Stanley Kubrick: Classic or Dud?

Paths of Glory was my favourite Kubrick film for the longest time, until, within the past 10 years, it was pushed aside by Barry Lyndon--which, it occurs to me, might be the perfect thing to watch tonight in terms of tone and trying to get some perspective on all of this.

I have been meaning to get around to watching Barry Lyndon for 20+ years, still the only Kubrick I've never seen lol

the Humphrey Cobb novel of Paths ends with the execution, but I think Kubrick and Harris both agreed the audience had to get *some* moral relief (eg Gen Mireau punished in some form for his shoot-our-troops order).

It's amusing to see Emile Meyer, who played the crooked cop in Sweet Smell of Success ("Sidney, come over here so I can chastise you!"), play the priest.

Barry Lyndon is great, everyone talks about how beautiful and painterly it is (it is) but until I saw it again relatively recent I forgot about all the zooms in the movie. it felt like a comedy in a theater

Spartacus seems like a classic 1960s spectacle film

I like it better than I tend to like these things.

complete with an overture and intermission!

The Brits (Olivier, Ustinov, Laughton) are having great fun, and in life they loathed each other.

yes, mastah

I did like seeing the men’s bodies in the baths

the oysters vs snails interlude made me chuckle

it's even funnier when you revel in the Anthony Hopkins dubbing of Olivier

(that scene was restored in the '90s)

I know Kubrick distanced himself from it, and as much of a 60s hollywood production as it was, I liked it. want to see Paths of Glory again

Never managed to get through it myself.

Kubrick knew how to handle Roman maniples.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgywD3XJaWU

Shame he never teamed up with Bondarchuk's Red Army for his Napoleon biopic.

dud

show your working

no i’m good thanks

That Spartacus battle scene was one of the "And a Cast of Thousands!" kind of scenes, where it cost so freaking much to get it onto film that they were never going to reduce it to a fast-paced fifteen seconds of action.

yes, and that clip is just the beginning of the battle sequence

fartacus

sorry ignore

I also recite da classics

have been rewatching Kubrick’s films in order. The Killing, Paths of Glory, Spartacus and Lolita are all so different

love the edgelord first post on this topic

Did you catch the first two? Killer's Kiss is very good imo.

don’t see killer’s kiss on any of my subscriptions but fear and desire is on kanopy, I will watch it

It's not great apart from the sense of unreality and detachment, cool to see this in embryonic form. I love that he borrowed money from his uncle to make it and expected it to make his investment back as a Saturday afternoon feature.

edgelord first post right not wrong

don’t see killer’s kiss on any of my subscriptions but fear and desire is on kanopy, I will watch it

yes, through the SF library. when I signed up they were giving access to 8 films a month, but they have increased the number over time, it’s now 15/month

Wow!

watched Fear and Desire, it was ok. Paul Mazursky's first film role!

can see the humor in Lolita but struggle to be amused by Dr. Strangelove, I think it is the wrong time to rewatch this movie, it’s hard to see it as comedy at this moment

That’s what makes it great? Human being’s survival isn’t a factor in the humor.

I do think it is great, watched it again today trying to ignore the present moment, appreciated it more

I watched "Strangelove" with my older kid recently, and it really hit me, for the first time, just *how* black it is as a black comedy. Like, it goes so far in that direction that it's barely a comedy. George C. Scott is brilliantly broad, and the bits with him and the Russian ambassador are slapstick funny, sure, but so much of the rest of it is so bone-dry in its delivery. The humor is in the absurdity and mounting doom of the scenario, not in the jokes, per se.

I bet Kubrick was a big fan of "Airplane!", though.

Sellers' reactions during the bodily fluids discussion are gold

Filmworker is on film 4 on Wednesday night (at 01:50)

rewatched A Clockwork Orange in a dysphoric state of mind. The vision, concepts, imagery were great but I didn't enjoy it. I appreciated Kubrick's dystopian films when I felt more secure and safe myself, but not now

watching it now I just want the comfort of Singing in the Rain

An ugly film I managed to get through twice; no desire to revisit.

I think it stands at the top of the heap as an aesthetic achievement, but yes, it’s ugly. It has to be ugly.

I did think about that after I posted--it can't be anything else, so I'd really have to organize my thoughts and provide a lot more explanation than just that.

Understand. I will say for such a deeply stylized and attractively art directed film, the violence in it has always struck me as uniquely disturbing. There’s nothing cool or sexy about any of it.

It’s his most puerile, which for him must have been some kind of achievement.

It has to be ugly.

It doesn't have to be uglier, more puerile and more vulgar than the book, which it is.

Barry Lyndon is melancholic and beautiful, very detailed and extremely long. I’ve managed to watch it in one sitting, but that in general seems hard for me in 2020

I like the above assertion that it is skewering pomposity and I agree with d leone’s long ago posts about the symmetry of it - rise and decline, all uphill the first half, and a gradual descent into hopelessness in the second