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Stanley Kubrick ( July 26, 1928 - March 7, 1999) was a Jewish- American film director born in The Bronx, New York City who lived most of his life in England. His films are highly acclaimed for their technical perfection and deep symbolism. As a director he was legendary for relentless perfectionism and an attention to detail that could alienate those he worked with. Several of his films were extremely controversial upon release for their supposed thematic repugnance and stark portrayal of sexuality and violence.Explaining his theory of the role of director, Kubrick told Joseph Gelmis: "A director is a kind of idea and taste machine; a movie is a series of creative and technical decisions, and it's the director's job to make the right decisions as frequently as possible." Describing his aesthetic approach to Michael Ciment, he said "I think that one of the problems with twentieth-century art is its preoccupation with subjectivity and originality at the expense of everything else... Though initially stimulating, this soon impeded the full development of any particular style, and rewarded uninteresting and sterile originality."
1 Early career
Kubrick started his career as a photographer. He entered the field by selling amateur photos to New York's Look magazine, then was hired by the magazine as a full-time photographer. An avid moviegoer, Kubrick was convinced he could make better films than he saw, and he set to prove his claim right. His first feature films, Fear and Desire and Killer's Kiss, caught the attention of Hollywood, and he won major acclaim for the classic film noir The Killing before making the award-winning Paths of Glory, a World War I drama. Kubrick's unique filmmaking style developed with these pictures, and his trademarks became clear: long takes, extensive tracking shots, and a cold, distant style that some claim drain the tenderness and humanity out of his stories (which were always at least partially adapted from another medium).
2 The first major films
Kubrick's one attempt to direct a Hollywood "epic" film, SpartacusSpartacus is a 1960 film directed by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay is based on the historical novel of the same name by Howard Fast. Kirk Douglas ( Spartacus) and Laurence Olivier ( Marcus Licinius Crassus) star. John Gavin ( Julius Caesar), Jean Simmon, is considered a great film itself, but Kubrick was at odds with both the cast (especially its star Kirk DouglasKirk Douglas (birth name Issur Danielovitch Demsky (born December 9, 1916) is an American actor. He was born in Amsterdam, New York to Russian- Jewish parents. His son, Michael Douglas, is also an actor. Popular at home and around the world, Kirk Douglas) and the crew. The battles waged over Spartacus convinced Kubrick that he would never work within the Hollywood system again, and he remained an outsider to the end of his life. Financially, however, Kubrick would prove uniquely successful in harnessing Hollywood's resources for his own ends even as he brazenly defied its conventions.
He moved to BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly in the early 1960sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s Years: 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around to make LolitaLolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, first published in 1955. The novel is famous both for its innovative style and for its controversial subject. The novel's unreliable narrator and main character, Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged European emigre living, and lived there for the rest of his life. He owned and resided at Childwickbury Manor in the district of St AlbansFor other places named St Albans see St Albans (disambiguation St Albans (thus spelt, no apostrophe or dot) is the main urban area of the City and District of St Albans in southern Hertfordshire, England, around 22 miles (35. 5km) north of London. It was in the south of England. Much of the filming of his later movies involved careful reproduction of foreign locations in England, e.g., scenes in the Vietnam war film Full Metal JacketFull Metal Jacket is the title of a 1987 movie of the war film genre, directed by Stanley Kubrick, and based on the novel The Short Timers by Gustav Hasford. For the ammunition after which the film is named, see full metal jacket bullet. The first part of were filmed at Beckton Gasworks . He was sometimes described as a recluse, but he frequently socialized with people (though mostly on his own idiosyncratic terms).
Kubrick's 1960Events January-February January 1 Independence of Cameroon January 9 Aswan High Dam construction begins in Egypt January 11 Chad declares its independence. January 14 Ralph Chubb, the gay poet and printer, dies at Fair Oak Cottage in Hampshire. January 23 decision to film Lolita would cause Kubrick's first major controversy. He worked with the book's author, Vladimir Nabokov, to produce a screenplay that would allow the book to be filmed without being banned from theaters worldwide. It was with Lolita that he discovered the talent of Peter Sellers. Kubrick asked Sellers to play four roles simultaneously in his next film, , and Sellers accepted (though he eventually only played three of those roles).
Kubrick's decision to film a Cold War thriller as a jet- black comedy was a daring risk, one that paid off handsomely for both himself and Columbia Pictures. Kubrick's misanthropic detachment from political poles was clearly both incendiary and resonant. By belittling the sacrosanct norms of the political culture as the squabbling of intellectual children, Strangelove foreshadowed the great cultural upheavals of the late 1960s as well as Kubrick's next project.
