Why the genius director Stanley Kubrick hated his first film and why he did not let the audience see "A Clockwork Orange"

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Films Stanley Kubrick they are dismantled for visual quotes, called classics of cinema and revisited dozens, if not hundreds of times. After all, the master was a brilliant director and changed the whole course of the history of cinema. His unrivaled technique has inspired generations of young filmmakers and has defined today's filming technology. Kubrick possessed incredible courage in everything related to cinema, it was this property that made him one of the most prominent directors of the 20th century. But the master himself was far from always satisfied with his work, and so much so that he was even ready to destroy!

Stanley Kubrick famous for its simply meticulous perfectionism. Absolutely everyone who is lucky enough to work with the director tells about this. The master can spend more than a hundred takes on one scene until he achieves exactly what he wants to see in the end. Kubrick was able to travel not to the ends of the world in order to record the necessary sound or shoot the frame he needed.

Most of all in his work as a director, he loved editing. Kubrick locked himself in his editing room and could stay there for days without leaving in order to control the entire work process, participate in it and see what would happen in the end. It is thanks to this passion of the director that such unique author's techniques as the symmetry of the frame and a kind of color palette appeared in his films.

The first picture that comes to mind when you think of Stanley Kubrick is "2001: A Space Odyssey", cult in every possible sense of the word. She was the first in her science fiction genre. Besides, if you think about it, then, and this is no less than 1968, there was no such thing as computer graphics. It was a disastrous business to paint special effects on film frames.

The master managed to recreate both the effect of gravity and the amazing landscapes of unexplored planets. The classical symphonies that accompanied the unfolding drama on the spaceship deserve special mention as an effect. Sometimes, when watching it, it becomes uncomfortable with how prophetic this film turned out to be. All modern technologies are presented in it very accurately. Even space engineers noted the incredible precision of the technological details and the scientific realism of the painting.

The symbolism of the action taking place on the screen reflected the spirit of the time when it was filmed. The Cold War, rapid technological progress - all this inspires hope and frightens at the same time. Modern filmmakers literally plotted, piece by piece, dismantled the picture of the brilliant director. All his tricks: a rotating camera, like a monkey throwing a bone and at the same moment a spaceship of the same size and color appears, protracted scenes. Many put all this in their director's piggy bank.

There is an interesting story connected with the odyssey. The famous Monolith from this movie was not originally a mysterious black slab. Kubrick wanted it transparent. To this end, the director commissioned a local plastics company, Stanley Plastics, to cast a monolith from a solid block of clear acrylic. However, when the sparkling transparent resin block was delivered, the artisan was disappointed with how it looked on film. In the end, Kubrick rejected it in favor of a solid structure made of wood coated with a special black graphite compound. This allowed an extremely smooth gloss to be obtained on its surface.

The Monolith, rejected by Kubrick, was stored for several years at the Boreham Wood film studio, collecting dust, until it was acquired by the famous London sculptor Arthur Fleischmann. Fleischmann, who pioneered the use of acrylic for such purposes, was given permission to make a brilliant crown sculpture to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977. It weighed two tons and was the largest block of acrylic ever cast. For three months, Fleischmann patiently carved the sculpture in a plastic tent near St. Catherine's docks in London. In June of the same year, the Queen herself presented this work. Since then, this monolith, converted into a sculpture, has been put on public display at the docks of St. Catherine.

The scandalous works of the great director are often mentioned: "Lolita", "A Clockwork Orange" and "Eyes Wide Shut". Kubrick was very fond of making films, causing a controversial and violent reaction in society. Only he did not care about public opinion. It was this property of his nature that allowed him to become a great genius in the field of cinema.

The master's debut film has a very curious story. He took it off in 1953, it was called "Fear and Desire." It was a war drama inspired by the Korean War. This fictional story was written by Stanley's friend and future Pulitzer Prize winner Howard Sackler.

The film was low-budget, so there were a minimum number of characters. The film was attended by five actors, depicting four soldiers trapped after a plane crash and a foreign girl. The Invisible Narrator was played by David Allen. The working titles were first "Trap", then "Form of Fear". Stanley's plans were to cost $ 53,000. Most of Kubrick begged from wealthy uncle Martin Perveler, the rest were received by him for his work on a documentary about Lincoln. The budget was so modest that the filming was carried out in silence, and the voice acting was added later.

Paul Mazursky, one of the stars of the film, says of Stanley Kubrick: “No matter what the problem was, Kubrick always seemed to have an answer for everything. For me even then there was no doubt that Stanley was a genius director."

To advertise his painting, Kubrick turned to art house distributor Joseph Burstin. All ideas about the deep meaning of the picture were shattered by the advertising campaign, which presented the tape as a banal film about sex. Stanley was incredibly disappointed. The box office was also small, despite good reviews from critics. Kubrick's directorial work was noted as a workshop. But the director himself simply hated this picture of his.

In 1966, Stanley Kubrick put it this way: “The script is boring, non-dramatic, and overall just awful. Acting is no better. I had no idea how films are made at all. There were a couple of positives, though."

The director destroyed all the materials of this film. When one archived copy was found and shown in New York in 1994, Kubrick used all his influence to prevent it from taking place. At one point, the director called Fear and Desire a childish drawing on the refrigerator. Until the very last days, he did not get rid of the negative for this film. Just don't mention fear and desire!

A similar story is associated with the painting "A Clockwork Orange", released in 1971. Kubrick did not allow the tape to be shown, being concerned about its violent content. As for Fear and Desire, in 2012 the original tape was discovered in Puerto Rico, complementing an existing copy from the maestro's estate and a very poor quality bootleg. The film was restored and released. It can be viewed online for free. The picture, despite all the visible flaws, is impressive both with a plot that touches on the most secret and unsightly properties of human nature, and with the director's work. The late perfectionist will now be unable to stop enjoying his legacy.

Stanley Kubrick left behind a number of unfinished projects. Even Artificial Intelligence is a painting that Kubrick originally worked on. Not seeing for himself the ideal embodiment of his ideas in this film, he left the project and was handed over to Steven Spielberg. Subsequently, he said that it was extremely difficult for him to work on the tape. It was a genuine test for Spielberg's professionalism as a director to embody Stanley Kubrick's entire aesthetic vision.

Stanley spent a long time working on a film project called The Aryan Papers. Then he dropped the project, saying that Schindler's List, filmed in 1993, already said everything on this topic. For two years the master pored, collecting bit by bit all the historical facts about Napoleon, wanting to shoot a real epic canvas about him. Kubrick also abandoned this idea, deciding that the incredibly expensive picture would not be hit at the box office, would not attract a wide audience. Probably insanely sorry. The maestro could have made an excellent film on this topic.

The great director Kubrick passed away in 1999. It happened just four days after finishing his work on Eyes Wide Shut. This surreal picture of who, according to the maestro, actually rules America. The director died in his sleep from a heart attack. He received several prestigious awards posthumously for this film. Unfortunately, the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was not generous to the master: he has only one Oscar.

You can read more about the early period of Stanley Kubrick's work in our article. street retro photographs, from which the career of the brilliant director began.