The Visual Poet
Prelude of the book 'Stanley Kubrick. Visual Poet 1928-1999', by Paul Duncan
Page [1] [2] [3] [4]
Humbert dares not profess his love for Lolita, but his hidden dark side in the form of Clare Quilty has no such inhibitions and makes love to Lolita. Jung called this dark side the Shadow - Kubrick knew Jung's work and quoted it. When Dr Bill Harford is told by his wife that she almost gave up their marriage on a sudden desire for a stranger, he is shaken but not convinced. He is then called away and a woman he hardly knows declares her love for him. Her fiancé enters and looks just like Bill - the couple are a mirror image of Bill and his wife. Having experienced this, Dr Bill is now convinced and for the rest of the movie he examines his Shadow.
After establishing the struggle within his central character, Kubrick then gave the character two choices, one representing good and the other evil. In Paths of Glory Colonel Dax must decide whether to become a bureaucratic general or a lumpen soldier. The trial of the deserters shows us that Dax is repulsed by both options and, in the end, decides to tread his own path. In the beautifully chilling Barry Lyndon, our hero rejects love and decides to acquire money and social standing. The outcome, as in all of Kubrick's films, is unpredictable but satisfying. Whether consciously or unconsciously, Kubrick examined the duality and contradictions that exist in all of us.
Critic David Denby once compared Kubrick to the monolith from his film 2001: A Space Odyssey, calling him 'a force of supernatural intelligence, appearing at great intervals amid high-pitched shrieks, who gives the world a violent kick up the next rung of the evolutionary ladder.' Stanley Kubrick refined this approach to film-making over almost five decades. He presented viewers with a film that met all the marketing and pyrotechnic requirements of films (a genre film, with action, in an exotic setting), but he also gave great thought to the subtext so that the viewer could discover their own meanings if they so desired. Although film is a mass-market form of entertainment, it can also be an artform and Kubrick made films that would appeal to every sort of viewer, whatever their expectation of film. Kubrick directed four war films, two crime films, two sciencefiction films, two historical epics, a horror film and two films about sexual relationships. In an interview with Colin Young, Kubrick explained why he used genre films: "One of the attractions of a war or crime story is that it provides an almost unique opportunity to contrast an individual or our contemporary society with a solid framework of accepted value, which the audience becomes fully aware of, and which can be used as a counterpoint to a human, individual, emotional situation. Further, war acts as a kind of hothouse for forced, quick breeding of attitudes and feelings. Attitudes crystallise and come out into the open. Conflict is natural, when it would in a less critical situation have to be introduced almost as a contrivance, and would thus appear forced or, even worse, false."
Page [1] [2] [3] [4]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4]
Humbert dares not profess his love for Lolita, but his hidden dark side in the form of Clare Quilty has no such inhibitions and makes love to Lolita. Jung called this dark side the Shadow - Kubrick knew Jung's work and quoted it. When Dr Bill Harford is told by his wife that she almost gave up their marriage on a sudden desire for a stranger, he is shaken but not convinced. He is then called away and a woman he hardly knows declares her love for him. Her fiancé enters and looks just like Bill - the couple are a mirror image of Bill and his wife. Having experienced this, Dr Bill is now convinced and for the rest of the movie he examines his Shadow.
After establishing the struggle within his central character, Kubrick then gave the character two choices, one representing good and the other evil. In Paths of Glory Colonel Dax must decide whether to become a bureaucratic general or a lumpen soldier. The trial of the deserters shows us that Dax is repulsed by both options and, in the end, decides to tread his own path. In the beautifully chilling Barry Lyndon, our hero rejects love and decides to acquire money and social standing. The outcome, as in all of Kubrick's films, is unpredictable but satisfying. Whether consciously or unconsciously, Kubrick examined the duality and contradictions that exist in all of us.
Critic David Denby once compared Kubrick to the monolith from his film 2001: A Space Odyssey, calling him 'a force of supernatural intelligence, appearing at great intervals amid high-pitched shrieks, who gives the world a violent kick up the next rung of the evolutionary ladder.' Stanley Kubrick refined this approach to film-making over almost five decades. He presented viewers with a film that met all the marketing and pyrotechnic requirements of films (a genre film, with action, in an exotic setting), but he also gave great thought to the subtext so that the viewer could discover their own meanings if they so desired. Although film is a mass-market form of entertainment, it can also be an artform and Kubrick made films that would appeal to every sort of viewer, whatever their expectation of film. Kubrick directed four war films, two crime films, two sciencefiction films, two historical epics, a horror film and two films about sexual relationships. In an interview with Colin Young, Kubrick explained why he used genre films: "One of the attractions of a war or crime story is that it provides an almost unique opportunity to contrast an individual or our contemporary society with a solid framework of accepted value, which the audience becomes fully aware of, and which can be used as a counterpoint to a human, individual, emotional situation. Further, war acts as a kind of hothouse for forced, quick breeding of attitudes and feelings. Attitudes crystallise and come out into the open. Conflict is natural, when it would in a less critical situation have to be introduced almost as a contrivance, and would thus appear forced or, even worse, false."
Page [1] [2] [3] [4]
Stanley Kubrick
Flexicover, 19.6 x 24.5 cm (7.7 x 9.6 in.), 192 pages
$ 19.99
$ 19.99
"I don't think that writers or painters or filmmakers function because they have something they particularly want to say. They have something that they feel." -Stanley Kubrick
Still from 'A Clockwork Orange' (1971). The malevolence of Alex. It is his nature to be evil.
Still from '2001: A Space Odyssey' (1968). The Starchild. Does this sublime face represent the greatest good that we can achieve?