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Offlineclock_of_omens
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Re: The Films of Stanley Kubrick [Re: ChRnZN]
    #24891585 - 01/05/18 10:33 AM (6 years, 2 months ago)

I just re-watched Paths of Glory the other day. I forgot how infuriating that movie is; I wanted to slap most of the characters right in their stupid faces. Great movie though.

Both Killer's Kiss and The Killing are very good and definitely worth watching. Especially The Killing. As dead guy avatar said, it has a great ending. I haven't seen Fear and Desire.

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InvisibleDividedQuantumM
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Re: The Films of Stanley Kubrick [Re: clock_of_omens]
    #24891920 - 01/05/18 01:41 PM (6 years, 2 months ago)

Yeah, I'm going to check out the Killing next. I look forward to it. And here is my take on Kubrick's last one.


Eyes Wide Shut


9/10


This is, in my opinion, not one of Kubrick's better movies. Technically and artistically it is, as just about all Kubrick movies are, essentially flawless. But honestly, it just doesn't have a theme that I'm interested in. I wish he would have made A.I. instead, so that we'd have that as his last film. In any case, EWS is good, and for those for whom it is their cup of tea, it would undoubtedly be very powerful.

The movie follows a young-ish doctor in Manhattan, who is in a marriage of nine years. Right off the bat, he flirts with some models at a party, while his wife dances with a Hungarian ladies-man. Already we sense an ambiguous sexual vibe, and it really turns into something of a maze from here, as we must listen to the characters, evaluate their actions, and sense what they are thinking -- especially pertaining to the main character.

The two main characters smoke some weed and begin getting very honest with one another. Kidman's character confesses that a couple of years ago, she lusted intensely after a young Naval officer, and in that moment would have given up everything in her life to be with him just one time. This is a stunning bombshell for Cruise's character, and he goes into a tail-spin of sexual exploration and confusion that constitutes the rest of the movie.

I won't go into all the twists and turns of the plot, but suffice it to say that the main character really has no idea what he should be thinking or doing, and doesn't even understand the real dynamics of the marriage he is in. He has one sexual encounter after another -- on various levels (he never actually has sex with anyone), even including a confusing encounter with some NYC youths who call him a "faggot" and push him around. He doesn't know what to make of any of this what with the stupor he is in.

It seems to me that the whole point of the plot, especially that of the secret party, is to realize that the questions about it aren't important. This is a metaphor for the love that people ideally share -- there can be confusion and intrigue, but in the end, all that matters is one's unconditional love for another. Not the twists and turns of life -- nor sex. Kubrick almost plays a practical joke on the audience with this movie, and I'm not sure I like it. Those who get caught up in all the histrionics are missing the point -- and the director wants you to be confused. The movie is basically meant to trick the people who do not understand it -- especially the ending. In this sense, the movie could be seen in some respect as cruel.

In the end, though, as I mentioned above -- the theme of this movie is just not interesting to me. I remember reading that some Kubrick aficionados, when the movie was released in '99, thought Kubrick had lost the edge and gone soft. I think that very well could be. But it's well worth watching, and I know some people love it. And that's great.





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Offlineclock_of_omens
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Re: The Films of Stanley Kubrick [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #24895409 - 01/06/18 10:47 PM (6 years, 2 months ago)

I just watched Spartacus. Despite not being a true Kubrick production in the sense of most of his other stuff, it's still good.

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InvisibleDividedQuantumM
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Re: The Films of Stanley Kubrick [Re: clock_of_omens]
    #24895506 - 01/06/18 11:46 PM (6 years, 2 months ago)

That's quite correct.


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Re: The Films of Stanley Kubrick [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #24898451 - 01/08/18 12:30 PM (6 years, 2 months ago)

The Killing


8.5/10


This really is a good movie. This was made in Kubrick's early days, when he was teamed up with fledgling producer and friend James B. Harris. It came out in '56, and was Kubrick's first major production for wide release. It was made in California, where Kubrick would stay until he made Lolita, which set the stage for his remaining in the London area for the rest of his life. He needed to pick between L.A. and London (New York then and now does not have enough studio infrastructure for major productions), and he hated the scene in L.A. because he was disgusted with the notion that it was okay secretly to root for other people to fail. He thought it was a terrible environment in which to live, so he chose England instead. But The Killing was made in L.A. (and the horse racing scenes were filmed by co-producer Alexander Singer in Northern California, where he got himself arrested for running out onto the track and filming). Alexander Singer is a famous and successful director in his own right -- he and Kubrick were from the same neighborhood in NYC, and Singer is actually the one responsible for getting Kubrick into photography.

Anyway, Kubrick and Harris were together through Lolita, and split up upon the pre-production of Strangelove. They made a good team, and parted ways totally amicably. But on The Killing, they bought the rights to the book -- that must have felt interesting for such young guys -- and Kubrick wrote the shooting script while Jim Thompson wrote the witty dialogue. Kubrick of course directed, and Harris produced. But everyone was involved with everything, really. Kubrick, Harris and Singer each had input on everything. Kubrick's directing here is, in my opinion, more "Kubrickian" than it was even for Paths of Glory. The shots are more distinctive and experimental and edgy.

This movie follows the evolution of the planning and execution of a heist of the betting money at a racetrack. It uses an interesting narrative structure which jumps backwards and ahead, with crafty editing. Quentin Tarantino said that Pulp Fiction was heavily influenced by this technique. The robbery is a complicated one, and the steps and roles of the characters unfold through this interesting narrative technique. There's not much one can say about the plot except -- go see the movie. I also don't want to give anything away, but the ending is a good one.

Kubrick wasn't particularly fond of this early effort, and he included neither this nor Paths of Glory in his original box set. Of course, Spartacus was not included, either, for obvious reasons. It's not the sort of powerful, complex, polished stuff he put out later, but it is a very good movie in its own right and, according to film historians and buffs, pretty influential for a lot of filmmakers who came later. This was also one of the early "film noir," movies, and added to that class significantly. All in all a very good film.





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Offlineclock_of_omens
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Re: The Films of Stanley Kubrick [Re: DividedQuantum] * 1
    #24917935 - 01/16/18 10:16 AM (6 years, 2 months ago)

Just re-watched A Clockwork Orange last night.

Quote:

DividedQuantum said:
So, I ask you: Is it worse to experiment on a convicted and guilty felon with his full consent, or is it worse to allow him to rape and murder freely? For me, this is an easy question to answer.





I don't think that's really a question Kubrick is asking in the movie. It seems he is against the idea of conditioning criminals and setting them free, but the fact that Alex is 'cured' from the conditioning and free at the end doesn't mean that's what Kubrick is positing should happen in that case. It's more about the state and power structures using the individual as a tool. The new administration advocating for the Ludovoco technique obviously doesn't really care about 'curing' people of of their criminal impulses. They care about image. This is clear with the literal performance they put on after Alex undergoes the procedure, with the stage and the actors taking their bows, and with the leader of the party embracing Alex at the end and putting on another show for the media. They are only letting him stay free and giving him a cushy job as a way to save face after public opinion turned against them. Also, the trauma from his fall likely isn't what 'cured' him. He talks about his repeated 'dreams' of doctors messing around in his brain, which likely was real, and was doctors reversing the Ludovico technique somehow. The administration is willing to do whatever is politically expedient to the individual.

Also, the wheelchair guy and his group of political opponents to the administration are just using Alex for their own means as well. He saw the stories about Alex in the paper, so he knows what happened to him, and he calls his buddies and talks about how they can use Alex as a tool against the administration before he finds out who Alex really is. They were planning to use Alex as a shot against the administration from the start somehow, he just relished forcing him to kill himself when he found out who Alex really was.

There's also the guy who is assigned to Alex to get him to behave, who obviously only really cares about how Alex acts insofar as it affects his job. Also, the fact that Georgie and Dim are hired as police officers even though they are likely known criminals, as Alex is, shows that power structures don't really care about punishing criminals or not, they just care about how things look. Georgie and Dim are free to commit all the state sanctioned ultraviolence they want.

Edited by clock_of_omens (01/16/18 10:22 AM)

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InvisibleDividedQuantumM
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Re: The Films of Stanley Kubrick [Re: clock_of_omens]
    #24918068 - 01/16/18 11:19 AM (6 years, 2 months ago)

Very nice ideas. :thumbup:


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Re: The Films of Stanley Kubrick [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #25955806 - 04/25/19 10:58 PM (4 years, 10 months ago)

For anyone who can go, a comprehensive exhibit on Kubrick's film career is opening tomorrow/today at the London Design Museum. It will run through mid-September, and is apparently quite extraordinary. If you go, please report back here! I'd love some inside dirt on my favorite filmmaker. :wink:


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Invisiblesaralove
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Re: The Films of Stanley Kubrick [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #25980990 - 05/08/19 11:53 PM (4 years, 10 months ago)

Love Kubrick and his films; but even more so are the dialogue of his characters. 

What they explore, what they infer.

His art soothes the soul, at least mine anyway.

:sun:


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Re: The Films of Stanley Kubrick [Re: saralove]
    #25981479 - 05/09/19 08:45 AM (4 years, 10 months ago)

I agree.


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Re: The Films of Stanley Kubrick [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #26584223 - 04/07/20 02:43 PM (3 years, 11 months ago)

Just a couple of book recommendations I'd like to share:

Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece by Michael Benson and Stanley Kubrick: Interviews edited by Gene D. Phillips. These two, along with LoBrutto's book mentioned at the top of this thread, are probably the three best I've read on Kubrick.


:smile:


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