At The Movies
KUBRICK from page 79
POLLACK
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cal (often classical) themes and stu-
dio-bound to a fault, Kubrick was his
own man. He successfully imposed
his obsession with detail on almost-
slavish support teams.
The result could be wondrously
strange, as in the mainstream but
edgy 2001. Kubrick opened new
paths of glory for film, yet often with
a steely emotional coldness.
Try to recall a dear intimacy in
Kubrick, and the closest is probably
the scared German girl (who became
Kubrick's third wife) singing to
exhausted, cynical French troops until
they weep, in Paths of Glory. Kubrick
seemed almost embarrassed by the
carnal emotions between Kirk
Douglas and Jean Simmons in
Spartacus, and perhaps fled to
England not only to gain distance
from studio rule but to escape the
clout and emotionalism of stars like
Douglas (an early ally) and Marlon
Brando (who had him fired from
One-Eyed Jacks).
It is purely Kubrick that his single
most famous character is the comput-
er HAL in 2001, and the machine •
had the most moving Kubrick exit,
expiring in a decrescendo of "Daisy"
And it is so Kubrick that 2001 is a
sort of tech freak's religious vision,
with a god not handing out tablets to
Moses, but planting a series of
"monolith" slabs that are like tomb-
stones.
What the hypnotic, puzzling 2001
signifies became a mantra of the '60s.
A Clockwork Orange served similar
duty in the '70s, although Kubrick
later kept it out of release because of
controversial violence.
JEWISH KUBRICK from page 78
Jewish!) His main motive was, I am
pretty sure," writes Raphael, "the
wish not to alienate his audience,"
Weeks later, in a script confer-
ence, Raphael asked Kubrick what
he thought the doctor and a col-
league might be talking about as
they walk down Manhattan's Fifth
Avenue.
"Golf, the stock market?" he sug-
gested.
Kubrick replied: "C,oupla gentiles
right? And we're a coupla Jews. What
do we know about what those peo-
ple talk about? I'll tell you some-
thing. They always know you're
there.''
And then, out of the blue, he
added, "The Holocaust --- what do
Nobody can deny that The Killing
and Paths of Glory are gems of drill-
work editing, the shots arriving like
rapid-fire bulletins. Or that Lolita is
one of the few witty films of obses-
sion. Or that Dr. Strangelove is the
boldest of political comedies, with a
superbly faked authenticity and a
great ensemble topped by Peter Sellers
in three roles.
When Sellers as Strangelove works
up a sick high, exclaiming "Mein
Fuhrer, I can walk!" he must have
been staring at his moon-faced leader,
Kubrick. The director was always
hovering, an imperial force, and fit-
tingly his most coveted, undone pro-
ject was a film on Napoleon with
music by Beethoven.
By the late works, set apart by long
intervals of obsessional planning,
some had grown weary of the
Kubrick myth. Critic Pauline Kael,
steadily less a fan, wrote of the glacial
Full Metal Jacket that, "the
moviemaking suggests a blunt instru-
ment grinding into your skull. This
could easily be taken for the work of
a master director."
It was still taken as such by many,
including the few, reverent journalists
allowed to enter the castle of
Kubrick's kingdom. If he increasingly
seemed a great professor toiling on an
endless doctoral thesis, the Great
Artist Abroad lost somewhere within,
the results always showed a dauntless,
cerebral communicator, if not a major
thinker.
While many of us can name our
favorite Kubrick films, it is perhaps
even truer to his art to recall great
scenes. Among my favorites:
you think
movie?"
"It's been done a few times, hasn't
it?" Raphael replied.
"I didn't know that," Kubrick
answered.
Raphael knew he was being bated,
but brought up Schindlers List anyway
"Think that was about the
Holocaust?" asked Kubrick.. "That
was about success, wasn't it? The
Holocaust is about 6 million people
who get killed. Schindler's List was
about 600 people who don't."
Apparently, under the skin,
Kubrick was a Jew after all
Incidentally Steven Spielberg was
the only American director who
attended Kubrick's funeral in
London. I
from page 81
• The stunning repeat staging of the
started to think seriously about
racetrack brawl led by a huge
becoming a director," he says. Pollack
wrestler (Kola Kwarian) in The
began his directorial career on the TV
Killing, - and the final shot of thief
shows Ben Casey, The Fugitive, Dr.
Sterling Hayden watching his loot
Kildare and The Defenders.
blow away at the airport.
It was also around that time that he
• The first great assault on the Ant Hill
married his wife, Claire, with whom
by martyred French troops in Paths of
he has two grown daughters, Rachel
Glory, and the unfairly condemned
and Rebecca. Claire is not Jewish, says
soldier, Timothy Carey, taking out his
Pollack, so they did not raise their
wry disgust on a cockroach.
children with any religious affiliation,
• The crucifixion sequence that ends
"although [both] are very aware of
Spartacus, and, of course, the great
their Jewish roots."
gladiatorial duel between Woody
In 1960, Pollack moved to
Strode and Kirk Douglas.
California and began an auspicious
• In Dr. Strangelove, the insane general
film career.
(Sterling Hayden) walks to his bath-
Over the years, he has directed some
room to blow his brains out, pausing
18 films, including This Property Is
to suggest that he can, indeed, justify
Condemned (1966); They Shoot Horses,
blowing up the whole world.
Don't They (1969); The Way We Were
• Slim Pickens riding the bomb to
(1973); Absence of Malice (1981); Tootsie
"glory" in Dr. Strangelove. It's the ulti-
(1982), in which he also acted; Havana
mate downer high.
(1990); The Firm (1993); and most
• The way that Peter Sellers as
recently, Sabrina and Random Hearts.
Strangelove says, "Animals can be
In 1985, Pollack formed his own
slaughtered."
production company, Mirage
• The "dance" of spacecraft to a
Productions. As a producer, he has
Strauss waltz in 2001, and Dave (Keir
brought some 19 hits to the silver
Dullea) achieving re-entry to his ship
screen, including Presumed Innocent
after the computer tries to kill him.
(1990), Dead Again (1991), Sense and
Has film breathing ever been more
Sensibility (1995) and Sliding Doors
resonant?
(1997). Scheduled to hit theaters this
• Ryan O'Neal, lighted by romantic
fall is Pollack's production of The
candles, erupts in volcanic rage in
Talented Mr. Ripley, starring Matt
Barry Lyndon.
Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow.
• The little boy in The Shining,
Among his eight performances as
cycling down an endless hotel corri-
an actor are Woody Allen's Husbands
dor that later fills with blood. And
and Wives (1992); Robert Altman's
the way Jack Nicholson stares at his
The Player (1992); A Civil Action
typewriter, as if it were the cemetery
(1998) with John Travolta; and, of
of every sane thought. Fl
course, the latest, Eyes Wide Shut.
And the secret of all his success?
— Gail Zimmerman
"Making films that I would like to
contributed to this article.
see," says Pollack. "If you try and
make films you think others will want,
you will be wrong most of the time.
"Some movies I loved — but was
uncertain about as far as audience
response — turned out to be my biggest
successes. I was worried sick that
nobody would want to see Out ofA ca.
"It was a long, talking movie with-
out a lot of action. At the time, Back
to The Future was the [kind of] genre
attracting young people, and I cast
Robert Redford and Meryl Streep,
who were mature grownups. To my
pleasant surprise, the movie turned
out to be very popular.
"Life is funny — you just never
know how things will turn out." I I
Kubrick on the set of (Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut opens in theaters
today. Rated R.
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7/16
1999
Detroit Jewish News 95