Stanley Kubrick

The Later Films

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Kubrick would eventually direct Lolita in 1962 from his own revision of Nabokov's screenplay adaptation (outraging the author by putting his own name above the title!) and find himself navigating the predicted hurdles of censorship with the formidable foes The Legion Of Decency, the British Board Of Film Censors, and the MPAA (the latter organization insisted only a week ago that Eyes Wide Shut be digitally censored to earn the contracted "R" rating for the studio). "If I realized how severe the limitations would be, I probably wouldn't have made the film", Kubrick would later lament to Newsweek.

After completing the classic satire Dr. Strangelove: Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (released 1964) at Shepperton Studios in 1963, Kubrick chose to remain in England with his third wife Christine (an accomplished painter) and two daughters.

(Daughter Vivian's documentary film, The Making Of Kubrick's The Shining is at last available to the public on the new The Shining DVD and videocassette from Warner Home Video as part of The Stanley Kubrick Collection boxed set. What's even more alarming than the candidness of the behind-the-scenes footage is the fact that Kubrick never lost his Bronx accent, even after nearly two decades as a UK resident. )

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More films followed, increasingly farther and farther apart over the years, but each a masterpiece of genre-defying originality: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987) and this year's Eyes Wide Shut.

In 1987, Kubrick granted a rare interview to Rolling Stone magazine, where he dispelled many of the urban legends about his character. Admitting a love for NFL football, beer commercials, 60s pop ditties like "Surfin' Bird", raunchy comedies like Porky's ("well done, wouldn't you say?"), Kubrick also dismissed the notion that he was afraid to fly or travel in automobiles in speeds above 30 mph. Some cynics thought the director was making a deliberate attempt to reinvent himself as warm, personable, and a far cry from the "Howard-Hughes-Of-Cinema" mad-eccentric he'd long been labelled. But immediately after the release of that summer's Full Metal Jacket, he again disappeared from public view. Rumours persisted. What would be his next film? A.I.? The Aryan Papers? The announcement eventually came as "Eyes Wide Shut", based on Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 Traumnovelle, co-written with Frederick Raphael, and starring Hollywood hot shots Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. After 2 years of production, and re-shoots and recasting (Sydney Pollack for Harvey Keitel, Marie Richardson for Jennifer Jason Leigh), a near-complete cut was screened for Warner Bros. execs four months before the film's scheduled release. Kubrick would die of heart failure in his sleep the next week, at his estate in Childwick Bury outside of London.

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For all of the intellectualizing of his work and mysterious persona, Stanley Kubrick never fancied himself as anything more than a passionate storyteller who sought to give audiences a unique film-going experience, and saw no conflict between spectacle and ideas. When asked his intention in adapting Stephen King's horror novel The Shining to the screen, Kubrick skipped any mention of the film's esoteric themes and imagery and instead offered that he hoped audiences, simply, "will have had a good fright".

Kubrick also saw no reason to apologize for his meticulous attention to even the most minor aspects of the production ("a film should be made by one author"). When questioned as to why he'd make his actors retake scenes to the point of exhaustion (reportedly up to 60 takes for Jack Nicholson, and over 90 for Tom Cruise), Kubrick explained his simple philosophy: "how can we do it better than it's ever been done before?"

Unfortunately, his passing took only one, cruel take...

[Stanley Kubrick Photo/Poster Gallery]

- Robert L

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