EYES WIDE SHUT

A Metascript project

The project

Metascript is an open source tool that provides a basic textual analysis framework dedicated to the comparison between an original text (novel, short story etc.) and its film transposition (film script). The goal of Metascript is to provide a guideline for the markup and metadata approach of different but connected texts such as a book with its script for audiovisual transposition. The project used Arthur Schnitzler's novel "Dream Story" and two screenplays (a '96 draft and a '99 transcript) from the film "Eyes Wide Shut," a transposition of the novel directed by Stanley Kubrick, as its working prototype. Metascript is developed in the following stages: - creation of the xml-tei model for the various texts - extraction of relevant data using python scripts - data analysis and graphical visualization of results Metascript is a project designed by Andreose Erica, Crosilla Giorgia and Zilli Leonardo for the "Digital Text in The Humanities" exam of the DHDK 2023 master's course.

Dream Story

"Traumnovelle," also known as "Dream Story," is a novella written by the Austrian author Arthur Schnitzler and ublished in 1926.
Set in early 20th-century Vienna, "Traumnovelle" tells the story of Dr. Fridolin and his wife, Albertine. The narrative unfolds when Fridolin stumbles upon his wife's hidden sexual fantasies, which shakes the foundation of their seemingly stable marriage. This discovery leads Fridolin on a surreal and introspective journey through the city's nightmarish underbelly, filled with a series of erotic and unsettling encounters.
Schnitzler's work is notable for its exploration of the human psyche and the blurring of the line between dreams and reality. The novella delves into the secret desires and hidden motives of its characters, revealing the complex and often contradictory nature of human sexuality.
"Traumnovelle" has had a significant influence on literature and cinema, most notably inspiring Stanley Kubrick's film "Eyes Wide Shut," starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Schnitzler's exploration of sexual desire, jealousy, and the hidden aspects of the human psyche continues to captivate readers and remains a thought-provoking piece of literature in the realm of psychoanalytical fiction.

Eyes Wide Shut

Eyes Wide Shut is a 1999 erotic mystery psychological drama film directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick. It is based on the 1926 novella Traumnovelle (Dream Story) by Arthur Schnitzler, transferring the story's setting from early twentieth-century Vienna to 1990s New York City.

Movie Plot

The plot centers on a doctor (Tom Cruise) who is shocked when his wife (Nicole Kidman) reveals that she had contemplated having an affair a year earlier. He then embarks on a night-long adventure, during which he infiltrates a masked orgy of an unnamed secret society.

The production

Kubrick obtained the filming rights for Dream Story in the 1960s, considering it a perfect text for a film adaptation about sexual relations. He revived the project in the 1990s when he hired writer Frederic Raphael to help him with the adaptation. The film, which was mostly shot in England, apart from some exterior establishing shots, includes a detailed recreation of exterior Greenwich Village street scenes made at Pinewood Studios. The film's production, at 400 days, holds the Guinness World Record for the longest continuous film shoot. Kubrick died six days after showing the final cut of Eyes Wide Shut to Warner Bros., making it the final film he directed. He reportedly considered it his "greatest contribution to the art of cinema". Box office receipts for the film worldwide were about $162 million, making it Kubrick's highest-grossing film. Eyes Wide Shut has been included in several lists of the greatest films of the 1990s.