S T A N L E Y

K U B R I C K

      Stanley Kubrick is truly one of the most unique and influential American filmmakers of the modern twentieth century. Spanning the course of four (soon to be five!) decades, his handful of films have become the source of endless fascination and controversy. His work does not fit neatly into any one category, as he has done comedy, science fiction, social reform, historical, horror, and war films. But each of these films also defies labeling, to say that The Shining is merely a horror movie, or that Dr. Strangelove is simply comedy is to do the films a great injustice. Most of his films deal either directly or indirectly with the dehumanization of modern man, and the fundamental problems present within mankind. His work is tailored to the thinking person, one who is not afraid to search for the underlying messages contained beneath the surface. Kubrick's films make a lasting impression, and will leave you with images that you'll never forget .... as well as questions which may never be answered.

      Stanley Kubrick was born in the Bronx in late July of 1928. He was a poor student throughout grade school and finished high school with a 68 average. However, in high school he developed a love of photography, becoming his school's yearbook photographer. During this time he also was given a job at Look magazine, and continued to work there after high school. It was only a matter of time before he began experimenting in motion pictures, and after three self financed ventures he broke onto the Hollywood scene with The Killing in 1957. After being called in at the last minute to direct Spartacus, he realized that he wanted to make films his way, and to do that he needed complete control over all aspects of his work. From then on, he personally worked on the production, art design, script writing, cinematography, and publicity of his films. A Stanley Kubrick Production really is what it says.
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• Dr. Strangelove (Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• A Clockwork Orange
• Barry Lyndon
• The Shining
• Full Metal Jacket

      When asked in an interview what his favorite films were, Kubrick came up with the following list:

1. I Vitelloni
2. Wild Strawberries
3. Citizen Kane
4. Treasure of Sierra Madre
5. City Lights
6. Henry V
7. La Notte
8. The Bank Dick
9. Roxie Hart
10. Hell's Angels

• "I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker."
• "I never learned anything at all in school and didn't read a book for pleasure until I was 19 years old."
• "How could we possibly appreciate the Mona Lisa if Leonardo had written at the bottom of the canvas: 'The lady is smiling because she is hiding a secret from her lover.' This would shackle the viewer to reality, and I don't want this to happen to 2001."
• "Perhaps it sounds ridiculous, but the best thing that young filmmakers should do is to get hold of a camera and some film and make a movie of any kind at all."
• "A filmmaker has almost the same freedom as a novelist has when he buys himself some paper."
• "If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed."
• "I believe that drugs are basically of more use to the audience than to the artist. I think that the illusion of oneness with the universe, and absorption with the significance of every object in your environment, and the pervasive aura of peace and contentment is not the ideal state for an artist. It tranquilizes the creative personality, which thrives on conflict and on the clash and ferment of ideas. The artist's transcendence must be within his own work; he should not impose any artificial barriers between himself and the mainspring of his subconscious. One of the things that's turned me against LSD is that all the people I know who use it have a peculiar inability to distinguish between things that are really interesting and stimulating and things that appear to be so in the state of universal bliss that the drug induces on a "good" trip. They seem to completely lose their critical faculties and disengage themselves from some of the most stimulating areas of life. Perhaps when everything is beautiful, nothing is beautiful."