Stanley Kubrick the ultimate auteur
The Film Studies Dictionary (Blandford et al, 2001) defines an auteur as ‘a director whose work is characterised by distinctive thematic concerns and stylistic traits discernible across a number of films. ... ’1 This essay explores the life and personality of Stanley Kubrick and shows how each of his films are linked by common themes and styles. ... Early Life and Films Stanley Kubrick was born in the Bronx of New York in 1928 and was considered intelligent at school despite poor grades. His father, Jack Kubrick, a physician, introduced him to both of his lifelong obsessions: the first was chess. ‘[Chess] offers a clue to elements that constitute Kubrick and helps to explain why he made certain films and not others – and why he made them in certain ways and not in others. ... ’2 Intense consideration of possible choices that may have vastly different outcomes, an essential quality of a good chess player, was to be reflected in Kubrick’s career as a filmmaker. Kubrick was renowned for his slow and meticulous working methods and being able to make the best decisions when several options are available was a quality Kubrick transferred from chess to filmmaking. ... The second passion that Kubrick inherited from his father was for photography. Given a camera for his 13th birthday, Kubrick was given the chance to show his creative talent and visual flare, selling some of his work to Look magazine while he was still at school. ... The job allowed Kubrick to save a few thousand dollars with which he made Day of the Fight (1951), his first short movie, based on a picture he had done on the middle-weight boxer Walter Cartier. ... Inspired by his first success, Kubrick quit Look with a view to becoming a professional filmmaker. ... Among other things, it alerted Kubrick to the differences between the work of Eisenstein, who was master of cinematic style, and Chaplin, who’s films are based on content rather than style. Kubrick always regarded content as being the most important element of a film, but fortunately the two approaches are not mutually exclusive and, as shall be seen later, once Kubrick had found and developed his content, he was able to inject his distinctive style into it. After making his second short film for RKO, Flying Padre (1951) – which was about a Roman Catholic missionary who got around his 400-mile parish in the Southwest by plane – Kubrick raised about $10,000 from his father and an uncle to direct his first feature, Fear and Desire (1953). Despite Kubrick’s later abhoration of it and the fact that it ran $20,000 over budget and failed to make a profit, it gave Kubrick valuable experience in making a feature and appreciation from critics in the art houses where it was shown. ... 2 In the making of Killer’s Kiss Kubrick was introduced to James Harris, who, like Kubrick, was twenty-six and passionate about films. ... Based on Lionel White’s novel Clean Break (almost all of Kubrick films are based on novels), the story follows the preparations of a group of crooks who plan to rob a racetrack during the running of the seventh race. Kubrick photographs the robbery in great detail and shows his talent for split-second timing, quick cross-cutting from one character to another to create suspense. The film uses flashbacks to show how each member of the gang carried out their own part of the plan, an early use of time manipulation, a technique Kubrick was use again to staggering effect in later films like 2001 and The Shining. But the real triumph of the movie lies in the way Kubrick elicited memorable and defined performances from his ensemble cast of Hollywood supporting players. Paths of Glory Kubrick’s next film, Paths of Glory (1957) was based on a book he’d read as a child, Humphrey Cobb’s novel of the same name about a true incident in World War I. It appealed to Kubrick because of the obsessional elements it contained, which ignited Kubrick’s imagination and became his first film to deal with the recurring Kubrick themes of dehumanisation, injustice and inhumanity for the sake personal gain. Paths of Glory was also the first Kubrick film to use the kind of filming techniques and camera movements that are the trademark of Kubrick’s work. ... Kubrick always oversaw the design of the set himself and as such his individual influence can be seen throughtout his work, from the winding corridors, bright colours and relentless symmetry in the Overlook Hotel of The Shining, to the modern yet retro feel of the Korova Milk Bar in A Clockwork Orange. ... ” Kubrick was clearly always concerned with the dehumanising effect of war.