Due to a phone call, I missed a scene of “eyes wide shut”.
Just after Tom Cruise atend to the weird meeting in costumes, when he comes back home, her wife tell him about a weird dream she had.
If someone can sum up this dream to me, thanks in advance…
Basically, she dreamed she fucked another man. This added to Tommy’s already stressed out sexual need, or something.
Yeah, I had a hard time following the story, too. I got the impression that you weren’t supposed to get much of a “story”… it was all atmospheric. But that might just be me.
I don’t think that’s it. He goes to the costume party after hearing about his wife’s fantasy of having sex with another man. In fact, that fantasy is what sets off his wanderings. She might have had another dream to relate after he gets back from the scary orgy party.
Bill arrives to find Alice laughing in her sleep. He wakes her and asks what she was dreaming about.
Quoting as best as I can remember (which is probably not that much, but this is the gist):
“We were in this deserted city and all out clothes were gone. We were naked and I was afraid… and I felt ashamed. I thought it was your fault… you ran off to go find clothes for us, and when you were gone, everything was different. I felt wonderful.”
“Then I was lying in a field, stretched out, naked. Then a man walked up… he was the man from the hotel, the naval officer… he stared at me… and he just laughed. He just laughed at me.”
“It’s too awful. He was kissing me and then there were all these people around, hundreds of them everywhere, and they were all fucking, and… and I was fucking other men… so many… I don’t know how many I was with… and I knew that you could see me in the arms of all these men… and I wanted to make fun of you… and so I laughed as hard as I could.”
I thought it started from an argument they had after the first party (Tom was walking around with some model, while Nicole was chatting up some older man). Nicole asked Tom if he felt jealous seeing her with someone else, and he says no. When she asks why not, he gives some hand-waving explanation that basically boils down to “women don’t do that.” Nicole gets pissed and then tells Tom about the dream she had, which shorts out his 2-watt brain.
It wasn’t a dream, what she tells him actually happened. Alice shatters Bill’s illusions by telling him about a chance meeting a year ago in Cape Cod:
Bill: …“I know you would never be unfaithful to me”
Alice: “You are very, very, very sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
Bill: “No. I’m sure of you.”
This is met by hysterical laughter from Alice, followed by:
“Do you remember… do you remember last summer at Cape Cod?”
“Do you remember one night in the dining room, there was this young naval officer and he was sitting near our table with two other officers?”
“I first saw him that morning in the lobby. He was… he was checking into the hotel and he was following the bellboy with his luggage to the elevator. He… he glanced at me as he walked passed–just a glance, nothing more, but I could hardly move. That afternoon, Helena went to the movies with her friend and you and I made love and we made plans about our future and we talked about Helena… and yet at no time was he ever out of my mind… and I thought if he wanted me, even if it was only for one night, I was ready to give up everything. You. Helena. My whole fucking future. Everything. At yet, it was weird, because at the same time, you were dearer to me than ever and… and at that moment my love for you was both tender and… sad.”
“**y dinner, I realized he was gone… and I was relieved.”
Bill does not reply; the conversation is cut short with the news that one of Bill’s patients died. He says “I think I gave to go over there and show my face.” And at this point, one begins to question what is actually happening, what’s Bill’s fantasy/dream, and what’s a combination of both.
In my opinion, Bill sleeps with Domino. The Party and lead-up was a fantasy that turns nightmarish. It symbolizes this tryst he’s embarked on with a hooker, what he imagined would be titillating but turned out cold and altogether unpleasant. (This is easy to see. Lots of people went into Eyes Wide Shut expecting a high-budget porn and were sorely disappointed when the orgy turned out to be the furthest thing from erotic.) Bill’s confession to Alice towards the end is of this event, and the meaning of final exchange they have while shopping becomes apparent (also notice what’s behind Alice on the rack).
Nearly ever scene of Eyes Wide Shut is up to interpretation, though. Others may draw different conclusions.