Great Character: Alice Harford (“Eyes Wide Shut”)

This month’s theme: Attractor characters. Today: Alice Harford from Eyes Wide Shut, screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Frederic Raphael, inspired by a novella by Arthur Schnitzler.

For his grand finale, maestro moviemaker Stanley Kubrick magnified the magnetism of his attractor character Alice Harford by casting Nicole Kidman as the wife of Dr. William Harford, played by her real life husband at the time — Tom Cruise — in Eyes Wide Shut. Kidman and Cruise had quite an extended stay in London as Kubrick’s spin on the erotic thriller genre spent an unexpected 15 months in front of its production cameras.

Eyes Wide Shut is loosely adapted from Austrian author Arthur Schnitzler’s 1926 novella Dream Story. Stanley Kubrick and Frederic Raphael wrote a ravishing, risqué screenplay about an affluent New York City family whose domestic stability becomes jeopardized by both parent’s temptation to indulge in adultery.

ALICE HARFORD: (to Dr. William Harford) Hmmm, tell me something, those two girls at the party last night. Did you, by any chance, happen to fuck them?

Eyes Wide Shut from IMDB:

A New York City doctor, who is married to an art curator, pushes himself on a harrowing and dangerous nightlong odyssey of sexual and moral discovery after his wife admits that she once almost cheated on him.

Alice Harford’s disrobed nude body is the first image in Eyes Wide Shut that our eyes are wide open to. She is practically performing this event, but her husband is nowhere around. Soon Dr. Harford does share her personal space in the bathroom, with Alice’s anatomy now decorated in evening wear, but her requests for a compliment are met with preoccupied negligence. Alice even mentions the name of their babysitter, with her hubby immediately asking her for the name, as if it never emerged from her mouth. Alice Harford is clearly having a hard time getting her groom’s attention.

While at a lavish adult Christmas gala that is oozing with sexual invites, Dr. Harford’s attention span is held captive by a pair of flirtatious models and then the bare body of the party host’s heroine/cocaine abusing mistress.

While waiting to reunite with Dr. Harford for some much-needed alone time, Alice is swept off of her feet by a fast-forward Hungarian playboy who scoffs at the idea of real marital commitment. What begins as Alice innocently killing time on the dance floor evolves into her reluctantly socializing with this suave sexual opportunist that is preying on her champagne indulgence.

Neither member of the Harford duo ends up submitting to the effortless opportunities to delve into deceptive intimacy. But the trouble in paradise is waiting to begin brewing when they return home. With the mutual inhalation of marijuana clouds, Alice Harford becomes none too fond of her husband’s carefree response to her story about her earlier interaction with that debonair admirer.

ALICE HARFORD: (to Dr. William Harford) So, because I’m a beautiful woman, the only reason any man wants to talk to me is because he wants to fuck me? Is that what you’re saying?

Alice continues probing William, suddenly upset by his over confidence that she would never cheat on him, as if he was taking her for granted instead of merely trusting her.

ALICE HARFORD: (to Dr. William Harford) Millions of years of evolution, right? Right? Men have to stick it in every place they can, but for women… women it is just about security and commitment and whatever the fuck else!

Then like a destructive thunderbolt descending from the heavens, Alice electrocutes her husband’s confidence with a shocking confession, just a year prior she seriously contemplated a steamy affair with a complete stranger during their family vacation.

ALICE HARFORD: (to Dr. William Harford) If he wanted me, I would give up everything.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgKHdanxE6A

Alice’s contemplation of a divorce-provoking escapade shatters her husband’s stable, soul mate fairytale, and ignites an instant series of near brushes with other women’s bedrooms: a patient’s daughter, a prostitute, the prostitute’s roommate and the masked members of an illicit orgy cult.

Was it Alice’s nonchalant honesty about potentially cheating that scares her husband into his secretive sexual revenge excursions, or was it that he has repressed those exact same instincts?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCakejA9VMc

For her truthful struggle with monogamy and her desire to be desired — Alice Harford is one explosively GREAT CHARACTER in Kubrick’s collective canon.

Eyes Wide Shut is one of those movies I definitely want to see again because I remember wanting to love it so much, due to my adoration of Kubrick as a filmmaker and it being his last film, but I left the theater not knowing what to think or feel. Curious as to others’ reactions. I do remember Alice being a compelling figure.

Thank you, Jason, for this post. Please hit Reply and join us in comments to discuss Eyes Wide Shut.

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