Stanley Kubrick: Classic or Dud?

welcome back kenan!

SCIL def wd make a strange if semi-punishing double bill with Eyes Wide Shut.

Tim? Jim?
There was some confusion related to Jim Thompson as well.

Baseball-focused right now, so apologies if this has been posted. Haven't watched it, looks interesting, could have gone on a Hitchcock thread too:

https://vimeo.com/142100873

nice

cool

Have seen that a lot on Facebook etc - and can always see it again - but it's led me to wonder if Hitchcock and Kurbrick ever met

I bet they would have talked about brutalising actors if they did meet.

re-watched Paths of Glory again last night, it gets better every time I see it.

i saw clockwork orange last night at the prince charles. surprised me as the first time i saw it as a teenager i thought it was amazing. now i think it looks a little facile. its definitely got its bracing, shocking moments, it has terrific set design, some great cinematography, and is visually highly memorable (though i expect all that, its kubrick). but its also pretty superficial.

kubrick is def good at highlighting the crazed, nihilistic delirium, but generally terrible at ever really presenting the violence as anything other than that. the rape/home invasion scene is brilliantly staged, imagined and performed, and perhaps the aim is just to shock, but the film takes rather too much delight in these violent set pieces. im not sure we see alex as more than a loveable goon, hes nasty for sure, but i dont think the film ever suggests that, thats entirely on the viewer. i guess its consistent for trying to present the film from alexs viewpoint but i think something must be missing from kubrick's general emotional intelligence to consider this so vital (or wilfully absented from the films POV in order to make it as 'consistent' as possible - i think this is why kubricks films can be cold and stiff; he thinks too much about consistency of tone/perspective/theme, so much so that it flattens the emotional range of his films, all in the service of emphasising directorial power/control, and the 'art' of his films - i think this might be why i think something like fear and desire approaches some of the similar themes, but handles it better).

its def of its time. made me think of 70s rock excess, groupies being humiliated, casual/nasty sexism, etc etc. kubrick def loves shots of naked women (which hey, hes a hetero man, so why not), but theres something to HOW he looks that seems a bit sinister (i dont know much about him beyond the films so...). i thought something similar about eyes wide shut. the camera's stare (its not a male gaze, its more a male glare) at nicole kidmans naked body feels voyeuristic and hard rather than merely admiring.

Stanley's wife Christiane welcomes you to the official home of ‪#‎StanleyKubrick‬ online.

https://www.facebook.com/StanleyKubrick/

https://twitter.com/stanleykubrick

This is happening in SF:

http://www.thecjm.org/on-view/currently/stanley-kubrick-the-exhibition/about

Howard Hampton finds "certain endearing and disconcerting affinities" between Strangelove and the cuddly Robert Montgomery comedy (also recently released on CC) Here Comes Mr. Jordan.

http://www.artforum.com/film/id=61920

Might actually get to see Barry Lyndon

BFI are doing a weekend of screenings in their big screen, or might see it at the ICA next week.

I think Barry Lyndon is probably my 2nd fave Kubrick next to Paths Of Glory.

Paths of Glory is the only Kubrick I've seen and like

kirk douglas would have made for an interestingly pissed off dave bowman

i saw it on dvd, on my PC, some years back, and thought it was amazing. warmed to it more than 2001 and the shining (though my favourite kubrick is still fear and desire).

My favorite Kubrick is some photo that appeared in the June 1948 issue of LOOK. It was all downhill for him after that.

lol F&D

SK's 1947 subway photo feature

https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2016/09/12/subway-riding-in-the-1940s-with-stanley-kubrick/

thx morbs - love this one

https://ephemeralnewyork.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/kubrickmcnyx2011-4-11107-125.jpg?w=900&h=930

looks like Clockwork Orange tramp lyin' there

so many questions

Awesome photo.

That blog and the images derive from the incredible MCNY archive of Kubrick's assignments for Look - 129 assignments, 15 000 images, most unpublished.
http://collections.mcny.org/Explore/Highlights/Stanley%20Kubrick/
http://collections.mcny.org/Doc/MNY/Media/TR3/4/d/3/f/M3Y59725.jpg

http://collections.mcny.org/Doc/MNY/Media/TR3/3/3/7/7/M3Y32044.jpg

http://collections.mcny.org/Doc/MNY/Media/TR3/8/f/f/c/M3Y32193.jpg

http://collections.mcny.org/Doc/MNY/Media/TR3/8/a/2/8/M3Y5603.jpg

http://collections.mcny.org/Doc/MNY/Media/TR3/1/f/c/a/M3Y32234.jpg

http://collections.mcny.org/Doc/MNY/Media/TR3/c/b/b/f/M3Y32283.jpg

http://collections.mcny.org/Doc/MNY/Media/TR3/a/7/d/a/MNY294121.jpg

idnk kubrick invented instagram

Wow at that Hitchcock pic - have long wondered if Stanley had ever met Alfred - wonder if they ever met again. I get the impression that Kubrick was not especially a Hitchcock fan, but they sometimes seem quite alike.

Finally got to see Barry Lyndon in a cinema a few months back -- and really enjoyed its stately melancholy. Wrote this to try and explore why -- not really a review, just some stuff that struck me…

I totally agree about it never feeling like a "long movie", it is such an enjoyable oddysee that doesn't ever feel like more than 90 mins at all.

xp I liked your take Mark - that's me #1 in the comments section!

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-good-man-stanley/

What's the best book about Kubrick? I'd like to read mostly about the life, interested in the films as well of course but not in a dense theory-heavy way.

He is not the subject, but he makes a great cameo, well more than that, in the excellent Jim Thompson bio Savage Art, by Jon Polito.

Finally got to see /Barry Lyndon/ in a cinema a few months back -- and really enjoyed its stately melancholy. Wrote this🔗 to try and explore why -- not really a review, just some stuff that struck me…

Sorry, the author of Savage Art is Robert Polito.

But Jon Polito is still missed. Fly on, Brother Shamus.

Hm, clicking on that link doesn't seem to work in Zing.

Duh, I tried to click on the link in my quote, not in Mark's original post. Never mind.

There isn't an entirely satisfactory Kubrick biography. Alexander Walker's book (in its various revisions) is the closest thing there is to an authorised biography, in that Walker knew Kubrick, and was given some access and assistance by SK. Both the Vincent Lobrutto and John Baxter biographies are 'unofficial' and feature different secondary sources, with varying degrees of insight and relevance. None of them are especially 'theory heavy'.

there is a great 1966 interview on youtube w Kubrick, but I get the feeling he wasn't the type of guy who would have been interested in a lengthy sit-down for an auto/bio, or even write a memoir. As I am in the cult, I like that about him

The three interviews w/ Kubrick conducted by Michel Ciment around Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon and the Shining are almost certainly the best print interviews SK ever gave - - you can find them here:

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/interview.html

not quite what you asked for, but if you haven't seen it already jon ronson's documentary stanley kubrick's boxes is a pretty good look behind the curtain, and it seems to be available in its entirety on vimeo: https://vimeo.com/78314194

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C0iX2mpXUAAsVw4.jpg

watched barry lyndon for the first time at the weekend. i was completely floored by it. one of the best things i've ever seen. dunno if it's deliberate, but even though it was quite moving and intense especially in the second act, i have to say i found a lot of had real comic quality. like the tiny and ridiculous battles, a lot of it felt like it was lightly skewering pomposity, even with the narrator and the "interval" bit in the middle. prior to even seeing the "interval" part i also thought it seemed like it was meant to resemble a play. the music throughout was amazing also.

the other thing i thought at the end is that the cook the thief his wife and her lover felt very inspired by this. maybe the cinematography as painting feeling, maybe also the main musical motifs have a similarly grandiose feeling.