Questions posed by EWS

[Michael D. Workman]

At 10:22 AM 7/25/99 -0600, you wrote:
>> >What does the girl [prostitute?] in the costume shop whisper to Cruise?
>> >Something about a closet or a cloak?
>> ------------------------
>> Whatever it is, Cruise is shocked.  Possibly, her attempt to seduce him?
>
>Yeah, I think she said, "I want soak your cloak in the closet."
>

OK. Finally saw it last evening. Very rich film. If you can get past the
flat sincerity (which I appreciated as the beat of its heart) you see more.
It's Dr. Harford's own doubts which bring about the evening and the
imaginal space of the orgy is his own heart disclosed...a place of which
his wife later dreams. His lie about the purpose for his upstairs visit at
the party in the opening scene is merely a symptom of his shifting nature,
of the vivid consciousness (represented by the rainbow) which he must
"disguise." The costume shop proprietor is deeply (albiet at times
amusingly, of course) corrupt, selling his daughter as a sexual toy--a
thought which no doubt crossed Dr. Harford's mind when he returned home.
Kubrick alludes to the father's lust for his own daughter, and through the
prostitute we see the plague which seeks to infect him. Death is
everywhere, following us on the street...we are Lucky To Be Alive. The mask
is what he must sleep with, and in his inner being are only a nameless many
locked in mortal throes. "You're out of your depth, Bill." 

Surviving adventures, indeed.

But, it rings true to me that the threads should be recurrent in Kubrick;
marriage at its most basic level symbolizes the relationship between human
being and God--and thus, the temptation to refuse death and live forever in
sin.


Cheers,

Michael Workman, Proprietor
Underworld Used Books
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