Posted by Yankee Blue Jeans at salt.mcc.wwwcache.ja.net on December 03, 1999 at 09:48:02:
In Reply to: Kevin & Kubrick or Similar Wide Directors posted by Bristle on December 02, 1999 at 23:19:46:
Of course it isn't coincidence.
Didn't you see the Jay and Silent Bob figures on sale in the toystore?
Noinch.
But, seriously, the vibe I got from the end of Eyes Wide Shut was one of the restoration of a fragile normality, following the traumatic events of the film. There was still a sense of underlying fear that it could all descend into insanity once more and in this respect, it reminds more strongly of Clerks than Chasing Amy - normality disrupted by some means (hockey, funeral, girlfriend/dead guy, sexual orgy, whatever) followed by catharsis (Randal/Dante fight, Cruise's character's urge to b eon a parallel with his wife's infidelity, real or imagined) with things continuing in many respects similar but in some important ways permanently and irrevocably altered. Okay, so this is the basis of most films, but it was a strong reminder of Clerks in particular. But, as it is the basis of most films (with any sort of intelligent content, and not just a lot of guns) it is somewhat unlikely that any tribute was intended (but we can drean, eh?). I think Kubrick had such a vast imagination that, sooner or later, every single good director's work was going to find some parallel, either conscious or subconscious, in his universe.
Well, that's what I think anyway.
And I would suggest that, as you have seen it four times, you do indeed find Nicole at least half as fine as Joey. I asked my friend, on the one occasion I saw it, whether he was there to see the last work of a brilliant maverick director who was unafraid to shock and scintilate in equal measures, or whether he was there to see Nicole in the buff. His reply: "Put it this way. Next time I see it, I'll be watching the last work of a brilliant maverick director."
That's what I think anyway.
Nurse? Nurse! Time for my medication! NURSE!
Dave