Dotting the I's - Part Deux

Yo Saturnalia!

   Ok, it's been awhile. Lots of new information has come up. Some of it confirming suspicions, much of pointing toward new avenues.

   Suffice it to say, this post will complete some of the thoughts of the previous post but not in the way I had originally intended. Mostly because of new information but also because when traveling in the speculative kingdom of Kubrickistan, one is not served well by adhering to dogmatic beliefs.

   I have struggled with the Venice EWS dynamic. There's the masks, the Verona Restaurant (Verona having been part of the Venetian Republic).

 My original plan was to focus on how Venice taught the world in general and Britain in particular how to attempt rule the world covertly through finance and economic infiltration. 
   I wanted to focus on the  theories of Larouche, the Venetian bankers and Venice as a Kubrickian symbol for British Banking, the Black Nobility, etc. But if Columbo has taught us nothing else, it's that there's always one more thing.
   That thing is the movie is set at Christmas.

To Follow Arthur or Not to Follow Arthur

   One can go the whole antinomian route and say they were going for a Satanic reference, sacrificing Mandy in a reversal of the Christian birth and yet...
   The easiest thing to do that would confirm the whole Venetian angle would be to follow the Schnitzler source material and have the movie set at Carnival time. I again refer to Frederic Raphael's memoir, 'Eyes Wide Open'. He mentions his frustration with updating the story from 19th century Vienna to modern day New York and several times reaching an impasse with how to handle an issue. Kubrick would occasionally give the advice, "Follow Arthur". Yet it's the ways in which Kubrick  doesn't follow Arthur that we have to look. He doesn't follow Arthur in using the Venetian masks. (It's a masked ball in 'Traumnovelle' yes, but they are not specified as Venetian Carnival masks) and he certainly doesn't follow Arthur with the Christmas setting.
   Critics have mentioned the association between Venetian masks and lascivious activities. It has also been stated that the Christmas setting allowed Kubrick some interesting lighting choices and to make a statement on consumerism impact on the modern couple. I think it's more than that.

Vigilant Citizen to the rescue

    There's a fantastic two piece article on the Vigilant Citizen website regarding EWS. I want to reference something in part II but I highly recommend the entire piece as well as the overall site.

http://vigilantcitizen.com/moviesandtv/the-hidden-and-not-so-hidden-messages-in-stanley-kubricks-eyes-wide-shut-pt-ii/

The writer makes mention of the shooting location of the Somerton orgy being a Rothschild mansion and that "...has been documented that the Rothschilds do actually partake in masked events very similar to those shown in Eyes Wide Shut. Here are rare images taken from a 1972 party given by Marie-Hélène de Rothschild."

 It's not so much the image that got me as the text under the image on the page, which read,
"Baroness Marie-Hélène de Rothschild and Baron Alexis de Redé at a 1972 party. Invitations were printed in reversed writing. One wonders if this party “degenerated” into something resembling what is shown in Eyes Wide Shut."
    What I'm focusing on here is the invitations were printed in reversed writing. That made me think of Saturnalia.

 Ailanrutas!

   One of the major characteristics of this ancient Roman festival was reversal. From Wikipedia:
"Saturnalia is the best-known of several festivals in the Greco-Roman world characterized by role reversals and behavioral license. Slaves were treated to a banquet of the kind usually enjoyed by their masters. Ancient sources differ on the circumstances: some suggest that master and slave dined together..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia
   So the behavioral license fits in, what else? Well, I include the fact that it was a Greco-Roman feast, and was celebrated in the Greek style (meaning how the sacrifices were made, as well as the public banquets). I have received unconfirmed intel that those who cast no shadow, at least some of them, are in to the Greek myths big time. Whether this pertains to the ancient Greek Mystery Religions or actual worship of the Olympian deities, I don't know.
    Also, again quoting the Wikipedians, "The Saturnalia reflects the contradictory nature of the deity Saturn himself: "there are joyful and utopian aspects of careless well-being side by side with disquieting elements of threat and danger"". That would fit exactly what transpires at Somerton in the film. Also mentioned in the article, "...he (Saturn) gathered together the unruly race of fauns and nymphs scattered over mountain heights, and gave them laws … . Under his reign were the golden ages men tell of: in such perfect peace he ruled the nations." And lastly, "His contradictions... indicate Saturn's capacity for obliterating social distinctions."

   Both the laws for the unruly 'races' and obliterating social distinctions sound like some of the goals of they who cast no shadows.

   Just for reference, the common celebration cry was Io Saturnalia! Which allowing for Latin I and Y sounds would be pronounced Yo Saturnalia!

   Is that all? Jay Weidner mentions, I believe in a Red Ice Radio interview that the script from Arthur C Clarke originally called for the Monolith to be from Saturn not Jupiter. Also, in Troy McLachlan's excellent book "The Saturn Death Cult" he postulates the Kubrick was attempting to expose the Saturn Death Cult, whose members recall a Golden Age when Saturn was the center of the Solar System (Saturn ruled in Roman terms) but was later usurped by the Sun.
    Could there be anything else? Perhaps, regarding this image:

But more on that later.