The two women that Dr. Bill Harford flirts with at Ziegler’s party offer to take him to
“the end of the rainbow”. He is called away by a member of Ziegler’s household
before he can even be given the choice of exploring the rainbow’s end. Later in the
film, however, he ends up at a Costume shop, coincidentally called “The Rainbow
Room”. Maybe it wasn’t such a coincedence after all since that is the very last leg of
Bill’s trip before he leaves the city, in essence leaving his familiarity for uncharted
and truly reckless waters - waters raging at the end of the rainbow perhaps?

In all of his films, Kubrick makes a powerful and hypnotic use of the z-axis. This film
is no different and many, many times we feel the z-axis becoming deeper as a
character walks towards the screen. In Eyes Wide Shut, however, he also makes use
of it in a different way. At the start of the sequence where Ziegler is telling Bill the
truth about the masked ball, the room seems only large enough for the pool table, a
mini-bar and the chair that Bill’s jacket rests upon. As the scene continues (from all
four corners of the room), Kubrick expands our perspective of the room and its size -
just as Ziegler is expanding Bill’s understanding of exactly the parameters he entered
in the last twenty-four hours. This reminded me very much of the scene in Citizen
Kane where Charlie Kane is aquiring his money on his twenty-first birthday and
walks from a set of windows that appear to be regular size, but as the camera tracks
backward, it reveals that they are cathedral sized.

When Alice relays her dream to Bill, it has three parts : the deserted city where Bill is
angry and goes to find clothes for himself and Alice, the garden where the soldier
looks at Alice and finally, the soldier having intercourse with Alice as a crowd looks
on and, eventually, joins in the sex. There could be a distinct parallel drawn between
the three places that Bill visits that evening. First, he visits a patient who has just died
and finds that the patient’s daughter is numb. She admits to a marriage engagement
and finally kisses him and tells him that she loves him half a dozen times. This is a
deserted city for Bill - he doesn’t want her because there is nothing there, it’s early in
the night and the story of the soldier, though tugging at him, has not yet sunk in - just
as the patient’s daughter’s grief has not yet sunk in. In his own way he is naked
because he is so vulnerable. He is searching for something to clothe his nudity,
something to ease the jealousy brewing in him. He finds it at Domino’s home, where
she propositions him, he accepts and after a passionate kiss, is interrupted by his cell
phone. His wife has called and he lies to her about how long it may or may not take
and where he is. He tells her he is still at the apartment of the dead man - still in the
deserted city. However, he is not still there, he has moved onto the garden where, due
to the interruption, he feels that the object of his desire can only stare at him, as he
can her. What he doesn’t know, what he can’t know is that she is HIV positive and
has the power to end his life. In essence, as the soldier was laughing at Alice for
wanting him; here, Domino is laughing at Bill for wanting him - for wanting to die
morally and physically. She can’t possibly know that she has AIDS, but the very idea
of it, as it occurs later, will seem less and less trivial to Bill and more and more like
intervention - like Alice’s intervention. Finally, it become much clearer to Bill as the
soldier story sinks in that his obsessive behavior is directly linked to it - so the
parallel becomes more lucid and more literal. As Alice has imagined having sex with
many people watching, Bill is watching as many people have sex and as Alice has sex
with all of them, Bill has sex with none of them. The inversion here is also quite
interesting : Bill is watching an orgy in reality, Alice is dreaming about one; Alice,
laughing, chooses to take part in the orgy, Bill gasping and displaying less charm than
quiet disturbance, chooses not to take part in the orgy (negotiating “privacy” with one
of the women there when he is approached). In essence the dream and the reality are
both surreal to the viewer, but to the characters : both the dream and reality are real
and there is no line between them. In the world of Alice and Bill, dreams and reality
are equal.

Note that Kubrick is constantly painting his moods on the walls by lighting scenes
with the following : excessive brightness, warm colors, cold colors, yellowing light
and entirely dominant key lighting (in the masked ball’s opening ceremony).

Extras are recycled between the Sonata Jazz sequence, the toy store sequence and the
cafe sequence.

Actors who play small roles in the film are recycled behind masks in
the masked ball sequence.

New York re-created in London has a sign that reads :
“LIQUORS” that pops up more than once.

Bill’s newspaper tells him that he’s
“Lucky to Be Alive” before Ziegler or the note he receives at the masked ball house.

The first shot is of Alice’s dress falling to the floor, leaving her nude from the back.
The second shot is an exterior of Bill’s apartment - and it too is recycled later in the
film.

Kubrick is seated at a table in the Sonata Jazz sequence. Seriously.

When Alice gets stoned she questions Bill about “feeling his patients’ tits” and whether
or not either party fantacizes during the action. Later in the film - Bill’s only action
towards Domino’s roomate is to “feel her tits”.