Best 15 Cult Classics of World Cinema on Man-Woman Relationship ...
A Man-woman relationship is as complex as it can get. Its an equation of life where there are too many variables like sex , love , marriage which never balances each others. Few other external variables make it even more complex like religion , age , social norms , kids & our perceived notion of expectations of love and hypocrisy to settle for much lesser in real life.Some say its easier to decipher code of entire universe or describe the God than to really decipher a man-woman relationship. Some say you can either understand it or live a happy relationship.
For this reason perhaps most of Hollywood (and all other woods of world cinema) typically focus on sweet romantics , mushy romances and fairytale of Cinderella than to deal with real-life hard hitting more lifelike movies on relationship which really touch the chord. Very few movies have been made which deals with true emotions behind the Love , compulsions behind sex and lack of choices behind marriages. Few mirrors life's relationships mostly as it is , with all its imperfections perfectly.
15.Boxing Helena (1993)
Director:Jennifer Chambers Lynch
Writers:Philippe Caland (story), Jennifer Chambers Lynch (screenplay)
Stars:Julian Sands, Sherilyn Fenn and Bill Paxton
Boxing Helena is an incredibly thought provoking , unusually disturbing and brutally real movie which questions the premise of male-female relationships we normally see.There is one question about girls which troubled many and that's is why do gals marry wrong guys? those who they know aren't worthy of them and whom they don't really love? Is it so because girls don't want to love but wants to be loved.? The girl will normally accept his love no matter how ugly & morally decayed that person , as long he promises to love her This is one rare movie which address that question & shows vulnerability of woman even in face of ugliest of man.(ugly in character not in looks). I guess its feeling of being important that overwhelms all emotions of a girl.
The movie is story of a top surgeon is besotted with a beautiful woman who once ditched him. Unable to come to terms with life without her, he tries to force her so that they need each other. She has other ideas, but an horrific event leaves her at his mercy. And instead of escaping from him , she falls for him. (This explains how terrorists & rapists gets gals I guess) The plot is bizarre and perhaps sick at times but the movie is shown as a twisted "Love Story" of these two; and is much more than what it seems on surface.
Does he really love her despite knowing she hates him? And why do she loves back the man who destroyed her life?What he calls Love for her in movie is obsession , Its like he worships her or adores her....but when he says he loves her its not she as person he loves or her feeling he cares about ...he loves her so that she can love him back....her feelings are worth a trash for him. (deliberately so at times)...she is just an object of desire ....a trophy wife, not different from a sexy looking car or as movie shows like an art statue of Helena or beautiful parrot in cage ; not as a woman but as an object he wants to possess. The end is disappointing but rest of movie is thought provoking (by sheer luck maybe) & quite a rare attempt to show what woman really wants deep down.
14. Guide
Director:Vijay Anand
Writers:Vijay Anand (dialogue), Pearl S. Buck (US version)
Stars:Dev Anand, Waheeda Rehman
This Hindi Classic is an all time soul stirring musical on how complex a man woman relationship can be. Made in sixties on book of R. K. Narayan, it is far more bold in its theme & concept than today's skinny clad flicks which dare not touch controversial subjects . Relationship with married woman , love in adultery relationship & more importantly love without formal arrangement of marriage all part of Guide. Its a story of guide falling for a married woman but in a relationship that none of them could decipher.
The movie is much more than a great musical as its recalled normally , every time you see it , you realized something new. For myself rating of movie gets better with time or its characters for me have changed drastically as I matured in my own life. I simply could not understand first time I saw what wrong the Raju-Guide done in his relationship? I remember asking "why Rosie locked the door?" why did she shut him off her life when he is what she all wanted. It seemed on surface only she was at fault . I could not see anything wrong with him then & that's because most guys do think like that. But over time one see , its story of both man & woman need to walk halfway in relationship and how often we ignore to do so.
Some may call it destiny or whatever but its simply a relationship like an unfinished symphony . Its an unusual experience to relate so passionately to someone in a mode of "cant live with you but cant live without you". The spiritual aspect towards end of movie makes it unique from all other love stories made before or since.
13. Pinjra (1972)
Director:Rajaram Vankudre Shantaram
Stars:Shreeram Lagoo and Sandhya
This forgotten Marathi classic one of greatest masterpiece by master of Cinema V. Shantaram. Made in 70s it explores a complex web love, sex and relationships. Why and how one loses the respect in their own eyes by own choices people make in their life.
Its a rather simple story of educated , intellectual man who is regarded by everybody and himself perhaps as ideal man, but inside this image of himself he is still just a man, and that why his life turns upside down when he is seduced by a strip dancer. He could not control his instinctive urge for her and falls for her charm but at same could not define what relationship he sought with her. He feels jealousy & anger when he sees her with other men but could not determine if what he had for her is just lust or love.
Then some turns of events took place where he has to choose between lust for this dancer and his respectful place as a ideal man in society. He chooses first but later find out that he cant live a life like a pimp , without respect and dignity. This raises some really thought provoking of whats meaning of human life without respect. Can a man live without dignity ? Is such life worth living or death with respect is better? In one of the most emotional scenes of movie actor sees dog eating besides him and wonders how is he different from dog and realizes such a life isn't life but a cage for a free soul (Pinjara). Losing all respect one had is worse than never having it at first place. Being brought to her level , she realizes this isn't what she wanted from this relationship either but then no can turn back wheel of time and once lost can never be gained again. In end he chose to die as a image of person who he once was rather than what really became of him so that people who believed in him doesn't lose faith in moral characters of men. A epitome of quote 'either you die a hero or live long to see yourself turn into villain'. This movie shows that journey though the corridors of lust & love.
Its a must watch movie for anyone who wants to explore complex web love-life and life with respect and love with meaning and how all of this can be turned upside down by a very basic human urge of sex. A masterpiece & classical Greek tragedy.
12.As Good as It Gets (1997)
Director:James L. Brooks
Writers:Mark Andrus (story), Mark Andrus (screenplay)
Stars:Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt and Greg Kinnear
Does anyone ever felt that language and words are such a cliche such a burden in delving a true relationship...imagine a life without grammar n words n customs and we would have just found the person we love or want and no words could have ruined them. As good as it gets is one such remarkable movie about golden heart inside a seemingly stone man. I don't think its a comedy ..its rather a tragedy of how human relationship can be spoiled ; specially man-woman relationship by saying wrong words at wrong time, a dirty quip can be regretted by person but can never heal the pain..as someone said ugly words from people whom we think as closed to us hurts much more than any weapon ...
In one of the most incredible scene in movie Jack walks to his neighbor ..at some 3am in morning to give him noodles in disguised to vent his emotions and what they exchange conveys much more about how easily emotional bonds can be forged than two people sharing bed for lifetime. I loved this movie not just coz it stars some of my most loved actors in lead but because the way it shows boding of man-woman..with all its imperfections & ugliness ...no one has ever shown before.I feel this is much more a real romantic story than any Romeo-Juliet can ever be....
11. Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
Director:Nora Ephron
Writers:Jeff Arch (story), Nora Ephron (screenplay)
Stars:Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan and Ross Malinger
What is a fairytale movie is doing on list of realistic relationships? Well because I guess if there exist true romantic love in this world then it can only exist in form shown in Sleepless in Seattle , and not as its perceived as romance of song & dance. Before one learn to Love one must learn to "Believe" or rather "
Love to Believe"...not just that person but love itself! Those who will call movie dreamy Cinderella like or obsession about a person ; simply don't get movie or idea of love for that matter .When we say we love a person whom do we really love? His status , his body , what he does for us, his life or his ideas about life ? We can only love one's soul.
What is that person's soul beneath the flesh and body? ...some abstract idea but it can only be felt though one's thought...and when one loves essentially someones thought why do we need to evaluate person on certain parameters of social longevity. compatibility and blah blah...isn't it paradoxical? I always had utmost respect for people who loves their icons & heroes ..sometimes people they never met ...or even those who are dead...coz they are in true love with their ideal and idol...they be-loved in something...and their belief is pure, impregnable, non volatile and lasts forever. We call it faith and that is more important than any worldly possessions we strive for. For many faith only means religion...which is kinda fanaticism coz u don't know whom u really love when we say we love God, i will rather prefer someone who trully loves his ideal or ideas faithfully.
10.37°2 Le Matin (original title) -Betty Blue (1986)
Director:Jean-Jacques Beineix
Writers:Philippe Djian (novel), Jean-Jacques Beineix
Stars:Jean-Hugues Anglade, Béatrice Dalle and Gérard Darmon
This French classic is highly underrated , it is over 3 hrs movie which starts with a simple love story , just like any other love story but gets complex at time passes ....as it happens in real life love stories most of time. The most interesting aspects of relationship shown in movie is that couple is madly and truly in love with each other. No betrayals , no halfhearted love ,no money matters but a couple who is indeed made for each other. They love each other , care sincerely for each other and also have great time in bed . But still their relationship takes a tragic turn as time passes. The movie explores one of the oldest parables of man-woman relationship and that's
"Can a relationship be complete without bearing children?"
Evolution tells us that reproduction is only reason male-female come closer and relationship are born but we humans kind of tend to think that as too primordial and kinda insulating to our modern sensibilities of love. The story revolves around desire which latter becomes obsession of a woman to bear child because she believes she is not complete without it and so is her relationship ; no matter how much they love each other.
The title of movie
37.2 degrees is temperature of a pregnant lady. The movie is also amazing in one aspect which is how it shows love scenes , unlike anything I had seen before. How many times you wondered watching couples on screen that they are not making love but trying to seduce audience ? Watch this , one of few movies where couple behaves like a couple. They fight love and stay together . The end is tragic & It leaves the question open of whats end of man-woman relationship ? Is it child or love in itself is an end? A beautiful movie though.
9.Casablanca (1942)
Director:Michael Curtiz
Writers:Julius J. Epstein (screenplay), Philip G. Epstein (screenplay)
Stars:Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid
Well can any movie list on man-woman relationship be there and not include Casablanca ...There is famous story of how Ingrid Bergman didn't knew whom she was going to end up with in the end of movie and that's why her acting so real..well i guess that's story of any girl before and since her...they never knew what they want. They are always twained between a choice of passionate love whom they crazily love or a secured relationship with someone they respect. The movie is ends on a note which I personally found very sad , but I found that many liked it. And I kept wondering why do they like ending where she chooses a guy she doesn't love over whom she loves? I guess that's because everyone expects life to be so. A benign version of idealism a compromised reality of dreams. Or a bit a sacrificial element of choosing someone else's happiness over self-satisfaction. I seen this movie only once because I felt too disappointed by its end but its a stonking movie to linger in ones mind for long..long time.
8.
Revolutionary Road (2008)
Director:Sam Mendes
Writers:Justin Haythe (screenplay), Richard Yates (novel)
Stars:Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and Christopher Fitzgerald
Many underrated this movie because its an almost remake of another classic "
7 Year Itch" of Wilder. But I liked the movie so much as being so few to show hopelessness of a marriage in such an intricate manner. The movie is not about conflict of man's ego vs woman's desires. Neither it is about personal ambitions vs family responsibilities. Its about far more deeper & far more important subject. Its about emptiness of married life or much so about emptiness of our life.
Its like all our desires , our ambitions even our marriage is a kind of instinct to find a meaning in our life. To fill that void with a sense of gratifications about time we spend with each other and with ourselves and even with our job. More often than not ; we realize we never enjoy our job but still continue to do it (like Leo in movie) , or we don't feel that passion in relationship but still continue to live it (like couple in movie). Why we do it? Is it because we have no choice or we are scared of making tough choices? The movie rakes this uncomfortable question. This couple has a chance to break-away from mundane , hollow & rusty life , to start afresh on a romantic Revolutionary Road. But they don't do it. They just continue (rather Leo chooses first) to be what they are. To be empty.
The pain of Kate is even more profound. She feels betrayed by her own ideals & cheated by person in regards to expectations she had from him. Being married to someone who chose to be nothing is pain beyond heal. She still makes her choice not to endure it anymore. The movie interestingly ends on a depressing & hollow note of an elderly couple (property agent) who had spent half a century together but still they don't share anything between them as understanding or feelings which are moist but just a tag of married relationship. I am not sure what is it that keeps people bounded to chains. Why do people chose to be in chains ? Is it because they are institutionalized (like in Shawshank redemption) or a Revolutionary Road to a passionate life is too tough to walk or if it is nothing but a mirage?
All in all , a must watch. Shaking n soul stirring movie.
7. Before Sunrise (1995)
Director:Richard Linklater
Writers:Richard Linklater, Kim Krizan
Stars:Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy and Andrea Eckert
A young man and woman meet on a train in Europe, and wind up spending one romantic evening together in Vienna. Unfortunately, both know that this will probably be their only night together.
Very few movies are ever made like Before Sunrise , oldie movie
It Happened one Night came to mind but this one much more deeper in its essence and content. Its a story of anyone in his/her mid-twenties and still its not a fairytale. Love never comes with time, if it ever occurs it always happens in a day or a night. Being with one for long time makes one develop respect or lack of contempt or familiarity or an obligation or dependance or even likeness for that person but not love. Sadly most of times we ourselves underestimate when we find it and realize only in retrospection that we had lost someone whom we can never replace in life again. (as seen in its sequel
Before Sunset). Someone whom we can wholly love , just by our instincts is such a rarity to find that when one finds just for a day, one wish that night may be longest night of one's life, so long that it may never end because its only "Before Sunrise" that one can live a life to its fullest.
In this one night they not just share an amazing chemistry with each other but physics , philosophy , politics , evolutionary biology , epistemology and what not. Its a perfect movie ever made for all those who think of love as mindless action devoid of any serious thought. Our real organ to love is still the brain & thought waves it creates and an intellectual discussion to loved one isn't just arousing , its fulfilling as well. Its a love story one can see hundred times just like the characters of movie who wants to live that one night over & over again.
6. Scenes from a Marriage-Scener ur ett äktenskap (original title 1973)
Director:Ingmar Bergman
Writer:Ingmar Bergman
Stars:Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson and Bibi Andersson
This Swedish classic is an absolute masterpiece on man-woman relationship or more so on Marriage. If anyone who ever had any doubt on Inger Bergman being a genius ,then he gotta see this one.
It asks "
Can there be anything worse in universe than married couple who don't love each other"? Well but then people still stay in marriage even if they don't love each other and even when they know that they don't love each other. This movie is so daring at times & so brutally examines institution of marriage that I wonder if its asking why do people even get married? Since most of them do so , not because they want to but for all other reasons. It gives new words to vocabulary like "loveless marriage"! . The dialogues are so fucking awesome, so powerful ,so blunt that shakes your heart & mind. I have never seen anything like this in my life. Discussing this movie is an insult of a genius called Bergman , its far too complex to be put into words. No other movie shakes the foundations of marriage as tremulously as this does.
In one famous statistics divorce rate of Sweden doubled after release of this movie ; but movie is much more than a perfect narrative on marriage. It shows human imperfections in its limitless form , their hollowness and their dreams in as many words as one can say. As he says in end , "
We love each other in our own imperfect ways " its actually a sad confession that they are incapable of true love but are shamed and coward to admit it....just as many people are ashamed to admit that marriage is mistake ....they found themselves in an institution rather a maze called as marriage without any clue of where to go, hoping miraculously they will discover love at the end of its maze. As time passes they only discover that its maze of marriage that they end up loving as a form of surrender to grim reality of life because they never even get out of maze or even around to really know person they are in maze with , nor any hope for any redemption.
5.L'appartement (1996)
Director:Gilles Mimouni
Writer:Gilles Mimouni
Stars: Monica Belluci , Romane Bohringer, Vincent Cassel and Jean-Philippe Écoffey
This French classic is one of few movies I felt touched to an extent where I feel its an reflection of vivid life of myself. Based on play of Shakespeare
'A Midsummer's Night Dream' this is simply awesome in its complexity of story & choices a man (or woman) faces . The first scene where he is confused about which ring to choose is I guess one of best opening scene. English version of same is bad copy , French one is must see! A must see classic which is classic not by genius of director by sheer chance. (Monica & Vincent,s real life relationship make movie even better) !
***Spoilers Ahead***
The most beautiful part of movie is ending. Many wonder about the ending ; why at the moment when he could be getting love from not one but when both of them he ended up losing rather dumping both Lisa and Alice?
I guess when got diary from Alice he felt shock & awe that someone is so crazily in love with him...the same way he is running after Lisa for all these years , Alice was running after him crazily ...he saw reflection of himself in the obsession which Alice has for him and coupled with then recent memories of passionate sexual encounters he feels he finally got someone who is just like himself ...equally crazy & passionate abt love....
But when he reached airport and hugs Alice with exaltation , the reality dawns upon him..that he is with her NOT coz 'he loves her' but coz 'she loves him' ..he cant replace his obsession for Lisa and feels same way of instinctive attachment for Alice; no matter how much she loves him...further he realizes that she is same girl who despite claiming to love him so much , also hurt him most and lied too...how can it be love if you intentionally hurt that person? Love also includes care and Alice never seemed to have cared about him but for her own obsession. But above all its feeling that Alice was ready to go ahead in her life just like Lisa with new partner ..without hesitation and almost as if love or feeling in there mind for Max are part of history and no more than as old chapter but for series of events of last two days...its only Max who is confused as shown in first scene of three rings about what to do with his life...its only him who is still trapped in prison of past erected with walls of time ....its that feeling of being loved but being dispensable which makes him turn his back to Alice.
Contrary to popular interpretation I think he turned back not for Muriel but to go to Lisa to tell her that he still loves where she is waiting but then Muriel crosses way and he let Alice interpret it that way coz he want to break that state of obsession too. I liked the ending coz it lets viewers go through mind of actor...anyone who says it doesn't make sense , I will say ..Love in itself is most irrational thing...its not suppose to make sense ..its supposed to be felt if possible ....Its actually a diff thing to rationally analyses a psychological and emotional choice than making it in real life...something Sigmund Freud calls
Unconscious fears and shameful sexual desires...Director does good job of leaving dialogues out of it ...and letting it be a an emotional decision of Max to stop running and accept a "mundane & typical" married life ..differnt from something which he dreamed of with Alice and when he has to accept a secondary married life for himself devoid of his passion for girl ; he better thought of not hurting Muriel's heart as she is most innocent in all....perhaps its a personal choice but I bet most men would do what he did at that moment...some die hard romantics would hope he will get back to Alice but then that's different between real life and reel life.In real life Alice always remains a mirage.....
4. Before Sunset (2004)
Director:Richard Linklater
Writers:Richard Linklater (screenplay), Julie Delpy (screenplay)
Stars:Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy and Vernon Dobtcheff
It's nine years after Jesse and Celine first met; now, they encounter one another on the French leg of Jesse's book tour.
Rarely in the history of world cinema a sequel comes which is better than the original. Calling it sequel is actually misnomer because movie has a theme & story of its own with its oceanic depth and directed more beautifully than colors of rainbow . Watching this movie for first time was a spellbound experience , before I could blink an eye movie was over but left a lingering feeling in mind so much so that I saw it again immediately. Watching this movie lefts an emotionally orgasmic feeling , a high but still lingering desire to want more. Sill leaving behind a trail of smoking questions. This is an achievement of Richard Linklater quite unparalleled.
This movie is a story of anyone in his 30s , when all laughs in one's life is but at oneself ; because own life looks a joke, not tragedy but just bewildered at one's future. A infinite series of why's? and what to do's? Filled with few regrets , few missed chances & few abandoned desires. The movie like its predecessor is yet another testament to fact that life is not lived in years but just few moments. Few moments which shapes our destiny our desires. Sometimes we missed those moments only to regret for a long time.
What happens in the end? We don't know for sure and that why this movie is such a masterpiece. The end for each viewer is as per his/her outlook to life. Some who believes living life full of passion and have lust to add some meaning to it , will think they will get back to each other dumping rest of world , since they know they are just made for each other & what they can feel while being together ; even for a day is enough to survive a long time. Someone with more practical or rational outlook to life will feel they have passed that moment of glory. Its time to get over each other and return to wife n kids n family n worldly responsibility. Love isn't craziness.Or rather this is how real life differs from reel life.
As for me I don't care what happens in end because sometime in life "what should happen" is more important that "what really happens". As Ernest Hemingway once said "
It takes a fiction to liberate a man from clutches of facts of life". This a perfect rainbow movie to lie on that horizon of fact & fiction.
3.Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Director:Michel Gondry
Writers:Charlie Kaufman (story), Michel Gondry (story)
Stars:Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet and Tom Wilkinson
A couple undergo a procedure to erase each other from their memories when their relationship turns sour, but it is only through the process of loss that they discover what they had to begin with.
This movie is so beautiful and so perfect in its every single shot that its unbelievable how can something be so original & and yet to transcendental about human emotions. Michel Gondry does an incredible job of scripting one of best love stories in human history. I never imagined Jim & Kate can give such a mind blowing performance. So mature & yet so natural.
The story is not sci-fi for all those dumb guys. Neither its about a special case. The story is of why we fall in love and why we fall in love with a particular person only? Hasn't it occurred to everyone at some point in their life ; that there is some undefinable & invisible force or bond which two people between them feels just on its own , while in love? You may have recipe for ideal relationship , of what kind of person you want in life but still you cant "cook" love ...when you feel & if you feel , one feels "something" just by itself. Like gravity , like a Planck constant , which somehow predetermines which people will share their destiny & love. Hindu philosophy links love to re-incarnation , saying one who is your love is so in this life & beyond. It says search of love is like two fragments of circle wandering in space ; pieces of it in cosmos when discovers each other & fit to form a complete circle true love is realized. Any mismatch piece will only give an illusion of concentric circle but will never form it. Love can exist only when circle is complete only with its other fragment. And when does its like an eternal sunshine.
The movie is just awesomest for one more aspects of it as well. Are we just product of our memories or are we something more than that? Is all our life , our desires , our passions , our relationships ..is it all but linked to our memories ? And if someone can play with that what is that is left of us as human? Are we different person if we change our memories ? Is there anything in us which is more pure more eternal more intrinsic beyond that?
One can watch movie n time over and still can not get enough of it. It ends on ambiguous note though , I wished it had a sweet ending just for sake of feeling fulfilled at the end of relationship. I don think any other movie is so deep in its elaboration human emotions and yet to profoundly simple in its approach. I also truly wish I could wipe my whole memory & start life afresh, but I wonder will it be any better?
2.Last Tango in Paris (1972) -Ultimo tango a Parigi (original title)
Director:Bernardo Bertolucci
Writers:Bernardo Bertolucci (story), Bernardo Bertolucci (screenplay)
Stars:Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider and Maria Michi
How many movies have been made to decipher woman heart ? Thousands if not millions? But how many movies ever looked into complexity of a mans heart? This is one of them and with greatest actor ever walked on surface of earth in it , this can not be better.
"
One may be able to live 200 yrs and may be able to comprehend entire universe but sill cant understand a woman's heart" ...with this begins one of greatest scene in movie history , the most definitive , unbelievably soul shaking and such a profoundly emotional scene that it can move even the stones to tears. I don't think any other person on earth could have been able to play that scene except Marlyn Brando.
He knew what it feels to be betrayed..he knows pain of man's broken heart. He also knows man's heart is intrinsically part of his ego , both social ego and male ego. The famous sexual scenes of movie or infamous as they became known for ; is far from being erotic rather its the devaluation of man's soul expressed through physical exaltation., its an absolute shame on modern society to even degrade the movie to that level while it tries to delve into far deeper intricate nature of human mind & tangle of man-woman relationship. Its impossible to see this movie and not be affected by it. It requires lot of courage to see this movie twice because its causes such an emotional turmoil in one's mind. Few could gather that courage.
The image of Marlyn Brando walking on streets of Paris as a ghost man ; filled pain & regret , knifed by betrayal and devoid of any meaning or desire is a haunting personification when immense sadness grips a man. He feels so empty inside that only things he feels he is capable of is lowest form of animal instinct or pain. Its again sad that it became known for its explicit sexual scenes while in reality that's his expression of hatred towards life, trying to hurt himself as some sort of punishment. Its far from being arousing but an act of trying to redeem emotional pain via physical hurt to oneself.
Its being claimed that Maria by movie herself was so much affected by it that even she could ever pull herself up to act again in movies. But this movie is a must , has to be seen , its like a process...full of pain n toil but simply inevitable. Its an inevitable take on man-woman relationship the way it is and consequences of what if it goes wrong. Its my all time personal favorite too.
1.Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Director:Stanley Kubrick
Writers:Arthur Schnitzler (novel), Stanley Kubrick (screenplay)
Stars:Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Todd Field
If there is anything than can be better than one of best performance ever of of greatest actor in cinema -Marlyn Brando, then it has to belong to greatest director even born- Stanley Kubrick. (I wonder why Stanley Kubrick & Marlyn Brando never worked together? ). This is most amazing most definitive most enchanting & almost impossible to fathom kind of movie. I would call it second best of Kubrick after
"2001 A Space Odyssey ". It encompasses the whole sphere of a relationship which all other above movies look in isolation. From love , sex & marriage linkages to mind , body & soul (respectively ) it takes us to an an journey inside the mind. A journey as infinite as mind (or shall I say "
Beyond The Infinity" ) ?
What is it that one thing which makes us so special? so human? and so different in this universe? Whats, that one thing which is central to our place in this cosmos? Which make us "alive & living" in this cold universe? The answer is it gotta be our
consciousness. All our abilities, intelligence , intellectualism , emotions & desires are but derivative of being conscious of our existence. What about relationship them? Is man-woman relationship a living entity or just a name carved in stones? Does relationship have a consciousness of their own?
What makes "
Eyes Wide Shut" so brilliant that it asks questions like "
2001 A space Odyssey" about the root of our very existence of relations & deciphers vibrations of it. Its an eternal story like Nicole Kidman says in one of her dialogues to Tom "
Millions of years of revolution shaped man-woman relationships , is that what you are saying?" . Its first movie perhaps to be bold enough to say no marriage (or relationship for that matter) can be complete without sex. Its sex which defines & creates emotions & not vice-versa. Or to put it in other words its lust which leads to love & love cant be real without that lust for life in it.
Watching this movie is like a experience . you have to feel it. it cant be explained in words (just like 2001) . Its like a trance into super-conscious state of being aware of penultimate nature of human emotions or consciousness of a relationship but then coming back to reality of stones & mirrors. The movie mixes real life & imaginary life so intricately that its impossible to know if you are kissing a living person or a person in mirror. However unlike 2001 , I feel the end is quite depressing & so dark that one wish to escape the reality altogether. But then that's what defines most marriages , an escape from loneliness as caged up emotions.
Woody Allen's quote from movie "
Crime & Misdemeanors" fits here "
A universe is not being created with purpose of making people happy or having relationships morally correct.Universe in reality is a very cold place"
Well some may find it morally offensive but isn't even our whole existence also a matter of chance as well? I am never sure whats worse ? That's everything ..from our life to love to death is just a matter of probability & we control nothing or that there is some God who control everything & we still control nothing.....
