Eyes Wide Shut

Deliberate unseeing awareness

Eyes Wide Shut is a 1999 Stanley Kubrick film starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, exploring sexual jealousy and fantasy among Manhattan's elite.

The title phrase suggests willful ignorance—seeing but choosing not to acknowledge what's in front of you.

Outside film contexts, eyes wide shut describes deliberate blindness to uncomfortable truths: The board kept their eyes wide shut while the company collapsed.

movieRecorded visual narrative
secret societyCovert fraternal organization
maskFace-worn concealment
mysterySomething unexplained or unknown
thrillerSuspense-driven narrative genre

Stanley Kubrick · Kubrick · drama · film · death · Kidman · denial · illusion · ritual · psychological · dream sequence · decadence · duality · facade · allegory · truth · perception · sexual fantasy

Opposites

awareness and perception

Eyes Wide Shuteyes wide open

State of full awareness

clear-eyed · wide awake · woke · enlightened · unblinkered

kubrick filmography tone

Eyes Wide ShutDr. Strangelove

A Clockwork Orange · Full Metal Jacket · The Shining · Spartacus

cinematic approach to sexuality

Eyes Wide ShutBasic Instinct

Inborn behavioral drive

Boogie Nights

Family

eye, eyed, eyeing, eyeless, eyelet, wide, widen, wider, widest

Familiarity: Top 500,000
Profile: Concrete · Everyday, not technical · Rated R