Sydney Pollack – This Had Oscar Buzz

Listeners have been asking for this episode for years and today, Santa is bringing it to you! Happy Holidays, it’s time for Eyes Wide Shut! In 1999, the film was hotly anticipated for many reasons: it starred Hollywood’s most famous couple, it was the final film of master of masters Stanley Kubrick, its very long production was hounded by the press, and it promised lots of onscreen sex. Adapted from Arthur Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle, the film cast Tom Cruise as a doctor who goes on an odyssey of sexual obsession after his wife (a haunting Nicole Kidman) confesses to an unrequited sexual fantasy about a stranger. A ritual orgy, Todd Field playing jazz piano, and a flirty Alan Cumming followed, and baffled audiences reacted viciously.

This episode, we discuss the film’s initial negative reaction from audiences and critics alike and its contemporary reassessment. We also talk about its formative place in Kidman’s emphasis on auteurs, how the film unpacks Cruise’s screen persona, and the film’s mystery box marketing.

Topics also include Sidney Pollack barechested in suspenders, the film’s censored orgy, and the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards.

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Get ready for another Movie That Does Not Exist – except evidence of this week’s film is provided in one of the most iconic EW Fall Movie Preview covers! Yes, in 1999 Random Hearts promised us sexy Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas in a pool and instead it gave us… a creepy dry hump sequence in a car and a lot of lethargic half-musings on infidelity, politics, and grief. Not to mention breakdowns in department stores and a comical litany of familiar faces in tiny roles.

The film follows a cop and a senatorial candidate who begin a relationship after their cheating spouses die in a plane crash, and it’s as much of a bummer as you might expect. Despite the pedigree (including Hollywood legend Sydney Pollack in the director’s chair) was a box office and critical bomb long forgotten come Oscar nomination morning.

This week, we take a look at the 1999 Oscar race and imagine what a Best Picture Ten might have looked like. We also discuss Ford’s shockingly anemic Oscar history and potential contractual obligations for his famous earring.

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Tag: Sydney Pollack

269 – Eyes Wide Shut

053 – Random Hearts