the floral still lifes of Christiane Kubrick (in EYES WIDE SHUT)
I really need to revisit EYES; it’s been far too long.
Christiane’s paintings serve as more than decoration. Their floral subject matter reinforces the movie’s themes of lust and decay. Another work titled Homage to Van Gogh, an imitation of the Dutch master’s work seen in the background as the characters eat breakfast and watch TV, evokes the concepts of truth and authenticity, which play a central role in this story about a troubled marriage.
As author Juli Kearns explains in a frame-by-frame analysis of the film:
“What is authentic and what is not the real thing? What hasn’t fidelity? Butter is not butter and what represents itself as a bear is instead honey. In the Looney Tunes cartoon, Santa proves to instead be the Tasmanian Devil when the soot is removed. And then there’s Christiane’s rendering of Van Gogh flowers in homage of him.”
(via artnet)