Origins
Kubrick first went on record in 1972 saying he'd like to adapt Traumnovelle (Dream Story) by Arthur Schnitzler, whose well-known play La Ronde was the source of Nicole Kidman's recent stage hit, The Blue Room. In the same year, Frederic Raphael published Who Were You With Last Night?, a supposed novelisation of a Traumnovelle screenplay which he'd written for Kubrick, but which was shelved in favour of Barry Lyndon. Filming of Eyes Wide Shut finally began on November 4th, 1996, and finished some time in June 1998.
Story
Traumnovelle is set over a single night in Vienna, and has as its principal characters a doctor and his wife, Fridolin and Albertine. Kubrick described it to French critic Michael Ciment as follows: "The book opposes the real adventures of a husband and the fantasy adventures of his wife, and asks the question: is there a serious difference between dreaming a sexual adventure and actually having one?"
Kubrick and fellow scripter Frederic Raphael updated the story to contemporary New York, focusing on a married couple, both psychiatrists, who embark on a series of escapades involving sex, drugs and transvestism.
Cast
Kubrick cast Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, and reports attest that they agreed to plentiful nudity and graphic sex scenes - so much so that Eyes Wide Shut is in danger of scoring a financially disastrous NC-17 rating in the US. Cruise reportedly dons women's clothing, and newspaper reports claimed that a leading clinical psychiatrist was brought on set to teach Kidman how to replicate a heroin injection authentically.
High-profile casualties of the 18-month shoot include Harvey Keitel, who left after six months, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Replacements were Sydney Pollack (director of Sabrina and The Way We Were, actor in Husbands and Wives) and Swedish actress Marie Richardson (The Best Intentions).
Locations
Kubrick's well-known aversion to leaving England meant that, like Full Metal Jacket and Lolita, a foreign environment was simulated there. Pinewood Studios, just outside London, housed most of the sets. Kubrick filmed the climactic masked-ball-and-orgy at Elveden Hall near Bury St Edmunds and Highclare Castle near Newbury. Another party scene was filmed at stately home Luton Hoo. Most notoriously, however, the production pitched up at transvestite cabaret bar Madame Jo-Jo's in London's Soho.