THE KUBRICK WAY
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THE KUBRICK WAY
“We
are capable of the greatest good and the greatest evil, and the problem is that we often can’t distinguish between them when it suits our purpose”
Stanley Kubrick.
by Albert Azraal Design Literature Review 14004894 Igea Troiani
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List of Contents 07
Introduction
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The Kubrick
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The Kubrick Way
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Kubrick’s
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Kubrick(ed)
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References
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This review will discuss about Stanley Kubrick’s precise and detail research methodologies which are them represented in his later works such as “A Clockwork Orange” (1971) and his greatest masterpiece “Eyes Wide Shut” (1999).
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INTRODUCTION
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Born 26th July 1928, Stanley Kubrick, the first son of Jacques L. Kubrick and Gertrude was born. During his school years, he was fairly active in the school’s photography club and always cover school and outside events for the school’s glossy magazine. Single-minded in his photography interest, Stanley haunted the streets, looking for subjects, chasing people unawares, developing his eye for a photo. It was from his interest in photography that he developed his interest in the motion capture industry. Stanley often watched films at any cinemas to see how they were shot. Stanley began his career as an independent film-maker when he made Day of the Fight in 1950. The standard cost of producing a short film was $40,000 and at that time Stanley only had $1500 of his savings and planned to sell it independently. Day of the Fight is remarkably a success for a first film. Other than his superb photography and framing techniques. there are stylistic touches that show, in retrospect, that Kubrick had emerged fully formed as a filmmaker. Although his early films were considered successful in terms of filmography and techniques, he had only made $100 on each of his two early movies. He then visited film professionals in New York and asked them detailed and comprehensive questions about the technical aspects. Due to his obsession in the game of chess; which requires ; logic, order and strategy, he realised that they are exactly basic tools a film-maker needs to bring to a project. Kubrick took his shots seriously. It was important to him that he got each shots as much as he wanted regardless of what he had to do. As to quote The New York Times, “Mr. Kubrick’s [professionalism as a photographer should be obvious to an amateur. He has artistically caught glimpses of the grotesque attitudes of death, the wolfishness of hungry men as well as their bestiality and in one scene, the wracking effect of lust on a pitifully juvenile soldier and the pinioned girl he is guarding.”
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THE KUBRICK
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Stanley Kubrick is one of the most influential directors in the cinema. He’s precised and detailed method of directing and producing films, is now a major trend among today’s filmmakers. Well known directors such as Martin Scorcese, Steven Speilberg, James Cameron, Woody Allen, Ridley Scott and George A. Romero have cited Kubrick as a source of ideas and inspiration. Many filmmakers imitates Kubrick’s inventive and unique use of camera movement and framing. Looking back on his remarkable filmography, it is obvious that it has the distinctly architectonic quality of any great philosophical system which in short words; it is something about everything. In all of his works, he represented all aspects of human nature in their wide-ranging diversity. For example, high and low culture, love and sec, history, war, crime, madness, space travel, social conditioning and technology. It takes all aspects of different realities to be unified into one rich, complex, philosophical vision that happens to be very close to “existentialism.” Generally, there are 5 main subjects that Kubrick had worked on. The first was the subject of war. Kubrick made four war films in all; “Fear and Desire”, “Paths of Glory”, “Dr. Strangelove” and “Full Metal Jacket”. The second is the subject of love and he did three love-based movies, “Killer’s Kiss”,” Lolita” and “Eyes Wide Shut”. The third subject is about the Meaning of Life which lead to the creation of “The Killing” in 1956, whilst “The Shining” (1980) is categorised in the subject of Meaning of life and History. Another movie that is in the subject of History is “Barry Lyndon” in 1975.
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OPPOSITE
On the set of “A Clockwork Orange“ (1971)
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THE KUBRICK WAY
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Kubrick : The Structuralist and The Post-Structuralist Structuralism and Post Structuralism have a great deal in common. Post Structuralism retains structuralism’s emphasis on language; furthermore, they retain the Structuralist belief that all cultural systems can be represented as “coded systems of meaning rather than direct transactions with reality.” For instance, Structuralists tend to not doubt the existence of reality, that is some material, human, or social-economic that lies beneath the “idea” while the Poststructuralists do doubt the existence of reality or at the very least they understood the difference between “reality” and “idea” is one constructed through dialogue. In other words, if there is a reality, it may have not bearing on our senses of truth at all. Based on all of Kubrick’s works, he worked successfully with the combination of both of the theory discussed above. Rather than making the films densed with the both theories above, he created and produced the films holding strong to the aim of subtlety and obliqueness of the theories. For example, Rather than making more obvious plots of ideas, he preferred the audiences themselves to discover the idea and by implying this kind of style and method, the thrill of audiences will make the idea more powerful.
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“You use the audience’s thrill of surprises and discovery to reinforce your ideas rather than reinforce them artificially through plot points or phoney drama or phoney stage dynamics put in to power them cross” - Stanley Kubrick (1961). In short, Kubrick’s ambiguity in the films creates a mixture of traditional codes and novelty that seems to fit the mixed critical mode and indirectly making Kubrick’s work to be still particularly interesting. He just wanted to develop an ambiguous visual style. Kubrick represented the structuralism and post-structuralism theory in his own style of Narrative Forms. All of Kubrick’s films adhere to the canonic story format, a scheme of chronological organization that because of its high degree of codification and recurrence. Which help the viewer to fill in any information that the text may fail to provide. according to Bordwell (1988), this type of story format presents the texts that are divided into several parts : the introduction of setting and characters, ensuring events, explanation of affairs, complicating actions and outcome and ending. Certain stylistics options contribute to shaping a text that the viewer may interpret as belonging to a certain genre or to a certain kind of narration. Nevertheless, none of Kubrick’s films belongs to a specific pure genre which again brings back to the Kubrick’s theory of letting the viewers to interpret themselves.
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From top to bottom: Figure 2 A scene from Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Figure 3 A scene from 2001 : A Space Odyssey (1968) Figure 4 A scene from A Clockwork Orange (1971) Figure 5 A scene from Full Metal Jacket (1987)
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Kubrick : The Auteur The term “Auteur” was first used by several journalists of the Cathiers du cinema. An auteur is a director who’s creative control over a project is absolute and as such are recognized as the creator of the piece. They also have a recognizable, unique style, work with several recurring themes and also tend to use the same cast and crew to bring their visions alive. Furthermore, in Auteur theory, one must only have technical skills and personalised style , but there must be consistent interior meanings or themes presented. Kubrick is definitely an auteur. He had a lot of vision, he often took inspirat ion from books, but changed the material to suit his vision, thus making them his own. He also kept a close group of people which he used on many projects. For instance, James Liggat was casting director in Lolita, 2001, a Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining and Full Metal Jacket and Margaret Adams went from production assistant on A Clockwork Orange to Production Manager in Eyes Wide Shut. He had a very distinct and recognizable style, for example using cold colours to create a blank atmosphere, which actually symbolizes isolation as cold and can be associated with locations like the arctic. Other than that, Kubrick also used the same stylistic elements of the long shots, shots that go on longer than any other movie would, which helps make a scene uncomfortable. These elements also feed into a major theme of Kubrick’s work, Fear. The fear of mankind, where it is going, where it is currently or how it got to this point.
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Figure 6 - On the set of Dr. Strangelove (1964 ) . At this stage of his career, Kubrick was in complete control of his set.
Figure 7 - On the set of Dr. Strangelove (1964 ) . Peter Sellers (right) once said that Kubrick was a God. They had a great deal of respect for one another and shared an interest in photography.
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In regard to Stanley Kubrick’s films, the main character is always male and generally is not likeable. Kubrick played to the audiences morals and or emotions, trying to get them to sympathize with this particular character. Further, in his films as a recurring theme, Kubrick plays to the duality of one’s self. The main characters are usually faced with difficult conflicts within themselves. When viewing Kubrick’s films, it is easy to be caught up in the storyline and the characters, but when really focusing on certain aspects of the movies, such as the cinematography, it is easy to see a distinguishable similarity between his works. It appeared that Kubrick has several camera angles he likes to incorporate into his films. Something Kubrick enjoy doing is placing the camera either slightly below eye level of a character or subject or placing the camera angle very far below characters facing up. In short, Auteur Theory is based on three premises, the first being technique, the second being personal style, and the third being interior meaning. An Auteur must give films a distinctive quality thus exerting a personal creative vision and interjecting it into his or her films.
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Figure 8 - On the set of A Clockwork Orange(1971) . Stanley Kubrick filming McDowell.
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Kubrick : The The Perfect Moment Capturer During his long and distinguished career as a filmmaker, Kubrick has earned a reputation as a control-obsessed perfectionist who often re-shoots scenes hundreds of times. According to the documentary called “Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes” by Jon Ronson, for the mansion scene in “Eyes Wide Shut”, Kubrick captured at least a hundred boxes of gate designs photographs as part of his location research. This directly proves that Kubrick is very particular and detail. Other than that, Kubrick was always on the search for an unusual perspectives which majorly involved architecture. For instance, photos in a photo essay called “Holiday in Portugal”, were shot from the found or other unnatural view of a normal person. he will then used the architecture elements in the surrounding to frame the photos.
“I do not always know what I want, but I do know what I don’t want.” - Stanley Kubrick
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Figure 9 - Scene from Eyes Wide Shut (1999) . Subtle lighting used in the apartment where the Harfords live.
Kubrick preferred natural lighting. According to himself, he preferred natural lighting to be fully utilized because it is just the way we, human see things. During the day he would try to simulate the lighting of the set by only just using the windows and in the night scenes were just the practical lights used daily such as candelabras and oil lamps. Prior to “Barry Lyndon�, the problem has never been properly solved until later he found just such a lens that was specifically designed for the NASA satellite photography. The lens had a speed of fO.7, and it was 100% faster than the fastest movie lens. by obtaining this specified lens, Kubrick was managed to capture the natural lighting more efficient. Kubrick once stated that there is no point putting camera instructions in a screenplay unless if there were some important message of an idea that needed to be presented strongly, that he will write down. This was for the reason of rehearsing a particular scene full focused, and getting the main idea of the plot to be well presented without worrying or thinking about the camera positions and instructions. If do, it will indirectly the full potential of discovery and exploration of the ideas of the scenes. Capturing the most cinematic of images in his very meticulous story-telling approach, this methodology gives some unique insight into the mind and eyes of a man whose life accomplishments will forever be sealed in his work behind the camera.
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Figure 10 - Still from A Clockwork Orange(1971) . The malovelence of Alex. It his nature to be evil.
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KUBRICK’S
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A Clockwork Orange (1971) Part science-fiction, part black comedy, this movie is the only Kubrick film to be widely regarded not only as an important art film, but also as a prime example of a cult film. A cult film also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has a cult following. These kind of films are known for their dedicated, passionate fan base, an elaborate subculture that engage in repeated viewings, and quoting dialogue. With its dark humor, disturbingly graphics. retro-futuristic visual style, there is much to suggest the film as a cult object. “A Clockwork Orange” is one of a group of films that is difficult to categorize because it draws upon both high and low art traditions which mixes avant-garde stylization and high production values with plenty of sex and violence that engage the viewer’s body.
Figure 11 &12 Behind the scenes photo of Stanley Kubrick, Malcolm Mcdowell, Warren Clarke & Adrienne Corri.
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The world of A Clockwork Orange is cold and heartless; an inhospitable place. For the depiction of a dystopian society, the film makes use of modern buildings, minimal in terms of their style, such as the Tavy Bridge Centre in Thamesmead and Brunei University’s Lecture Centre. Kubrick reportedly found the locations for the film by searching through architectural magazines. The naked design of Thamesmead proved that the architecture of the film exists solely with the intentions of serving its community in a minimal way.
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Figure 13 - Design of Alex’s room
Figure 14 -Still from A Clockwork Orange(1971) . A scene in the milk bar.
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The floor plan diagrammed the scene in Alex’s bedroom, where he had sex with two females. The sex sequence, which plays in fast motion, was filmed over the course of 28 minutes by Kubrick. The scene was originally edited with Mozart’s “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” but the pacing did not match. In terms of the architecture of the room, there is a side mirror on Alex’s bedroom. The mirror reflects the poster of Ludwig van Beethoven and adds a unique dimension to the room which indirectly makes the room feel larger. The architectural elements to the right and left of the mirror allow for a grid system within the shot itself. This grid system forces the audience to find a one-point perspective. The scene in the floor plan features the three characters enter the frame and the dotted lines map their movements until the end of the scene. The tracking of their movements allows us to see how much movement was condensed into the scene.
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Figure 15 Floor plan of Alex’s room and the movement flow of the sex scene.
Figure 16 & 17 Still from A Clockwork Orange(1971) .
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Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
OPPOSITE Figure 18 Promotional Poster for Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Twelve years went by before Kubrick’s next and final film, a period when he worked with writers and designers on the development of two projects, “The Aryan Papers and “A.I. Artificial Intelligence “, which for reasons having to do with Warner’s assessments of the market and Kubrick’s doubts about the scripts, were never brought to completion. In the end, he secured approval from Warner for “Eyes Wide Shut”, a modernised retelling of an erotic Arthur Schnitzler novella of 1925m scripted with Frederic Raphael and starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, who were the most famous married couple in America. Kubrick died shortly after the release of the film; he probably did not supervise the final sound mixing and to fine-tune the editing. But Eyes Wide Shut is what he aimed to accomplish and is a remarkable testament. The movie is a languid and dreamlike psychosexual fantasy about a New York Doctor who embarks upon a nighttime journey of gradually increasing deviancy after his wife reveals her unrequited sexual fantasies for another man. Despite the hype surrounding the film, especially the infamous orgy scenes and the on-screen sexuality between then-married stars; Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.
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Kubrick is a legendary for his perfectionism. For instance, to reconstruct Greenwich Village in London, he sent a designer to New York to measure the exact width of the streets and the distance between newspaper vending machines. But his approach to character and performance was the opposite. Instead of knowing what he wanted on the set, he waited for the actors to seize upon it themselves. According to Naremore (2007), the Manhattan apartment where the fictional couple lives is loosely based on an apartment where Kubrick and his wife lived in the late 1960s. The paintings on the walls of the apartment are by Christianne Kubrick and Katharina Kubrick Hobbs both of whom make cameo appearances as extras in the film. The result, as Jonathan Rosenbaum has observed, Eyes Wide Shut is Kubrick’s most personal project. Kubrick wanted the audience to psychologically pick up on the fact that Bill Harford; character played by Cruise, to be trapped in his insecure dreams. That by trapping Bill in the same three recurring New York streets, it is like he is in a nightmare he can’t escape. In order to do that, Kubrick made Bill to be sort of trapped in the same street. The scenes of Bill spending his night in Greenwich Village, was actually the same set, with the same building facades used over and over but, with different architectural elements.
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Figure 19 A study series of screenshots from the scenes of EyesWide Shut (1999), showing the set; with same building facades and features but treated with different architecture elements.
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Figure 20 - Greenwich Village Site map. Source : http://www.scoutingny.com/stanley-kubrick-the-shining-new-york-city-the-filming-locations-of-eyes-wide-shut/
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Figure 20 - Diagrammatic map of Bill’s Travels through the village Source : http://www.scoutingny.com/stanley-kubrick-the-shining-new-york-city-the-filming-locations-of-eyes-wide-shut/
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KUBRICK(ED) In the absence of a grand synthesis or a key to Kubrick’s work and methodology, which i believe would be impossible, it may be useful to offer some remarks on the themes that have emerged from this review. This review has focused on Kubrick’s method as an Auteur which is unique, Kubrick’s filmmaking methods from the eye of a photographer, and his precised and detailed researches. Through his precise and detail method of working, unlike any directors, he never suffered the experience of having his project’s re-cut, reshot, or abandoned by the organizations that financed and distributed them. By the end of his career, the US movie industry was moving into the digital era and being absorbed into home entertainment, but Kubrick continued to make personal films in his own style, avoiding the tight framing. Almost from the beginning, Kubrick was a total film-maker who combined the sensibility of a literally intellectual with the technical expertise of a photographer/editor and the instincts of a showman.
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REFERENCES BOOKS Anderson, N., 2014. Shadow Philosophy. Canada: Routledge. Harlan, J., 2014. The right-hand man: Jan Harlan on Stanley Kubrick [Interview] (14 February 2014). Kramer, P., 2010. 2001:A Space Odyssey. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Kronenburg, R., 2001. Spirit of the Machine. Sussex: Wiley Academy. Naremore, J., 2007. On Kubrick. London: British Film Institute. Reddy, S., 2011. Lilith. lilithfilm.tumblr, p. 1. Todorov, T., 1977. The Poetics of prose. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Abrams, JA, 2007. The philosophy of Stanley Kubrick. 2nd ed. Kentucky : The University Press of Kentucky
INTERVIEWS Cruise, T. (1999) ‘Cruise Opens Up About Working With Kubrick’. Interview with Tom Cruise. Interview by Roger Ebert for Roger Ebert Interviews, 15 July. McDowell, M. (2011) ‘A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick and Killing Captain Kirk’. Interview with Malcolm McDowell. Interview by Ryan Lambie for Den Off Geek, 23 May. FILMS 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Directed by Stanley Kubrick [Film]. USA: Warner Bros. A Clockwork Orange (1971) Directed by Stanley Kubrick [Film]. USA: Warner Bros. Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Directed by Stanley Kubrick [Film]. USA: Warner Bros. Full Metal Jacket (1987) Directed by Stanley Kubrick [Film]. USA: Warner Bros.
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“If
it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed”
-Stanley Kubrick
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