Eyes Wide Shut
Updated: 5/24/2026, 7:23:55 PM Wikipedia source
Eyes Wide Shut is a 1999 erotic psychological mystery thriller film directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick, and starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. The plot centers on a Manhattan doctor who is shocked when his wife reveals that she contemplated cheating on him. He embarks on a night-long adventure and infiltrates a masked orgy of a secret society. It is based on the 1926 novella Dream Story (German: Traumnovelle) by Arthur Schnitzler, and transfers the story's setting from early twentieth-century Vienna to 1990s New York City. Kubrick obtained the filming rights for Dream Story in the 1960s, considering it a perfect text for a film adaptation about sexual relations. He revived the project in the 1990s when he hired writer Frederic Raphael to help him with the adaptation. An international co-production between the United Kingdom and United States, principal photography of Eyes Wide Shut began in late 1996 in England, with a detailed recreation of exterior Greenwich Village street scenes built at Pinewood Studios. The film's production, at 400 days, holds the Guinness World Record for the longest continuous film shoot. Following an extensive post-production process that began in early 1998, Kubrick submitted his final cut of the film to Warner Bros. on March 1, 1999, which was viewed by Cruise, Kidman, and studio executives. Kubrick died of a heart attack six days later. Some post-production was resumed the week after Kubrick's death, which led to some public debate over the film's state of completion. Warner Bros. began an extensive marketing campaign to promote the film in early 1999, though its publicity materials were vague in nature and marketed the film as an erotic thriller. Eyes Wide Shut had its world premiere in Los Angeles on July 13, 1999, before being released in the United States on July 16 and in the United Kingdom on September 10. It received generally positive reviews from critics, and was nominated for numerous awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. The film was met with significant critical notice in France, receiving a César Award nomination for Best Foreign Film, as well as winning the award in the same category from the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics. It was also named the best film of the year by Cahiers du Cinéma in their annual top ten list. The film was a box-office success, earning $162 million worldwide, making it Kubrick's highest-grossing film in unadjusted dollars.
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Tables
| Award/association | Year | Category | Recipient(s) and nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
| Blockbuster Entertainment Awards | 2000 | Favorite Actress – Drama/Romance | Nicole Kidman | Won | |
| Favorite Actor – Drama/Romance | Tom Cruise | Nominated | |||
| Favorite Supporting Actor – Drama/Romance | Sydney Pollack | Nominated | |||
| Bodil Awards | 1999 | Best American Film | Eyes Wide Shut | Nominated | |
| Cahiers du Cinéma | 1999 | Best Film – Top Ten | 1st place | ||
| 2000 | Best Film of the 1990s | 4th place | |||
| César Awards | 2000 | Best Foreign Film | Stanley Kubrick | Nominated | |
| Chicago Film Critics Association | 1999 | Best Director | Nominated | ||
| Best Cinematography | Larry Smith Stanley Kubrick | Nominated | |||
| Best Original score | Jocelyn Pook | Nominated | |||
| Costume Designers Guild | 1999 | Excellence in Costume Design for Film – Contemporary | Marit Allen | Nominated | |
| Csapnivalo Awards | 1999 | Best Art Film | Eyes Wide Shut | Won | |
| Empire Awards | 2000 | Best Actress | Nicole Kidman | Nominated | |
| French Syndicate of Cinema Critics | 1999 | Best Foreign Film | Stanley Kubrick | Won | |
| Golden Globe Awards | 1999 | Best Original Score | Jocelyn Pook | Nominated | |
| Online Film Critics Society | 2000 | Best Original Score | Nominated | ||
| Best Cinematography | Larry Smith | Nominated | |||
| Best Director | Stanley Kubrick | Nominated | |||
| Online Film & Television Association | 2000 | Best Director | Nominated | ||
| Best Actress | Nicole Kidman | Nominated | |||
| Best Writing – Adaptation | Stanley Kubrick Frederic Raphael | Nominated | |||
| Best Music – Adapted Song | Chris Isaak | Nominated | |||
| Best Production Design | Leslie Tomkins Roy Walker John Fenner Kevin Phipps Marit Allen | Nominated | |||
| Best Cinematic Moment | Eyes Wide Shut | Nominated | |||
| Best Cinematography | Larry Smith Stanley Kubrick | Nominated | |||
| 2021 | Film Hall of Fame | Eyes Wide Shut | Honored | ||
| Satellite Awards | 2000 | Best Actress – Drama | Nicole Kidman | Nominated | |
| Best Cinematography | Larry Smith | Nominated | |||
| Best Sound | Paul Conway and Edward Tise | Nominated | |||
| Saturn Awards | 2008 | Best DVD Collection | Stanley Kubrick: Warner Home Video Directors Series | Nominated | |
| 2012 | Stanley Kubrick: The Essential Collection | Won | |||
| 2015 | Best DVD/Blu-ray Collection | Stanley Kubrick: The Masterpiece Collection | Nominated | ||
| Stinkers Bad Movie Awards | 2000 | Most Intrusive Musical Score | Jocelyn Pook | Nominated | |
| Venice Film Festival | 1999 | FilmCritica Bastone Bianco Award | Stanley Kubrick | Won |
References
- Critics and writers have attributed several different genres to the film. Linda Ruth Williams and others variously descr
- Tied with Close-Up, Twin Peaks, and Unforgiven.
- For the track "Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing".
- For the film's orgy sequence.
- Shared with four other films: 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket.
- Shared with nine other films: Full Metal Jacket, The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Lolita, Stanley Kubrick: A Life in
- Shared with seven other films: Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shi
- "Eyes Wide Shut"https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/eyes-wide-shut-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc00otg0mzu
- British Film Institutehttps://web.archive.org/web/20120711210943/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b7f5aa12a
- Box Office Mojohttp://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=eyeswideshut.htm
- Williams 2005, p. 397.
- Howard 1999, p. 178.
- Fenwick 2019, p. 114.
- Cornell Universityhttps://cinema.cornell.edu/eyes-wide-shut
- Adams 2004, p. 37.
- Dovey 2015, p. 174.
- Guinness World Records 2000, p. 93.
- Allmoviehttps://web.archive.org/web/20200921002344/https://www.allmovie.com/movie/eyes-wide-shut-v158829
- BBChttps://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240716-eyes-wide-shut-the-remarkable-afterlife-of-a-notorious-1990s-flop
- Timehttps://time.com/archive/6735812/cinema-all-eyes-on-them/