Stanley Kubrick, is the quintessential auteur. He wrote, shot, directed, edited, and even handled his own publicity! I allude here to the “auteur theory” an approach to film study which makes several assumptions. Much like a writer, a painter, and other artists, a film director has total control and freedom in how his work is framed. I believe that each of his films is a personal work of art.
Am in awe of his accomplishments. One cinematic triumph after another. Search and see again some of my favorites: A Clockwork Orange, Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Lolita, Spartacus, Paths of Glory, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Eyes Wide Shot.
Renoir once said, “A director spends his whole life making one film.” What a life!
2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick spent three years writing, talking to scientists, and developing the final script. One interesting fact – Clarke (in his book) makes the monolith a transparent, hypnotic teaching machine. Kubrick’s idea to have a simple black monolith was much more powerful and had a mystical effect.
In his own words: I tried to create a visual experience, one that bypasses verbalized pigeonholing and directly penetrates the subconscious with an emotional and philosophical content… I intended the film to be an intensely subjective experience that reaches the viewer at an inner level of consciousness, just as music does… You’re free to speculate as you wish about the philosophical and allegorical meaning of the film.
A journey to freedom – that says it all.
