Stanley Kubrick: Classic or Dud?

Enjoyed the Killing a lot (and similarly skipped Kiss Me Deadly for... Les Amants, I think it was?), but beyond the structural invention I don't care about, I don't see what's so special about it beyond its service as a prototype for the various I-think-greater best-laid-plans films that followed. I suppose those that feel differently may be actively rooting for the SNAFU? I'll take Soderbergh, TYVM.

Toronto is getting the museum show next, right

One of the highlights of The Killing for me is Timothy Carey's character with the fabulously guttural accent, but his overwrought shift in Paths Of Glory was quite jarring - he seems like a hit and miss type of actor.

Carey's a highlight for me too. I've always thought he's doing a bit of a Kirk Douglas parody in The Killing, or at least borrowed his clenched-teeth delivery from Douglas. I like him a lot in Paths of Glory, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bPAUI-WsLc

(Movieclips is so annoying.)

don't find him overwrought at all in PoG -- he plays kooky guys.

Probably a harsh comment on reflection, but I really didn't want his character to go out blubbing!

it's a bit much, but that's the point

that whole film is pretty strident though, i have a hard time w/ it

As a fan of genuine regional accents Carey's is up there with the best. Also I like actors in crime movies who look like they have taken kickings from the cops IRL.

PoG is fantastic

I can't think of a reason to watch it often -- it's too dogmatic to fully enjoy -- but as anti-war agitprop it's the best of its kind when it's not giving Kirk Douglas and Adolphe Menjou space.

and it's a more riveting goon show than Dr Strangelove.

oh, dogma, heavens can't have that

lord knows you produce enough of it

took me years to realize the unctuous priest is the crooked cop in Sweet Smell of Success.

Emile Meyer. He's pure slime in Sweet Smell of Success, so that threw me when I made the connection.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QT8r1VTBz6s/TaSwx6FJXEI/AAAAAAAAGK4/MCPA9DGkzIQ/s1600/EmileMeyer-SweetSmell.jpg

Haven't seen either Killing or PoG, which to watch first?

That's not a clearcut choice.

That'd be a tough one for me. They're very similar in at least one respect--the feeling of time inexorably closing in--but worlds apart in so many other ways. The Killing is the weirder movie, I'd say, but I think they're both close to perfect.

Life is too short, just watch both of them and then watch Barry Lyndon on the same night!

Oh man I didn't actually see BL until 3-4 years ago and it really knocked me out

Ha otm (xp)

It is perfect. As much as I like The Duellists or subsequent period movies, BL is perfection.

BL's profundity doesn't have much to do with the period.

what is this "watching often" thing re classics? I generally avoid watching films I love any more than once every 5 years, maybe 10. I remember Sarris saying about Casablanca, "I've seen it too much."

10+ years sounds good to me. I've only seen The Killing once, about 25 years ago, so it's due. One reason I hardly ever listen to commentary tracks is because I don't want to watch the film again so soon.

The first time i watched BL was months ago , I am currently replacing having no social life with relentless movie watching in these dying days!

I can rewatch every few years, but there is a saturation point. More of a problem with music sometimes.

Commentary tracks not a problem, actually prefer to rewatch almost immediately after the first viewing if I can, with or without commentary, to see what I missed.

when you get to that saturation point with a film you've loved, it can be really sad

which is one reason i often avoid watching my favorite films too many times

xpost

when you get to that saturation point with a film you've loved, it can be really sad

RIP Lawrence of Arabia

Wondering when it will be safe for me to watch Alphaville again, for example.

My DVD collection is small for someone who watches six movies a week.

When I get from Netflix or check out of the library a film I've seen before with a commentary track, I'll play it and treat the movie like a radio play. I did it recently for Angela Lansbury's commentary for The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Interesting.

With music I find I can listen to individual tracks, even on repeat, even after the album thrill is gone. I guess the equivalent for film is to watch a scene or two and say "oh, I see how this works" and then move on.

Classic just for his use of title cards

Rewatching too soon is kind of like reading the lyrics whilst listening to the recordings.

Bigger problem for me with songs than with movies. Songs are three minutes, movies are two hours, radio plays "Black Dog" every...I'm not up to the math right now.

btw i bought the Criterion Paths of Glory for myself last Christmas and haven't watched it yet. Hence I lean on the library.

(I will only watch 2001 in a theater. Did so last in 2001.)

Not the first, won't be the last:

http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Kubrick-Masterpiece-Collection-Exclusive/dp/B00M7F47F0

(Maybe someone's already posted this.)

Ooh, released within a few days of my birthday. I have one of those on DVD and zero on Blu, so it may happen.

Stanley Kubrick's Boxes

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2004/mar/27/features.weekend

http://morbidanatomymuseum.org/event/back-by-popular-demand-stanley-kubricks-boxes-screening-and-discussion-with-jon-ronson/

(sorry, I have no idea if this has been discussed here in the last ten years)

http://i.imgur.com/fDbDqJ2.jpg

If you are near London you can make an appointment and go and look through the boxes/archive.

http://www.arts.ac.uk/study-at-ual/library-services/collections-and-archives/archives-and-special-collections-centre/stanley-kubrick-archive/

https://twitter.com/ViKu1111/status/529096689554976768/photo/1

haha!

having rewatched ACO after quite some time i've got to say, that was some funny shit. really don't understand how someone could find kubrick humorless.

In Brooklyn there's a retro for James B Harris, which will include the films he produced for SK (The Killing, Paths, Lolita) as well as his directorial efforts, most notoriously the divisive '73 art film Some Call It Loving (hailed below by Rosenbaum, rated BOMB by Leonard Maltin) -- its cast features Mia Farrow's sister Tisa and Richard Pryor. Harris will do several Q&As.

http://www.bam.org/film/2015/overdue-james-b-harris

http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/1975/10/some-call-it-loving/

(also, take a look at the Tim Carey pic for Fast-Walking)

Never seen Some Call it Loving, but Cop, based on a James Ellroy novel, is definitely a hidden gem - really taut and intense crime/police thriller

yeah, i'm gonna try to get to it.

Oh yeah, Cop rocks.