Stanley Kubrick Bibliography

Stanley's Life

 

Stanley Kubrick was and still is one of the most famous directors. But what about his past, his personalities, his inspirations, and his skills that turned him into such a great director?

Kubrick was born on July 26, 1928, in Bronx of New York city. He was born between Jewish parents, Jack Kubrick and Sadie Kubrick. As a boy, Kubrick preferred reading books rather than playing outside, but in school, he did not get such high grades expected from a Jewish child. When he was 12 years old, his father taught him chess, which Kubrick quickly learned and loved, and appeared in many scenes of his multiple films. At the age of 13, Kubrick's father bought him a Graflex camera and Kubrick developed an interest for still photography. In high school, he was chosen as the official photographer of the year, but he continued the struggle with academics and hope for higher education died with demands of college admissions from soldiers returning from WWII.
In 1946, Kubrick became a apprentice photographer (then later full-time staff photographer) of Look and produced many photos, but he was obsessed with the art of filmmaking, and spent many hours reading film theory books and taking notes. He frequently visited film screenings at the Museum of Modern Art and the cinemas of New York City. He was inspired by the complex, fluid camerawork of the director Max Ophüls, whose films influenced Kubrick's later visual style, and by the director Elia Kazan, whom he described as America's "best director" at that time, with his ability of "performing miracles" with his actors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Kubrick
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000040/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_smFilming
Kubrick created multiple filming techniques such as:
Match cut - two completely different scenes occupy the same shot in a frame, but the objects in the scenes are "matched".
Cinerama - using three synchronized 35mm projectors to produce image on a large, deeply curved screen.
Super Panavision 70 - photographing the movie with Panavision 70 mm spherical optics.
Anamorphic 35mm horizontal super technirama - process that allows ultra high definition, allowing Kubrick to capture large panoramic scenes.
http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/narratology/terms/match.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinerama
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Panavision_70
http://www.reddit.com/r/CineShots/comments/2brrjq/2001_a_space_odyssey/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Kubrick#2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_.281968.29



Stanley Kubrick's best known films:

humans voyage to the planet Jupiter tracing monolith which is affecting the human evolution.


U.S. marines are trained and sent to fight in the Vietnam War. Many people, both Americans and Vietnamese, suffers in the war.


Spartacus - a Thracian gladiator Spartacus leading a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic.

The Full Metal Jacket Review
http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=14714

The critic on the review:
Too little information of the film was added. It did not discuss the elements of the film quite enough, such as character development and filming techniques. The style of writing was too confusing to understand exactly what was being discussed.

Pan's Labyrinth Review

Maze of War

The "Pan's Labyrinth", by Guillermo del Toro, is a Spanish movie created in 2006 with the setting of 1944, five years after the Spanish Civil War. The protagonist, Ofelia, loses her father in the war, and her mother marries Captain Vidal, who works for Spanish government. Ofelia moves to Vidal's house, where she finds out that she was a fairy princess in her past life. So in order to return to the world of fairies, she completes 3 tasks given by a faun, including facing a giant toad and children-eating monster called the "Pale Man". Captain Vidal also stands against Ofelia from achieving her goal and eventually kills her. But it allows her to complete the final task by spilling her own blood instead of her innocent baby brother, and she finally ends up in the fairy world.

The "Pan's Labyrinth" contains quite a few symbolism and have reference to other stories. One example is the Captain Vidal's pocket watch. Vidal was always fixing the watch, making sure that it was working like he wanted. This symbolizes the dictatorship in fascism, where one man has the power to control everything.
The colour scheme for the 'real' world in the movie was very grey and dark, symbolizing the cold, harsh truth of war, and the fairy world was a lot brighter and more lively, symbolizing joy and peace.
The table of fest for both Vidal and Pale Man shows the wealth of the rich while the poor starved. Also Pale Man consuming the fairies is a reference to the painting "Saturn Devouring his Son" by Francisco Goya.
The "Pan's Labyrinth" itself is a parable to the fascism in Spain. when Francisco Franco dictated over Spain for 36 years, many people rebelled against him. the movie shows that so much power upon one man can corrupt him, and on one would justify a corrupt power.

The "Pan's Labyrinth" is a Spanish movie, so it may not be comfortable as an English movie, but it is a great film containing spectacular story, and it should be in your must-see list, whether you believe in fairies or not.

O Brother Where Art Thou?/Cinderella Man Review

The Depressing Happiness

The two films, "O Brother Where Art Thou?" by Coen brothers, and "Cinderella Man" by Ron Howard, are set upon the depression in the 1930's. Both films are actually quite well made. "O Brother Where Art Thou?" had excellent acting, dynamic and funny story plot, and connecting the hero's journey to the journey of Odysseus, such as parody to sirens and cyclops. And "Cinderella Man" includes good use of lightning mix, great fighting scenes, and detailed presentation of the Great Depression that the protagonist goes through. But personally I preferred "Cinderella Man" over "O Brother Where Art Thou?".
The first reason is the heartwarming story. The struggle of the protagonist in the Great depression to keep the family together and the fact that it is based on a real story were big factors for me.
On a scale of 1-10, I would rate "O Brother Where Art Thou?" 7.5 because I liked the comedy, the music, and the connection to Odyssey, but I did not like the violence toward the animals in the movie. And I would rate "Cinderella Man" 8.5 because of the historical accuracy, quality of fight scenes, and usage of real life story.
The reason I believe "Cinderella Man" is historically accurate is because of the way the movie presented the poverty during the Great Depression. Some of the examples are children playing in broken-down car, large number of people desperate for minimum wage manual labor, and Braddock(protagonist)'s family pulling apart commercial signs for firewood.
But there are some inaccuracies in "Cinderella Man" for character. Max Baer,the antagonist, was demonized quite a bit in the movie compared to real life. for example, in the movie Baer seems to kill men on the ring on purpose, while in real life, he stayed with the victim until paramedics showed up, and suffered emotional trauma for a long time.
But nevertheless, "Cinderella Man" is a highly recommended movie for history movie lovers.

Citizen Kane Review

Kane's Priceless Treasure

 

The movie "Citizen Kane", directed by Orson Welles, is based on a real person named William Randolph Hearst. He was one of the richest man alive, and the protagonist Charles Foster Kane was built upon him. Filmed in 1941, this movie is arguably the best movie ever made. Costing $686'033, "Citizen Kane" was made with the best qualities of movie at the time. But that is not the main reason it is the best movie ever filmed.

 

In the movie, Charles Kane passes away with a mysterious word: rosebud. So a reporter named Jerry Thompson decides to figure out the word's meaning by learning his private life.

Kane's family was in poverty even before he was born, but their farm was on the third largest gold mine in the world. So his mother sent Kane to the city with a man so kane can get a better education. And when Kane is 25 years old and gains control of his wealth, he starts a newspaper business using yellow journalism. through this he gains fame, marries and divorces twice, and lives the rest of his life in a castle that he built.

Charles Kane had things that anybody could wish for: almost endless wealth and fame. But the one thing Kane wanted before he died (rosebud) turned out to be his childhood sled. And when he says "I always gag on that silver spoon", it shows that Kane never wanted silver spoon. He never wanted money or fame. All he wanted was to have his happy childhood back.

There are many things I liked about "Citizen Kane": make-ups, deep focus on multiple people at once, great acting, lightning mix to jump in time, .... they were all quite amazing quality for this time period. but my favorite part about this movie is that Orson Welles shows a very important message to the viewers, that no amount of money can buy happiness.