Daily Podcasts Video Research

The Elusive Jewishness of “Eyes Wide Shut” — Stanley Kubrick’s Final Film

JL;DR SUMMARY Stanley Kubrick's final film, "Eyes Wide Shut," adapted from Arthur Schnitzler's novella "Traumnovelle," is at the center of a fascinating discussion on Jewish identity and representation. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

Jewish IdentityJewish ThemesStanley KubrickRepresentationArthur SchnitzlerFilm AdaptationFrederic RaphaelEyes Wide ShutTraumnovelleVictor Ziegler

Places mentioned

Vienna, Austria
"His central characters are Jewish; they lead lives of turn-of-the-century Viennese Jews in a city rife with artistic and cultural turmoil."
Poland
"Nachtigall is a Polish Jew, the son of a Jewish bar owner, who speaks German with a slightly Jewish twang."
New York, United States
"Transferring the story to New York seemed to me to offer an opportunity for keeping the Jewish aspect of the story, however it might be modernized."
Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
"Kubrick was firmly opposed to Bill being identified as Jew: he wanted him to be a Harrison Fordish goy and forbade any references to Jews... suggesting either the British county of Hertfordshire where Kubrick lived."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 69080
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2025-12-04 05:31:19 UTC
Curated 2025-12-04 08:31:21 UTC