Stanley Kubrick (/ˈkuːbrɪk/; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an Americanfilm director, screenwriter, producer, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time,his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or short stories, spanning a number of genres and gaining recognition for their intense attention to detail, innovativecinematography, extensive set design, anddark humor.
Born inNew York City, Kubrick was an average school student but displayed a keen interest in literature, photography, and film from a young age; he began to teach himself film producing and directing after graduating from high school. After working as a photographer forLook magazine in the late 1940s and early 1950s, he began making low-budgetshort films and made his first major Hollywood film,The Killing, forUnited Artists in 1956. This was followed by two collaborations withKirk Douglas: theanti-war filmPaths of Glory (1957) and thehistorical epic filmSpartacus (1960).
In 1961, Kubrick left the United States due to concerns about crime in the country, as well as a growing dislike for how Hollywood operated and creative differences with Douglas and the film studios. He settled in England, which he would leave only a handful of times for the rest of his life. In 1978, he made his home atChildwickbury Manor with his wifeChristiane, and it became his workplace where he centralized the writing, research, editing, and management of his productions. This permitted him almost complete artistic control over his films, with the rare advantage of financial support from major Hollywood studios. His first productions in England were two films withPeter Sellers: an adaptation ofLolita (1962) and theCold War black comedyDr. Strangelove (1964).
Aperfectionist who assumed direct control over most aspects of his filmmaking, Kubrick cultivated an expertise in writing, editing,color grading, promotion, and exhibition. He was famous for the painstaking care taken in researching his films and staging scenes, performed in close coordination with his actors, crew, and other collaborators. He frequently asked for several dozen retakes of the same shot in a film, often confusing and frustrating his actors. Despite the notoriety this provoked, many of Kubrick's films broke new cinematic ground and are now considered landmarks. The scientific realism and innovative special effects in his science fiction epic2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) were a first in cinema history, and the film earned him his onlyAcademy Award (forBest Visual Effects). FilmmakerSteven Spielberg has referred to2001 as his generation's "big bang" and it is regarded as one ofthe greatest films ever made.
While many of Kubrick's films were controversial and initially received mixed reviews upon release—particularly the brutalA Clockwork Orange (1971), which Kubrick withdrew from circulation in the UK following amedia frenzy—most were nominated for Academy Awards,Golden Globes, orBAFTA Awards, and underwent critical re-evaluations. For the 18th-century period filmBarry Lyndon (1975), Kubrick obtainedlenses developed by Carl Zeiss forNASA to film scenes by candlelight. With the horror filmThe Shining (1980), he became one of the first directors to make use of aSteadicam for stabilized and fluid tracking shots, a technology vital to hisVietnam War filmFull Metal Jacket (1987). A few days after hosting a screening for his family and the stars of his final film, the erotic dramaEyes Wide Shut (1999), he died at the age of 70.
Early life
High school senior portrait of Kubrick, age 16,c. 1944–1945
Kubrick was born to a Jewish family in theLying-In Hospital in New York City'sManhattan borough on July 26, 1928.[1][2] He was the first of two children of Jacob Leonard Kubrick, known as Jack or Jacques, and his wife Sadie Gertrude Kubrick (née Perveler), known as Gert. His sister Barbara Mary Kubrick was born in May 1934.[3] Jack, whose parents and paternal grandparents were ofPolish-Jewish andRomanian-Jewish origin,[1] was ahomeopathic doctor,[4] graduating from theNew York Homeopathic Medical College in 1927, the same year he married Kubrick's mother, who was the child ofAustrian-Jewish immigrants.[5] On December 27, 1899, Kubrick's great-grandfather Hersh Kubrick arrived atEllis Island viaLiverpool by ship at the age of 47, leaving behind his wife and two grown children (one of whom was Stanley's grandfather Elias) to start a new life with a younger woman.[6] Elias followed in 1902.[7] At Stanley's birth, the Kubricks lived inthe Bronx.[8] His parents married in aJewish ceremony, but Kubrickwas not raised religious and later professed anatheistic view.[9] His father was a physician and, by the standards of theWest Bronx, the family was fairly wealthy.[10]
Soon after his sister's birth, Kubrick began schooling in Public School 3 in the Bronx and moved to Public School 90 in June 1938. HisIQ was above average but his attendance was poor.[2] He displayed an interest in literature from a young age and began reading Greek and Roman myths and the fables of theBrothers Grimm, which "instilled in him a lifelong affinity with Europe".[11] He spent most Saturdays during the summer watching theNew York Yankees and later photographed two boys watching the game in an assignment forLook magazine to emulate his own childhood excitement with baseball.[10] When Kubrick was 12, his father Jack taught himchess. The game remained a lifelong interest of Kubrick's,[12] appearing in many of his films.[13] Kubrick, who later became a member of theUnited States Chess Federation, explained that chess helped him develop "patience and discipline" in making decisions.[14] When Kubrick was 13, his father bought him aGraflex camera, triggering a fascination withstill photography. He befriended a neighbor,Marvin Traub, who shared his passion for photography.[15] Traub had his own darkroom where he and the young Kubrick would spend many hours perusing photographs and watching the chemicals "magically make images on photographic paper".[3] The two indulged in numerous photographic projects for which they roamed the streets looking for interesting subjects to capture and spent time in local cinemas studying films. Freelance photographerWeegee (Arthur Fellig) had a considerable influence on Kubrick's development as a photographer; Kubrick later hired Fellig as the special stills photographer forDr. Strangelove (1964).[16] As a teenager, Kubrick was also interested injazz and briefly attempted a career as a drummer.[17]
Kubrick attendedWilliam Howard Taft High School from 1941 to 1945.[18] He joined the school's photography club, which permitted him to photograph the school's events in their magazine.[3] He was a mediocre student, with a 67/D+grade average.[19] Introverted and shy, Kubrick had a low attendance record and often skipped school to watch double-feature films.[20] He graduated in 1945 but his poor grades, combined with the demand for college admissions from soldiers returning fromWorld War II, eliminated any hope of higher education. Later in life Kubrick spoke disdainfully of his education and of American schooling as a whole, maintaining that schools were ineffective in stimulating critical thinking and student interest. His father was disappointed in his son's failure to achieve the excellence in school of which he knew Stanley was fully capable. Jack also encouraged Stanley to read from the family library at home, while permitting Stanley to take up photography as a serious hobby.[21]
Photographic career
Portrait of Kubrick with a camera at theSadler's Wells Theatre in London, 1949, while a staff photographer forLook
While in high school, Kubrick was chosen as an official school photographer. In the mid-1940s, since he was unable to gain admission to day session classes at colleges, he briefly attended evening classes at theCity College of New York,[22] which had open admissions. Eventually, he sold a photographic series toLook magazine,[23][a] which was printed on June 26, 1945. Kubrick supplemented his income by playingchess "for quarters" inWashington Square Park and various Manhattan chess clubs.[25]
In 1946, he became an apprentice photographer forLook and later a full-time staff photographer. G. Warren Schloat Jr., another new photographer for the magazine at the time, recalled that he thought Kubrick lacked the personality to make it as a director in Hollywood, remarking, "Stanley was a quiet fellow. He didn't say much. He was thin, skinny, and kind of poor—like we all were."[26] Kubrick quickly became known for his story-telling in photographs. His first, published on April 16, 1946, was titled "A Short Story from a Movie Balcony" and staged a fracas between a man and a woman, during which the man is slapped in the face, caught genuinely by surprise.[23] In another assignment, Kubrick took 18 pictures of various people waiting in a dental office. It has been said retrospectively that this project demonstrated an early interest of Kubrick in capturing individuals and their feelings in mundane environments.[27] In 1948, he was sent toPortugal to document a travel piece, and later that year covered theRingling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus inSarasota, Florida.[28][b]
Photo of a Chicago streetscape taken by Kubrick forLook magazine, 1949, fromState/Lake station
Aboxing enthusiast, Kubrick eventually began photographing boxing matches for the magazine. His earliest, "Prizefighter", was published on January 18, 1949, and captured a boxing match and the events leading up to it, featuring American middleweightWalter Cartier.[30] On April 2, 1949, he published photo essay "Chicago-City of Extremes" inLook, which displayed his talent early on for creating atmosphere with imagery. The following year, in July 1950, the magazine published his photo essay, "Working Debutante –Betsy von Furstenberg", which featured aPablo Picasso portrait of Angel F. de Soto in the background.[31] Kubrick was also assigned to photograph numerous jazz musicians, fromFrank Sinatra andErroll Garner toGeorge Lewis,Eddie Condon,Phil Napoleon,Papa Celestin,Alphonse Picou,Muggsy Spanier,Sharkey Bonano, and others.[32]
Kubrick married his high-school sweetheart Toba Metz on May 28, 1948. They lived together in a small apartment at 36 West 16th Street, offSixth Avenue just north ofGreenwich Village.[33] During this time, Kubrick began frequenting film screenings at theMuseum of Modern Art and New York City cinemas. He was inspired by the complex, fluid camerawork of French directorMax Ophüls, whose films influenced Kubrick's visual style, and by directorElia Kazan, whom he described as America's "best director" at that time, with his ability of "performing miracles" with his actors.[34] Friends began to notice Kubrick had become obsessed with the art of filmmaking—one friend,David Vaughan, observed that Kubrick would scrutinize the film at the cinema when it went silent, and would go back to reading his paper when people started talking.[23] He spent many hours reading books on film theory and writing notes. He was particularly inspired bySergei Eisenstein andArthur Rothstein, the photographic technical director ofLook magazine.[35][c]
Film career
Short films (1951–1953)
Kubrick shared a love of film with his school friendAlexander Singer, who after graduating from high school had the intention of directing a film version ofHomer'sIliad. Through Singer, who worked in the offices of the newsreel production company,The March of Time, Kubrick learned it could cost $40,000 to make a proper short film, a sum he could not afford. He had $1500 in savings and produced a few short documentaries fueled by encouragement from Singer. He began learning all he could about filmmaking on his own, calling film suppliers, laboratories, and equipment rental houses.[36]
Kubrick decided to make a short film documentary about boxerWalter Cartier, whom he had photographed and written about forLook magazine a year earlier. He rented a camera and produced a 16-minute black-and-white documentary,Day of the Fight. Kubrick found the money independently to finance it. He had considered askingMontgomery Clift to narrate it, whom he had met during a photographic session forLook, but settled on CBS news veteranDouglas Edwards.[37] According to Paul Duncan the film was "remarkably accomplished for a first film", and used a backward tracking shot to film a scene in which Cartier and his brother walk towards the camera, a device which later became one of Kubrick's characteristic camera movements.[38] Vincent Cartier, Walter's brother and manager, later reflected on his observations of Kubrick during the filming. He said, "Stanley was a very stoic, impassive but imaginative type person with strong, imaginative thoughts. He commanded respect in a quiet, shy way. Whatever he wanted, you complied, he just captivated you. Anybody who worked with Stanley did just what Stanley wanted".[36][d] After a score was added by Singer's friendGerald Fried, Kubrick had spent $3900 in making it, and sold it toRKO-Pathé for $4000, which was the most the company had ever paid for a short film at the time.[38] Kubrick described his first effort at filmmaking as having been valuable since he believed himself to have been forced to do most of the work,[39] and he later declared that the "best education in film is to make one".[3]
Inspired by this early success, Kubrick quit his job atLook and visited professional filmmakers in New York City, asking many detailed questions about the technical aspects of filmmaking. He stated that he was given the confidence during this period to become a filmmaker because of the number of bad films he had seen, remarking, "I don't know a goddamn thing about movies, but I know I can make a better film than that".[40] He began makingFlying Padre (1951), a film which documents Reverend Fred Stadtmueller, who travels some 4,000 miles to visit his 11 churches. The film was originally going to be called "Sky Pilot", a pun on the slang term for a priest.[41] During the course of the film, the priest performs a burial service, confronts a boy bullying a girl, and makes an emergency flight to aid a sick mother and baby into an ambulance. Several of the views from and of the plane inFlying Padre are later echoed in2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) with the footage of the spacecraft, and a series of close-ups on the faces of people attending the funeral were most likely inspired bySergei Eisenstein'sBattleship Potemkin (1925) andIvan the Terrible (1944/1958).[38]
Flying Padre was followed byThe Seafarers (1953), Kubrick's first color film, which was shot for theSeafarers International Union in June 1953. It depicted the logistics of a democratic union and focused more on the amenities of seafaring other than the act. For the cafeteria scene in the film, Kubrick chose adolly shot to establish the life of the seafarer's community; this kind of shot would later become a signature technique. The sequence ofPaul Hall, secretary-treasurer of the SIU Atlantic and gulf district, speaking to members of the union echoes scenes from Eisenstein'sStrike (1925) andOctober (1928).[42]Day of the Fight,Flying Padre andThe Seafarers constitute Kubrick's only surviving documentary works; some historians believe he made others.[43]
Early feature work (1953–1955)
Fear and Desire (1953)
After raising $1000 showing his short films to friends and family, Kubrick found the finances to begin making his first feature film,Fear and Desire (1953), originally running with the titleThe Trap, written by his friendHoward Sackler. Kubrick's uncle, Martin Perveler, a Los Angeles pharmacy owner, invested a further $9000 on condition that he be credited as executive producer of the film.[44] Kubrick assembled several actors and a small crew totaling fourteen people (five actors, five crewmen, and four others to help transport the equipment) and flew to theSan Gabriel Mountains in California for a five-week, low-budget shoot.[44] Later renamedThe Shape of Fear before finally being namedFear and Desire, it is a fictionalallegory about a team of soldiers who survive a plane crash and are caught behind enemy lines in a war. During the course of the film, one of the soldiers becomes infatuated with an attractive girl in the woods and binds her to a tree. This scene and others are noted for their rapid close-ups on the faces of the cast. Kubrick had intended forFear and Desire to be asilent picture in order to ensure low production costs; the added sounds, effects, and music ultimately brought production costs to around $53,000, exceeding the budget.[45] He was bailed out by producerRichard de Rochemont on the condition that he help in de Rochemont's production of a five-part television series aboutAbraham Lincoln on location inHodgenville, Kentucky.[46]
Fear and Desire was a commercial failure, but garnered several positive reviews upon release. Critics such as the reviewer fromThe New York Times believed that Kubrick's professionalism as a photographer shone through in the picture, and that he "artistically caught glimpses of the grotesque attitudes of death, the wolfishness of hungry men, as well as their bestiality, and in one scene, the wracking effect of lust on a pitifully juvenile soldier and the pinioned girl he is guarding".Columbia University scholarMark Van Doren was highly impressed by the scenes with the girl bound to the tree, remarking that it would live on as a "beautiful, terrifying and weird" sequence which illustrated Kubrick's immense talent and guaranteed his future success.[47] Kubrick himself later expressed embarrassment withFear and Desire, and attempted over the years to disown it, keeping prints of the film out of circulation.[48][e] During the production of the film, Kubrick accidentally almost killed his cast with poisonous gasses.[49]
FollowingFear and Desire, Kubrick began working on ideas for a new boxing film. Due to the commercial failure of his first feature, Kubrick avoided asking for further investments, but commenced afilm noir script with Howard O. Sackler. Originally under the titleKiss Me, Kill Me, and thenThe Nymph and the Maniac,Killer's Kiss (1955) is a 67-minute film noir about a young heavyweight boxer's involvement with a woman being abused by her criminal boss. LikeFear and Desire, it was privately funded by Kubrick's family and friends, with some $40,000 put forward from Bronx pharmacist Morris Bousse.[42] Kubrick began shooting footage inTimes Square, and frequently explored during the filming process, experimenting withcinematography and considering the use of unconventional angles and imagery. He initially chose to record the sound on location, but encountered difficulties with shadows from the microphone booms, restricting camera movement. His decision to drop the sound in favor of imagery was a costly one; after 12–14 weeks shooting the picture, he spent some seven months and $35,000 working on the sound.[50]Alfred Hitchcock'sBlackmail (1929) directly influenced the film with the painting laughing at a character, andMartin Scorsese has, in turn, cited Kubrick's innovative shooting angles and atmospheric shots inKiller's Kiss as an influence onRaging Bull (1980).[51] ActressIrene Kane, the star ofKiller's Kiss, observed: "Stanley's a fascinating character. He thinks movies should move, with a minimum of dialogue, and he's all for sex and sadism".[52]Killer's Kiss met with limited commercial success and made very little money in comparison with its production budget of $75,000.[51] Critics have praised the film's camerawork, but its acting and story are generally considered mediocre.[53][f]
Hollywood success and beyond (1955–1962)
While playing chess in Washington Square, Kubrick met producerJames B. Harris, who considered Kubrick "the most intelligent, most creative person I have ever come in contact with." The two formed the Harris-Kubrick Pictures Corporation in 1955.[56] Harris purchased the rights toLionel White's novelClean Break for $10,000[g] and Kubrick wrote the script,[58] but at Kubrick's suggestion, they hired film noir novelistJim Thompson to write the dialog for the film—which becameThe Killing (1956)—about a meticulously planned racetrack robbery gone wrong. The film starredSterling Hayden, who had impressed Kubrick with his performance inThe Asphalt Jungle (1950).[59]
Kubrick and Harris moved to Los Angeles and signed with theJaffe Agency to shoot the picture, which became Kubrick's first full-length feature film shot with a professional cast and crew. The Union in Hollywood stated that Kubrick would not be permitted to be both the director and the cinematographer, resulting in the hiring of veteran cinematographerLucien Ballard. Kubrick agreed to waive his fee for the production, which was shot in 24 days on a budget of $330,000.[60] He clashed with Ballard during the shooting, and on one occasion Kubrick threatened to fire Ballard following a camera dispute, despite being aged only 27 and 20 years Ballard's junior.[59] Hayden recalled Kubrick was "cold and detached. Very mechanical, always confident. I've worked with few directors who are that good".[61]
The Killing failed to secure a proper release across the United States; the film made little money, and was promoted only at the last minute, as a second feature to the Western movieBandido! (1956). Several contemporary critics lauded the film, with a reviewer forTime comparing its camerawork to that ofOrson Welles.[62] Today, critics generally considerThe Killing to be among the best films of Kubrick's early career; its nonlinear narrative and clinical execution also had a major influence on later directors ofcrime films, includingQuentin Tarantino.Dore Schary ofMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) was highly impressed as well, and offered Kubrick and Harris $75,000 to write, direct, and produce a film, which ultimately becamePaths of Glory (1957).[63][h]
Kubrick during the filming ofPaths of Glory in 1957
Paths of Glory, set duringWorld War I, is based onHumphrey Cobb's 1935antiwar novel of the same name. Schary was familiar with the novel, but stated that MGM would not finance another war picture, given their backing of the anti-war filmThe Red Badge of Courage (1951).[i] After Schary was fired by MGM in a major shake-up, Kubrick and Harris managed to interestKirk Douglas in playing Colonel Dax.[65][j] Douglas, in turn, signed Harris-Kubrick Pictures to a three-picture co-production deal with his film production company,Bryna Productions, which secured a financing and distribution deal forPaths of Glory and two subsequent films withUnited Artists.[66][67][68] The film, shot inMunich, from March 1957,[69] follows a French army unit ordered on an impossible mission, and follows with a war trial of three soldiers, arbitrarily chosen, for misconduct. Dax is assigned to defend the men at Court Martial. For the battle scene, Kubrick meticulously lined up six cameras one after the other along the boundary of no-man's land, with each camera capturing a specific field and numbered, and gave each of the hundreds of extras a number for the zone in which they would die.[70] Kubrick operated anArriflex camera for the battle, zooming in on Douglas.Paths of Glory became Kubrick's first significant commercial success, and established him as an up-and-coming young filmmaker. Critics praised the film's unsentimental, spare, and unvarnished combat scenes and its raw, black-and-white cinematography.[71] Despite the praise, the Christmas release date was criticized,[72] and the subject was controversial in Europe. The film was banned in France until 1974 for its "unflattering" depiction of the French military, and was censored by the Swiss Army until 1970.[71]
In October 1957, afterPaths of Glory had its world premiere in Germany, Bryna Productions optioned Canadian church minister-turned-master-safecracker Herbert Emerson Wilsons's autobiography,I Stole $16,000,000, especially for Stanley Kubrick and James B. Harris.[73][74] The picture was to be the second in the co-production deal between Bryna Productions and Harris-Kubrick Pictures, which Kubrick was to write and direct, Harris to co-produce and Douglas to co-produce and star.[73] In November 1957,Gavin Lambert was signed as story editor forI Stole $16,000,000, and with Kubrick, finished a script titledGod Fearing Man, but the picture was never filmed.[75]
Marlon Brando contacted Kubrick, asking him to direct a film adaptation of the Charles Neider western novel,The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones, featuringPat Garrett andBilly the Kid.[71][k] Brando was impressed, saying "Stanley is unusually perceptive, and delicately attuned to people. He has an adroit intellect, and is a creative thinker—not a repeater, not a fact-gatherer. He digests what he learns and brings to a new project an original point of view and a reserved passion".[77] The two worked on a script for six months, begun by a then unknownSam Peckinpah. Many disputes broke out over the project, and in the end, Kubrick distanced himself from what would becomeOne-Eyed Jacks (1961).[l]
Kubrick andTony Curtis on the set ofSpartacus in 1960
In February 1959, Kubrick received a phone call from Kirk Douglas asking him to directSpartacus (1960), based on the historicalSpartacus and theThird Servile War. Douglas had acquired the rights to the novel byHoward Fast andblacklisted screenwriterDalton Trumbo began penning the script.[82] It was produced by Douglas, who also starred as Spartacus, and castLaurence Olivier as his foe, the Roman general and politicianMarcus Licinius Crassus. Douglas hired Kubrick for a reported $150,000 fee to take over direction soon after he fired directorAnthony Mann.[83] Kubrick had, at 31, already directed four feature films, and this became his largest by far, with a cast of over 10,000 and a budget of $6 million.[m] At the time, this was the most expensive film ever made in America, and Kubrick became the youngest director in Hollywood history to make an epic.[85] It was the first time that Kubrick filmed using the anamorphic 35 mm horizontalSuper Technirama process to achieve ultra-high definition, which allowed him to capture large panoramic scenes, including one with 8,000 trained soldiers from Spain representing the Roman army.[n]
Disputes broke out during the filming ofSpartacus. Kubrick complained about not having full creative control over the artistic aspects, insisting on improvising extensively during the production.[87][o] Kubrick and Douglas were also at odds over the script, with Kubrick angering Douglas when he cut all but two of his lines from the opening 30 minutes.[91] Despite the on-set troubles,Spartacus took $14.6 million at the box office in its first run.[87] The film established Kubrick as a major director, receiving six Academy Award nominations and winning four; it ultimately convinced him that if so much could be made of such a problematic production, he could achieve anything.[92]Spartacus also marked the end of the working relationship between Kubrick and Douglas.[p]
Collaboration with Peter Sellers (1962–1964)
Lolita
Two portrait photographs—both taken by Kubrick—ofSue Lyon, who played the role of Dolores "Lolita" Haze inLolita
Kubrick and Harris decided to start production of Kubrick's next filmLolita (1962) in England, due to clauses placed on the contract by producersWarner Bros. that gave them complete control over the film, and the fact that theEady plan permitted producers to write off the costs if 80% of the crew were British. Instead, they signed a $1 million deal withEliot Hyman'sAssociated Artists Productions, and a clause which gave them the artistic freedom that they desired.[95]Lolita, Kubrick's first attempt atblack comedy, was an adaptation of thenovel of the same name byVladimir Nabokov, the story of a middle-aged college professor becoming infatuated with a 12-year-old girl. Stylistically,Lolita, starringPeter Sellers,James Mason,Shelley Winters, andSue Lyon, was a transitional film for Kubrick, "marking the turning point from a naturalistic cinema ... to the surrealism of the later films", according to film criticGene Youngblood.[96] Kubrick was impressed by the range of actor Peter Sellers and gave him one of his first opportunities to improvise wildly during shooting, while filming him with three cameras.[97][q]
Kubrick shotLolita over 88 days on a $2 million budget atElstree Studios, between October 1960 and March 1961.[100] Kubrick often clashed with Shelley Winters, whom he found "very difficult" and demanding, and nearly fired at one point.[101] Because of its provocative story,Lolita was Kubrick's first film to generate controversy; he was ultimately forced to comply with censors and remove much of the erotic element of the relationship between Mason's Humbert and Lyon's Lolita which had been evident in Nabokov's novel.[102] The film was not a major critical or commercial success, earning $3.7 million at the box office on its opening run.[103][r]Lolita has since become critically acclaimed.[104]
Kubrick's next project wasDr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), another satirical black comedy. Kubrick became preoccupied with the issue ofnuclear war as theCold War unfolded in the 1950s, and even considered moving to Australia because he feared that New York City might be a likely target for the Russians. He studied over 40 military and political research books on the subject and eventually reached the conclusion that "nobody really knew anything and the whole situation was absurd".[105]
After buying the rights to the novelRed Alert, Kubrick collaborated with its author,Peter George, on the script. It was originally written as a serious political thriller, but Kubrick decided that a "serious treatment" of the subject would not be believable, and thought that some of its most salient points would be fodder for comedy.[106] Kubrick's longtime producer and friend,James B. Harris, thought the film should be serious, and the two parted ways, amicably, over this disagreement—Harris going on to produce and direct the serious cold-war thrillerThe Bedford Incident.[107][108][109] Kubrick andRed Alert author George then reworked the script as a satire (provisionally titled "The Delicate Balance of Terror") in which the plot ofRed Alert was situated as a film-within-a-film made by an alien intelligence, but this idea was also abandoned, and Kubrick decided to make the film as "an outrageous black comedy".[110]
Just before filming began, Kubrick hired noted journalist and satirical authorTerry Southern to transform the script into its final form, a black comedy, loaded with sexual innuendo,[111] becoming a film which showed Kubrick's talents as a "unique kind of absurdist" according to the film scholar Abrams.[112] Southern made major contributions to the final script, and was co-credited (above Peter George) in the film's opening titles; his perceived role in the writing later led to a public rift between Kubrick and Peter George, who subsequently complained in a letter toLife magazine that Southern's intense but relatively brief (November 16 to December 28, 1962) involvement with the project was being given undue prominence in the media, while his own role as the author of the film's source novel, and his ten-month stint as the script's co-writer, were being downplayed – a perception Kubrick evidently did little to address.[113]
Kubrick found thatDr. Strangelove, a $2 million production which employed what became the "first important visual effects crew in the world",[114] would be impossible to make in the U.S. for various technical and political reasons, forcing him to move production to England. It was shot in 15 weeks, ending in April 1963, after which Kubrick spent eight months editing it.[115] Peter Sellers again agreed to work with Kubrick, and ended up playing three different roles in the film.[s]
Upon release, the film stirred up much controversy and mixed opinions.The New York Times film criticBosley Crowther worried that it was a "discredit and even contempt for our whole defense establishment ... the most shattering sick joke I've ever come across",[117] whileRobert Brustein ofOut of This World in a February 1970 article called it a "juvenalian satire".[115] Kubrick responded to the criticism, stating: "A satirist is someone who has a very skeptical view of human nature, but who still has the optimism to make some sort of a joke out of it. However brutal that joke might be".[118] Today, the film is considered to be one of the sharpest comedy films ever made, and holds a near-perfect 98% rating onRotten Tomatoes based on 91 reviews as of November 2020[update].[119] It was named the 39th-greatest American film and third-greatest American comedy film of all time by theAmerican Film Institute,[120][121] and in 2010, it was named the sixth-best comedy film of all time byThe Guardian.[122]
Science fiction (1965–1971)
2001: A Space Odyssey
Kubrick spent five years developing his next film,2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), having been highly impressed with science fiction writerArthur C. Clarke's novelChildhood's End, about a superior alien race who assist mankind in eliminating their old selves. After meeting Clarke in New York City in April 1964, Kubrick made the suggestion to work on his 1948 short story "The Sentinel", in which a monolith found on the Moon alerts aliens of mankind.[123] That year, Clarke began writing the novel2001: A Space Odyssey and collaborated with Kubrick on a screenplay. The film's theme, the birthing of one intelligence by another, is developed in two parallel intersecting stories on two different time scales. One depicts evolutionary transitions between various stages of man, from ape to "star child", as man is reborn into a new existence, each step shepherded by an enigmatic alien intelligence seen only in its artifacts: a series of seemingly indestructible eons-old black monoliths. In space, the enemy is a supercomputer known asHAL who runs the spaceship, a character which novelistClancy Sigal described as being "far, far more human, more humorous and conceivably decent than anything else that may emerge from this far-seeing enterprise".[124][t]
Kubrick intensively researched for the film, paying particular attention to accuracy and detail in what the future might look like. He was granted permission byNASA to observe the spacecraft being used in theRanger 9 mission for accuracy.[126] Filming commenced on December 29, 1965, with the excavation of the monolith on the moon,[127] and footage was shot inNamib Desert in early 1967, with the ape scenes completed later that year. The special effects team continued working until the end of the year to complete the film, taking the cost to $10.5 million.[127]2001: A Space Odyssey was conceived as aCinerama spectacle and was photographed inSuper Panavision 70, giving the viewer a "dazzling mix of imagination and science" through ground-breaking effects, which earned Kubrick his only personal Oscar, anAcademy Award for Visual Effects.[127][u] Kubrick said of the concept of the film in an interview withRolling Stone: "On the deepest psychological level, the film's plot symbolized the search for God, and finally postulates what is little less than a scientific definition of God. The film revolves around this metaphysical conception, and the realistic hardware and the documentary feelings about everything were necessary in order to undermine your built-in resistance to the poetical concept".[129]
Upon release in 1968,2001: A Space Odyssey was not an immediate hit among critics, who faulted its lack of dialog, slow pacing, and seemingly impenetrable storyline.[130] The film appeared to defy genre convention, much unlike any science-fiction movie before it,[131] and clearly different from any of Kubrick's earlier works. Kubrick was particularly outraged by a scathing review fromPauline Kael, who called it "the biggest amateur movie of them all", with Kubrick doing "really every dumb thing he ever wanted to do".[132] Despite mixed contemporary critical reviews,2001 gradually gained popularity and earned $31 million worldwide by the end of 1972.[127][v] Today, it is widely considered to be one ofthe greatest and most influential films ever made and is a staple on All Time Top 10 lists.[134][135] Baxter describes the film as "one of the most admired and discussed creations in the history of cinema",[136] andSteven Spielberg has referred to it as "the big bang of his film making generation".[137] For biographer Vincent LoBrutto it "positioned Stanley Kubrick as a pure artist ranked among the masters of cinema".[138] The film marked Kubrick's first use of classical music.Roger Ebert writes: "Although Kubrick originally commissioned an original score fromAlex North, he used classical recordings as a temporary track while editing the film, and they worked so well that he kept them. This was a crucial decision. North's score, which is available on a recording, is a good job of film composition, but would have been wrong for2001 because, like all scores, it attempts to underline the action -- to give us emotional cues. The classical music chosen by Kubrick exists outside the action. It uplifts. It wants to be sublime; it brings a seriousness and transcendence to the visuals", citing Kubrick's use ofJohann Strauss II's "The Blue Danube" andRichard Strauss'sAlso sprach Zarathustra.[139]
After completing2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick searched for a project that he could film quickly on a more modest budget. He settled onA Clockwork Orange (1971) at the end of 1969, an exploration of violence and experimental rehabilitation by law enforcement authorities, based around the character ofAlex (portrayed byMalcolm McDowell). Kubrick had received a copy ofAnthony Burgess'snovel of the same name from Terry Southern while they were working onDr. Strangelove, but had rejected it on the grounds thatNadsat,[w] a street language for young teenagers, was too difficult to comprehend. The decision to make a film about the degeneration of youth reflected contemporary concerns in 1969; theNew Hollywood movement was creating a great number of films that depicted the sexuality and rebelliousness of young people.[140]A Clockwork Orange was shot over 1970–1971 on a budget of £2 million.[141] Kubrick abandoned his use of CinemaScope in filming, deciding that the 1.66:1 widescreen format was, in the words of Baxter, an "acceptable compromise between spectacle and intimacy", and favored his "rigorously symmetrical framing", which "increased the beauty of his compositions".[142] The film heavily features "pop erotica" of the period, including a large white plastic set of male genitals, decor which Kubrick had intended to give it a "slightly futuristic" look.[143] McDowell's role inLindsay Anderson'sif.... (1968) was crucial to his casting as Alex,[x] and Kubrick professed that he probably would not have made the film if McDowell had been unavailable.[145] The film marked Kubrick's first collaboration withWendy Carlos, who provided electronic renditions ofHenry Purcell'sMusic for the Funeral of Queen Mary andBeethoven's "Ode to Joy".[146]
Because of its depiction of teenage violence,A Clockwork Orange became one of the most controversial films of its time, and part of an ongoing debate about violence and its glorification in cinema. It received anX rating, or certificate, in both the UK and US, on its release just before Christmas 1971, though many critics saw much of the violence depicted in the film as satirical, and less violent thanStraw Dogs, which had been released a month earlier.[147] Kubrick personally pulled the film from release in the United Kingdom after receiving death threats following a series of copycat crimes based on the film; it was thus completely unavailable legally in the UK until after Kubrick's death, and not re-released until 2000.[148][y]John Trevelyan, the censor of the film, personally consideredA Clockwork Orange to be "perhaps the most brilliant piece of cinematic art I've ever seen," and believed it to present an "intellectual argument rather than a sadistic spectacle" in its depiction of violence, but acknowledged that many would not agree.[150] Negative media hype over the film notwithstanding,A Clockwork Orange received four Academy Award nominations, for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Editing, and was named by theNew York Film Critics Circle as the Best Film of 1971.[151] AfterWilliam Friedkin won Best Director forThe French Connection that year, he told the press: "Speaking personally, I think Stanley Kubrick is the best American film-maker of the year. In fact, not just this year, but the best, period."[152]
Period and horror filming (1972–1980)
Barry Lyndon
Barry Lyndon (1975) is an adaptation ofWilliam Makepeace Thackeray'sThe Luck of Barry Lyndon, apicaresque novel about the adventures of an 18th-century Irish rogue and social climber.John Calley of Warner Bros. agreed in 1972 to invest $2.5 million into the film, on condition that Kubrick approach major Hollywood stars, to ensure success.[153] Like previous films, Kubrick and his art department conducted an enormous amount of research on the 18th century. Extensive photographs were taken of locations and artwork in particular, and paintings were meticulously replicated from works of the great masters of the period in the film.[154][z] The film was shot on location in Ireland, beginning in the autumn of 1973, at a cost of $11 million with a cast and crew of 170.[156] The decision to shoot in Ireland stemmed from the fact that it still retained many buildings from the 18th century period which England lacked.[157] The production was problematic from the start, plagued with heavy rain andpolitical strife involving Northern Ireland at the time.[158] After Kubrick received death threats from theIRA in 1974 due to the shooting scenes with English soldiers, he fled Ireland with his family on a ferry fromDún Laoghaire under an assumed identity and resumed filming in England.[159]
William Hogarth'sThe Country Dance (c. 1745) illustrates the type of interior scene that Kubrick sought to emulate withBarry Lyndon.
Baxter notes thatBarry Lyndon was the film which made Kubrick notorious for paying scrupulous attention to detail, often demanding twenty or thirty retakes of the same scene to perfect his art.[160] Often considered to be his most authentic-looking picture,[161] the cinematography and lighting techniques that Kubrick and cinematographerJohn Alcott used inBarry Lyndon were highly innovative. Interior scenes were shot with a specially adapted high-speed f/0.7Zeiss camera lens originally developed for NASA to be used in satellite photography. The lenses allowed many scenes to be lit only with candlelight, creating two-dimensional, diffused-light images reminiscent of 18th-century paintings.[162] CinematographerAllen Daviau states that the method gives the audience a way of seeing the characters and scenes as they would have been seen by people at the time.[163] Many of the fight scenes were shot with a hand-held camera to produce a "sense of documentary realism and immediacy".[164]
Barry Lyndon found a great audience in France, but was a box office failure, grossing just $9.5 million in the American market, not even close to the $30 million Warner Bros. needed to generate a profit.[165] The pace and length ofBarry Lyndon at three hours put off many American critics and audiences, but the film was nominated for sevenAcademy Awards and won four, including Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, and Best Musical Score, more than any other Kubrick film. As with most of Kubrick's films,Barry Lyndon's reputation has grown through the years and it is now considered to be one of his best, particularly among filmmakers and critics. Numerous polls, such asThe Village Voice (1999),[166]Sight & Sound (2002),[167] and Time (2005),[168] have rated it as one of the greatest films ever made. As of March 2019[update], it has a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 64 reviews.[169] Ebert referred to it as "one of the most beautiful films ever made ... certainly in every frame a Kubrick film: technically awesome, emotionally distant, remorseless in its doubt of human goodness".[170]
The Shining
Several of the interiors ofAhwahnee Hotel were used as templates for the sets of the Overlook Hotel.
The Shining, released in 1980, was adapted from thenovel of the same name byStephen King. The film starsJack Nicholson as a writer who takes a job as a winter caretaker of an isolated hotel in theRocky Mountains. He spends the winter there with his wife, played byShelley Duvall, and their young son, who displaysparanormal abilities. During their stay, they confront both Jack's descent into madness and apparent supernatural horrors lurking in the hotel. Kubrick gave his actors freedom to extend the script and even improvise on occasion, and as a result, Nicholson was responsible for the 'Here's Johnny!' line and the scene in which he's sitting at the typewriter and unleashes his anger upon his wife.[171] Kubrick often demanded up to 70 or 80 retakes of the same scene. Duvall, whom Kubrick intentionally isolated and argued with, was forced to perform the exhausting baseball bat scene 127 times.[172] The bar scene with the ghostly bartender was shot 36 times, while the kitchen scene between the characters of Danny (Danny Lloyd) and Halloran (Scatman Crothers) ran to 148 takes.[173] The aerial shots of the Overlook Hotel were shot atTimberline Lodge onMount Hood in Oregon, while the interiors of the hotel were shot at Elstree Studios in England between May 1978 and April 1979.[174] Cardboard models were made of all of the sets of the film, and the lighting of them was a massive undertaking, which took four months of electrical wiring.[175] Kubrick made extensive use of the newly inventedSteadicam, a weight-balanced camera support, which allowed for smooth hand-held camera movement in scenes where a conventional camera track was impractical. According toGarrett Brown, Steadicam's inventor, it was the first picture to use its full potential.[176]The Shining was not the only horror film to which Kubrick had been linked; he had turned down the directing of bothThe Exorcist (1973) andExorcist II: The Heretic (1977), despite once saying in 1966 to a friend that he had long desired to "make the world's scariest movie, involving a series of episodes that would play upon the nightmare fears of the audience".[177] Kubrick worked again with Carlos, who provided an electronic version of theDies Irae segment fromHector Berlioz's "Symphonie fantastique".
Five days after release on May 23, 1980, Kubrick ordered the deletion of a final scene, in which the hotel manager Ullman (Barry Nelson) visits Wendy (Shelley Duvall) in hospital, believing it unnecessary after witnessing the audience excitement in cinemas at the film's climax.[178]The Shining opened to strong box office takings, earning $1 million on the first weekend and earning $30.9 million in America by the end of the year.[174] The original critical response was mixed, and King detested the film and disliked Kubrick.[179]The Shining is now considered to be a horror classic,[180] and the American Film Instituteranked it as the 29th greatest thriller film of all time in 2001.[181]
Later work and final years (1981–1999)
Full Metal Jacket
Kubrick met authorMichael Herr through mutual friend David Cornwell (novelistJohn le Carré) in 1980, and became interested in his bookDispatches, about theVietnam War.[182] Herr had recently writtenMartin Sheen's narration forApocalypse Now (1979). Kubrick was also intrigued byGustav Hasford's Vietnam War novelThe Short-Timers. With the vision in mind to shoot what would becomeFull Metal Jacket (1987), Kubrick began working with both Herr and Hasford separately on a script. He eventually found Hasford's novel to be "brutally honest" and decided to shoot a film which closely follows the novel.[182] All of the film was shot at a cost of $17 million within a 30-mile radius of his house between August 1985 and September 1986, later than scheduled as Kubrick shut down production for five months following a near-fatal accident with a jeep involvingLee Ermey.[183] A derelict gasworks inBeckton in theLondon Docklands area posed as the ruined city ofHuế,[184] which makes the film visually very different from other Vietnam War films. Around 200 palm trees were imported via 40-foot trailers by road from North Africa, at a cost of £1000 a tree, and thousands of plastic plants were ordered from Hong Kong to provide foliage for the film.[185] Kubrick explained he made the film look realistic by using natural light, and achieved a "newsreel effect" by making the Steadicam shots less steady,[186] which reviewers and commentators thought contributed to the bleakness and seriousness of the film.[187]
According to criticMichel Ciment, the film contained some of Kubrick's trademark characteristics, such as his selection of ironic music, portrayals of men being dehumanized, and attention to extreme detail to achieve realism. In a later scene, United States Marines patrol the ruins of an abandoned and destroyed city singing the theme song to theMickey Mouse Club as a sardonic counterpoint.[188] The film opened strongly in June 1987, taking over $30 million in the first 50 days alone,[189] but critically it was overshadowed by the success ofOliver Stone'sPlatoon, released a year earlier.[190] Co-starMatthew Modine stated one of Kubrick's favorite reviews read: "The first half ofFMJ is brilliant. Then the film degenerates into a masterpiece."[191] Ebert was not particularly impressed with it, awarding it a mediocre 2.5 out of 4. He concluded: "Stanley Kubrick'sFull Metal Jacket is more like a book of short stories than a novel", a "strangely shapeless film from the man whose work usually imposes a ferociously consistent vision on his material".[192]
Eyes Wide Shut
Kubrick's final film wasEyes Wide Shut (1999), starringTom Cruise andNicole Kidman as a Manhattan couple on a sexual odyssey. Tom Cruise portrays a doctor who witnesses a bizarre masked quasireligious orgiastic ritual at a country mansion, a discovery which later threatens his life. The story is based onArthur Schnitzler's 1926 Freudian novellaTraumnovelle (Dream Story in English), which Kubrick relocated from turn-of-the-century Vienna to New York City in the 1990s. Kubrick said of the novel: "A difficult book to describe—what good book isn't. It explores the sexual ambivalence of a happy marriage and tries to equate the importance of sexual dreams and might-have-beens with reality. All of Schnitzler's work is psychologically brilliant".[193] Kubrick was almost 70, but worked relentlessly for 15 months to get the film out by its planned release date of July 16, 1999. He commenced a script withFrederic Raphael,[164] and worked 18 hours a day, while maintaining complete confidentiality about the film.[194]
Eyes Wide Shut, likeLolita andA Clockwork Orange before it, faced censorship before release. Kubrick sent an unfinished preview copy to the stars and producers a few months before release, but his sudden death on March 7, 1999, came a few days after he finished editing. He never saw the final version released to the public,[195] but he did see the preview of the film with Warner Bros., Cruise, and Kidman, and had reportedly told Warner executive Julian Senior that it was his "best film ever".[196] At the time, critical opinion of the film was mixed, and it was viewed less favorably than most of Kubrick's films. Ebert awarded it 3.5 out of 4 stars, comparing the structure to a thriller and writing that it is "like an erotic daydream about chances missed and opportunities avoided", and thought that Kubrick's use of lighting at Christmas made the film "all a little garish, like an urban sideshow".[197]Stephen Hunter ofThe Washington Post disliked the film, writing that it "is actually sad, rather than bad. It feels creaky, ancient, hopelessly out of touch, infatuated with the hot taboos of his youth and unable to connect with that twisty thing contemporary sexuality has become."[198]
Steven Spielberg (pictured in 1994), whom Kubrick approached in 1995 to direct the 2001 filmA.I. Artificial Intelligence
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Kubrick collaborated withBrian Aldiss on expanding his short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long" into a three-act film. It was a futuristic fairy tale about a robot that resembles and behaves as a child, and his efforts to become a 'real boy' in a manner similar toPinocchio. Kubrick approachedSteven Spielberg in 1995 with the AI script with the possibility of Steven Spielberg directing it and Kubrick producing it.[190] Kubrick reportedly held long telephone discussions with Spielberg regarding the film, and, according to Spielberg, at one point stated that the subject matter was closer to Spielberg's sensibilities than his.[199]
Following Kubrick's sudden death in 1999, Spielberg took the drafts and notes left by Kubrick and his writers and composed a new screenplay based on an earlier 90-page story treatment byIan Watson written under Kubrick's supervision and specifications.[200] In association with what remained of Kubrick's production unit, he directed the filmA.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)[200][201] which was produced by Kubrick's longtime producer (and brother-in-law)Jan Harlan.[202] Sets, costumes, and art direction were based on the works of conceptual artist Chris Baker, who had also done much of his work under Kubrick's supervision.[203]
Spielberg was able to function autonomously in Kubrick's absence, but said he felt "inhibited to honor him", and followed Kubrick's visual schema with as much fidelity as he could. Spielberg, who once referred to Kubrick as "the greatest master I ever served", now with production underway, admitted, "I felt like I was being coached by a ghost."[204] The film was released in June 2001. It contains a posthumous production credit for Stanley Kubrick at the beginning and the brief dedication "For Stanley Kubrick" at the end.John Williams's score contains many allusions to pieces heard in other Kubrick films.[205]
Napoleon
The script from Kubrick's unrealized projectNapoleon
Following2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick planned to make a film about the life ofNapoleon. Fascinated by the French leader's life and "self-destruction",[206] Kubrick spent a great deal of time planning the film's development and conducted about two years of research into Napoleon's life, reading several hundred books and gaining access to his personal memoirs and commentaries. He tried to see every film about Napoleon and found none of them appealing, includingAbel Gance's1927 film which is generally considered to be a masterpiece, but for Kubrick, a "really terrible" movie.[207] LoBrutto states that Napoleon was an ideal subject for Kubrick, embracing Kubrick's "passion for control, power, obsession, strategy, and the military", while Napoleon's psychological intensity and depth, logistical genius and war, sex, and the evil nature of man were all ingredients which deeply appealed to Kubrick.[208]
Kubrick drafted a screenplay in 1961, and envisaged making a "grandiose" epic, with up to 40,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry. He intended hiring the armed forces of an entire country to make the film, as he considered Napoleonic battles to be "so beautiful, like vast lethal ballets", with an "aesthetic brilliance that doesn't require a military mind to appreciate". He wanted them replicated as authentically as possible on screen.[209] Kubrick sent research teams to scout for locations across Europe, and commissioned screenwriter and directorAndrew Birkin, one of his young assistants on2001, to theIsle of Elba,Austerlitz, andWaterloo, taking thousands of pictures for his later perusal. Kubrick approached numerous stars to play leading roles, includingAudrey Hepburn forEmpress Josephine, a part which she could not accept due to semiretirement.[210]British actorsDavid Hemmings andIan Holm were considered for the lead role of Napoleon, beforeJack Nicholson was cast.[211] The film was well into preproduction and ready to begin filming in 1969 when MGM canceled the project. Numerous reasons have been cited for the abandonment of the project, including its projected cost, a change of ownership at MGM,[206] and the poor reception that the 1970 Soviet film about Napoleon,Waterloo, received. In 2011,Taschen published the bookStanley Kubrick's Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made, a large volume compilation of literature and source documents from Kubrick, such as scene photo ideas and copies of letters Kubrick wrote and received. In March 2013, Steven Spielberg, who previously collaborated with Kubrick onA.I. Artificial Intelligence and is a passionate admirer of his work, announced that he would be developingNapoleon as a TV miniseries based on Kubrick's original screenplay.[212]
Other projects
In the 1950s, Kubrick and Harris developed a sitcom starringErnie Kovacs and a film adaption of the bookI Stole $16,000,000, but nothing came of them.[71] Tony Frewin, an assistant who worked with the director for a long period of time, revealed in a 2013Atlantic article: "[Kubrick] was limitlessly interested in anything to do with Nazis and desperately wanted to make a film on the subject." Kubrick had intended to make a film aboutDietrich Schulz-Köhn [de], a Nazi officer who used the pen name "Dr. Jazz" to write reviews of German music scenes during the Nazi era. Kubrick had been given a copy of the Mike Zwerin bookSwing Under the Nazis after he had finished production onFull Metal Jacket, the front cover of which featured a photograph of Schulz-Köhn. A screenplay was never completed and Kubrick's adaptation was never initiated.[213] The unfinishedAryan Papers, based onLouis Begley's debut novelWartime Lies, was a factor in the abandonment of the project. Work onAryan Papers depressed Kubrick enormously, and he eventually decided that Steven Spielberg'sSchindler's List (1993) covered much of the same material.[190]
According to biographerJohn Baxter, Kubrick had shown an interest in directing apornographic film based on a satirical novel written by Terry Southern, titledBlue Movie, about a director who makes Hollywood's first big-budget porn film. Baxter claims that Kubrick concluded he did not have the patience or temperament to become involved in the porn industry, and Southern stated that Kubrick was "too ultra conservative" towards sexuality to have gone ahead with it, but liked the idea.[214] Kubrick was unable to direct a film of Umberto Eco'sFoucault's Pendulum as Eco had given his publisher instructions to never sell the film rights to any of his books after his dissatisfaction with the film version ofThe Name of the Rose.[215] Also, when the film rights toTolkien'sThe Lord of the Rings were sold to United Artists,the Beatles approached Kubrick to direct them in a film adaptation, but Kubrick was unwilling to produce a film based on a very popular book.[216]
Career influences
As a young man, Kubrick was fascinated by the films ofSergei Eisenstein and would watch films likeBattleship Potemkin (1925) (pictured) frequently.
Anyone who has ever been privileged to direct a film knows that, although it can be like trying to writeWar and Peace in a bumper car at an amusement park, when you finally get it right, there are not many joys in life that can equal the feeling.
As a young man, Kubrick was fascinated by the films of Soviet filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein andVsevolod Pudovkin.[218] Kubrick read Pudovkin's seminal theoretical work,Film Technique, which argues that editing makes film a unique art form, and it needs to be employed to manipulate the medium to its fullest. Kubrick recommended this work to others for many years. Thomas Nelson describes this book as "the greatest influence of any single written work on the evolution of [Kubrick's] private aesthetics". Kubrick also found the ideas ofKonstantin Stanislavski to be essential to his understanding the basics of directing, and gave himself a crash course to learn his methods.[219]
Kubrick's family and many critics felt that his Jewish ancestry may have contributed to his worldview and aspects of his films. After his death, both his daughter and wife stated that he was not religious, but "did not deny his Jewishness, not at all". His daughter noted that he wanted to make a film about the Holocaust, theAryan Papers, having spent years researching the subject.[220] Most of Kubrick's friends and early photography and film collaborators were Jewish, and his first two marriages were to daughters of recent Jewish immigrants from Europe. British screenwriterFrederic Raphael, who worked closely with Kubrick in his final years, believes that the originality of Kubrick's films was partly because he "had a (Jewish?) respect for scholars". He declared that it was "absurd to try to understand Stanley Kubrick without reckoning on Jewishness as a fundamental aspect of his mentality".[221]Walker notes that Kubrick was influenced by the tracking and "fluid camera" styles of directorMax Ophüls, and used them in many of his films, includingPaths of Glory and2001: A Space Odyssey. Kubrick noted how in Ophüls' films "the camera went through every wall and every floor".[222] He once named Ophüls'Le Plaisir (1952) as his favorite film. According to film historian John Wakeman, Ophüls himself learned the technique from directorAnatole Litvak in the 1930s, when he was his assistant, and whose work was "replete with the camera trackings, pans and swoops which later became the trademark of Max Ophüls".[223] Geoffrey Cocks believes that Kubrick was also influenced by Ophüls' stories of thwarted love and a preoccupation with predatory men, while Herr notes that Kubrick was deeply inspired byG. W. Pabst, who earlier tried, but was unable to adapt Schnitzler'sTraumnovelle, the basis ofEyes Wide Shut.[224] Film historian/criticRobert Kolker sees the influence ofOrson Welles' moving camera shots on Kubrick's style. LoBrutto notes that Kubrick identified with Welles and that this influenced the making ofThe Killing, with its "multiple points of view, extreme angles, and deep focus".[225][226]
Kubrick admired the work ofIngmar Bergman and expressed it in personal letter: "Your vision of life has moved me deeply, much more deeply than I have ever been moved by any films. I believe you are the greatest film-maker at work today [...], unsurpassed by anyone in the creation of mood and atmosphere, the subtlety of performance, the avoidance of the obvious, the truthfulness and completeness of characterization. To this one must also add everything else that goes into the making of a film; [...] and I shall look forward with eagerness to each of your films."[227]
When the American magazineCinema asked Kubrick in 1963 to name his favorite films, he listedFederico Fellini'sI Vitelloni as number one in his Top 10 list.[228]
Directing techniques
Philosophy
HAL 9000, the computer from2001: A Space Odyssey
Kubrick's films typically involve expressions of an inner struggle, examined from different perspectives.[217]He was very careful not to present his own views of the meaning of his films and to leave them open to interpretation. He explained in a 1960 interview withRobert Emmett Ginna:
"One of the things I always find extremely difficult, when a picture's finished, is when a writer or a film reviewer asks, 'Now, what is it that you were trying to say in that picture?' And without being thought too presumptuous for using this analogy, I like to remember whatT. S. Eliot said to someone who had asked him—I believe it wasThe Waste Land—what he meant by the poem. He replied, 'I meant what I said.' If I could have said it any differently, I would have".[229]
Kubrick likened the understanding of his films to popular music, in that whatever the background or intellect of the individual, a Beatles record, for instance, can be appreciated both by the Alabama truck driver and the young Cambridge intellectual, because their "emotions and subconscious are far more similar than their intellects". He believed that the subconscious emotional reaction experienced by audiences was far more powerful in the film medium than in any other traditional verbal form, and this was one of the reasons why he often relied on long periods in his films without dialogue, placing emphasis on images and sound.[229] In a 1975Time magazine interview, Kubrick further stated: "The essence of a dramatic form is to let an idea come over people without it being plainly stated. When you say something directly, it is simply not as potent as it is when you allow people to discover it for themselves."[40] He also said: "Realism is probably the best way to dramatize argument and ideas. Fantasy may deal best with themes which lie primarily in the unconscious".[230]
Kubrick's production notes fromThe Killing
Diane Johnson, who co-wrote the screenplay forThe Shining with Kubrick, notes that he "always said that it was better to adapt a book rather than write an original screenplay, and that you should choose a work that isn't a masterpiece so you can improve on it. Which is what he's always done, except withLolita".[231] When deciding on a subject for a film, there were many aspects that he looked for, and he always made films which would "appeal to every sort of viewer, whatever their expectation of film".[232] According to his co-producerJan Harlan, Kubrick mostly "wanted to make films about things that mattered, that not only had form, but substance".[233] Kubrick believed that audiences quite often were attracted to "enigmas and allegories" and did not like films in which everything was spelled out clearly.[234]
Sexuality in Kubrick's films is usually depicted outside matrimonial relationships in hostile situations. Baxter states that Kubrick explores the "furtive and violent side alleys of the sexual experience: voyeurism, domination, bondage and rape" in his films.[235] He further points out that films likeA Clockwork Orange are "powerfully homoerotic", from Alex walking about his parents' flat in his Y-fronts, one eye being "made up with doll-like false eyelashes", to his innocent acceptance of the sexual advances of his post-corrective adviser Deltroid (Aubrey Morris).[236]Indeed, the film is thought to have been strongly influenced by Kubrick's many viewings ofMatsumoto Toshio's 1969 landmark inqueer cinema,Funeral Parade of Roses.[237] Film critic Adrian Turner notes that Kubrick's films appear to be "preoccupied with questions of universal and inherited evil", and Malcolm McDowell referred to his humor as "black as coal", questioning his outlook on humanity.[238] A few of his pictures were obvious satires and black comedies, such asLolita andDr. Strangelove; many of his other films also contained less visible elements of satire or irony. His films are unpredictable, examining "the duality and contradictions that exist in all of us".[239] Ciment notes how Kubrick often tried to confound audience expectations by establishing radically different moods from one film to the next, remarking that he was almost "obsessed with contradicting himself, with making each work a critique of the previous one".[240]Kubrick stated that "there is no deliberate pattern to the stories that I have chosen to make into films. About the only factor at work each time is that I try not to repeat myself".[241] As a result, Kubrick was often misunderstood by critics, and only once did he have unanimously positive reviews upon the release of a film—forPaths of Glory.[242]
Writing and staging scenes
The tunnel used in the making ofA Clockwork Orange
Film author Patrick Webster considers Kubrick's methods of writing and developing scenes to fit with the classicalauteur theory of directing, allowing collaboration and improvisation with the actors during filming.[243] Malcolm McDowell recalled Kubrick's collaborative emphasis during their discussions and his willingness to allow him to improvise a scene, stating that "there was a script and we followed it, but when it didn't work he knew it, and we had to keep rehearsing endlessly until we were bored with it".[244]Once Kubrick was confident in the overall staging of a scene, and felt the actors were prepared, he would then develop the visual aspects, including camera and lighting placement. Walker believes that Kubrick was one of "very few film directors competent to instruct their lighting photographers in the precise effect they want".[245] Baxter believes that Kubrick was heavily influenced by his ancestry and always possessed a European perspective to filmmaking, particularly the Austro-Hungarian empire and his admiration for Max Ophuls andRichard Strauss.[246]
Gilbert Adair, writing in a review forFull Metal Jacket, commented that "Kubrick's approach to language has always been of a reductive and uncompromisingly deterministic nature. He appears to view it as the exclusive product of environmental conditioning, only very marginally influenced by concepts of subjectivity and interiority, by all whims, shades and modulations of personal expression".[247] Johnson notes that although Kubrick was a "visual filmmaker", he also loved words and was like a writer in his approach, very sensitive to the story itself, which he found unique.[248] Before shooting began, Kubrick tried to have the script as complete as possible, but still allowed himself enough space to make changes during the filming, finding it "more profitable to avoid locking up any ideas about staging or camera or even dialogue prior to rehearsals" as he put it.[245] Kubrick told Robert Emmett Ginna: "I think you have to view the entire problem of putting the story you want to tell up there on that light square. It begins with the selection of the property; it continues through the creation of the story, the sets, the costumes, the photography and the acting. And when the picture is shot, it's only partially finished. I think the cutting is just a continuation of directing a movie. I think the use of music effects, opticals and finally main titles are all part of telling the story. And I think the fragmentation of these jobs, by different people, is a very bad thing".[161] Kubrick also said: "I think that the best plot is no apparent plot. I like a slow start, the start that gets under the audience's skin and involves them so that they can appreciate grace notes and soft tones and don't have to be pounded over the head with plot points and suspense tools."[156]
In terms of Kubrick's screenwriting and narratives, posthumous analysis of his films often highlight a pervasive "misanthropy", an unsentimental style, and being less interested in the specific emotions or personality traits of his characters.[249] Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino describes the manner in which Kubrick writes characters and films as "cold" and detached.[250]
Directing style
They work with Stanley and go through hells that nothing in their careers could have prepared them for, they think they must have been mad to get involved, they think that they'd die before they would ever work with him again, that fixated maniac; and when it's all behind them and the profound fatigue of so much intensity has worn off, they'd do anything in the world to work for him again. For the rest of their professional lives they long to work with someone who cared the way Stanley did, someone they could learn from. They look for someone to respect the way they'd come to respect him, but they can never find anybody ... I've heard this story so many times.
—Michael Herr, screenwriter forFull Metal Jacket on actors working with Kubrick.[251]
Multiple takes
Kubrick was notorious for filming far more takes than is common duringfeature production and his relentless approach often placed large demands on his actors. Jack Nicholson remarked that Kubrick would frequently require up to fifty takes of a scene before the director felt justice had been done to the material.[252] Nicole Kidman explained that the dozens of takes he often required had the effect of suppressing an actor's conscious thoughts about technique, diffusing the concentration Kubrick said he could see in the eyes of an actor who was not yet performing at the peak of their ability and helping them to enter a "deeper place".[253] Kubrick echoed this sentiment, saying, "[a]ctors are essentially emotion-producing instruments, and some are always tuned and ready while others will reach a fantastic pitch on one take and never equal it again, no matter how hard they try".[254]
While Kubrick's high take ratio was considered by some critics to be irrational he firmly believed that actors were at their best during filming, as opposed to in rehearsals, saying, "[w]hen you make a movie, it takes a few days just to get used to the crew, because it is like getting undressed in front of fifty people. Once you're accustomed to them, the presence of even one other person on set is discordant and tends to produce self-consciousness in the actors, and certainly in itself".[255][256]
In 1987, when Kubrick was asked about his reputation for excessive takes byRolling Stone, he replied that it was exaggerated but that when it was true, "[i]t happens when actors are unprepared. You cannot act without knowing dialogue. If actors have to think about the words, they can't work on the emotion. So you end up doing thirty takes of something. And still you can see the concentration in their eyes; they don't know their lines. So you just shoot it and shoot it and hope you can get something out of it in pieces."[257] He likewise told biographer Michel Ciment that, "[a]n actor can only do one thing at a time, and when he learned his lines only well enough to say them while he's thinking about them, he will always have trouble as soon as he has to work on the emotions of the scene or find camera marks. In a strong emotional scene, it is always best to be able to shoot in complete takes to allow the actor a continuity of emotion, and it is rare for most actors to reach their peak more than once or twice. There are, occasionally, scenes which benefit from extra takes, but even then, I'm not sure that the early takes aren't just glorified rehearsals with the adding adrenaline of film running through the camera."[258]
Matthew Modine, who played Joker inFull Metal Jacket, echoes these assessments of even a world-renowned actor's delivery on a Kubrick film. In anoral history gathered byPeter Bogdanovich after the director's death Modine recalled that, "I once asked [Kubrick] why he so often did a lot of takes. [...] And he talked about Jack Nicholson [saying] ''Jack would come in during the blocking and he kind of fumbled through the lines. He'd be learning them while he was there. And then you'd start shooting and after take 3 or take 4 or take 5 you'd get the Jack Nicholson that everybody knows and most directors would be happy with. And then you'd go up to 10 or 15 and he'd be really awful and then he'd start to understand what the lines were, what the lines meant, and then he'd become unconscious about what he was saying. So by take 30 or take 40 the lines became something else.''[259]
By contrast, during the filming ofFull Metal Jacket the formerMarine Corpsdrill instructorR. Lee Ermey often satisfied Kubrick in as few as two or three takes. The director praised Ermey as an excellent performer, later saying toRolling Stone that Ermey's intense familiarity with the role had perfected his delivery and fluency of improvisation to a level he could not have hoped to discover in a professional actor, no matter how many takes they were given.[257] Kubrick repeated his praise to theWashington Post, saying he had, "always found that some people can act and some can't, whether or not they've had training. And I suspect that being a drill instructor is, in a sense, being an actor. Because they're saying the same things every eight weeks, to new guys, like they're saying it for the first time – and that's acting."[260]
Discussions with actors
On set, Kubrick would devote his personal breaks to lengthy discussions with his actors. Among those who valued his attention wasTony Curtis, star ofSpartacus, who said Kubrick was his favorite director, adding, "his greatest effectiveness was his one-on-one relationship with actors."[94] He further added, "Kubrick had his own approach to film-making. He wanted to see the actor's faces. He didn't want cameras always in a wide shot twenty-five feet away, he wanted close-ups, he wanted to keep the camera moving. That was his style."[85] Similarly, Malcolm McDowell recalls the long discussions he had with Kubrick to help him develop his character inA Clockwork Orange, noting that on set he felt entirely uninhibited and free, which is what made Kubrick "such a great director".[252] Kubrick also allowed actors at times to improvise and to "break the rules", particularly with Peter Sellers inLolita, which became a turning point in his career as it allowed him to work creatively during the shooting, as opposed to the preproduction stage.[261]During an interview, Ryan O'Neal recalled Kubrick's directing style: "God, he works you hard. He moves you, pushes you, helps you, gets cross with you, but above all he teaches you the value of a good director. Stanley brought out aspects of my personality and acting instincts that had been dormant ... My strong suspicion [was] that I was involved in something great".[262] He further added that working with Kubrick was "a stunning experience" and that he never recovered from working with somebody of such magnificence.[263]
Cinematography
Kubrick credited the ease with which he filmed scenes to his early years as a photographer.[264] He rarely added camera instructions in the script, preferring to handle that after a scene is created, as the visual part of film-making came easiest to him.[265] Even when deciding which props and settings would be used, Kubrick paid meticulous attention to detail and tried to collect as much background material as possible, activities the director likened to being "a detective".[266] Cinematographer John Alcott, who worked closely with Kubrick on four of his films, and won an Oscar forBest Cinematography onBarry Lyndon, remarked that Kubrick "questions everything",[267] and was involved in the technical aspects of film-making including camera placement, scene composition, choice of lens, and even operating the camera which would usually be left to the cinematographer. Alcott considered Kubrick to be the "nearest thing to genius I've ever worked with, with all the problems of a genius".[268]
Kubrick's camera, possibly used inBarry Lyndon
Among Kubrick's innovations in cinematography are his use of special effects, as in2001, where he used bothslit-scan photography andfront-screen projection, which won Kubrick his only Oscar for special effects. Some reviewers have described and illustrated with video clips Kubrick's use of "one-point perspective", which leads the viewer's eye towards a central vanishing point. The technique relies on creating a complex visual symmetry using parallel lines in a scene which all converge on that single point, leading away from the viewer. Combined with camera motion it could produce an effect that one writer describes as "hypnotic and thrilling".[269]The Shining was among the first half-dozen features to use the then-revolutionarySteadicam (after the 1976 filmsBound for Glory,Marathon Man andRocky). Kubrick used it to its fullest potential, which gave the audience smooth, stabilized, motion-tracking by the camera. Kubrick described Steadicam as being like a "magic carpet", allowing "fast, flowing, camera movements" in the maze inThe Shining which otherwise would have been impossible.[270]
Kubrick was among the first directors to usevideo assist during filming. At the time he began using it in 1966, it was considered cutting-edge technology, requiring him to build his own system. Having it in place during the filming of2001, he was able to view a video of a take immediately after it was filmed.[271] On some films, such asBarry Lyndon, he used custom made zoom lenses, which allowed him to start a scene with a close-up and slowly zoom out to capture the full panorama of scenery and to film long takes under changing outdoor lighting conditions by making aperture adjustments while the cameras rolled. LoBrutto notes that Kubrick's technical knowledge about lenses "dazzled the manufacturer's engineers, who found him to be unprecedented among contemporary filmmakers".[272] ForBarry Lyndon he also used a specially adapted high-speed (f/0.7) Zeiss camera lens, originally developed for NASA, to shoot numerous scenes lit only with candlelight. ActorSteven Berkoff recalls that Kubrick wanted scenes to be shot using "pure candlelight", and in doing so Kubrick "made a unique contribution to the art of filmmaking going back to painting ... You almost posed like for portraits."[273] LoBrutto notes that cinematographers all over the world wanted to know about Kubrick's "magic lens" and that he became a "legend" among cameramen around the world.[274]
Editing and music
György Ligeti, whose music Kubrick used in2001: A Space Odyssey,The Shining andEyes Wide Shut
Kubrick spent extensive hours editing, often working seven days a week, and more hours a day as he got closer to deadlines.[275] For Kubrick, written dialogue was one element to be put in balance withmise en scène (set arrangements), music, and especially, editing. Inspired byPudovkin's treatise on film editing, Kubrick realized that one could create a performance in the editing room and often "re-direct" a film, and he remarked: "I love editing. I think I like it more than any other phase of filmmaking ... Editing is the only unique aspect of filmmaking which does not resemble any other art form—a point so important it cannot be overstressed ... It can make or break a film".[275] Biographer John Baxter stated that "Instead of finding the intellectual spine of a film in the script before starting work, Kubrick felt his way towards the final version of a film by shooting each scene from many angles and demanding scores of takes on each line. Then over months ... he arranged and rearranged the tens of thousands of scraps of film to fit a vision that really only began to emerge during editing".[276]
Kubrick's attention to music was an aspect of what many referred to as his "perfectionism" and extreme attention to minute details, which his wife Christiane attributed to an addiction to music. In his last six films, Kubrick usually chose music from existing sources, especially classical compositions. He preferred selecting recorded music over having it composed for a film, believing that no hired composer could do as well as the public domain classical composers. He also felt that building scenes from great music often created the "most memorable scenes" in the best films.[277] In one instance, for a scene inBarry Lyndon which was written into the screenplay as merely, "Barry duels with Lord Bullingdon", he spent forty-two working days in the editing phase. During that period, he listened to what LoBrutto describes as "every available recording of seventeenth-and eighteenth- century music, acquiring thousands of records to findHandel's sarabande used to score the scene".[278] Nicholson likewise observed his attention to music, stating that Kubrick "listened constantly to music until he discovered something he felt was right or that excited him".[242]
Kubrick is credited with introducing Hungarian composerGyörgy Ligeti to a broad Western audience by including his music in2001,The Shining andEyes Wide Shut. According to Baxter, the music in2001 was "at the forefront of Kubrick's mind" when he conceived the film.[279] During earlier screening he played music byMendelssohn[aa] andVaughan Williams, and Kubrick and writer Clarke had listened toCarl Orff's transcription ofCarmina Burana, consisting of 13th century sacred and secular songs.[279] Ligeti's music employed the new style ofmicropolyphony, which used sustained dissonant chords that shift slowly over time, a style he originated. Its inclusion in the film became a "boon for the relatively unknown composer" partly because it was introduced alongside background byJohann Strauss andRichard Strauss.[281]
Kubrick married his high-school sweetheart Toba Metz, a caricaturist, on May 29, 1948, when he was 19 years old.[23] The couple lived together inGreenwich Village and divorced three years later in 1951. He met his second wife, the Austrian-born dancer and theatrical designerRuth Sobotka, in 1952. They lived together in New York City'sEast Village beginning in 1952, married in January 1955 and moved to Hollywood in July 1955, where she played a brief part as a ballet dancer in Kubrick's filmKiller's Kiss (1955). The following year, she was art director for his filmThe Killing (1956). They divorced in 1957.[284]
During the production ofPaths of Glory in Munich in early 1957, Kubrick met and romanced the German actressChristiane Harlan, who played a small though memorable role in the film. Kubrick married Harlan in 1958 and the couple remained together for 40 years, until his death in 1999. Besides his stepdaughter, they had two daughters together: Anya Renata (April 6, 1959 – July 7, 2009) andVivian Vanessa (born August 5, 1960).[285] In 1959, they settled into a home at 316 South Camden Drive inBeverly Hills with Harlan's daughter, Katherina, aged six.[286] They also lived in New York City, during which time Christiane studied art at theArt Students League of New York, later becoming an independent artist.[287] The couple moved to the United Kingdom in 1961 to makeLolita, and Kubrick hired Peter Sellers to star in his next film,Dr. Strangelove. Sellers was unable to leave the UK, so Kubrick made Britain his permanent home thereafter. The move was quite convenient to Kubrick, since he shunned the Hollywood system and its publicity machine and he and Christiane had become alarmed with the increase in violence in New York City.[288]
Stanley Kubrick Guest House at Abbots Mead,Borehamwood, where he edited his most important filmsKubrick'sChildwickbury Manor in Hertfordshire, England
In 1965, the Kubricks bought Abbots Mead on Barnet Lane, just south-west of theElstree/Borehamwood studio complex in England. Kubrick worked almost exclusively from this home for 14 years where, he researched, invented special effects techniques, designed ultra-low light lenses for specially modified cameras, pre-produced, edited, post-produced, advertised, distributed and carefully managed all aspects of four of his films. In 1978, Kubrick moved intoChildwickbury Manor in Hertfordshire, a mainly 18th-century stately home, which was once owned by a wealthy racehorse owner, about 30 mi (50 km) north of London and a 10-minute drive from his previous home at Abbotts Mead. His new home became a workplace for Kubrick and his wife, "a perfect family factory" as Christiane called it,[289] and Kubrick converted the stables into extra production rooms besides ones within the home that he used for editing and storage.[290]
A workaholic, Kubrick rarely took a vacation or left England during the forty years before his death.[291] LoBrutto notes that Kubrick's confined way of living and desire for privacy has led to spurious stories about his reclusiveness, similar to those ofGreta Garbo,Howard Hughes andJ. D. Salinger.[292] Michael Herr, Kubrick's co-screenwriter onFull Metal Jacket, who knew him well, considers his "reclusiveness" to be myth: "[He] was in fact a complete failure as a recluse, unless you believe that a recluse is simply someone who seldom leaves his house. Stanley saw a lot of people ... he was one of the most gregarious men I ever knew and it didn't change anything that most of this conviviality went on over the phone."[293] LoBrutto states that one of the reasons he acquired a reputation as a recluse was that he insisted in remaining near his home but the reason for this was that for Kubrick there were only three places on the planet he could make high quality films with the necessary technical expertise and equipment: Los Angeles, New York City or around London. He disliked living in Los Angeles and thought London a superior film production center to New York City.[294]
As a person, Kubrick was described byNorman Lloyd as "a very dark, sort of a glowering type who was very serious".[295]Marisa Berenson, who starred inBarry Lyndon, fondly recalled: "There was great tenderness in him and he was passionate about his work. What was striking was his enormous intelligence but he also had a great sense of humor. He was a very shy person and self-protective but he was filled with the thing that drove him twenty-four hours of the day."[296] Kubrick was particularly fond of machines and technical equipment, to the point that his wife Christiane once stated that "Stanley would be happy with eight tape recorders and one pair of pants".[297] Kubrick had obtained a pilot's license in August 1947 and some have claimed that he later developed a fear of flying, stemming from an incident in the early 1950s when a colleague was killed in a plane crash. Kubrick had been sent the charred remains of his camera and notebooks which, according to Paul Duncan, traumatized him for life.[87][ab] Kubrick also had a strong mistrust of doctors and medicine.[299]
Death
On March 7, 1999, six days after screening a final cut ofEyes Wide Shut for his family and the film's stars, Kubrick unexpectedly died of a heart attack in his sleep at the age of 70.[300] His funeral was held five days later at Childwickbury Manor, with only close friends and family in attendance, totaling about 100 people. The media were kept a mile away outside the entrance gate.[301]Alexander Walker, who attended the funeral, described it as a "family farewell, ... almost like an English picnic" with cellists, clarinetists, and singers providing music from many of Kubrick's favorite classical compositions.Kaddish, the Jewish prayer typically said by mourners and in other contexts, was recited. A few of his obituaries mentioned his Jewish background.[302] Among those who gave eulogies were his brother-in-lawJan Harlan,Terry Semel,Steven Spielberg,Nicole Kidman, andTom Cruise. He was buried next to his favorite tree on the estate. In her book dedicated to him, his wife Christiane included one of his favorite quotations ofOscar Wilde: "The tragedy of old age is not that one is old but that one is young."[303]
Part of the New Hollywood film-making wave, Kubrick's films are considered by film historian Michel Ciment to be "among the most important contributions to world cinema in the twentieth century",[34] and he is frequently cited as one of the greatest and most influential directors in the history of cinema.[326][327] According to film historian and Kubrick scholar Robert Kolker,[328][329][330][331] Kubrick's films were "more intellectually rigorous than the work of any other American filmmaker."[328] Leading directors, includingMartin Scorsese,[332][333]Steven Spielberg,[334]Wes Anderson,[335]George Lucas,[336]James Cameron,[337]Terry Gilliam,[338] theCoen brothers,[339]Ridley Scott,[340] andGeorge A. Romero,[341] have cited Kubrick as a source of inspiration, and additionally in the case of Spielberg and Scott, collaboration.[334][342] On the DVD ofEyes Wide Shut, Steven Spielberg comments that the way Kubrick "tells a story is antithetical to the way we are accustomed to receiving stories" and that "nobody could shoot a picture better in history".[343] Orson Welles, one of Kubrick's greatest personal influences and favorite directors, said that: "Among those whom I would call 'younger generation', Kubrick appears to me to be a giant."[344]
Artists in fields other than film have also expressed admiration for Kubrick. English musician and poetPJ Harvey, in an interview about her 2011 albumLet England Shake, argued that "something about [...] what is not said in his films...there's so much space, so many things that are silent – and somehow, in that space and silence everything becomes clear. With every film, he seems to capture the essence of life itself, particularly in films likePaths of Glory,2001: A Space Odyssey,Barry Lyndon...those are some of my favorites."[353] Themusic video forKanye West's 2010 song "Runaway" was inspired byEyes Wide Shut.[354] Pop singerLady Gaga's concert shows have included the use of dialogue, costumes, and music fromA Clockwork Orange.[355]
The first public exhibition of material from Kubrick's personal archives was presented jointly in 2004 by the Deutsches Filmmuseum and Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt, Germany, in cooperation with Christiane Kubrick and Jan Harlan / The Stanley Kubrick Estate.[358] In 2009, an exhibition of paintings and photos inspired by Kubrick's films was held inDublin, Ireland, entitled "Stanley Kubrick: Taming Light".[359] On October 30, 2012, an exhibition devoted to Kubrick opened at theLos Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and concluded in June 2013. Exhibits include a wide collection of documents, photographs and on-set material assembled from 800 boxes of personal archives that were stored in Kubrick's home-workplace in the UK.[360] Many celebrities attended and spoke at the museum's pre-opening gala, including Steven Spielberg,Tom Hanks and Jack Nicholson,[361] while Kubrick's widow, Christiane, appeared at the pre-gala press review.[362] In October 2013, the BrazilSão Paulo International Film Festival paid tribute to Kubrick, staging an exhibit of his work and a retrospective of his films. The exhibit opened at theToronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in late 2014 and ended in January 2015.[363]
Kubrick is widely referenced in popular culture; for example, the TV seriesThe Simpsons is said to contain more references to Kubrick films than any other pop culture phenomenon. When theDirectors Guild of Great Britain gave Kubrick a lifetime achievement award, they included a cut-together sequence of all the homages from the show.[364][365] Several works have been created that related to Kubrick's life, including the made-for-TV mockumentaryDark Side of the Moon (2002), which is a parody of the pervasive conspiracy theory that Kubrick had been involved with thefaked footage of the NASA Moon landings during the filming of2001: A Space Odyssey.Colour Me Kubrick (2005) was authorized by Kubrick's family and starredJohn Malkovich asAlan Conway, a con artist who had assumed Kubrick's identity in the 1990s.[366] In the 2004 filmThe Life and Death of Peter Sellers, Kubrick was portrayed byStanley Tucci; the film documents the filming ofDr. Strangelove.[367]
From October 2019 to March 2020, theSkirball Cultural Center hosted an exhibition calledThrough a Different Lens: Stanley Kubrick Photographs, a show focusing on Kubrick's early career.[370][371][372]
^Coverage of the circus gave Kubrick grounds for developing his documentary skills and capturing athletic movements on camera; the photos were published in a four-page spread for the May 25 issue, "Meet the People". The same issue also covered his journalism work documenting the work of opera starRisë Stevens with deaf children.[29]
^ Kubrick was particularly fascinated with Eisenstein'sAlexander Nevsky and played theProkofiev soundtrack to the film over and over constantly to the point that his sister broke it in fury.[36]
^Walter Cartier also said of Kubrick: "Stanley comes in prepared like a fighter for a big fight, he knows exactly what he's doing, where he's going and what he wants to accomplish. He knew the challenges and he overcame them".[30]
^Kubrick calledFear and Desire a "bumbling, amateur film exercise ... a completely inept oddity, boring and pretentious", and also referred to it as "a lousy feature, very self-conscious, easily discernible as an intellectual effort, but very roughly, and poorly, and ineffectively made".[47]
^Kubrick himself thought of the film as an amateurish effort—a student film.[54] Despite this, the film historian Alexander Walker considers the film to be "oddly compelling".[55]
^Harris beat United Artists in the purchase of the rights for the film, who were interested in it as the next picture forFrank Sinatra. They eventually settled for financing $200,000 towards the production.[57]
^Kubrick and Harris had thought that the positive reception from critics had made their presence known in Hollywood, butMax Youngstein of United Artists disagreed with Schary on the merit of the film and still considered Kubrick and Harris to be "Not far from the bottom" of the pool of new talent at the time.[63]
^Kubrick and Schary agreed to work onStefan Zweig'sThe Burning Secret, and Kubrick began working on a script with novelistCalder Willingham. He refused to forgetPaths of Glory, and secretly began drafting a script at night with Jim Thomson.[64]
^Douglas informed United Artists that he would not doThe Vikings (1958) unless they agreed to makePaths of Glory and pay $850,000 to make it. Kubrick and Harris signed a five-film deal with Douglas's Bryna Productions and accepted a fee of $20,000 and a percentage of the profits in comparison to Douglas's salary of $350,000.[65]
^This is disputed by Carlo Fiore, who has claimed that Brando had not heard of Kubrick initially and that it was he who arranged a dinner meeting between Brando and Kubrick.[76]
^According to biographer John Baxter, Kubrick was furious with Brando's casting ofFrance Nuyen, and when Kubrick had confessed to still "not knowing what the picture was about", Brando snapped "I'll tell you what it's about. It's about $300,000 that I've already paidKarl Malden".[78] Kubrick was then reported to have been fired and accepted a parting fee of $100,000,[79] though a 1960Entertainment Weekly article claims he quit as director, and that Kubrick had been quoted as saying "Brando wanted to direct the movie".[80] Kubrick's biographer LoBrutto states that for contractual reasons, Kubrick was not able to cite the real reason, but issued a statement saying that he had resigned "with deep regret because of my respect and admiration for one of the world's foremost artists".[81]
^Spartacus eventually cost a reported $12 million to produce and earned only $14.6 million.[84]
^The battle scenes ofSpartacus were shot over six weeks in Spain in mid-1959. Biographer John Baxter has criticized some of the battle scenes, describing them as "awkwardly directed, with some clumsy stunt action and a plethora of improbable horse falls".[86]
^A problematic production in that Kubrick wanted to shoot at a slow pace of two camera set-ups a day, but the studio insisted that he do 32; a compromise of eight had to be made.[88] Stills cameramanWilliam Read Woodfield questioned the casting and acting abilities of some of the actors such asTimothy Carey,[89] and cinematographerRussell Metty disagreed with Kubrick's use of light, threatening to quit, but later muting his criticisms after winning the Oscar forBest Cinematography.[90]
^According to biographer Baxter, Douglas continued to resent Kubrick's domination during production, remarking, "He'll be a fine director some day, if he falls flat on his face just once. It might teach him how to compromise".[93] Douglas later stated: "You don't have to be a nice person to be extremely talented. You can be a shit and be talented and, conversely, you can be the nicest guy in the world and not have any talent. Stanley Kubrick is a talented shit."[94]
^The two got on during production, displaying many similarities; both left school prematurely, played jazz drums, and shared a fascination with photography.[98] Sellers would later claim that "Kubrick is a god as far as I'm concerned".[99]
^Kubrick and Harris had proved they could adapt a highly controversial novel without studio interference. The moderate earnings allowed them to set up companies in Switzerland to take advantage of low taxes on their profits and give them financial security for life.[103]
^Footage of Sellers playing four different roles was shot by Kubrick: "an RAF captain on secondment to Burpelson Air Force Base as adjutant to Sterling Hayden's crazed General Ripper; the inept President of the United States; his sinister German security adviser; and the Texan pilot of the rogue B52 bomber", but the scene with him as a Texan pilot was excluded from the final version.[116]
^Several commentators have speculated that HAL is a slur on IBM, with the letters alphabetically falling before it, and point out that Kubrick inspected the IBM 7090 duringDr Strangelove. Both Kubrick and Clarke denied this, and insist that HAL means "Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic Computer".[125]
^Biographer John Baxter quotes Ken Adam as saying that Kubrick was not responsible for most of the effects, and that Wally Veevers was the man behind about 85% of them in film. Baxter notes that none of the film's technical team resented Kubrick taking sole credit, as "it was Kubrick's vision which appeared on the screen".[128]
^The name is derived from the Russian suffix for "teen"
^Kubrick had been impressed with his ability to "shift from schoolboy innocence to insolence and, if needed, violence".[144]
^Despite this, Kubrick disagreed with many of the scathing press reports in British media in the early 1970s that the film could transform a person into a criminal, and argued that "violent crime is invariably committed by people with a long record of anti-social behavior".[149]
^Kubrick told Ciment, "I created a picture file of thousands of drawings and paintings for every type of reference that we could have wanted. I think I destroyed every art book you could buy in a bookshop."[155]
^Baxter states that Kubrick had originally intended using the scherzo from Mendelssohn'sA Midsummer Night's Dream to accompany the shuttle docking at the space station but changed his mind after hearing Johann Strauss'sBlue Danube waltz.[280]
^Duncan notes that during the filming ofSpartacus in Spain, Kubrick had suffered a nervous breakdown after the flight and was "terribly ill" during the filming there, and his return flight would be his last one.[87]Matthew Modine, star ofFull Metal Jacket, has stated that the stories about his fear of flying were "fabricated" and that Kubrick simply preferred spending most of his time in England, where his films were produced and where he lived.[298]
^Bernstein, Jeremy,How about a little game?Archived June 21, 2017, at theWayback Machine, New Yorker, November 12, 1966, republished on June 18, 2017, among aselection of stories from The New Yorker's archive
^MacFarquhar, Larissa (October 12, 2003)."The Movie Lover".The New Yorker.ISSN0028-792X.Archived from the original on September 1, 2022. RetrievedDecember 4, 2023.
^abPhillips, Gene D. (2002)."Kolker, Robert Phillip".The Encyclopedia of Stanley Kubrick.Archived from the original on October 30, 2023. RetrievedMay 12, 2022.
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