Stanley Kubrick was born in the Lying-In Hospital in New York City on July 26, 1928, and died March 7, 1999 at Childwickbury, Hertfordshire, England, aged 70.
Stanley Kubrick was born in the Lying-In Hospital in New York City on July 26, 1928, and died March 7, 1999 at Childwickbury, Hertfordshire, England, aged 70. ◦ He worked as a film director, producer, writer, and photographer. ◦ Before film, he worked as a photographer for Look magazine in the late 1940s and early 1950s. ◦ He became a member of the United States Chess Federation. ◦ When Kubrick was 13, his father bought him a Graflex camera, triggering a fascination with still photography. ◦
Kubrick viewed 2001 as a nonverbal experience, stating that he tried to create a visual experience that bypasses verbalized pigeonholing and directly penetrates the subconscious with an emotional and philosophic content. ◦ He refused to explain the film's meaning, comparing over-explanation to defacing art and expressing that he did not want to shackle the viewer to a reality other than his own. ◦ He believed that if man really sat back and thought about his impending termination and terrifying insignificance and aloneness in the cosmos, he would surely go mad or succumb to a numbing sense of futility. ◦ He observed that as clergymen pronounce the death of God, man has no crutch left on which to lean and no hope to give purpose to his existence. ◦ Asked whether life is worth living if it is purposeless, Kubrick answered that it is, for those who manage to cope with mortality, and that the very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning. ◦ He added that however vast the darkness, we must supply our own light. ◦
Kubrick explained that chess helped him develop patience and discipline. ◦ He directly linked chess to directorial decision-making, saying that among many other things chess teaches you is to control the initial excitement you feel when you see something that looks good, and that it trains you to think before grabbing and to think just as objectively when you're in trouble. ◦ He noted that when making a film you have to make most of your decisions on the run, and there is a tendency to always shoot from the hip. ◦ He stated that it takes more discipline than you might imagine to think, even for thirty seconds, in the noisy, confusing, high-pressure atmosphere of a film set, but that a few seconds' thought can often prevent a serious mistake being made about something that looks good. ◦
Kubrick told Rolling Stone that filmmaking rests on "three equal things: the writing, slogging through the actual shooting and the editing." ◦ Quoting Pudovkin, he affirmed that editing is the only original and unique art form in film: "Writing, of course, is writing, acting comes from the theater, and cinematography comes from photography. Editing is unique to film. You can see something from different points of view almost simultaneously, and it creates a new experience." ◦ He viewed 2001 as a nonverbal experience, saying that he tried to create a visual experience that bypasses verbalized pigeonholing and directly penetrates the subconscious with an emotional and philosophic content. ◦ He directly linked chess to directorial decision-making, explaining that it teaches control of initial excitement and trains you to think before grabbing and to think just as objectively when you're in trouble. ◦ On extraterrestrial intelligence in 2001, he speculated advanced beings "may have progressed from biological species, which are fragile shells for the mind at best, into immortal machine entities—and then, over innumerable eons, they could emerge from the chrysalis of matter transformed into beings of pure energy and spirit. Their potentialities would be limitless and their intelligence ungraspable by humans." ◦
Kubrick is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers, with films spanning many genres recognized for their attention to detail, innovative cinematography, extensive set design, and dark humor. ◦ His first major Hollywood film was The Killing in 1956. ◦ A perfectionist who assumed direct control over most aspects of his filmmaking, he cultivated expertise in writing, editing, color grading, promotion, and exhibition. ◦ He was famous for the painstaking care taken in researching his films and staging scenes. ◦ After Spartacus, the only film over which he lacked full directorial control, he never again relinquished control over any aspect of his films, and he took extraordinary and audacious chances with those works. ◦
Kubrick refused to explain the meaning of 2001, preferring to let the work speak visually rather than verbalizing its content. ◦ He was famous for frequently asking for several dozen retakes of the same shot, often confusing and frustrating his actors. ◦ He rejected his perfectionist reputation as a myth born of unprepared actors, explaining that if actors have to think about the words they can't work on the emotion, so you end up doing thirty takes, and that if the actor is a nice guy he goes home and exaggerates the number, so thirty takes become a hundred. ◦
Kubrick was famous for the painstaking care taken in researching his films and staging scenes, and frequently asked for several dozen retakes of the same shot. ◦ He rejected his perfectionist reputation as a myth born of unprepared actors, claiming that thirty takes become a hundred through exaggeration and that if he did a hundred takes on every scene he would never finish a film. ◦ After Spartacus, the only film over which he lacked full directorial control, he never again relinquished control over any aspect of his films, yet he took extraordinary and audacious chances with those works. ◦ His films are recognized for their dark humor. ◦ He grappled with themes of terrifying human insignificance and aloneness in the cosmos. ◦
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