Eyes Wide Shut - body of evidence

A FEW WEEKS ago The Independent ran an interview with Julienne Davis, the little-known actress who plays the part of Mandy, the druggie prostitute, in Eyes Wide Shut. Mandy’s role is small but pivotal - when Tom Cruise’s doctor William Harford is “redeemed” by a masked woman at an orgy, thereby risking her life, he believes it’s Mandy, repaying him for his earlier help. A character at the end of the film …

…woman’s noble act transformed into a gesture without consequence - a piece of dreamy theatre far more in tune with Arthur Schnitzler’s wonderfully dazed and confusing novel. In splitting Mandy and the mysterious woman in two, maybe Kubrick wasn’t letting himself get sloppy wasn’t trying to get away with anything. Maybe he just wanted to check we were keeping our eyes wide open, so we could enjoy a final, profound in-joke.