In watching Criterion’s 2025 4K release of Eyes Wide Shut, my immediate thought was that the grain and contrast is spectacular. And evidently, this was a major part of the release: they went back to the original 35mm celluloid for scanning, and it has yielded a film-like master. Bravo.

Edit: Screen Anarchy notes a few of the details from an interview with Larry Smith (the lighting cameraman from the production), available on the disc.

Grain is showy at times – but this is by design, as Kubrick, who preferred bright, glowing images, pushed the film stock two stops in processing in collaboration with his lighting cameraman, Larry Smith, who describes the approach in a newly-recorded interview on the disc.

Smith has gone on to re-time the entire picture during the restoration, attempting to bring it as close as possible to what he believed Kubrick was looking for, as Kubrick died before the film was originally timed.

The resulting image has extraordinary depth and colour fidelity, even given that the colours (nighttime blues; tungsten oranges) are intentionally oversaturated. This is the best I’ve ever seen the film look, including 35mm print projection.