Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick
 A Artist Reference

I have decided to a different type of artist reference as this will be my last project. I normal would pick one part of a film or a still photo and talk about how it was filmed but this time I though it would be more helpful if I talked about a director as a whole and not how the films were shot but what was shot as that is some area I have neglected a bit in my study. I hope to find out what makes Kubrick his own style so I can find out my own style and work on that. I also spent a lot longer thinking about the 'feel' of the film for my FMP, then have done previously so will focus on style and context and cinematography rather the narrative for this film. Even though Kubrick is known for his great films he has very rearlly come up with the idea himself, He is more about the way the film looks and feels 

For this essay on my all time fav director I want to look at how his films are similar but still all having different genres

Kubricks films often go off in another dimension from the one before it and after it. The films are all so dissimilar that it's easier said than done to think of a fundamental theme, but there are elements that run throughout his films. In simple terms Kubrick films use narrative and symbolism to give his films a similar feel despite their differences in genre. I have tried to do a similar thing in all of my films in my two years.

One of the genius things that Kubrick is a master at is giving us narrative clues to the ending or events yet to come by use of colour, sound and editing style for example The Shining 1980  the long and winding road at the beginning seems parallel to the long and winding maze at the end. He does this so that you get that feeling from the start of an uneasy displacement and this carries on until the film does a loop so your starting place in Kubrick films is the same as the ending place, narrative mirroring. The same equilibrium bookending can be seen in A Clockwork Orange 1971  with Alex starting off as an ultra-violent thug who goes on a journey but ends up back where he started. Also in The Shining the blood red floor that Danny is riding his trike on is just like the floor of blood Wendy sees at the end of the film.

 Kubrick has recurring themes like having the bathroom as a focus. Another things that Kubrick keeps the same was that all the protagonists are always male (Alex, Jack, Pvt. Joker, Dr. Dave etc.) and seem to be always difficult to like! They lead you to believe they are nice at the start and they turn out to be unlikable due to their actions. Putting it simply, the bulk of Kubrick films all have a character that starts off as the good guy then turns into an unlikeable character, this is talked about in the documentary A life in Pictures by Jan Harlan. Prime cases where this can be seen is in A Clockwork Orange where Alex starts off on the outside looking an unassuming/ normal person  in the milk bar, then we see him in a different light when we see him beat, rape and even kill people. By making the bad guy the protagonist character the audience finds it hard to relate to him. This was one of Kubrick’s main criticisms. To further my point, HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) seems to be a polite, pleasant and efficient computer but then later goes insane and kills people. This raises the question; can a computer have a soul? In 2001 this makes it hard to trust and bond with the characters in the film. Kubrick makes it so our trust is misplaced and therefore makes us feel uneasy, just like how the central character is feeling. This statement can also be seen to apply to The Shining (novel by Stephen King) where at the start of the film Jack Torrance played by Jack Nicholson is a lovely family man but then goes crazy later on and tries to kill his wife and child. Kubrick tends to shift the role of the “good guy” in his films but always keeping them as the main character. Doing this confuses the audience and makes them distant in knowing what is right and what is wrong and what side you would be routing for, again putting you in the mind of the character even if you believe their actions are wrong and immoral like raping/ killing people, or fighting in a war.

Typically the males have some sort of mental struggle to deal with like flash backs of the past and how they deal with them. Alex in A Clock Work Orange for instance is emotionally unstable with distraught paranoia after his treatment and Bill after hearing about his wife’s encounter with another man in Eyes Wide Shut (1999) can’t stop thinking of his wife in bed with another man and then finds him dealing with his fear and paranormal by going on a walk which leads him to find more than he expected, again like A clockwork Orange, sex is the main theme.

When researching about Kubrick and his films in general one word came about more than would be expected and that was dehumanizing. With regard to this the story of A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket are best suited but can be used in all his films and professions. Both Alex and the soldiers get turned un-humanly from their normal selves to their polar opposites in ways that would be disapproved of or banned in today’s society.  In both cases the individuals agree to what they are undertaking but are not fully informed to what they will be going through.

   

The only way I can come up with a conclusion to the magnificent Stanley Kubrick is to say that a film was an art form with meaning and feeling in despite always being criticised for not being able to connect with his characters. His narratives all focused around one central plot, the theme of entrapment and escape which leads me think he had a traumatic experience as a child. One of the things that is different from a good film to a great film is the depth of it, Kubrick used the art of all film elements like cinematography, narrative, theme, lighting etc., and using his own special touches with the use of meaning and symbolism to create films that surprise and amaze you every time.

As Kubrick is a great inspiration to to I want to continue my research on him my looking how how his films like 2001 have a sublimness about them.