On Eyes Wide Shut

The brilliance of Eyes Wide Shut is that its not a transgression. To think of the film as an exploration of fantasy, the end makes sense in terms of reality. As Zizek says, it's the quelling of the dream. We don't fantasize the lack in our sex lives, our sex lives prevent our fantasies from running wild.

The film can be understood as taking place in the imaginary. Where the symbolic is unable to make sense of the real. All Bill Harper's interactions are fantasy and all fantasies that compensate for class or, an inability to take part in a world where he feels he belongs. His constant reach for the symbolic as evident in his constant naming of himself as "Doctor" is the access to a world of power in which he isn't closer, but he's closer.

The symbolic is a constant interruption of the real in the film. The phone calls he receives bring about order. Still, the symbolic is unable to fully cover the real, as evident in the way answers ever truly provide explanations as to what is really going on.