RICHARD ASHTON
Copley News Service

ilt,

DAVID ELLIOTT
Copley News Service

documentary about a fighter about to enter the ring
and called it Day of the Fight. He sold it to RKO-Pathe
for a $100 profit, and a chance to make another short
espite his deep fear of flying, Stanley
film for RKO called Flying Padre.
Kubrick flew higher and longer in the sky
In 1952, at age 24, he made his first feature film,
of elite filmmaking than anyone since
Fear and Desire, which he financed with money bor-
Alfred Hitchcock. Kubrick, though finally
rowed from relatives and friends. He acted as screen-
eclipsed commercially by Steven Spielberg, remained a
writer, director, cinematographer and editor. He made
supreme brand name among star directors.
Killer's Kiss two years later in much the same way.
Unlike Hitchcock, who went from England to
Hollywood began to take notice of the young film-
America, New York-born Kubrick did the reverse,
maker with 1956's The Killing, a tense crime drama.
becoming England's hidden, American movie man. Like
Kubrick directed only 13 features, but many had
Hitchcock, Kubrick never won the directing Oscar (he
lasting resonance. The former magazine photographer
shared in one for effects, for 2001: A Space Odyssey).
was renowned for his camera command, technical
Kubrick's death in March at age 70, while asleep in
audacity, obsession with planning and increasingly
his home near London, was partly shrouded in the
delayed projects. He was known to hound theaters,
British privacy he cherished, a secretive cloak that fos-
often by phone or via proxies, about the exhibition of
tered his reputation as an Olympian
his movies.
and self-sufficient maverick.
He is likely to stay famous for
Born in Manhattan on July 26,
Stanley Kubrick: The director
some signature visions: the anti-war
1928, Kubrick was the son of Dr.
of such legendary films as
Paths of Glory (1957), the nuclear-
"2002: A Space Odyssey," ( 1
Jacques L. and Gertrude (Perveler)
war comedy Dr. Strangelove (1964),
Clockwork Orange" and "The
Kubrick. As a child he was encouraged
the cosmic mystery epic 2001
Shining" was known as a
by his physician father to take up pho-
(1968), the futurist nightmare A
visionary and a perfectionist.
tography as a hobby. He graduated in
Clockwork Orange (1971) and the
1946 from William Howard Taft High
surreal creeper The Shining (1980).
School, where he was a classmate of
Perhaps his final work, Eyes Wide
Edyie Gorme. "The teachers though he was an idiot
Shut, an erotic drama starring Tom Cruise and
because he kept walking around with a box camera,"
Nicole Kidman, will join that group. Kubrick fin-
she recently told People magazine.
ished the long-delayed final cut a week before
At age 17, Kubrick joined Look magazine as a photog-
dying; it would seem sacrilege for anyone else to
rapher. "My parents wanted me to become a doctor," the
finish a Kubrick movie.
filmmaker once said in an interview, "and I was supposed
Director Paul Mazursky, in his recently released
to go to medical school, but I was such a misfit in high
memoir Show Me the Magic, recalls acting for Kubrick
school that when I graduated I didn't have the marks to
in the $20,000 thriller Fear and Desire (1953): "There
get into college.
was no dolly track, just a baby carriage to move the
"But like almost everything else good that's ever hap- camera. Stanley did all the shooting. No matter what
pened to me, by the sheerest stroke of luck, I had a
the problem, he always seemed to have an answer. To
very good friend at Look, which gave me a job as a still
me, there was never a question that Stanley was
photographer. After about six months, I was made a
already master of his universe."
full-fledged staff photographer. My highest salary was
Kubrick impressed his oddly impersonal style on
$105 a week, but I did travel around the country and I
numerous other genres, including the ancient Roman
went to Europe and it was a great thing. I learned a lot
epic (Spartacus, 1960), the comedy of desire (Lolita,
about people and things."
1962), the 18th-century costume drama (Barry
But still photography wasn't where his true interests
Lyndon, 1975) and the anti-military Vietnam story
lay. A motion picture addict since his high school days,
(Full Metal Jacket, 1987).
Kubrick longed to make films.
Often reliant on literary sources, a magpie of musi-
In 1949, at the age of 21, he made a 15-minute
KUBRICK on page 95

he sudden death of
Stanley Kubrick at the age
_
<
of 70 robbed the world of
< the last of the great film
directors of the world. Kubrick was a
true auteur — a filmmaker of
uncompromising vision whose films
consistently challenged audiences.
Kubrick's career wasn't without
►
controversy. His latest film, Eyes Wide
Shut, opening today, has been three
years in the making, holding the
record for the longest principal pho-
tography shoot. The film kept super-
star Tom Cruise off the screens for a
long time, with Kubrick's agreement
being that the film would be ready
when the film was ready.
The first published review of the
film — by Kubrick insider Anthony
Walker in London's Evening Standard
— calls the film "extraordinary," baf-
fling," "astonishing" and, ultimately
"a victory." The film, writes Walker,
exhibits "masterly control and at the
same time a humanity that
[Kubrick's] detractors have insisted he
did not possess." (The Detroit screen-
ing for reviewers was Wednesday, after
the Jewish News went to press.)
The sad news is that the world will
never see the long planned science fic-
tion epic AI (which stands for artifi-
cial intelligence). This film was sched-
uled to be Kubrick's return to the
genre that made his name a legend.
Still, on video and DVD,
Kubrick's fans can revisit the great
films that made his reputation:
• The Killing (1956): In this big-
heist epic, Kubrick introduced a new
and vivid existentialist aura as an ex-
con engineers the rip-off of a race-
track with disastrous results. The film
stars Sterling Hayden.
• Paths of Glory (1957): Set during
World War I, Kirk Douglas is given
the task of defending three French
soldiers who stand accused of cow-
ardice. The truth of the matter is that
their brutal general ordered them on a
suicidal assault and the three soldiers
are nothing more than scapegoats for
the failed mission. (Douglas also
starred in the slave epic Spartacus,

VIDEO on page

96

7/16
1999

Detroit Jewish News

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