"I would not think of quarreling with your interpretation nor offering any other,
as I have f ound it always the best policy to allow the film to speak for itself."
-- Stanley Kubrick
Biography --- The golden era in film making : Stanley Kubrick was born on July 26, 1928 in the Bronx, New York City.
By age 13 he had developed passions for jazz drumming, chess, and photography
Sold photos to Look magazine while still a student at William Taft High School, where his activities included band and the school newspaper, the Taft Review. Graduated high school in 1946 with a 67 average. Couldn't get into college because of low grades and an influx of returning WWII veterans.
At 17 years of age he landed a job at Look magazine as a photographer. Worked there for several years, traveling all over America.
All of that traveling opened his eyes to the world and Kubrick developed a thirst for knowledge. He enrolled as a non-matriculating student at Columbia University and monitored classes taught by Lionel Trilling, Mark Van Doren, and Moses Hadas.
In 1951 at 23 years of age, Kubrick used his savings to finance his first film, a 13 minute documentary short about boxer Walter Cartier, who had been the subject of one of his Look photo assignments. Taught to use the equipment by the man who rented it to him, Kubrick acted as producer, director, and cinematographer. Day of the Fight was bought by RKO for its This is America series and played at the Paramount Theatre in New York, netting young Kubrick a small profit.
RKO advanced him money to make a documentary short for their Pathe Screenliner series. Called
Flying Padre, the 9 minute film was about Father Fred Stadtmueller, a priest who tended to duties in his 4000 square mile New Mexico parish by flying from place to place in a Piper Cub.
In 1953 was commissioned by the Atlantic and Gulf Coast District of the Seafarers International Union to direct and photograph a 30 minute industrial documentary called
The Seafarers. It was Kubrick's first film in color.
In 1953 he raised $13,000 from his relatives to finance his first feature length film
Fear and Desire.
In 1955 he raised $40,000 from friends and relatives and shot his second feature,
Killer's Kiss.
In 1956 Kubrick hooked up with budding producer James B. Harris and went to Hollywood to make his first studio picture,
The Killing, based on a novel, with a budget of $320,000, and a cast of notable Hollywood character actors.
After
The Killing, Kubrick/Harris were signed by Dore Schary, the head of production at MGM, to develop properties. Kubrick and novelist Calder Willingham prepared a script based on a Stefan Zweig story called The Burning Secret. The project was never made.
Next Kubrick and Willingham along with Jim Thompson wrote an adaptation of Humphrey Cobb's novel
Paths of Glory. Every studio turned the project down until Kirk Douglas agreed to star. The resulting film proved to be Kubrick's first classic, and is often regarded as one of the best films about war ever made.
Kubrick spent the next year or two in development hell, creating scripts which he couldn't get produced, including one for Kirk Douglas called I Stole 16 Million Dollars, about safecracker Herbert Emmerson Wilson, and another about Mosby's Rangers, a southern guerilla force in the American Civil war. He spent six months in preproduction with Marlon Brando for One Eyed Jacks, a film Brando eventually decided to direct himself.
In 1959, Kirk Douglas was producing
Spartacus. The original director Anthony Mann was fired after only two weeks of production and Douglas offered Kubrick the job, which he accepted. The film was Kubrick's first hit and garnered some Academy Award attention.
Next, Kubrick/Harris made
Lolita, based on Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel. They had bought the rights to the book in 1958, for a reported $150,000. For a number of financial and legal reasons the film was shot in England. In the late 60s Kubrick moved to England permanently and made all of his subsequent films there.
A fascination with the "delicate balance of terror" of the cold war lead Kubrick to the novel Red Alert which he adapted into a nightmare comedy called
Dr. Stangelove. This time Kubrick had a hit on his hands and the film received much critical acclaim including Oscar nominations for Kubrick as co-author, director, and producer.
Following the success of Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick hired noted science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke to develop an original scenario about man's encounter with extraterrestrial intelligence.
2001: A Space Odyssey is generally considered not only one of the greatest films ever made but a landmark in cinema history. Kubrick garnered more Oscar nominations for writing and directing, and his only Oscar win ever, for designing and directing the film's special effects.
Kubrick then adapted the novel
A Clockwork Orange to the screen. Despite its initial X rating in the United States, the controversial film did well and received numerous accolades, including 3 more Oscar nominations for Kubrick as writer, director, and producer.
Around this time, with such a string of extraordinary films to his credit, many magazine and newspaper articles and books were written about Kubrick, some portraying him as an eccentric recluse about whose personal life little was known. Far from Hollywood, Kubrick lived in a large home in a semi-rural setting well outside of London with his third wife, Christiane Harlan, and their three daughters. Harlan, a German painter and former actress, had played the only woman in
Paths of Glory. Their large home also contained his offices and post-production facilities.
After two futuristic science-fiction films Kubrick changed direction and created
Barry Lyndon an 18th century story based on the 19th century novel by William Makepeace Thackery. While the 11 million dollar costume drama was not a box office success, the accolades continued to pile up. 7 Oscar nominations, more than any other Kubrick film before or since, including Kubrick's usual 3 for writing, directing and producing.
In 1980, 5 years after Barry Lyndon, Kubrick released his contribution to the horror genre,
The Shining, based on the novel by Stephen King. This time the film was a financial success but critics were generally not as receptive and there were no Oscar nominations at all.
It was another 7 years before Kubrick released his next film,
Full Metal Jacket. Despite arriving on the heels of the blockbuster hit Platoon, the film was a box office success and critical favorite but only one received Oscar nomination for writing.
In mid-December of 1995, Warner Bros. released the news that Kubrick was still in pre-production for the very complicated AI, but would first make a film called
Eyes Wide Shut starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. The film began shooting in late 1996 and finished shooting in early 1998.
On Saturday March 8th, 1997, the Director's Guild of America awarded Stanley Kubrick its highest honor, the D.W. Griffith Award. The 68 year old Kubrick did not attend but did send an acceptance apeech on videotape. Jack Nicholson accepted the award for Kubrick and said:
"My first impulse was to quote Bum Phillips when he said of Earl Campbell the running back that he was in a class all of his own, and if he wasn't, it don't take long to call the roll."In September of 1997, Kubrick was also awarded the Golden Lion Award at the 54th Venice International Film Festival.
In the first week of March 1999, Kubrick arranged a special screening of
Eyes Wide Shut for two Warner Brothers studio heads and the film's two stars, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. By all accounts reaction was very favorable and Kubrick was very excited about the film. One report claims he said he thought it was his best film.
On July 16th, 1999,
Eyes Wide Shut was released in the United States and was the top grossing film of that opening weekend despite the usual mixed reviews and mixed audience reaction that accompany a Kubrick film.
