1999, a closet Odyssey: sexual discourses in "Eyes Wide Shut"
- Autores: Celestino Deleyto Alcalá
- Localización: Atlantis: Revista de la Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos, ISSN 0210-6124, Vol. 28, Nº 1, 2006, págs. 29-43
- Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
Eyes Wide Shut offers at least three perspectives on sex: sex as death, sex as commerce, and sex and love. In this essay I explore the third of these perspectives, that is, the relation between sex as love, one that has so far been neglected in critical accounts of the film. The nature of this relationship, as articulated by the text, culminates in the final scene in which Alice (Nicole Kidman) takes the initiative in the reconciliation with her husband Bill (Tom Cruise). This dialogue works as a complex summary of twentieth-century discourses about sex, including concepts such as the sexualisation of love, confluent love, intimacy, or the tension between love and desire. This scene, less ironic than it may seem, celebrates the most positive dimensions of sex and its inextricable link with love in our culture.
