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Tom and Nicole and Colin and Kathryn | page 1, 2, 3
Kathryn: No? Their marriage appears to be one of dull commitment. I felt that his wife is trying to incite a more forceful response from him -- a more forceful sexual response -- by inventing a flirtation scenario that was more serious than anything that really went on during the party. Colin: Do you think -- speaking as a wife, of course -- that she knows he'll be driven nuts by her revelation, that she means to induce not just his passion but a crisis? Kathryn: The only thing she reveals that strikes me as truly threatening is a willingness to destroy marriage and family for consummation with an exciting stranger. Her recklessness is far more dangerous than any sexual attraction to another man, because she's not talking about a meaningless fling, she's talking about her capacity to destroy him and their life together. Philosophy of the bedroom Mary Gaitskill, Greil Marcus, David Gates, Lisa Zeidner and A.M. Homes weigh in on "Eyes Wide Shut." Great bad sex Colin: So you believe that moment, you believe she could do that? Kathryn: I absolutely do. Why, did you think that's something she says just to be dramatic? Colin: Some women are born dramatic, some women achieve drama, and some women have drama thrust upon them. Kathryn: I think she was probably hoping for a little drama to be thrust upon her. Colin: I agree. That often solves a lot of problems -- at least for one night. Do you think Kubrick is advocating the telling of truth or the necessity of lies? Kathryn: Truth. Colin: But we have all this Truth slung around between husband and wife, and she's no better off at the end than she was at the beginning. Or am I wrong? Kathryn: I don't think this movie is about her or about them. I think it all takes place inside his head. Colin: The death of the junkie hooker takes place inside his head? Kathryn: Yes. Colin: The wife's confession of passion takes place inside his head? Kathryn: Yes, I think it's all in his head. It's all about him. Surely you approve of that. Colin: So he can imagine her passion after all! What a wonderful husband! Kathryn: Very wonderful. After the party, each time we see the wife she's at home, she's at the kitchen table, she's helping her daughter with her homework. Juxtaposed to his nocturnal adventures, her life has a very claustrophobic quality. A reckless, passionate woman could get desperate under those circumstances, she could blow it all to hell. Colin: But that doesn't happen, of course. The movie is about how they recalibrate themselves to each other, the whole thing is sort of therapeutic -- in the worst sense of the word. I mean, at the end, it's a few tears in the toy store, she brazenly uses the F word, and everything's cool. Kathryn: She's still trying to get him into bed! After they end up in FAO Schwartz, their return to a sort of workaday family life is dishearteningly uninteresting. I didn't care very much about what happens to them after that. Colin: So you're coming around to my point of view? Kathryn: No.
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