FILM STUDIES

New music guidelines – Kubrick after 2001: A Space Odyssey (V)

Eyes Wide Shut

In the final part of the series on music in Stanley Kubrick’s films after 2001: A Space Odyssey, the author analyzes music in Kubrick’s final film Eyes Wide Shut. The author recognizes the importance of Shostakovich's waltz which gives a frame to the film but also analyzes other classical music melodies (Mozart, Liszt, Ligeti), popular melodies of the twentieth century and music composed specifically for the film by Jocelyn Pook. In Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick gave in to the tradition accepting the leitmotif idea and using specific melodies as signifiers. Compared to his previous films, the effect of music is extremely direct. Eyes Wide Shut have really marked an appropriate ending of a glorious career, offering an "old man’s" and a "tired man’s" but at the same time a "wise man’s" appealing piece of work – such that can be compared to the final Richard Wagner’s opera, Parsifal.

Irena Paulus