Past event — This event ended 32 days ago.
Eyes Wide Shut – marriage, desire, and affluent-world nightmare rituals
About the event
VIFF movie outing - public screening, optional short chat after. Short summary Some movies get called mysterious because they are empty. Eyes Wide Shut is mysterious because it keeps looking back at you. Kubrick’s final film is about marriage, desire, jealousy, secrecy, performance, fantasy, class, money, and the weird little theatre people build around what they want but cannot admit. It is also one of the great rich-people-nightmare movies. Everyone is performing. Everyone is hiding something. Everyone seems both overexposed and unknowable. That is why this is worth seeing in a theatre. Not for a clean explanation. Not for a puzzle solution. A real conversation about marriage, power, erotic imagination, status, fear, and whether honesty is actually possible between two people. A few questions already sitting in my head
• “Is this movie about desire, jealousy, marriage, or humiliation?” • “What does Bill actually want, and does he know?” • “Is Alice more honest than Bill, or just more frightening because she can say the quiet part?” • “Why does wealth make the movie feel dreamlike and rotten at the same time?” • “Are the rituals powerful, ridiculous, terrifying, or all three?” • “Does the ending feel like reconciliation, defeat, or just a temporary ceasefire?”
How the evening will go We’ll meet at VIFF Centre before the screening, watch the film together, and whoever still has energy can stay for a short chat after. This is a public VIFF screening, not a private Meetup event. Please buy your own VIFF ticket while available. Ticket note Buy your VIFF ticket here: [https://viff.org/whats-on/eyes-wide-shut/book/hhiq9TIrME](https://viff.org/whats-on/eyes-wide-shut/book/hhiq9TIrME) When and where 🗓️ Date: Sunday, August 23rd, 2026 🕒 Time: 4:00 PM 📍 Location: VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema 1181 Seymour Street, Vancouver, BC Runtime: 159 min VIFF series: 90s, Baby!
