Stanley Kubrick was a very particular man. And a peculiar one too. He had his unique fascinations, which is ultimately what led him to purchase the rights of Singin' In The Rain. He was also known as being a very challenging director to work with. However, he was a cinematic genius. There's no doubt that his movies will continue to be seen as masterpieces for decades to come. But when Eyes Wide Shut (his final film) was released, it tanked. Even though it had Tom Cruise as its star, it was not a successful movie and therefore not seen as one of Tom's most profitable movies.
One of the most glaring critics of Eyes Wide Shut is just how sensual it was. Of course, the movie was mostly about sex, so it's not surprising that there would be many sex scenes in it. However, the 1999 film also contained a famously controversial scene with multiple naked women taking part in a ritual with a bunch of masked rich men. This is the truth behind that scene...
The True Origins Of THAT Scene
Eyes Wide Shut was roughly based on Arthur Schnitzler’s 1926 Traumnovelle (“Dream Story”), according to an interview by Vulture. it followed the nocturnal pursuits of Tom Cruise's Dr. Bill Harford. In the most famous scene, Harford ends up at a mansion where he finds dozens of masked elites taking part in cult-like, ritualistic sex ceremonies with masked, naked women. As the scene progresses, more carnal moments are revealed, as they really pushed audiences to the edge. But the scene was more about the secret society of supremely rich hedonists who, under the shadows, orchestrate horrendous acts of violence and sexual manipulation. And apparently, there were some real-life influences for this story beat.
"I had a friend who lived in the south of France, G. Legman," Stanley Kubrick's assistant, Anthony Frewin, told Vulture. "He supplied us with a lot of information about secret societies and sexual mores in Vienna at the time of Schnitzler. He also sent over a lot of illustrations of secret-society rituals and the Black Mass [a satanic ceremony], mainly from the 19th century. We had a lot of illustrations, contemporary and even much older, of some ceremonies. Legman also recommended Félicien Rops, a very famous artist who specialized in all sorts of weird erotica."
Filming The Scene Was An Evolution
Executing the scene was far more complicated than the research phase. Firstly, this is because Stanley and his team had to make sure they weren't crossing too many lines. This, after all, was supposed to be a feature film with two of the world's biggest stars (tom and Nicole Kidman) and hopefully be seen by the masses.
"We looked for the barriers we just would not be able to cross," another assistant to Stanley, Leon Vitali, explained. "I did watch some soft-core porn and Red Shoe Diaries, just to see really what the general idea of the limits was. And then I had to find, of course, the people who were willing to be a part of that. I went through every modeling agency, every dance academy. One of the problems was that they had to be totally natural. No Botox, no breast enhancements, anything like that. I made it very clear to everybody who came and their agents. But there were a couple of times when we [agreed to use] somebody and their agents actually made them go out and get breast enhancements. I also reached out to Yolande Snaith, a choreographer with her own dance company. For months, we’d call them in once or twice a week and I would take a video camera and we’d improvise a lot of stuff."
The idea for the scene was to feature erotic vignettes as opposed to full-on sexual acts. It was supposed to inspire a sense of mystery.
"Stanley said, 'It’s not gonna be any of this,' and he made a thrusting gesture," Julienne Davis, who played Mandy, recalled. "Instead, he said it would be more a kind of modern dance with the inference of sex."
However, it was clear to Yolande Snaith that Stanley didn't precisely know what he wanted from the scene. This was totally abnormal as the director was notoriously (and agonizingly) precise about his decision.
"I think his vision of the orgy scene over the course of the time we worked on it became much more of a literal orgy," Yolande explained. "There was a problem because the models would have to be paid a lot more to do that, and some of them didn’t want to do it."
One of Stanley's assistants even started to show the models images from the Kama Sutra, according to the interview with Vulture. This was something that the models weren't exactly in to. Luckily, Yolande was there to help.
"I did feel I was more of an artistic assistant for Stanley to develop a clearer vision of what that whole scene was," Yolande said. "After a few weeks, he started to talk to me about the ritual, the masked ball, and the disrobing ritual. We were playing around with different ritualistic formations. Lines, roads, walking, processions towards a threshold or towards an altar. At a certain point, it became clear to Stanley he wanted it to be a circle. He wanted them to start on the ground. [After] the emphasis shifted onto that, I went out with him and Leon and the production designer to look at different locations, one of which was the big venue we eventually used."
With a somewhat surprising open mind, Stanley let Yoldane and others help him form what has gone down as his most controversial scene. At the very least, it was one of the late director's most memorable.