Saturday, August 14, 1999

Audience's "Eyes" shut for 65 seconds

When Stanley Kubrick’s final film "Eyes Wide Shut" is released on Friday, July 16 to North America, chances are some viewers are going to feel betrayed.

In a recent, dreadful development from last Saturday’s press screening in Burbank, California, producer Jan Harlan revealed that the distribution of the film to the US and Canada will feature 65 seconds of "digitally tampered" footage, in order for the film to safely secure an "R" rating. The MPAA apparently considers these excruciatingly revealing moments some of the most sexually charged footage ever captured in filmmaking, and told Warner Bros. that, if it had not been edited, they would have to enforce the notorious NC-17. Since the studio is not about to put extra limitations on Kubrick’s highly anticipated final film, they made the edits without much objection, although Harlan admits that Warner Bros. wasn’t too happy about them.