Posted by Bristle at spider-te041.proxy.aol.com on December 02, 1999 at 23:19:46:
A recent acknowledgement of Stanley Kubrick as all-time greatest director led me to consider a curious connection between Kevin Smith and Silent Stanley:
Recently took a fourth peek at "Eyes Wide Shut" and noted how smoothly that the concept of Arthur Schnitzler's "Traumnovelle" would fit into the Viewaskew oeuvre. While this material of erotic restraint was fresh for Kubrick, veteran viewers of the Askew-niverse felt that Dr. Bill Harford's moral dilemma was tuned to a familiar Bat-channel.
Now consider the toy-store epilogue:
It's such a late amendment to the Eyes-Wide-Shut-concept that it almost completely deviates from the films established look (I mean, can you even believe that it exists in the same film as the game-room revelation scene between Tom Cruise and Sydney Pollack...or especially the one-cloak-too-many-in-an-otherwise-perfectly-realized-Steadicam-Masquerade-Ball?)
Now, even though the blocking, writing and the tone of the toy-store epilogue to "Eyes Wide Shut" are mostly unlike any scene in the preceding film...it does feel strangely familiar in the vibe it leaves us with as the credits commence. Thenit hit me....
Tom Cruise's body-language in this scene is such a beautifully-realized homage to Affleck that it almost instantly gives rise to a Holden-&-Alyssa-of-two-worlds-theory.
Here's a question for Kevin (as if he'd have read this far):
Though I'm sure that Mr. Kubrick's visual and conceptual homage to you is an incidental coincidence (or a "co-winky-dink" as Mark Hamill might joke), do you ever consider the minute, numerical probability that Mr. Kubrick ever sneaked a peek at even a minute or two of any of your films?
P.S.: I'd personally reconsider the coincidence factor of the epilogue were Nicole half as fine as Joey.........alright, or if Cruise were as fine as Affleck.