The only real truth about Kubrick...

[Alethia]

as did i.  and i understand everything kubrick was doing in the second half, i personally just didn't feel it worked as well as the first.

[Pubrick]

and i understand everything kubrick was doing in the second half,

i don't think u do.

[Alethia]

nah i actually do, i just don't admire it as much as the boot camp segments.  dont misunderstand me, i like the film, and i like alot of the second half, i just happen to think the first is better.  no big deal.

[Pubrick]

i'm not gonna get into it, but the fact that u think of the movie as two parts shows that u don't understand it at all.

there's three.

[Fernando]

Nice little article about a guy who met Kubrick the human not the god.

While posting this I was listening Bjork's Human Behavior. It was cool.

Capricious Essay ---My Memories of Stanley Kubrick

I've always been a big Stanley Kubrick fan. Only he and a few other directors (Visconti and Woody Allen, to name two) impress me so much that I always see their films in theaters, rather than on video.

This essay is called "My Memories..." because, about ten years ago, I visited Stanley at his home. I was in London for an English course. I had a friend who, it turned out, was going to Mr. Kubrick's house to deliver some TV monitors. He told me he needed a hand, and of course I was delighted to go along!

It was a sunny afternoon in May. We drove through the countryside to a village outside London. England in the spring was just gorgeous. The hills were covered with many kind of white wildflowers.

We arrived at a large estate. My friend spoke into the intercom, and the gate opened automatically. The little iron gate was designed to be simple. We had to drive a while before we reached the house, which was not visible from the gate.

We knocked on the thick wooden door, and it was opened by a man with a gentle smile. His blond hair was tied in a ponytail. He seemed to be one of Stanley's assistants. I'll refer to him as R.

R. took us to a room with video-editing equipment. Stanley was there, working on his film, "Full Metal Jacket." Though it was already playing in the theaters, he was still making some subtle changes to it.

I expected Stanley to be more intimidating. However, he was a gentle man, and very down-to-earth. He asked us about the high vision equipment. He wanted to use a high vision system for his next film. (That film would be "Eyes Wide Shut" -- but the system wasn't used.)

He asked us if we'd like some coffee, and brought it to us himself. Here was a world-famous director, serving coffee to a guy who just delivered some TV monitors, and an unknown girl! I was impressed. I wish I'd kept the coffee cup as a souvenir.

It was a beautiful country-style house -- sufficiently big, but not huge. There were many rooms. R. showed me around. The doors to most of the rooms were open. They contained little furniture or decoration, but I saw many reels of film stored in them. No one else was in the house except Stanley and R. It was very quiet and peaceful.

I got the impression that Stanley didn't need many possessions that weren't related to filmmaking. I think he wanted to keep everything around him as simple as possible, so he could dedicate his life to his work.

While my technician friend adjusted the monitors, R. took me to one of the mostly-vacant rooms and showed me some still photos from Stanley's films. We sat on the dark wood floor and talked about the films. R. also complained a bit about how hard it was to be Stanley's assistant. Nonetheless, he spoke about Stanley with love and respect, and I could tell he was happy to be there. As he smoked, he used the lid of a big film can as an ashtray. I though that was cool.

When my friend finished with the monitors, Stanley gave me a still from Full Metal Jacket. For some reason, I did not ask him to sign it. I don't know why. Maybe the atmosphere was too friendly, and I didn't want to break it.

We spent whole afternoon there. When we are about to go, Stanley invited us to a pub for dinner.

It was an ordinary English pub in a ordinary English village. They were having a celebration -- I think it was the pub's anniversary -- and everyone's meal was free. It was delicious: Mashed potatoes with gravy, vegetables, and roast beef. No one recognized Stanley -- or, if they did, they didn't make a fuss over him. The four of us drank beer cheerfully and talked loudly. We had a great time.

It was a strange and happy experience. I remember the day so clearly. We spent the whole afternoon like old friends. It felt like we were in a different time-stream.

I wanted to remember where Stanley's house was, but I'm direction-blind. I should have gotten his address from my friend, so that I could have sent Stanley some New Year's cards. But it's okay; that afternoon belongs to that afternoon. It's a completed experience. My life and Stanley's crossed at that point, and it was wonderful.

Good bye, Stanley. I'm sorry I won't see your next film ---- whatever it might have been. Thanks for the great films, and for the cup of coffee.

Reiko L. Fujita
My Memories of Stanley Kubrick

[El Duderino]

I've only just recently gotten into Kubrick. I had seen Full Metal Jacket a few years back and didn't really like it (i was like 11). but this past week i have really gotten into him. i started with Full Metal Jacket again, loved every fucking minute of it, why people separate the movie in halves is beyond me. then i watched 2001 and was completely blown away. what he did with technology in the 60s is just amazing. i dunno if anyone else had seen this, but there was an episode of the simpsons where they get a HAL-like system in their house which is voiced by Pierce Brosnan and it tries to seduce Marge and kill Homer...so almost everytime HAL came on, i chuckled. i blind bought Barry Lyndon for $10 so i have that to look forward to, and i have just finished reading the script for Eyes Wide Shut, which i really loved...cant wait to see it. i think the kubrick film i've most been anticipated for is A Clockwork Orange, which i hope to see really soon. that's all.

[The Perineum Falcon]

I started with Full Metal Jacket again, loved every fucking minute of it, why people separate the movie in halves is beyond me.

Well, it kinda does the job for them. Halfing it up, I mean.

[ono]

I wish I could watch Kubrick's films again for the first time.  Especially Eyes Wide Shut.

[MacGuffin]

I wish I could watch Kubrick's films again for the first time.  Especially Eyes Wide Shut.

Have you tried Lacuna, Inc.?

[Jeremy Blackman]

nah i actually do, i just don't admire it as much as the boot camp segments.  dont misunderstand me, i like the film, and i like alot of the second half, i just happen to think the first is better.  no big deal.

i'm not gonna get into it, but the fact that u think of the movie as two parts shows that u don't understand it at all.

there's three.

More of the "how many parts is FMJ?" debate here...

http://xixax.com/viewtopic.php?t=291&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=36

[ono]

I wish I could watch Kubrick's films again for the first time.  Especially Eyes Wide Shut.

Have you tried Lacuna, Inc.?

I don't remember.

[cowboykurtis]

anyone else thinks this is ridiculously funny?

Fixed font - Proportional font


STANLEY KUBRICK, SELF-HATING JEW

NY Post  

 By ROD DREHER

------------------------------ ------------------------------ ----------------
----

 ThE late Stanley Kubrick once remarked that 'Hitler was right about almost
everything,'' and insisted that any trace of Jewishness be expunged from the
'Eyes Wide Shut'' script that author Frederic Raphael was writing for him.

Kubrick also trashed 'Schindler's List,'' dismissed 'Gone With the Wind'' as
'a terrible movie,'' and disclosed a preoccupation with actor Kirk Douglas'
potent sexual prowess.

These revelations are found in the pages of 'Eyes Wide Open: A Memoir of
Stanley Kubrick,'' Raphael's account of his strained two-year working
relationship with the reclusive, New York-born Jewish director, who lived in
self-imposed exile in a high-security English countryside hermitage.

Kubrick died on March 7 this year at age 70. 'Eyes Wide Shut'' is set to
open July 16. The book is to be published June 30 by Ballantine.

Raphael, a prolific novelist and Oscar-winning screenwriter, paints a solemn
and quizzical, if ultimately sympathetic, portrait of the legendary director
of such films as 'Dr. Strangelove,'' 'A Clockwork Orange,'' and '2001: A
Space Odyssey.''

The Kubrick that emerges is the classic eccentric artist as tyrannical
taskmaster, obsessing over minute details and seemingly indifferent to the
needs and opinions of those who serve him.

Yet, as exasperating as working for Kubrick apparently was for him, Raphael
ruefully admits that it was worth it just to have been creatively involved
with the man many regarded as the world's greatest living director.

In the summer of 1994, Kubrick sent Raphael, then living in France, a novel
to read and judge suitable for screen adaptation. It was 'Traumnovelle,'' or
'Dream Novella,'' a turn-of-the-century erotic fiction by Arthur Schnitzler.

But in a mark of Kubrick's weird and secretive nature, he refused to tell
Raphael the identity of the work's author (Raphael guessed).

The novella by Schnitzler, who also wrote the play on which the Nicole
Kidman stage vehicle 'The Blue Room'' was based, concerns the kinky,
extramarital adventures of a Viennese Jew and his wife.

Kubrick wanted to shift the narrative to modern-day New York.

Raphael decided he was up to the task, and visited Kubrick at his English
country estate. Upon returning to France, Raphael noted the director's
'strangely passive curiosity,'' and told his wife that one visit with the
inscrutable Kubrick could give a (male) screenwriter a good impression of
what it was like to be a woman: 'You don't know exactly what he wants, but
you know he wants he doesn't know what and hopes you can supply it. He has
virtually no (MD+IT)ideas(MD-IT) at all.''

Kubrick's bizarre relationship to his own ethnicity deeply troubled Raphael,
a fellow Jew. While demanding an almost slavish fidelity to the Schnitzler
novella, described by Raphael as being 'impregnated with Jewishness,''
Kubrick nevertheless instructed Raphael to expunge all Jewishness from his
adaptation.

Raphael speculates that understanding Kubrick the Jew is fundamental to
understanding the man. He speculates that Kubrick's penchant for secrecy and
paranoia came from an outsider's fear of being found out and hounded by
'those people,'' i.e., Gentiles. For Raphael, Kubrick is 'the sedentary
wandering Jew, rootlessly rooted within his own defenses.''

Raphael puzzles over Kubrick's cryptic praise for Hitler, unable to decide
if Kubrick was jesting.

'Jewishness is not something that will unite us,'' Raphael scribbles in his
notebook. 'On the contrary, it will license him to deal consciencelessly
with me. Jews are often (MD+IT)real(MD-IT) Jews only with each other.''

And Kubrick was downright acidic on the subject of 'Schindler's List.''

'That was about success, wasn't it?'' he reportedly said. 'The Holocaust is
about six million people who get killed. 'Schindler's List' was about six
hundred people who don't.''

[Pubrick]

anyone else thinks this is ridiculously funny?'

yes. as i've said before, the book is a piece of crap. he's right about schindle tho.

[Gamblour.]

I think that's really weird, and flies in the face of this guy's idea: Wolf at the Door

By reading the first page on Amazon, the guy is arguing that, in the scene where the overtestosteroned guys push Tom Cruise into a car, Kubrick made sure that the Blue Mercedes that was in the book appeared in the movie, and that this tied to Fascism somehow.

[Fernando]

anyone else thinks this is ridiculously funny?'

yes. as i've said before, the book is a piece of crap.

I've always blamed Spielberg for the non filming of Aryan Papers, given that they were similars in its theme.

Edit.

he's right about schindle tho.

Right.