TÁR director and Eyes Wide Shut star Todd Field says Kubrick's swansong was a "first cut"

“What we have is Stanley’s first cut,” Field tells IndieWire. “He died six days after screening that cut for Tom [Cruise], Nic[ole Kidman], [and Warner Bros. chiefs] Bob [Daly] and Terry [Semel]. If Stanley’s post-production on past films is taken into even modest consideration, it’s clear that the film would be different. However, it would be foolish to try and speculate about what might have changed had Stanley lived to make it so.”

In the interview, Field explains his relationship with Kubrick, who hired Field to play the orgy pianist Nick Nightengale. Field recalled introducing himself: “‘I’m Todd Field. Stanley laughed, ‘I know who the fuck you are, I hired you.'” Afterward, Kubrick offered the up-and-coming filmmaker notes on the script for Field’s directorial debut, In The Bedroom. “After we wrapped, he was upbeat and asked if I’d stop at Rank [Laboratory, where the negatives were processed] on my way back to London and deliver the dailies, and also that I send him the second draft of In the Bedroom,” he continues. “He’d been generous to read the first, so I agreed but never sent it. I had another shoot coming up outside London in March ’99, and was supposed to see Stanley when Tom called to tell me he had died.”

Since its release, esteem for Eyes Wide Shut has risen among the Kubrick faithful. Part of its appeal is that uncanny atmosphere that keeps the film at a distance. Would that have been ironed out had Kubrick taken another crack at it? Who knows, but what we have is now available on Criterion’s new 4K Blu-ray, released today with more film grain than ever, the way Kurbick intended.