impressed with Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange, Vitali told a friend, “I want to work for that guy.” He managed to get an audition for Kubrick’s next picture, Barry Lyndon, and landed the key role of Lord Bullingdon, the main antagonist of the film. Vitali received much praise for his performance, but instead of continuing an acting career,...

“Kubrick’S Right-hand Man…And Legs, Shoulders, Other Hand, Etc.”

By Raymond Benson

Tony Zierra’s fascinating documentary that premiered at Cannes in 2017 (and was released theatrically in 2018) is about an unsung hero in the lore of legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick—Leon Vitali, who describes himself not as an “assistant,” but as a “filmworker.”

Vitali, now 70 years old, began his career as an actor in the 1960s, appearing in various British films and television programs. After being impressed with Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange, Vitali told a friend, “I want to work for that guy.” He managed to get an audition for Kubrick’s next picture, Barry Lyndon, and landed the key role of Lord Bullingdon, the main antagonist of the film. Vitali received much praise for his performance, but instead of continuing an acting career, he made an extraordinary left turn. He asked Kubrick...

Leon Vitali‬ with Anne-Katrin Titze on Stanley Kubrick and the casting of Danny Lloyd for The Shining: "I could make that boy [David Morley in Barry Lyndon] focus." Photo: David Ninh

Tony Zierra's exhaustive Filmworker, which had its world première in last year's Cannes Film Festival (Christopher Nolan will present 2001: A Space Odyssey on a remastered 70mm print this year), tackles the volatile and loving relationship of the most indispensable person in Stanley Kubrick's world. Through interviews that include Matthew Modine, R Lee Ermey, and Tim Colceri on Full Metal Jacket, Marie Richardson and Lisa Leone on Eyes Wide Shut, Ryan O'Neal on Barry Lyndon, Danny Lloyd on The Shining, and executive producer Jan Harlan (nephew of Veit Harlan and brother of Christiane Kubrick) we learn about the all-encompassing role Leon Vitali ended up playing in the life of the demanding film director.

Leon Vitali as Lord Bullingdon: "As an actor,...

Simon Brew Apr 28, 2017

The actors whose role in a film was shot, but chopped out of the final cut...

Yep, I know. I’ve read lists like this too, and I know that Eric Stoltz was cut out of Back To The Future. If it’s all well and good, I’ll leave that example out.

See related Alien 5 to ignore Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection Alien 5: will it ever happen?

What I’ve tried to find here is a mix of reasonably known and less known instances of an actor being cut out of a film after they’ve filmed sequences for it. I’ve also tried to get to the reason they were left out as well.

Whilst all this may still sound like an exercise in clickbait, being cut out of a production does have a consequence beyond ego hurting a bit. For the side effect...

Hollywood Film Festival

Sonet Film

The powerful Swedish film "Everyone Loves Alice", from writer-director Richard Hobert, is reminiscent in intensity and intimacy of Ingmar Bergman's gripping 1973 film "Scenes From a Marriage".

"Alice"'s intelligent script keeps vigil over two contemporary Swedish families whose lives slowly unravel and perhaps come back together again in the wake of a breakup and impending divorce. As with Bergman's "Marriage", "Alice" forces its audience to confront emotionally charged events as if from the inside out. It's only the sheer physical beauty of cinematographer Lars Crepin's sweeping Swedish and Norwegian vistas that softens the blow of this otherwise painful close-up of dissolving families.

"Alice" could generate major buzz among sophisticated American filmgoers who crave this kind of intelligent filmmaking.

The film's title character, 12-year-old Alice (Natalie Bjork), watches in horror as her parents' marriage dissolves and her father, Johan (Mikael Persbrandt), moves in with another woman, Anna Lena Endre), a co-worker who happens to live next door. The separation leaves Alice's mother (Marie Richardson) despairing and bitter and Alice confused about who should get her loyalties. Hobert keeps the camera planted on Alice's face throughout much of the film, giving her substantial control of the narrative but of little else in her life. Alice's wish to control (and to stop) what is happening to her family propels her into spying on the adults; she's privy to more primal scenes than even Freud could have conjured up.

If Hobert's script has one fault, it is that his characters are so knowing about their complex situation they often sound like psych textbooks. But the film compensates by creating an almost visceral, in-your-face kind of cinema: The camera stays so closely perched on the expressions of Hobert's characters that it's hard to step back from them and take a breather.

Hobert enriches "Alice" with a vitality that emanates from the uniqueness of his characters. "Alice" is a major achievement, ample in intelligence, impressively paced and stunning in cinematic beauty.

The late Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" is one last daring and unique cinematic achievement in an incomparable 13-film career that's sadly over too soon. After only one viewing, the film generates a range of reactions and impressions -- from puzzlement to fascination with the puzzle.

Destined like all his films to be discussed and dissected by the multitude of fans and pundits, Kubrick's final work is challenging and richly rewarding. Big domestic and international boxoffice numbers are a certainty.

It almost goes without saying that the years-in-the-making Warner Bros. release is a risky, demanding film for summer 1999 audiences gorged on fast-food movies. Although comparable only in their using Hollywood stars to help create major works with personal visions, "Eyes" opens almost the same weekend as the similarly R-rated "Saving Private Ryan", which was last year's boxoffice champ -- and there wasn't a single naked woman in it.

While no shots are fired in anger or axes swung or bones thrown, "Eyes" is unmistakably a Kubrick creation. Alas, it will be immediately known as the season's most fleshy offering, starting with the first brief shot of Nicole Kidman. It's also her real-life husband Tom Cruise's first appearance on film since "Jerry Maguire" three Christmases ago.

This potent combination of stars, subject matter and master filmmaker, with the story "inspired" by Austrian writer Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 short novel "Traumnovelle", results in a powerful drama. The unusual plot centers on a successful Manhattan doctor and his young wife who come close to breaking up during a lost weekend of damaging revelations, betrayals and fantastic encounters with sad and strange denizens of the city's erotic subculture.

To dispell one possible misconception about the film: There may be lots of nudity, but there's not much sex. There is an orgy scene -- with 65 seconds of various copulating couples obscured by digitally inserted partygoers to get an R-rating -- but it comes and goes quickly with an hour still to go in the film (not at the end, as has been erroneously reported).

The unclothed female form more than the sexual act is the focus of Kubrick's somewhat unnerving eroticism. There is the fleeting warmth of the early embraces between Bill Harford (Cruise) and his spouse Alice (Kidman) in the short sequence that Kubrick released months ago as a teaser. Later, they lounge in bed partially clothed and get stoned, but the lazy mood is shattered when talk turns to a party they attended where both flirted dangerously with strangers.

"Eyes" opens with Bill and Alice preparing for that party, held in the mansion of Ziegler (Sydney Pollack). They leave a 7-year-old daughter with a babysitter and appear untroubledly in love. But separated from Bill at the posh gathering, Alice has a few drinks and dances in the arms of a seductive older man (Sky Dumont).

She really lets herself go in these remarkable scenes, approaching but not giving into temptation. Bill is likewise almost swept away by the attentions of two young women before he's summoned by Ziegler to handle a difficult situation. Professionally detached at first in the host's cavernous bathroom, Bill treats a naked party guest (Julienne Davis) who has collapsed after shooting drugs.

In their talk after the fact, when Bill is too casual in his acknowledgement of his wife's sexual allure and his too-proud lack of jealousy, Alice angrily deconstructs his statements and then relates a story of an affair she almost had. Bill is shocked and imagines in pornographic black-and-white fantasies, several times through the rest of the film, her passionate trysts with a strange man. But before things get worse between them, work weirdly intervenes and he leaves.

"Eyes" then becomes Bill's unpredictable odyssey through a nocturnal world of sex-hungry souls, like the grieving woman (Marie Richardson) who loves the dashing doctor but is engaged to another (Thomas Gibson). On his way home, Bill is threatened by anti-gay thugs for no reason and then follows a prostitute (Vinessa Shaw) to her place. Maybe he wants to cheat on Alice, to have adventures, but Bill is on the road again before anything serious happens.

Through an old med-school friend (Todd Field), now a piano player, Bill finds out about a secret orgy and begs to go along. In a sense of anticipation, even his after-hours search for a costume reveals that the teenage daughter (Leelee Sobieski) of the shop owner (Rade Sherbedgia) is a shameless flirt. Nothing compares to his crashing the decadent, almost medieval gathering of ceremonial orgygoers in a country dwelling he reaches by cab.

Remaining faithful in many ways to Schnitzler's original book, Kubrick and screenwriter Frederic Raphael make a few key departures, but the idea of a group of many people who meet for anonymous sexual encounters is central to both. Bill, in an elegant Venetian mask and cloak, is approached by a nearly naked woman with a voluptuous body and headdress, her features hidden as well. She seems to know immediately that he doesn't belong and warns him to leave, but he is smitten by her.

Bill's refusal to go has unexpected consequences, and later he'll literally linger over the corpse of his waking dream of erotic fulfillment. Set during the Christmas season, the film ends on an uneasy but hopeful note. If there is a sense of emotional detachment from the characters in the latter parts of the film, the residual effect of "Eyes" is anything but a numbed mind. Once again, Kubrick invites the viewer to react naturally and then think about the experience. It works.

The performances are unformly inspired, particularly Kidman's. Her baring of body and soul on screen is nothing less than convincing, while Cruise has an even harder task: playing the personality-deficient Bill with star-stiffling restraint.

As one has come to expect from Kubrick, technical aspects of the film are superb. Filmed at Pinewood Studios, with terrific recreations of New York street exteriors and luxury townhouses, "Eyes" exudes artistry in every frame. Lighting cameraman Larry Smith and Kubrick make the most mundane nightclub scene a visual feast, while the soundtrack features many styles of music and a magical score by Jocelyn Pook.

EYES WIDE SHUT

Warner Bros.

Producer-director: Stanley Kubrick

Screenwriters: Stanley Kubrick, Frederic Raphael

Based on the novel "Traumnovelle" by: Arthur Schnitzler

Executive producer: Jan Harlan

Co-producer: Brian W. Cook

Lighting cameraman: Larry Smith

Production designers: Les Tomkins, Roy Walker

Editor: Nigel Galt

Costume designer: Marit Allen

Music: Jocelyn Pook

Casting: Denise Chamian, Leon Vitali

Color/stereo

Cast:

Dr. William Harford: Tom Cruise

Alice Harford: Nicole Kidman

Victor Ziegler: Sydney Pollack

Marion: Marie Richardson

Mandy: Julienne Davis

Domino: Vinessa Shaw

Nick Nightingale: Todd Field

Milich: Rade Sherbedgia

Sandor Szavost: Sky Dumont

Running time -- 159 minutes

MPAA rating: R...