Arm

At The Movies

Pollack
Wide Open

ALICE BURDICK SCHWEIGER
Special to the Jewish News

IV

hen Sydney Pollack was
asked to take on one of
the featured roles in the
sexual thriller Eyes Wide
Shut, he couldn't refuse. The opportu-
nity to work with director Stanley
Kubrick and superstars Tom Cruise
and Nicole Kidman was too hard to
pass up.
"Kubrick was a world legend, and I
knew working with him would be a
great thrill," says Pollack, 65, who
considers himself more of a director
and producer than an actor.
"To observe a guy like Kubrick —
someone whose films I have been aware
of all my life — was a terrific opportu-
nity. As for Tom and Nicole, Cruise is a
wonderful guy whom I worked with on
The Firm. I am terribly fond of him
and have enormous respect for his abil-
ity. I think he is more than just a movie
star — he's a sensational actor. I think
the same of Nicole. In the movie, they
both did a spectacular job."
Eyes Wide Shut, based on the 1927
Arthur Schnitzler novella Thzurnnovelle
("Dream Story"), is set in New York
City at Christmas time, although the
movie was shot in London. Cruise and
Kidman, who are husband and wife off
screen, play a wealthy happily married
couple, Dr. William and Alice Hartford.
The Hartford marriage is first tested
at a party held at the mansion of their
host, played by Sydney Pollack, with,
as reviewer Andrew Walker writes in
London's Evening Standard, "the man-
ner of a pugnacious millionaire tycoon
from the pages of the Forbes 500 set."
When the Hartfords each wind up
flirting with some of the other guests,
the couple segue into revealing to each
other their erotic dreams and fantasies,
and go on to confront temptation and
sexual experimentation around the
corridors of Manhattan. Filled with
nudity and erotic fantasies, Eyes Wide
Shut, writes Walker, a Kubrick biogra-
pher and friend of the family, "is sure
to spark controversy. "

7/16
1999

PO n.trnit

Director/Producer/Actor Sydney Pollack
talks about his role in "Eyes Wide Shut."

zw

Sydney PolLick: Well-known as a director, he plays a role in Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes
Wide Shut."

Indeed, there has been plenty of buzz
surrounding the movie, and Pollack
guesses that with Kubrick as director,
its sure to be a box-office hit. "Every
movie Kubrick made has become a clas-
sic," says Pollack, of his "phone friend."
"So we all assumed when working
with Stanley [that] we were in for
another classic."
Pollack recently told the New York
Times that his "initial take on [his]
part [in Eyes Wide Shut) was very dif-
ferent from what Stanley wanted. I
came in with the idea of being
tougher with the character [played by]
Tom, because he had done something
that I disapproved of strongly.
"And then Stanley had an idea of
my wanting to manipulate him more,
and therefore be kinder, and he was
very specific about how to communi-
cate that. He knew I was another direc-
tor — he didn't have to beat around
the bush. He wasn't trying to work any
psychological tricks with me. And he
was crazy about both Tom and Nicole."
Commenting on Kubrick's unex-
pected death last March, Pollack says,
"Stanley had finished the picture and
had been editing it for about six
months before he died. I talked to him
on Tuesday and he died early Saturday.
His death was a terrible shock to
everyone. The opening is going to be
bittersweet without Stanley and we are
all aoina b to miss him."
For Pollack, being in a successful
movie is nothing new. In the span of
his celebrated career, 17 of his films
have received a total of 46 Academy
Award nominations and went on to
win seven Oscars. Pollack garnered
two for himself — Best Director and
Best Picture for 1985's Out OfAfrica,
which he also produced.
But Pollack's life hasn't always been
as upbeat as his career.
Born July 1, 1934, in Lafayette,
Ind., Pollack grew up feeling like an
outsider. "When I was young in the
1950s, Indiana had a lot of anti-
Semitism," recalls Pollack. "It's not
that anyone beat me up because I was
Jewish, but there were many offensive