name	Lolita
director	Stanley Kubrick
producer	James B. Harris
screenplay	Vladimir NabokovStanley Kubrick (uncredited)James Harris (uncredited)
based on
starring	James MasonShelley WintersSue LyonPeter Sellers
music	Nelson Riddle Bob Harris
cinematography	Oswald Morris
editing	Anthony Harvey
studio	Seven ArtsAA ProductionsAnya PicturesTransworld Pictures
distributor	Metro Goldwyn Mayer Turner Entertainment Co.
released
runtime	152 minutes
language	English
budget	$2.1 million
gross	$9,250,000 }}

''Lolita'' is a 1962 comedy-drama film by Stanley Kubrick based on the classic novel of the same title by Vladimir Nabokov, centred around a middle-aged man who becomes obsessed with a teenage girl. The film stars James Mason as Humbert Humbert, Sue Lyon as Dolores Haze (Lolita) and Shelley Winters as Charlotte Haze with Peter Sellers as Clare Quilty.

Due to the MPAA's restrictions at the time, the film toned down the more provocative aspects of the novel, sometimes leaving much to the audience's imagination. The actress who played Lolita, Sue Lyon, was fourteen at the time of filming. Kubrick later commented that, had he realized how severe the censorship limitations were going to be, he probably never would have made the film.

Plot

Set in the 1950s, the film begins ''in medias res'' with a confrontation between two men: one of them, Clare Quilty (Peter Sellers), drunk and incoherent, plays Chopin's ''Polonaises Op. 40'' on the piano before being shot. The shooter is Humbert Humbert (James Mason), a 40-something British professor of French literature.

The film then flashes back to events four years earlier. Humbert arrives in Ramsdale, New Hampshire, intending to spend the summer before his professorship begins at Beardsley College, Ohio. He searches for a room to let, and Charlotte Haze (Shelley Winters)—a blowsy, sexually frustrated widow—invites him to stay at her house. He declines until seeing her daughter, Dolores (Sue Lyon), affectionately called "Lolita." Lolita is a soda-pop drinking, gum-snapping, overtly flirtatious teenager, with whom Humbert falls in love.

To be close to Lolita, Humbert accepts Charlotte's offer and becomes a lodger in the Haze household. But Charlotte wants all of "Hum's" time for herself and soon announces she will be sending Lolita to an all-girl sleepaway camp for the summer. After the Hazes depart for camp, the maid gives Humbert a letter from Charlotte, confessing her love for him and demanding he vacate at once unless he feels the same way. The letter says that if Humbert is still in the house when she returns, Charlotte will know her love is requited, and he must marry her. Though he roars with laughter while reading the sadly heartfelt yet characteristically overblown letter, Humbert marries Charlotte.

Things turn sour for the couple in the absence of the nymphet: glum Humbert becomes more withdrawn, and brassy Charlotte more whiny. Charlotte discovers Humbert’s diary entries detailing his passion for Lolita and characterizing ''her'' as "the Haze cow, the noxious mama, the brainless ''baba''". She has an hysterical outburst and, while Humbert hurriedly fixes martinis in the kitchen to smooth over the situation, she runs outside, is hit by a car and dies.

Humbert drives to Camp Climax to pick up Lolita, who doesn't yet know her mother is dead. They stay the night in a hotel that is handling an overflow influx of police officers attending a convention. One of the guests, a pushy, abrasive stranger insinuates himself upon Humbert and keeps steering the conversation to his "beautiful little daughter," who is asleep upstairs. The stranger implies that he too is a policeman and repeats, too often, that he thinks Humbert is "normal." Humbert escapes the man's advances, and, the next morning, Humbert and Lolita enter into a sexual relationship. The two commence an odyssey across the United States, traveling from hotel to motel. In public, they act as father and daughter. After several days, Humbert tells Lolita that her mother is not sick in a hospital, as he had previously told her, but dead. Grief-stricken, she stays with Humbert.

In the fall, Humbert reports to his position at Beardsley College, and enrolls Lolita in high school there. Before long, people begin to wonder about the relationship between father and his over-protected daughter. Humbert worries about her involvement with the school play and with male classmates. One night he returns home to find Dr. Zempf, a pushy, abrasive stranger, sitting in his darkened living room. Zempf, speaking with a thick German accent, claims to be from Lolita's school and wants to discuss her knowledge of "the facts of life." Humbert is frightened and decides to take Lolita on the road again. He soon realizes they are being followed by a mysterious car that never drops away but never quite catches up. When Lolita becomes sick, he takes her to the hospital. However, when he returns to pick her up, she is gone. The nurse there tells him she left with another man claiming to be her uncle and Humbert, devastated, is left without a single clue as to her disappearance or whereabouts.

Some years later, Humbert receives a letter from Mrs. Richard T. Schiller, Lolita's married name. She writes that she is now married to a man named Dick, and that she is pregnant and in desperate need of money. Humbert travels to their home, where Lolita waits. Humbert finds that she is now a roundly pregnant woman in glasses leading a pleasant, humdrum life. Humbert demands that she tell him who kidnapped her three years earlier. She tells him it was Clare Quilty, the man that was following them, who is a famous playwright and with whom her mother had a fling in Ramsdale days. She states Quilty is also the one who disguised himself as Dr. Zempf, the pushy stranger who kept crossing their path. Lolita herself carried on an affair with him and left with him when he promised her glamor. However, he then demanded she join his depraved lifestyle, including acting in his "art" films.

Humbert begs Lolita to leave her husband and come away with him, but she declines. Humbert gives Lolita $13,000, explaining that it's hers from the sale of her mother's house, and leaves to shoot Quilty in his mansion, where the film began. The epilogue explains that Humbert died of coronary thrombosis awaiting trial for Quilty's murder.

Cast

James Mason as Humbert Humbert, a professor of French Poetry. He is smooth, charming, self-assured, but condescending and insensitive. He becomes immediately infatuated with Lolita upon meeting her. Secretly, this motivates him to stay with Charlotte Haze, although he regards her as superficial.

Sue Lyon as Dolores "Lolita" Haze. She is at first flirtatious with Humbert and competes with her mother for his affections. However, after their relationship has commenced, she is increasingly unresponsive to his pressing demands, resists his attempts to educate her into high culture, and eventually finds him a suffocating and overbearing presence.

Peter Sellers as Clare Quilty. The character's role was greatly expanded from that in the novel and Kubrick allowed Sellers to adopt a variety of disguises throughout the film. Early on in the film, Quilty appears as himself: a conceited, avant-garde playwright with a superior manner. Later, he disguises himself as various personae. First, he is an inquisitive policeman on the porch of the hotel where Humbert and Lolita are staying. Next he is the intrusive Beardsley High School psychologist, Doctor Zempf, who lurks in Humbert's front room for the purpose of persuading him to give Lolita more freedom in her after-school activities. Later in the film he is an anonymous phone caller conducting a survey.

Shelley Winters as Charlotte Haze-Humbert, a loud, overbearing, status-seeking widow who is both landlady to Humbert, and mother to Lolita with whom she has a strained relationship. She aspires to be cultured and sophisticated, but never manages to be more than a middle-class householder. When she develops a romantic interest in Humbert, she makes pushy advances parried by his barely concealed sarcasm and indifference.

Gary Cockrell as "Dick" Schiller

Jerry Stovin as John Farlow (Ramsdale lawyer)

Diana Decker as Jean Farlow

Lois Maxwell as Nurse Mary Lore (at the hospital)

Cec Linder as Dr. Keegee (at hospital)

Bill Greene as George Swine (hotel night manager in Bryceton)

Shirley Douglas as Mrs. Starch (piano teacher in Ramsdale)

Marianne Stone as Vivian Darkbloom, Quilty's frequent companion and co-conspirator

Marion Mathie as Miss Lebone

James Dyrenforth as Frederick Beale Sr.

Maxine Holden as Miss Fromkiss (hospital receptionist)

John Harrison as Tom

C. Denier Warren as Potts

Casting decisions

James Mason was the first choice of director Stanley Kubrick and producer James B. Harris for the role of Humbert Humbert, but he initially declined due to a Broadway engagement. Laurence Olivier then refused the part, apparently on the advice of his agents. Kubrick considered Peter Ustinov, but decided against him. Harris then suggested David Niven; Niven accepted the part, but then withdrew for fear the sponsors of his TV show, ''Four Star Playhouse'' (1952), would object. Mason then withdrew from his play and got the part. Harris denies claims that Noël Coward also rejected the role.

Tuesday Weld was considered for the role of Lolita. Hayley Mills also turned down the role. At the time, her father, John Mills was credited with the decision; later, Walt Disney. Stanley Kubrick originally wanted Joey Heatherton for the title role of Lolita, but her father, Ray Heatherton, said no for fear his daughter would be typecast as a "promiscuous sex kitten." Jill Haworth was asked to take the role, but she was under contract to Otto Preminger and he said 'no.'

Production

Direction

With Nabokov’s consent, Kubrick changed the order in which events unfolded by moving what was the novel’s ending to the start of the film, a literary device known as ''in medias res''. Kubrick determined that while this sacrificed a great ending, it helped maintain interest, as he believed that interest in the novel sagged halfway through once Humbert was successful in seducing Lolita.

The second half contains an odyssey across the United States and though the novel was set in the 1940s Kubrick gave it a contemporary setting, shooting many of the exterior scenes in England with some back-projected scenery shot in America, including upstate eastern New York, along NY 9N in the eastern Adirondacks, and a hilltop view of Albany from Rensselaer on the east bank of the Hudson. Some of the minor parts were played by Canadian and American actors, such as Cec Linder, Lois Maxwell, Jerry Stovin and Diana Decker, who were based in England at the time. Kubrick had to film in England as much of the money to finance the movie was not only raised there but also had to be spent there.

Censorship

The moral values and censorship of the time inhibited Kubrick's direction. Kubrick commented that, “because of all the pressure over the Production Code and the Catholic Legion of Decency at the time, I believe I didn't sufficiently dramatize the erotic aspect of Humbert's relationship with Lolita. If I could do the film over again, I would have stressed the erotic component of their relationship with the same weight Nabokov did.” Instead Kubrick hinted at the nature of their relationship indirectly through double entendre and visual cues. In a 1972 ''Newsweek'' interview, Kubrick said that had he realized how severe the censorship limitations were going to be, he "probably wouldn't have made the film."

Lolita's age was raised to fourteen, as Kubrick believed that this was the right age. He commented, “I think that some people had the mental picture of a nine-year-old, but Lolita was twelve and a half in the book; Sue Lyon was thirteen.” (Actually, Lyon was 14 at the time of filming: she was born in July 1946 and it was shot between November 1960 and May 1961.)

When released, ''Lolita'' was Rated BBFC X by the British Board of Film Censors, meaning no one under 16 years of age was permitted in theaters where it was showing.

Writing and narration

Humbert uses the term 'nymphet' to describe Lolita, which he explains in, and uses throughout, the novel; it only appears once in the movie and its meaning is left undefined. In a voiceover on the morning after the Ramsdale High School dance, Humbert confides in his diary, “What drives me insane is the twofold nature of this nymphet, of every nymphet perhaps, this mixture in my Lolita of tender, dreamy childishness and a kind of eerie vulgarity. I know it is madness to keep this journal, but it gives me a strange thrill to do so. And only a loving wife could decipher my microscopic script.”

This voiceover is a part of Humbert’s narration, which was central to the novel. Kubrick uses it sparingly and, apart from the above comment, only to set the scene for the film’s next act. Humbert’s comments are generally simple statements of fact, spiced with the odd personal reflection.

The only other one of these reflections which makes reference to Humbert’s feelings towards Lolita is made after their move from Ramsdale to Beardsley. Here Humbert's comment seems to show only an interest in her education and cultural development: “Six months have passed and Lolita is attending an excellent school where it is my hope that she will be persuaded to read other things than comic books and movie romances”.

The narration begins after the opening scenes but ceases once the odyssey begins. Kubrick makes no attempt to explain Humbert's fascination with Lolita, which a full narration would have done, but merely treats it as a matter of fact.

Screenplay

The screenplay is credited to Nabokov, although very little of what he provided (later published in a shortened version) was used. Nabokov remained polite about the film in public, but in a 1962 interview, before seeing the film, commented that it may turn out to be "the swerves of a scenic drive as perceived by the horizontal passenger of an ambulance".

Other film adaptations

''Lolita'' was filmed again in 1997, directed by Adrian Lyne. The film was widely publicized as being more faithful to Nabokov than the Kubrick film. Although many observed this was the case (such as Erica Jong writing in ''The New York Observer''), the film was not as well received as Kubrick's version, and was a major box office bomb, grossing only $1 million at the US box office.

Music

The music for the film was composed by Nelson Riddle. The recurring dance number first heard on the radio when Humbert meets Lolita in the garden later became a hit single under the name "Lolita Ya Ya" with Sue Lyon credited with the singing on the single version. The flip side was a 60s-style light rock song called "Turn off the Moon" also sung by Sue Lyon. "Lolita Ya Ya" was later recorded by other bands- it was also a hit single for "The Ventures" reaching 61 on ''Billboard'' and then being included on many of their compilation albums. In his biography of ''The Ventures'', Del Halterman quotes an unnamed reviewer of the CD rerelease of the original ''Lolita'' soundtrack as saying "The highlight is the most frivolous track, 'Lolita Ya Ya', a maddeningly vapid and catchy instrumental with nonsense vocals that comes across as a simultaneously vicious and good-humored parody of the kitschiest elements of early-sixties rock and roll."

The tune was also recorded by Mexican guitarist Diego de Cossío, appearing recently on his Mexican-label released CD ''Guitarra Magica de Diego de Cossio: Los Dorados 60's'' ("The Golden '60s"). As with many of his guitar adaptations, Diego de Cossio gave the melody a Spanish sensibility.

Differences between the film and the book

There are many differences between Kubrick's film adaptation and Nabokov's novel, including some events that were entirely omitted. Most of the sexually explicit innuendos, references and episodes in the book were taken out of the film due to the strict censorship of the 1960s; the sexual relationship between Lolita and Humbert is implied and never depicted graphically on the screen. In addition, some events in the film do not match those of the novel exactly, and there are also differences in Lolita's character. Some of the differences are listed below:

Lolita's age, name, feelings, and fate

Lolita's age was raised from twelve to early teens in the film to meet the MPAA standards. As such, Sue Lyon was chosen for the title role partly due to her more mature appearance. Stanley Kubrick had been warned that censors felt strongly about the use of a less developed actress to portray a sexually active girl that was to seem at least fourteen.

The name "Lolita" is used only by Humbert as a private pet nickname in the novel, whereas in the film several of the characters refer to her by that name. In the book she is referred to simply as "Lo" or "Lola" or "Dolly" by the other characters. Various critics such as Susan Sweeney have observed that since she never calls herself "Lolita", Humbert's pet name denies her subjectivity. Generally, the novel gives little information about her feelings.

Likewise, the film is not especially focused on Lolita's feelings. In the medium of film, her character is inevitably fleshed out somewhat from the enigmatic cipher that she remains in the novel. Nonetheless, Kubrick actually omits the few vignettes in the novel in which Humbert's sollipsistic bubble is burst and one catches glimpses of Lolita's personal misery. Susan Bordo writes "Kubrick chose not to include any of the vignettes from the novel which bring Lolita's misery to the forefront, nudging Humbert's obsession temporarily off center-stage....Nabokov's wife insisted on 'the pathos of Lolita's utter loneliness'...In Kubrick's film, one good sobfest and dead mommy is forgotten. Humbert, to calm her down, has promised her...The same scene in the novel ends with Lolita sobbing ''despite'' Humbert having plied her with gifts all day." Bardo goes on to say "Emphasizing Lolita's sadness and loss would not have jibed of course with the film's dedication to inflecting the "dark" with the comic; it would have altered the overwhelmingly ironic, anti-sentimental character of the movie." When the novel briefly gives us evidence of Lolita's sadness and misery, Humbert glosses over it, but the film omits nearly all of these episodes entirely.

In the foreword of the novel, it mentions indirectly that Dolores Haze died giving birth to a stillborn baby. (In this section of the foreword she is only referred to as Mrs. Richard Schiller, prior to the reader having enough information to identify this as Dolores.) It says nothing of this in the film's epilogue.

Professor Humbert

Critic Greg Jenkins believes that Humbert is imbued with a fundamental likability in this film that he does not necessarily have in the novel. He has a debonair quality in the film, while in the novel he can be perceived as much more repulsive. Humbert's two mental breakdowns leading to sanitorium stays before meeting Lolita are entirely omitted in the film, as are his earlier unsuccessful relationships with women his own age (whom he refers to in the novel as "terrestial women") through which he tried to stabilize himself. His lifelong complexes around young girls are largely concealed in the film, and Lolita appears older than her novelistic counterpart, both leading Jenkins to comment "A story originally told from the edge of a moral abyss is fast moving toward safer ground". In short, the novel early flags Humbert as both mentally unsound and obsessively infatuated with young girls in a way the film never does.

Jenkins notes that Humbert even seems a bit more dignified and restrained than other residents of Ramsdale, particularly Lolita's aggressive mother, in a way that invites the audience to sympathize with Humbert. Humbert is portrayed as someone urbane and sophisticated trapped in a provincial small town populated by slightly lecherous people, a refugee from Old World Europe in an especially crass part of the New World. For example, Lolita's piano teacher comes across in the film as aggressive and predatory compared to which Humbert seems fairly restrained. The film character of John Farlow talks suggestively of "swapping partners" at a dance in a way that repels Humbert. Jenkins believes that in the film it is Quilty, not Humbert, who acts as the embodiment of evil. The expansion of Quilty's character and the way Quilty torments Humbert also invite audience to sympathize to Humbert.

Because Humbert narrates the novel, his increased mental deterioration due to anxiety in the entire second half of the story is more obvious from the increasingly desperate tone of his narrative. While the film shows Humbert's increasingly severe attempts to control Lolita, but the novel shows more of Humbert's loss of self-control and stability.

Jenkins also notes that some of Humbert's more brutal actions are omitted or changed from the film. For example, in the novel he threatens to send Lolita to a reformatory, while in the film he promises to never send her there. He also notes that Humbert's narrative style in the novel, although elegant, is wordy, rambling, and roundabout, whereas in the film it is "subdued and measured".

Humbert's infatuation with "nymphets" in the novel

The film entirely omits the critical episode in Humbert's life in which at age 14 he was interrupted making love to young Annabel Leigh who shortly thereafter died, and consequently omits all indications that Humbert had a preoccupation with prepubescent girls prior to meeting Dolores Haze. In the novel, Humbert gives his youthful amorous relationship with Annabel Leigh, thwarted by both adult intervention and her death, as the key to his obsession with nymphets. The film's only mention of "nymphets" is an entry in Humbert's diary specifically revolving around Lolita.

Humbert explains that the smell and taste of youth filled his desires throughout adulthood: "that little girl with her seaside limbs and ardent tongue haunted [him] ever since". He thus claims that "Lolita began with Annabel" and that Annabel's spell was broken by "incarnating her in another".

The idea that anything connected with young girls motivated Humbert to accept the job as professor of French Literature at Beardsley College and move to Ramsdale at all is entirely omitted from the film. In the novel he first finds accommodations with the McCoo family. He accepts the professorship because the McCoos have a twelve-year-old daughter, a potential "enigmatic nymphet whom [he] would coach in French and fondle in Humbertish". However, the McCoo house happens to burn down in the few days prior to his arrival, and this is when Mrs. Haze offers to accommodate Humbert.

Humbert's attitudes to Charlotte

Susan Bardo has noticed that in order to show the callous and cruel side of Humbert's personality early in the film, Nabokov and Kubrick have shown additional ways in which Humbert behaves monstrously towards her mother, Charlotte Haze. He mocks her declaration of love towards him, and takes a pleasant bath after her accidental death. This effectively replaces the voiceovers in which he discusses his plans to seduce and molest Lolita as a means of establishing Humbert as manipulative, scheming, and selfish. However, Greg Jenkins has noted that Humbert's response to Charlotte's lovenote in the film is still much kinder than that in the novel, and that the film goes to significant lengths to make Charlotte unlikable.

Expansion of Clare Quilty

Quilty's role is greatly magnified in the film and brought into the foreground of the narrative. In the novel Humbert catches only brief uncomprehending glimpses of his nemesis before their final confrontation at Quilty's home, and the reader finds out about Quilty late in the narrative along with Humbert. Quilty's role in the story is made fully explicit from the beginning of the film, rather than being a concealed surprise twist near the end of the tale. In a 1962 interview with Terry Southern, Kubrick describes his decision to expand Quilty's role, saying "just beneath the surface of the story was this strong secondary narrative thread possible--because after Humbert seduces her in the motel, or rather after she seduces him, the big question has been answered--so it was good to have this narrative of mystery continuing after the seduction." This magnifies the book's theme of Quilty as a dark double of Humbert, mirroring all of Humbert's worst qualities, a theme which preoccupied Kubrick.

The film opens with a scene near the end of the story, Humbert's murder of Quilty. This means that the film shows Humbert as a murderer ''before'' showing us Humbert as a seducer of minors, and the film sets up the viewer to frame the following flashback as an explanation for the murder. The film then goes back to Humbert's first meeting with Charlotte Haze and continues chronologically until the final murder scene is presented once again. The book, narrated by Humbert, presents events in chronological order from the very beginning, opening with Humbert's life as a child. While Humbert hints throughout the novel that he has committed murder, its actual circumstances are not described until near the very end. NPR's Bret Anthony Johnston notes that the novel is sort of an inverted murder mystery- you know someone has been killed, but you have to wait to find out who the victim is. Similarly, the online Doubleday publisher's reading guide to ''Lolita'' notes "he mystery of Quilty’s identity turns this novel into a kind of detective story (in which the protagonist is both detective and criminal)." This effect is, of course, lost in the Kubrick film.

In the novel, Miss Pratt, the school principal at Beardsley, discusses with Humbert Dolores's behavioral issues and among other things persuades Humbert to allow her to participate in the dramatics group, especially one upcoming play. In the film, this role is replaced by Quilty disguised as a school psychologist named "Dr. Zempf." This disguise does not appear in the novel at all. In both versions, a claim is made that Lolita appears to be "sexually repressed," as she mysteriously has no interest in boys. Both Dr. Zempf and Miss Pratt express the opinion that this aspect of her youth should be developed and stimulated by dating and participating in the school's social activities. While Pratt mostly wants Humbert to let Dolores generally into the dramatic group, Quilty (as Zempf) is specifically focused on the high school play (written by Quilty and produced with some supervision from him) which Lolita had secretly rehearsed for (in both the film and novel). In the novel Miss Pratt naïvely believes this talk about Dolores' "sexual repression", while Quilty in his disguise knows the truth. Although Peter Sellers is playing only one character in this film, Quilty's disguise as Dr. Zempf allows him to employ a mock German accent that is quintessentially in the style of Sellers's acting.

With regard to this scene, playwright Edward Albee's 1981 stage adaptation of the novel follows Kubrick's film rather than the novel.

The movie retains the novel's theme of Quilty (anonymously) goading Humbert's conscience on many occasions, though the details of how this theme is played out are quite different in the film. He has been described as "an emanation of Humbert's guilty conscience", and Humbert describes Quilty in the novel as his "shadow".

The first and last word of the novel is "Lolita". As film critic Greg Jenkins has noted, in contrast to the novel, the first and last word of the screenplay is "Quilty".

Contemplating murder of Charlotte Haze

In the novel, Humbert and Charlotte go swimming in Hourglass Lake, where Charlotte announces she will ship Lo off to a good boarding school; that part takes place in bed in the film. Humbert's contemplation of possibly killing Charlotte similarly takes place at Hourglass Lake in the book, but at home in the film. This difference affects Humbert's contemplated method of killing Charlotte. In the film he considers the possibility of shooting her with a pistol whilst in the house, whereas in the book he is tempted to drown her in the lake before, as in both scenarios, concluding that he could never bring himself to do it. In his biography of Kubrick, Vincent LoBrutto notes that Kubrick tried to recreate Hourglass Lake in a studio, but become uncomfortable shooting such a pivotally important exterior scene in the studio, so he refashioned the scene to take place at home. Susan Bardo notes that after Charlotte's actual death in the film, two neighbors see Humbert's gun and falsely conclude Humbert is contemplating suicide, while in fact he had been considering killing Charlotte with it.

The same attempted killing of Charlotte appears in the "Deleted Scenes" section of the DVD of the 1997 film (now put back at Hourglass Lake). In the novel Humbert really considers killing Charlotte and later Lolita accuses Humbert of having deliberately killed her. Only the first scene is in the 1962 film and only the latter scene appears in the 1997 film.

Lolita's friends at school

Lolita's friend, Mona Dahl, is a friend in Ramsdale (the first half of the story) in the film and disappears quite early in the story. In the film, Mona is simply the host of a party which Lolita abandons early in the story. Mona is a friend of Lolita's in Beardsley (the second half of the story) in the novel. In the novel Mona is active in the school play, Lolita tells Humbert stories about Mona's love life, and Humbert notes Mona had "long since ceased" to be (if ever she was) a "nymphet". Mona has already had an affair with a marine and appears to be flirting with Humbert. She keeps Lolita's secrets and helps Lolita lie to Humbert when Humbert discovers that Lolita has been missing her piano lessons. In the film, Mona in the second half seems to have been replaced by a "Michele" who is also in the play and having an affair with a marine and backs up Lolita's fibs to Humbert. Film critic Greg Jenkins claims that Mona has simply been entirely eliminated from the film.

Humbert is suspicious that Lolita is developing an interest in boys at various times throughout the story. He suspects no one in particular in the novel. In the film, he is twice suspicious of a pair of boys, Rex and Roy, who hang out with Lolita and her friend Michele. In the novel, Mona has a friend named Roy.

Other differences

In the film, the first mutual attraction between Humbert and Lolita occurs at a drive-in horror film when she grabs his hand. In the novel, it begins because Humbert resembles a celebrity she likes. As in the novel, Lolita shows affection for Humbert before she departs for summer camp.

In the novel, both the hotel at which Humbert and Dolores first have relations and the stage-play by Quilty for which Dolores prepares to perform in at her high school is called ''The Enchanted Hunter''. However, in the novel school headmistress Pratt erroneously refers to the play as ''The Hunted Enchanter''. In Kubrick's film, the hotel bears the same name as in the novel, but the play really is called ''The Hunted Enchanter''. Kubrick announces both names only through marquee signs- they are never mentioned in dialogue.

The relationships between Humbert and other women before and after Lolita is omitted from the film.

Only the film has a police convention at the hotel where Humbert allows Lolita to seduce him.

Lolita completes the school play in the film, but drops out prior to finishing it in the novel.

In the novel, Humbert gives a total monetary sum of $4,000 to 17-year-old Lolita. In the film, this amount is increased to $12,900.

Quilty's "Dr. Zempf" and Peter Sellers role as Doctor Strangelove

The film has a scene lasting six minutes in which Quilty disguises himself as a German-accented high school psychologist named Dr. Zempf who persuades Humbert to allow Lolita more personal freedom so that she can act in the high school play (which is written by Quilty and produced with some supervision from him.) This is modified from a scene in the novel in which there is a similar conversation with a genuine female school psychologist. The film version of this scene was sufficiently memorable that Edward Albee incorporated it into his stage adaptation of ''Lolita''.

Numerous observers have seen similarities between Peter Sellers' performance of Quilty-as-Zempf and his subsequent role in Stanley Kubrick's next film as Doctor Strangelove. Stanley Kubrick himself in an interview with Michel Ciment described both characters as "parodies of movie cliches of Nazis". Commenting elsewhere on the characters, Ciment writes "Peter Sellers prefigured his creation of Dr Strangelove, particularly in the role of Dr Zempf, the school psychologist whose thick German accent recalls that of the mad professor (note Kubrick's ambiguous feelings towards Germany, his admiration for its culture...his fear of its demonstrations of power...)". Thomas Allen Nelson has said that in this part of his performance, “Sellers twists his conception of Quilty toward that neo-Nazi monster, who will roll out of the cavernous shadows of Dr. Strangelove”, later noting that Zempf "exaggerates Humbert's European pomposity through his psychobabble and German anality." The Kubrick interview has been commented by Geoffrey Cocks, author of a controversial book on the impact of the Holocaust on Kubrick's overall work, who notes that "Dr. Strangelove himself...is the mechanical chimera of modern horror."

Other observers of this similarity include Internet film critic Tim Dirks who has also noted that Sellers's smooth German-like accent and the chair-bound pose in this scene are similar to that of Dr. Strangelove. Finally, Barbara Wyllie, writing in Julian Connelly's anthology ''The Cambridge Companion to Nabokov'', speaks of "Quilty's visit to the house in Beardsley, masquerading as Dr. Zempf, a German psychologist (a Sellers character that prefigures Dr. Strangelove in Kubrick's film of 1964)."

Reception

''Lolita'' premiered on June 13, 1962 in New York City. It performed fairly well, with little advertising relying mostly on word-of-mouth — many critics seemed uninterested or dismissive of the film while others gave it glowing reviews. However, the film was very controversial, due to the ephebophilia-related content, and therefore while many things are suggested, hardly any are shown. The film has been re-appraised by critics over time, and currently has a score of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Years after the film's release it has been released on VHS, Laserdisc, and DVD. It garnered $3,700,000 in rentals in the USA on VHS.

Awards

The film was nominated for a number of awards, including an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer which went to Sue Lyon.

;Wins

Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer for Sue Lyon

;Nominations

Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Vladimir Nabokov

British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for Best Actor for James Mason

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures for Stanley Kubrick

Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actor for James Mason

Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress for Shelley Winters

Golden Globe Award Best Motion Picture Director for Stanley Kubrick

Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for Peter Sellers

Venice Film Festival Award for Best Director for Stanley Kubrick

Alternate versions

The scene where Lolita first "seduces" Humbert as he lies on the cot is approximately 10 seconds longer in the British and Australian cut of the film. In the U.S. edition, the shot fades as she whispers the details of the "game" she played with Charlie at camp. In the UK/Australian print, the shot continues as Humbert mumbles that he's not familiar with the game. She then bends down again to whisper more details. Kubrick then cuts to a closer shot of Lolita's face as she says "Well, alrighty then" and then fades as she begins to descend onto Humbert on the cot. The latter cut of the film was used for the Region 1 DVD release. It is also the version aired on the cable network Turner Classic Movies in the U.S.

The Criterion laserdisc release is the only one to use a transfer approved by Stanley Kubrick. This transfer alternates between a 1.33 and a 1.66 aspect ratio (as does the Kubrick-approved 'Strangelove' transfer). All subsequent releases to date have been 1.66 (which means that all the 1.33 shots are slightly matted).

The BBFC cut the film in 1961 for an 'X' rating.

See also

''Lolita'' (original novel)

''Lolita'' (1997 film)

References

Notes

Additional sources

Richard Corliss, ''Lolita'' London: British Film Institute, 1994; ISBN 0-85170-368-2

Pages 34-64 are focused on ''Lolita''

External links

Lolita at Rotten Tomatoes

Category:1962 films Category:1960s comedy films Category:1960s drama films Category:American black comedy films Category:American comedy-drama films Category:Juvenile sexuality in films Category:Fiction narrated by a dead person Category:American romantic drama films Category:American satirical films Category:British comedy films Category:British drama films Category:Elstree Studios films Category:English-language films Category:Films directed by Stanley Kubrick Category:Films based on works by Vladimir Nabokov Category:Black-and-white films Category:Films based on novels Category:Films set in New Hampshire Category:Films set in the 1940s Category:Films set in the 1950s Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Category:Films about orphans

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Name	Stanley Kubrick
Birth date	July 26, 1928
Birth place	Manhattan, New York,United States
Notable works	''2001: A Space Odyssey'', ''Dr. Strangelove'', ''The Shining'', ''A Clockwork Orange'', ''Full Metal Jacket''
Influences	Max OphülsSergei Eisenstein Elia KazanFritz Lang G. W. PabstVsevolod Pudovkin Orson Welles
Influenced	Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Woody Allen, Terry Gilliam, Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, Guillermo del Toro, David Lynch, Lars von Trier, Michael Mann, George A. Romero, Coen brothers, Quentin Tarantino, Gaspar Noé, Michael Moore, Tim Burton, P.T. Anderson, Darren Aronofsky, Matt Groening, Frank Darabont
Death date	March 07, 1999
Death place	Harpenden, Hertfordshire,England, United Kingdom
Nationality	American
Ethnicity	Jewish
Death cause	Heart attack
Spouse	Toba Etta Metz (1948–51; divorced)Ruth Sobotka (1954–57; divorced)
Occupation	Film directorFilm producer ScreenwriterCinematographer Film editor
Years active	1951–1999 }}

Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, screenwriter, producer and cinematographer. He is generally regarded as one of America's greatest filmmakers. His films, typically adaptations of novels or short stories, were noted for their "dazzling" and unique cinematography, attention to details to achieve realism and an inspired use of music scores. Kubrick's films covered a variety of genres, including war, black comedy, horror and science fiction. Kubrick was also noted for being a perfectionist, using painstaking care with scene staging and working closely with his actors.

Starting out as a photographer in New York City, he taught himself all aspects of film production and directing after graduating high school. His earliest films were made on a shoestring budget, followed by one Hollywood blockbuster, after which he spent most of the rest of his career living and filming in England. His home became his workplace where he did his writing, research, editing and management of production details. This allowed him to have almost complete artistic control, but with the rare advantage of having financial support from major Hollywood studios.

Several of his films broke new cinematic ground. ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968) was a science-fiction film noted for innovative visual effects and scientific realism. ''Barry Lyndon'' (1975) used specially-designed lenses to film scenes lit by natural candlelight. ''The Shining'' (1980) was among the first feature films to make use of a Steadicam to allow stabilized and fluid tracking shots. As with his earlier shorts, Kubrick was the cinematographer and editor on the first two of his thirteen feature films. He directed, produced and wrote all or part of the screenplays for nearly all his films.

Some of his films were controversial, including ''A Clockwork Orange'' (1971), ''Lolita'' (1962) and ''Paths of Glory'' (1957). Many of Kubrick's films were met with mixed reviews, although they were acclaimed years later as masterpieces. He was widely admired by other prominent filmmakers, including Orson Welles, who considered him a "giant" and a "great director". Steven Spielberg called ''Space Odyssey'' his generation's "big bang". From the mid-1950s onward, all of Kubrick's films except ''The Shining'' were nominated for Oscars, Golden Globes or BAFTAs. His one personal win was for the special effects in ''2001: A Space Odyssey''. Film critic and historian Michel Ciment considers his films to be "among the most important contributions to world cinema in the twentieth century".

Early years

Stanley Kubrick was born on July 26, 1928, at the Lying-In Hospital in Manhattan, New York, the first of two children of Jacques (Jacob) Leonard Kubrick (1901–85) and his wife Sadie Gertrude (''née'' Perveler; 1903–85), both of whom were Jewish. His sister, Barbara Mary Kubrick, was born in 1934. Jacques Kubrick, whose parents and paternal grandparents were of Austrian, Romanian and Polish origin, was a doctor. At Stanley's birth, the Kubricks lived in an apartment at 2160 Clinton Avenue in The Bronx.

The Kubrick biographer Geoffrey Cocks writes that Kubrick's family was not religious, although his parents had been married in a Jewish ceremony. When, in 1980, Michel Ciment asked Kubrick whether he had had a religious upbringing, he replied "No, not at all." Like many Jews who lead secular lives, he had no bar mitzvah and did not attend synagogue.

A friend of Kubrick's family notes that although his father was a prominent doctor, "Stanley and his mom were such regular people. They had no airs about them." As a boy, he was considered "bookish" and generally uninterested in activities in his Bronx neighborhood. According to a friend, "When we were teenagers hanging around the Bronx, he was just another bright, neurotic, talented guy—just another guy trying to get into a game with my softball club and mess around with girls". Many of his friends from his "close-knit neighborhood" would become involved with his early films, including writing music scores and scripts.

When he was twelve, Kubrick's father taught him chess. The game remained a lifelong obsession and appeared in many scenes in his films. Kubrick explained the value of playing chess to his career thus: }}

When he was thirteen, Kubrick's father bought him a Graflex camera, triggering a fascination with still photography. As a teenager, Kubrick was interested in jazz, and briefly attempted a career as a drummer. His father was disappointed in his failure to achieve excellence in school, which he felt Stanley was capable of. He encouraged him to read from his library at home while at the same time permitting him to take up photography as a serious hobby.

Kubrick attended William Howard Taft High School from 1941 to 45. He was a poor student, with a meager 67 grade average. According to his English teacher, "the idea of literature and the reading of literature, from a non-academic, from a more human point of view, clearly was what interested him. He was a literary guy even as a young man . . . " Kubrick had a poor attendance record, and often skipped school to take in double-feature films. He graduated in 1945, but his poor grades, combined with the demand for college admissions from soldiers returning from the Second World War, eliminated hope of higher education. Later in life, Kubrick spoke disdainfully of his education and of education in general, maintaining that nothing about school interested him. His parents sent him to live with relatives for a year in Los Angeles in the hopes that it would help his academic growth.

While still in high school, he was chosen as an official school photographer for a year. In 1946, since he was not able to gain admission to day session classes at colleges, he briefly attended evening classes at the City College of New York (CCNY). Eventually, he sought jobs as a freelance photographer, and by graduation, he had sold a photographic series to ''Look'' magazine. Kubrick supplemented his income by playing chess "for quarters" in Washington Square Park and various Manhattan chess clubs.

In 1946 he became an apprentice photographer for ''Look'' in 1946, and later a full-time staff photographer. (Many early [1945–50] photographs by Kubrick have been published in the book ''Drama and Shadows'' [2005, Phaidon Press] and also appear as a special feature on the 2007 Special Edition DVD of ''2001: A Space Odyssey''.) In 2011, many of his photos for "Look," previously available only for viewing in museum archives or books, were hand selected from thousands by curators at the Museum of the City of New York, and made available as limited edition prints.

During his ''Look'' magazine years, Kubrick married his high-school sweetheart Toba Metz in May 1948. They lived together in Greenwich Village. During this time, Kubrick began frequenting film screenings at the Museum of Modern Art and the cinemas of New York City. He was inspired by the complex, fluid camerawork of the director Max Ophüls, whose films influenced Kubrick's later visual style, and by the director Elia Kazan, whom he described as America's "best director" at that time, with his ability of "performing miracles" with his actors.

Career

Short films

In 1951, Kubrick made a few short documentaries, beginning with ''The March of Time'' newsreels to movie theatres. His first was the independently financed ''Day of the Fight'' (1951), notable for using reverse tracking shot, later to one of Kubrick's recognized camera movements. Inspired by this early success, Kubrick quit his job at ''Look'' and began work on others, including, ''Flying Padre'' (1951) and ''The Seafarers'' (1953), Kubrick's first color film. These three films constitute Kubrick's only surviving documentary works, although some historians believe he made others. He also served as second unit director on an episode of the TV show, ''Omnibus'', about Abraham Lincoln, clips of which are included in the documentary ''Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures'' (2001).

Kubrick told writer Joseph Gelmis in 1969 how he became interested in making those documentaries:

At the time, Singer worked in the offices of the newsreel production company, The March of Time, and Kubrick felt he could make a film for much less than the company was paying other filmmakers, telling an interviewer, "I can’t believe it costs that much to make eight or nine minutes of film." He began learning all he could about filmmaking on his own, calling film suppliers, laboratories, and equipment rental houses. Kubrick decided to make a short film documentary about a boxer, the same one he wrote a story about for ''Look'' a year earlier. He rented a camera and produced a 16-minute black-and-white documentary, ''Day of the Fight''. Kubrick summarizes this first effort at filmmaking:

''Fear and Desire'' (1953)

''Fear and Desire'' (1953) was the story of a team of soldiers caught behind enemy lines in a fictional war. Kubrick and his then-wife, Toba Metz, were the only crew on the film, which was written by his friend Howard Sackler. ''Fear and Desire'' garnered a few respectable reviews but was a commercial failure. Kubrick was later embarrassed by the film as an amateur effort and tried to keep it out of circulation. It was shown for the first time on ''Turner Classic Movies'' in December 2011, and four of his early films, including this one, will be available in the Fall of 2012.

''Killer's Kiss'' (1955)

''Killer's Kiss'' is a 67-minute film noir film about a young heavyweight boxer's involvement with a woman being abused by her criminal boss. Like ''Fear and Desire'', it was privately funded by Kubrick's family and friends, and production was again made with "a virtual one-man crew," with Kubrick co-writing the script with Sackler.

Although the film met with limited commercial success, film historian Alexander Walker notes that it was an "oddly compelling work that tells much about the young Kubrick and explains why he stirred up immediate critical notice." The film had a number of striking aspects, states Walker: "Kubrick's talent for lighting and photographing a scene so as to abstract its latent emotional value"; and the tone of the film with its urban loneliness and melancholy.

''The Killing'' (1956)

''The Killing'' is a fictional story of a meticulously planned racetrack robbery gone wrong, starring Sterling Hayden. This is Kubrick's first full-length feature film shot with a professional cast and crew. Its non-linear narrative would have a major influence on later directors, including Quentin Tarantino, ''The Killing'' followed many of the conventions of film noir, in both its plotting and cinematography style, and although the genre peaked in the 1940s, many critics regard this film as one of its best. Not a financial success, it still received good reviews, and brought Kubrick and his producer partner, James B. Harris, to the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which offered them its massive collection of stories from which to choose their next project.

''Paths of Glory'' (1957)

Kubrick's next film, ''Paths of Glory'', set during World War I, is based on Humphrey Cobb's 1935 antiwar novel, and stars Kirk Douglas. It follows a French army unit ordered on an impossible mission by their superiors. The film was his first significant commercial success, and was critically acclaimed and admired within the industry, establishing Kubrick as a major up-and-coming young filmmaker.

Critics praised the film's unsentimental, spare, and unvarnished combat scenes and its raw, black-and-white cinematography. However, the film was banned in both France and (for less time) Germany for many years for its fictionalized depictions of the French military.

Kubrick's cinematography was particularly commented on by critics, along with other directors. "Colonel Dax's (Kirk Douglas) march through his soldier's trench in a single, unbroken reverse-tracking shot has become a classic cinematic trope cited in film classes," and director Steven Spielberg once named this his favorite film.

Uncredited work on ''One-Eyed Jacks'' (1961)

Kubrick worked for six months on the Marlon Brando vehicle ''One-Eyed Jacks'' (1961). The script was written by then unknown Sam Peckinpah, but Kubrick insisted on rewriting it. Kubrick quit as director, explaining, "When I left Brando's picture, it still didn't have a finished script. It had just become obvious to me that Brando wanted to direct the movie."

''Spartacus'' (1960)

''Spartacus'' is based on the true life story of the historical figure and the events of the Third Servile War. It was produced by Kirk Douglas who also starred as rebellious slave Spartacus, and Laurence Olivier as his foe, the Roman general and politician Marcus Licinius Crassus. Douglas hired Kubrick to take over direction soon after he fired director Anthony Mann.

Although Kubrick, now thirty-one years of age, had by this time already directed four feature films, this became his largest by far, with a cast of over 10,000, and at the time was the most expensive film ever made in America. It was also the first time that Kubrick filmed using 70 mm Super Technirama film to achieve ultra-high definition, and which allowed him to capture large panoramic scenes, including one with 8,000 trained soldiers from Spain representing the Roman army. Kubrick was accustomed to staging and lighting all scenes as a result of his photography background. According to film author Alan K. Rode, Kubrick began directing cinematographer Russell Metty, who was twice Kubrick's age, how to photograph and light scenes, which led to Metty threatening to quit. However, Metty later muted his criticisms after winning the Oscar for Best Cinematography, his first and only win during his career.

Kubrick had conflicts with Douglas, including his dissatisfaction with the screenplay. He also complained about not having full creative control over the artistic aspects. For Douglas, the film was a "labor of love." He had used his own funds to purchase an option on the book ''Spartacus'' from author Howard Fast, and he hired all the primary creative forces involved in production, including Kubrick. Nevertheless, Kubrick realized that in the future he wanted to have autonomy on any films he worked on. "''Spartacus'' is the only film on which I did not have absolute control," he would later say.

''Spartacus'' was a critical and commercial success and established Kubrick as a major director, receiving six Academy Award nominations and winning four. However, it marked the end of the working relationship between Kubrick and Douglas, although co-star Tony Curtis, in his autobiography, called Kubrick his favorite director, and writing, "His greatest effectiveness was his one-on-one relationship with actors."

''Lolita'' (1962)

In 1962, Kubrick moved to England to film ''Lolita'', his first attempt at black comedy. It was an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Vladimir Nabokov, the story of a middle-aged college professor becoming infatuated with a 14-year-old nymphet. It starred Peter Sellers, James Mason, Shelley Winters and Sue Lyon. ''Lolita'' was Kubrick's first film to generate controversy because of its provocative story. Kubrick toned down the screen adaptation to remove much of the eroticism in the novel and made it into "an epic comedy of frustration rather than lust," writes film author Adrian Turner.

Kubrick searched for nearly a year to find what Nabokov called "the perfect nymphet," to play the part. After interviewing Sue Lyon, he found her to be nearly perfect and recalls his reaction: }}

Kubrick was deeply impressed by the chameleon-like range of actor Peter Sellers and gave him one of his first opportunities to wildly improvise during shooting while filming him with three cameras. To best utilize Sellers' talents, Kubrick in consultation with him vastly expanded the role of Clare Quilty and added new material in which Quilty impersonates various other characters.

Stylistically, ''Lolita'' was a transitional film for Kubrick, "marking the turning point from a naturalistic cinema...to the surrealism of the later films," notes film critic Gene Youngblood. The film received mixed reviews, with some critics praising it for its daring subject matter, while others, like Pauline Kael, describing it as the "first new American comedy" since the 1940s. "''Lolita'' is black slapstick and at times it's so far out that you gasp as you laugh."

According to social historian Stephen E. Kercher, the film "demonstrated that its director possessed a keen, satiric insight into the social landscape and sexual hang-ups of cold war America." Kubrick had shown an affinity for liberal satire when he approached others he hoped would become collaborators: he asked comedian Lenny Bruce to work with him on a film, and did the same with fellow Bronx native, cartoonist Jules Feiffer, whom he invited to Los Angeles to work with him on a screenplay titled ''Sick, Sick, Sick''.

''Dr. Strangelove'' (1964)

Kubrick's next project was ''Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'' (1964), another satirical black comedy. Because Kubrick came of age after World War II and the beginning of the Cold War period, he, like many others, was worried about the possibilities of nuclear war. He became preoccupied with it in the late 1950s, fearing that New York, where he lived, could be a likely target, and even considered moving to Australia. He began consulting with others about the possibility of making the subject into a movie.

The novel ''Red Alert'' was recommended to Kubrick, and after reading it he saw in it the makings of a good film story about nuclear war. Kubrick then began working on a screenplay along with his producer, James B. Harris, who had produced three of his previous films.

During that writing period, Kubrick decided that turning the otherwise frightening and serious story into a satire would be the best way to make it into a film, although Harris felt otherwise, and chose not to produce it. Kubrick told Harris, "The only way this thing really works for me is as a satire. It's the same point, but it's just a better way of making the point." Harris recalls that period: }}

According to LoBrutto and others, "Kubrick was taking a bold and dangerous leap" in his decision to make ''Red Alert'' into a comedy, as the topic of nuclear war as a film subject at that time was "considered taboo" and "hardly socially acceptable." Nevertheless, before writing the screenplay as a satire, Kubrick studied over forty military and political research books. He decided that a "serious treatment" of the subject would not be believable, and that some of his most salient points would be fodder for comedy. He then decided to try to "treat the story as a nightmare comedy"

Kubrick found that the film would be impossible to make in the U.S. for various technical and political reasons, forcing him to move production to England. There, he developed what became the "first important visual effects crew in the world." To help him write the screenplay, Kubrick hired noted black comedy and satirical writer Terry Southern . Together, they worked closely to transform ''Red Alert'' into "an outrageous black comedy" loaded with "outrageous dialogue". LoBrutto notes that the final product is a "raucous satire" that merges Kubrick's "devilishly dark sense of humor" from the New York streets and Southern's "manic comedic mind"

From his collection of thousands of record albums, both classical and golden oldies, Kubrick also selected background songs and music which added to the satirical and sardonic effect: during the opening credits with B-52 bombers in flight, the song "Try a Little Tenderness" was played; as the pilots flew into hostile territory, knowing they would not return, the song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" was heard in the background; during scenes with nuclear explosions in populated areas, the song "We'll Meet Again" was played.

Because of perception that Peter Sellers had been pivotal to the success of ''Lolita'', Sellers was again cast to employ his ability to mimic different characters, this time in three different roles. As he had in ''Lolita'', Kubrick allowed Sellers to wildly improvise his dialogue.

The film stirred up much controversy and mixed opinions. ''New York Times'' film critic Bosley Crowther worried that it was a "discredit and even contempt for our whole defense establishment . . . the most shattering sick joke I've ever come across." Whereas ''Time'', the ''Nation'', ''Newsweek'' and ''Life'', among many, gave it "positive, often ecstatic reviews." Historian and philosopher Lewis Mumford, decades later, "saluted" Kubrick for "having successfully utilized the only method capable of evading our national censor—relentless but hilarious satire."

''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968)

Kubrick spent five years developing his next film, ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968). The film was adapted from the short story ''The Sentinel'', by science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, and the screenplay was written by Kubrick and Clarke in collaboration. The theme of the film is a depiction of various stages of man, from ape to star child, as man is reborn into a new existence, all controlled by an enigmatic alien intelligence seen manifested only as a black monolith. The film was conceived as a Cinerama spectacle and was photographed in Super Panavision 70.

Upon its release in 1968, the film was said to defy genre convention and was claimed to be unlike any science-fiction movie before it, and different from any of Kubrick's earlier films or stories. It contained ground-breaking special effects designed by Kubrick to give the viewer a "dazzling mix of imagination and science," and winning Kubrick his only personal Oscar, an Academy Award for Visual Effects.

Kubrick was very much interested in science and the possibilities that life existed beyond Earth. When Kubrick first contacted Clarke through his friend about helping him write the film, he assumed Clarke was a "recluse," then living in Ceylon. Clarke replied back to his friend, "Frightfully interested in working with ''Enfant Terrible''. . . What makes Kubrick think I'm a recluse?" They first met in person in New York, although Kubrick did not offer Clarke the job of writing at that point, nor was the possible film discussed. LoBrutto notes that Clarke "emerged from the meeting impressed with Kubrick's pure intelligence and his ability to comprehend new ideas and concepts instantaneously."

Subsequently, after they agreed to the story, Kubrick worked closely with Clarke for three months to produce a 130-page treatment for the film, and consulted with other experts and agencies while doing so. Initially, Clarke worked in Kubrick's apartment office on Central Park West with an electric typewriter. Science writer Albert Rosenfeld explains Kubrick's method of learning about subjects:

Clarke would later comment about this period: "Every time I get through a session with Stanley, I have to go lie down."

Kubrick describes the movie as "a nonverbal experience," but would not elaborate on the film's meaning during a ''Playboy'' magazine interview in 1968:

The film was also noted for its scientific realism in depicting space flight, for example in its depiction of artificial gravity and the absence of sound in outer space.

''Space Odyssey'' was the first of several Kubrick films in which classical music played an important role. It made famous the introductory track of Richard Strauss' ''Also Sprach Zarathustra'' which is invoked in the opening credits, in "The Dawn of Man" sequence and in the final transformation of astronaut David Bowman into an otherworldly "star child". Kubrick also used music by contemporary avant-garde Hungarian composer György Ligeti; it was the first wide commercial exposure of Ligeti's work.

Keir Dullea, one of the film's stars, first saw the final film at its world premiere in Washington, D.C., and recalls his impressions: }}

The film was not an immediate hit among many critics, however, who faulted its lack of dialogue, slow pacing, and seemingly impenetrable storyline. Others, like Penelope Gilliatt, called it "a great film," and numerous directors were inspired by it. Many today consider it among the greatest science fiction films ever made, as well as one of the most influential. In hindsight, many film critics regard it "as the most significant Hollywood breakthrough since ''Citizen Kane'' in 1941," Steven Spielberg calling it his generation's "big bang". It is a staple on All Time Top 10 lists.

;''Napoleon'', unrealized film After ''2001'', Kubrick initially attempted to make a film about the life of Napoleon and had already begun extensive research on his life. It was well into pre-production when the studio suddenly pulled the plug and cancelled the project. Screenwriter and director Andrew Birkin, one of his young assistants on ''2001'', was sent to the Isle of Elba, Austerlitz and Waterloo, and took thousands of pictures which he went over with Kubrick. Kubrick had him read scholarly monographs about Napoleon as well as his personal commentaries. Decades later, Birkin remembered this period when he saw Kubrick on television receiving an award, recalling how Kubrick "quite frequently gave young people opportunities." }}

Julian Senior, V.P. of London's Warner Brothers' office, also said of Kubrick that "he's a great help to young directors, he recommends them to the company if he feels they have talent."

''A Clockwork Orange'' (1971)

When financing fell through, Kubrick searched for a project that he could film quickly on a small budget. He settled on ''A Clockwork Orange'' (1971). His adaptation of Anthony Burgess' novel of the same name is an exploration of violence and experimental rehabilitation by law enforcement authorities. LoBrutto describes the film as a "sociopolitical statement about the government's threat against personal freedom," and Ciment explains that through the story, Kubrick "is denouncing brainwashing of every kind and making a plea for free-will." Kubrick did not deny those conclusions, asserting that even with good motives there were limits to how society should maintain "law and order".}}

Because of its depiction of teenage violence, however, the film became one of the most controversial films of the decade, and part of an ongoing debate about violence in cinema. Detractors claimed the film glorified violence. Kubrick personally pulled the film from release in England after receiving death threats after a series of copycat crimes based on the film. It was not re-released in England until 2001. Kubrick disagreed that a film could transform a person into a criminal, and argued that "violent crime is invariably committed by people with a long record of anti-social behavior"

Nevertheless, Kubrick defended the depiction of high levels of violence in the film arguing "The violence in the story has to be given sufficient dramatic weight so that the moral dilemma it poses can be seen in the right context" otherwise the viewer would not reach a "meaningful conclusion about relative rights and wrongs". The State cannot turn even the most "vicious criminals into vegetables."

Kubrick also expanded his ideas to the nation's popular media and worried that it could have a similar effect on a wider scale. In a letter Kubrick had published by the ''New York Times'' in 1972, he warned against what he described as multimedia "fascism" that could also turn human beings into "zombies." Author Julian Rice explains that in this larger context, Kubrick implies that "spectators" of media can become a "massive entity subject to predictable response."

''A Clockwork Orange'' was rated 'X' for violence in the USA on its original release just a year before that rating became linked to pornography. Kubrick later released a cut version for an 'R' rating, though the original version has now been re-rated to 'R'.

''Barry Lyndon'' (1975)

''Barry Lyndon'' (1975) was an adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's ''The Luck of Barry Lyndon'' (also known as ''Barry Lyndon''), a picaresque novel about the adventures of an 18th-century Irish gambler and social climber. The cinematography and lighting techniques Kubrick used in ''Barry Lyndon'' were highly innovative. Most notably, interior scenes were shot with a specially adapted high-speed f/0.7 Zeiss camera lens originally developed for NASA. Many scenes were lit only with candlelight, creating two-dimensional, diffused-light images reminiscent of 18th-century paintings. Like its two predecessors, the film does not have an original score. Irish traditional songs (performed by The Chieftains) are combined with classical works from the period.

''Barry Lyndon'' found a great audience in Europe, particularly in France. However, its measured pace and length at three hours put off many American critics and audiences, although the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four, more than any other Kubrick film. As with most of Kubrick's films, ''Barry Lyndon'''s reputation has grown through the years, particularly among filmmakers. The director Martin Scorsese has cited it as his favorite Kubrick film. Spielberg has praised its "impeccable technique", although he had panned it when much younger.

According to some critics who recognized the technical skills and special lenses used for the film, "every scene could have been a painting." Writer George Lewis points out that for many of the scenes, Kubrick posed the actors for an instant before the action, thereby emphasizing this painting quality. He adds, "The scenes look like European paintings of the 1700s and 1800s," and such paintings are considered art in the American popular mind. The effect was accentuated, notes Ciment, by Kubrick's use of "slow reverse zoom which, moving out from a single character, enlarges the field of vision until its powerful scrutiny takes possession of the whole decor."

''The Shining'' (1980)

''The Shining'', released in 1980, was adapted from the novel of the same name by bestselling horror writer Stephen King. The film stars Jack Nicholson as a writer who takes a job as a winter caretaker of a large and isolated hotel in the Rocky Mountains. He spends the winter there with his wife, played by Shelley Duvall, and their young son, who displays paranormal abilities. During their stay, they confront both Jack's descent into madness and apparent supernatural horrors lurking in the hotel.

Kubrick, who was noted for giving his actors freedom to extend the script, and even improvise on occasion, did so with the film's main stars, Nicholson and Duvall. Nicholson notes that actors were given new script pages or revisions on almost a daily basis. According to LoBrutto, Kubrick made it clear that the printed script was to be used as a guide "to use to find the real scene with the actors . . ." On the set, Nicholson always appeared in character, and if Kubrick felt confident, after they considered how a scene could be shot, that he knew his lines well enough, he might encourage him, as he did Peter Sellers, to improvise. As a result, writes LoBrutto, "one of Nicholson's inspired improvisations was the now legendary 'Here's Johnny!' line after he has axed in the bathroom door to get to the frightened Wendy."

Vivian Kubrick's film, ''The Making of The Shining'', shows Nicholson and Duvall rehearsing the scene and revising the script along with Kubrick. Kubrick allowed his daughter Vivian to film the documentary, an unusual move as he kept access to the set closed to all others.

Kubrick made extensive use of the newly invented Steadicam, a weight-balanced camera support, which allowed for smooth hand-held camera movement in scenes where a conventional camera track was impractical. According to Garrett Brown, Steadicam's inventor, it was the first picture to utilize its full potential. Kubrick's perfectionist style required dozens of takes of certain scenes. Nicholson's scene with the ghostly bartender was shot thirty-six times, for example.

The film opened to mixed reviews, but proved a commercial success. As with most Kubrick films, subsequent critical reaction has treated the film more favorably. Among horror movie fans, ''The Shining'' is a cult classic, with memorable scenes like that of a deranged Nicholson crashing through a bathroom door wielding an axe, yelling, "Here's Johnny!" The film's financial success renewed Warner Brothers' faith in Kubrick's ability to make profitable films after the commercial failure in the US of ''Barry Lyndon''.

While Kubrick admitted he had always been interested in the subject of ESP and paranormal experiences, he only first became interested in doing the film after he read King's novel, calling it "one of the most ingenious and exciting stories of the genre I had read." Kubrick added that he believed that such "fantasy stories at their best serve the same function for us that fairy tales and mythology formerly did. . . . The nineteenth century was the golden age of realistic fiction. The twentieth century may be the golden age of fantasy."

King was surprised when Kubrick told him he thought stories of the supernatural "were always optimistic" because they "suggest we survive death." Kubrick concluded, "If we survive death, that’s optimistic." In a subsequent interview, Kubrick expanded on this idea and its relevance to ''The Shining'''s story: }}

''Full Metal Jacket'' (1987)

Seven years later, Kubrick made his next film, ''Full Metal Jacket'' (1987), an adaptation of Gustav Hasford's Vietnam War novel ''The Short-Timers''. Kubrick said to film critic Steven Hall that his attraction to Gustav Hasford's book was because it was "neither antiwar or prowar", held "no moral or political position", and was primarily concerned with "the way things are."

It was filmed in London's Docklands area which was designed as a ruined-city set, which makes the film visually very different from other Vietnam War films. Instead of a tropical jungle, the second half of the picture unfolds in a city undergoing urban warfare. Reviewers and commentators thought this contributed to the bleakness and seriousness of the film.

According to Ciment, the film contained some of Kubrick's trademark characteristics, such as his selection of ironic music, portrayals of men being dehumanized, and attention to extreme detail to achieve realism. At the beginning of the film, as new and expressionless recruits have their hair cut down to their scalp, the song "Goodbye Sweetheart, Hello Vietnam" is playing in the background; in a later scene where Marines patrol the ruins of an abandoned and totally destroyed city, the theme song to the Mickey Mouse Club is heard as a sardonic counterpoint.

The film is split into two halves. The recruits in boot camp are also subjected to what Ciment calls "a form of lobotomy, a barrage of physical and verbal aggression." Ciment writes, "In the transition from man to weapon, Kubrick underlines the process of dehumanization . . . . the same contradiction between the mechanical and the living that is manifest in ''A Clockwork Orange''.

Ciment also recognizes aspects of this war film with ''Paths of Glory'' (1957), which Kubrick directed thirty years earlier. There are similarities in both films, such as the use of natural lighting, an off-screen narrator, attention to detail, a sense of chaos, and the exploration of panoramic spaces. As a result, both films "accentuate the impression of reality . . . . and photographic hyper-realism."

A few of the methods for achieving this realistic look was explained by Kubrick: }}

''Eyes Wide Shut'' (1999)

Kubrick's final film was ''Eyes Wide Shut'' (1999), starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as a wealthy Manhattan couple on a sexual odyssey. The story is based on Arthur Schnitzler's Freudian novella ''Traumnovelle'' (''Dream Story'' in English), which Kubrick relocated from turn-of-the-century Vienna to New York City in the 1990s. The film's theme has been described by actor Jack Nicholson as delving into questions of the "dangers of married life," and the "silent desperations of keeping an ongoing relationship alive".

Screenwriter Michael Herr notes that although the film outwardly presents "sex and thrills" as its subject, its ending conveys a message valuing "marriage and fidelity." The "core theme" of the film, writes Webster, is that of "monogamous fidelity."

The secret password that Tom Cruise needed in the film was "Fidelio." Historian Stuart McDouglal adds that Fidelio is, "ironically," the title of Beethoven's only opera, and which is subtitled, "Married Love." "One could argue Kubrick strengthened this idea via his choice of password in the film," adds Webster, as the original password by Schnitzler was "Denmark." According to Herr, "Fidelio" is the password and the presiding spirit of the piece."

The title of the film also gives a clue to that theme. Webster sees an antecedent to the title phrase, "eyes wide shut," in a quotation by Benjamin Franklin on marriage: }} Critic Charles Whitehouse agrees, stating, "My guess is that the phrase "Eyes Wide Shut" is shorthand for the most successful attitude a monogamous couple can adopt to viewing each other's inner life.

Kubrick's wife noted his long-standing interest in the project, saying "over the years he would see friends getting divorced and remarried, and the topic [of the film] would come up." She knew that this was a subject he wanted to make into a film. Co-star Nicole Kidman observed that "Stanley's expectations of people were not really high."

Although Kubrick was almost seventy years of age, he worked relentlessly for 15 months in order to get the film out by its planned release date of July 16, 1999. He worked 18 hours a day, all the while maintaining complete confidentiality about the film. Press releases were sent to the media, stating briefly that "Stanley Kubrick's next film will be ''Eyes Wide Shut'', a story of jealousy and sexual obsession . . . "''Eyes Wide Shut'', like ''Lolita'' and ''A Clockwork Orange'' before it, faced censorship before release. Kubrick sent an unfinished preview copy to the stars and producers a few months before release, but his sudden death on March 7, 1999 came a few days after he finished editing. He never saw the final version released to the public.

The biographer Michel Ciment believes that "he literally worked himself to death," trying to complete the film to his liking. Ciment explains that Kubrick's desire to keep this, and many of his earlier films, private and unpublicized during its production, was an expression of Kubrick's "will to power," and not a penchant for secrecy: "Kubrick felt, quite rightly, that the public generally knows far too much about a film before it opens and that the surrounding media frenzy made the joy of surprise and pleasure of discovery impossible."

Nicole Kidman said that, while some critics describe the film's theme as "dark," in essence "it is a very hopeful film." During an interview in the documentary, ''Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures'', she says that Kubrick was indirectly stressing the moral values of "commitment and loyalty," adding that "ultimately, ''Eyes Wide Shut'' is about that commitment." Sydney Pollack, who acted in the film, adds that "the heart of [the film] was illustrating a truth about relationships and sexuality. But it was not illustrated in a literal way, but in a theatrical way." Michel Ciment agrees with Kidman, and notes the positive meaning underlying the film, pointing out how some of it is voiced through the dialog, and suggests that the words "resonate like an epitaph" to Kubrick:

Work on ''A. I. Artificial Intelligence''

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Kubrick collaborated with Brian Aldiss on an expansion of his short story "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" into a three-act film. It was a futuristic fairy-tale about a robot that resembles and behaves as a child, and his efforts to become a 'real boy' in a manner similar to ''Pinocchio''. Kubrick reportedly held long telephone discussions with Steven Spielberg regarding the film, and, according to Spielberg, at one point stated that the subject matter was closer to Spielberg's sensibilities than his.

In 1999, following Kubrick's death, Spielberg took the various drafts and notes left by Kubrick and his writers and composed a new screenplay and, in association with what remained of Kubrick's production unit, made the movie ''A.I. Artificial Intelligence.'' Although Spielberg was able to function autonomously in Kubrick's absence, he nevertheless said he felt "inhibited to honor him," and followed Kubrick's visual schema with as much fidelity as he could, writes author Joseph McBride. Spielberg, who once referred to Kubrick as "the greatest master I ever served," now with production underway, admitted, "I felt like I was being coached by a ghost."

The film was released in June 2001. It contains a posthumous production credit for Stanley Kubrick at the beginning and the brief dedication "For Stanley Kubrick" at the end. The film contains many recurrent Kubrick motifs, such as an omniscient narrator, an extreme form of the three-act structure, the themes of humanity and inhumanity, and a sardonic view of psychiatry. In addition, John Williams' score contains many allusions to pieces heard in other Kubrick films.

Unrealized projects

Kubrick both developed and was offered several film ideas which never saw completion. The most notable of these were an epic biopic of ''Napoleon'' and a Holocaust-themed film entitled ''Aryan Papers''. Kubrick had done much research on ''Napoleon'' and it was well into pre-production, when the studio suddenly pulled the plug after another big-budget biopic about Napoleon entitled ''Waterloo'' failed financially. Work on ''Aryan Papers'' depressed Kubrick enormously, and he eventually decided that Steven Spielberg's ''Schindler's List'' covered much of the same material.

Kubrick was also unable to direct a film of Umberto Eco's ''Foucault's Pendulum'' as Eco had given his publisher instructions to never sell the film rights to any of his books after his dissatisfaction with the film version of ''The Name of the Rose''. However, Eco was unaware specifically of Kubrick's interest and later said he would have relented had he known of it.

When the film rights to Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings'' were sold to United Artists, The Beatles approached Kubrick to direct them in a film based on the books, but Kubrick told John Lennon he felt the story was unfilmable. Director Peter Jackson has reported that Tolkien was against the involvement of the Beatles.

Career influences

Early years

Kubrick's family and many critics felt that his Jewish ancestry may have contributed to his worldview and aspects of his films. After his death, both his daughter and wife stated that although he was not religious, "he did not deny his Jewishness, not at all." His daughter noted that he wanted to make a film about the Holocaust, to have been called ''Aryan Papers'', having spent years researching the subject. Most of his friends and early photography and film collaborators were Jewish, and his first two marriages were to daughters of recent Jewish immigrants from Europe. British screenwriter Frederic Raphael, who worked closely with Kubrick in his final years, believes that the originality of Kubrick's films was partly because he "had a (Jewish?) respect for scholars." He said that it was "absurd to try to understand Stanley Kubrick without reckoning on Jewishness as a fundamental aspect of his mentality."

Cinematography

Walker notes that Kubrick was influenced by the tracking and "fluid camera" styles of director Max Ophüls, and used them in many of his films, including ''Paths of Glory'' and ''2001: A Space Odyssey''. Kubrick noted how in Ophuls' films "the camera went through every wall and every floor." He once named Ophüls' ''Le Plaisir'' as his favorite film. According to film historian John Wakeman, Ophüls himself learned the technique from director Anatole Litvak in the 1930s, when he was his assistant, and whose work was "replete with the camera trackings, pans and swoops which later became the trademark of Max Ophuls."

Film critic Robert Kolker sees the influence of Welles' moving camera shots on Kubrick's style. LoBrutto notes that Kubrick identified with Welles and influenced the making of ''The Killing'', with its "multiple points of view, extreme angles, and deep focus."

Stories and writing

Kubrick adapted all but his first two full-length films and ''2001'' from existing novels or short stories.

Many of the subjects Kubrick used for his films came to him unintentionally and indirectly, from books, newspapers, and talking with friends about various topics. Once he found a subject that interested him, however, "he devoured all relevant material" he could find about the topic, notes Walker. He occasionally collaborated with writers established outside the film world (often novelists or reporters) for several of his screenplays: Terry Southern, for ''Dr. Strangelove'', Arthur C. Clarke for ''2001'', and Diane Johnson for ''The Shining''.

Geoffrey Cocks believes that Kubrick was also influenced by Ophüls' stories of thwarted love and a preoccupation with predatory men, while Herr notes that Kubrick was deeply inspired by G. W. Pabst, who earlier tried but was unable to adapt Schnitzler's ''Traumnovelle'', the basis of ''Eyes Wide Shut''.

Directing

As a young man, Kubrick was fascinated by the films of Russian filmmakers such as Eisenstein and Pudovkin. Kubrick read Pudovkin’s seminal theoretical work, ''Film Technique,'' which argues that editing makes film a unique art form, and it needs to be employed to manipulate the medium to its fullest. Kubrick recommended this work to others for years to come. Thomas Nelson describes this book as "the greatest influence of any single written work on the evolution of [Kubrick's] private aesthetics".

Kubrick also found the ideas of Constantin Stanislavski to be essential to his understanding the basics of directing, and gave himself a crash course to learn his methods. He explained their significance: }}

Directing techniques

Themes and stories

Diane Johnson, who co-wrote the screenplay for ''The Shining'' with Kubrick, notes that he "always said that it was better to adapt a book rather than write an original screenplay, and that you should choose a work that isn't a masterpiece so you can improve on it. Which is what he's always done, except with ''Lolita''. Ciment notes that Kubrick always emphasized that finding a 'good' story was the biggest part of making a film, its visual aspect never posing an insoluble problem for him." And he had "tremendous respect for the writers he worked with" when adapting a book for the screen.

When deciding on a subject for a film, there were a number of aspects that he looked for. According to his co-producer Jan Harlan, Kubrick mostly "wanted to make films about things that mattered, that not only had form, but substance." Harlan explains this during an interview with Charlie Rose in June 2001:

However, in selecting subjects for his screenplays, he rarely had any particular theme in mind. Kubrick stated, "Somehow, the question presumes that one approaches a film with something resembling a policy statement, or a one-sentence theme, . . . Maybe some people work this way, but I don't, and even though you obviously have some central preoccupation with the subject, . . . the characters and the story develop a life of their own. Nor did he like to explain the theme or story even after the film was completed, preferring to let the viewers and critics interpret their own meanings. Walker explains that "Kubrick preferred to leave the film as the only real comment he could make on his work." Kubrick himself believed that audiences quite often were attracted to "enigmas and allegories" and did not like films in which everything was spelled out clearly. He felt a film was "spoiled" for those }}

Kubrick did enjoy surprising his audience by alternating dramatically the types of stories he filmed, notes Ciment, and it became a key aspect of his originality as a filmmaker. Ciment states that Kubrick often tried to confound audience expectations by establishing radically different moods from one film to the next}}

Ciment notes that ''The Shining'' (1980) continued this process, again being the "antithesis of the film which preceded it, ''Barry Lyndon''. "Such a succession only confirms his habit over the last twenty years of alternating between deliberately slow-paced, meditative, even melancholic works and others with a taut, staccato rhythm, generated by a dynamism which can occasionally be frenetic." Kubrick explains: }}

However, his preference for finding and adapting unique stories and filming them with photographic realism, was not usually appreciated upon their initial release. Ciment notes that "it's easy to forget just how controversial his films were. Many were rejected by critics at the time of their release, only to become classics of the cinema years later." Jack Nicholson, who starred in ''The Shining'', also recognized, but couldn't explain that aspect of critical reviews: }}

Although a few of his films were obvious satires and black comedies, such as ''Lolita'' and ''Dr. Strangelove'', many of his other films also contained less visible elements of satire or irony. "All his films have a streak of irony," states Nicholson. "This is just one among many things where he and I agreed completely, and I had a lot of fun working on the film," noting that Kubrick "loved to tease."

Such irony was often heard in the background music of films, as in ''Full Metal Jacket'', which included "Goodbye Sweetheart, Hello Vietnam" at the beginning of the war movie, or the theme to the Mickey Mouse Club heard as soldiers explore a war-torn city. For ''Dr. Strangelove'', social historian Lewis Mumford once "saluted" Kubrick for "having successfully utilized the only method capable of evading our national censor—relentless but hilarious satire." Film author Julian Rice describes many ironic scenes and dialog within Kubrick's films, including ''The Shining'', ''Full Metal Jacket'', ''2001'', ''Barry Lyndon'' and ''Eyes Wide Shut''.

Writing and staging scenes

Johnson notes that although Kubrick was a "visual filmmaker," he also loved words: }}

That trait was also observed by Ciment, who stated that "he liked to talk and he loved words." He adds that Kubrick, although he was a visual thinker, "liked writers and worked with them on his screenplays. . . . He preferred them to professional screenwriters who he felt were too involved in the well-worn pathways of convention."

Before shooting began, Kubrick tried to have the script as complete as possible, but still allowing himself enough space to make changes during the actual filming. Citing the importance of being in the place of the audience, Kubrick described this early stage of production: }}

However, film author Patrick Webster notes that Kubrick's methods of writing and developing scenes fit with the auteur theory of directing, whereby Kubrick's script would be "far from a final shooting script; in other words that numerous changes were made in collaboration with the actors during filming." Actor Malcolm McDowell recalled Kubrick's collaborative emphasis during their discussions and his willingness to allow him to improvise a scene: }}

Once he was confident in the overall staging of a scene, and felt the actors were prepared, he would then develop the visual aspects, including camera and lighting placement. As Walker points out, Kubrick was able to handle that phase quickly and easily with his background in cinematograpy: "He was one of the very few film directors competent to instruct their lighting photographers in the precise effect they want."

Directing

Demanding perfection

Kubrick was noted for requiring multiple takes during filming. His high take ratio was considered by some critics as "irrational," although he firmly believed that actors were at their best during the actual filming, as opposed to rehearsals. He stated, "Actors who have worked a lot in movies don't really get a sense of intense excitement into their performances until there is film running through the camera."

Nicole Kidman explains that the large number of takes he often required stopped actors from consciously thinking about technique, thereby helping them enter a "deeper place." She describes what she understood to be Kubrick's reasoning: }}

Many actors considered the large number of takes to be extremely difficult. Although "none of his actors has ever questioned the merits of this method, however much he might have suffered from it," states Ciment. Jack Nicholson adds, "Stanley's demanding. He'll do a scene fifty times and you have to be good to do that." During an interview, Ryan O'Neal recalled Kubrick's directing style: }}

O'Neal describes how he felt after successfully completing one long and very difficult scene in ''Barry Lyndon'' requiring multiple takes: "Stanley grabbed my hand and squeezed it. It was the most beautiful and appreciated gesture in my life. It was the greatest moment in my career."

The demands Kubrick made on actors were difficult, yet in hindsight years later, were considered valuable by the actors. Screenwriter Michael Herr attempts to summarize Kubrick's relationship with his actors: }}

Creative and liberal atmosphere on sets

Actors especially liked that Kubrick would often devote his personal breaks to have lengthy discussions with them so they could gain more confidence. Among those who valued his attention was Tony Curtis, star of ''Spartacus'', who said Kubrick was his favorite director, adding, "his greatest effectiveness was his one-on-one relationship with actors." Similarly, Malcom McDowell recalls the long discussions he had with Kubrick to help him develop his character in ''A Clockwork Orange'' (1971) noting that on his sets, he felt entirely uninhibited and free, saying "This is why Stanley is such a great director."

A decade earlier, Kubrick's work with Peter Sellers on ''Lolita'' (1962), a black comedy, gave them both the chance to use improvisation, which Sellers did successfully. According to Sellers' biographer Alexander Walker, his collaborative work with Kubrick became a turning point in his career, noting that "for the first time, he tasted what it was like to work creatively ''during'' shooting," as opposed to the preproduction stage. The experience also lifted Sellers' spirit as an actor. Kubrick describes this change: }}

Walker adds that Sellers "was 'licensed' to break the rules, . . . [and] encouraged by Kubrick to explore the outer limits of the ''comédie noire''—and sometimes, he felt, go over them—in a way that appealed to the macabre imagination of himself and his director."

Costume designer Marit Allen noted that Kubrick's directing style combined "slow interminable rehearsals" and "a kind of malicious humour". Kubrick would "accept anything from anyone, providing they knew what was at stake and did their best, and at the same time he was very demanding with everyone."

Shelley Duvall, who starred in ''The Shining'', had an especially difficult time with many of the long and highly emotional scenes, and had to repeat them until he was satisfied. Although she benefited in hindsight, and enjoyed the liberal atmosphere during filming, along with the humor on the set. She commented during a filmed interview that she learned more about acting in that one year than in all her previous years combined: }}

Attention to details

Kubrick was also noted for his attention to accessory details. Gay Hamilton, a co-star in ''Barry Lyndon'', notes that even for her costumes he asked to look at every one before approving them. "He was in touch with everything. . . There was no question that he had his finger on every single aspect of moviemaking." That impression was shared by cinematographer John Alcott, who worked closely with Kubrick on four of his films, and won an Oscar for Best Cinematography on ''Barry Lyndon'': "He questions everything." Kubrick worked with Alcott in camera placement, scene composition, choice of lens, and even operating the camera. "He's the nearest thing to genius I've ever worked with, with all the problems of a genius," adds Alcott. James B. Harris, who produced many of his early films, agreed that he was a perfectionist: }}

In deciding which props and settings would be used, he tried to collect as much background material as possible, "a bit like being a detective," Kubrick stated. For ''Barry Lyndon'' he gathered a large file of paintings and drawings of the period from art books, which he used as reference. From those sources, he made clothes, furniture, hand props, architecture, vehicles, etc. Kubrick also found the research process a personal benefit to himself: }}

Kubrick was also noted for working intensely, with full concentration, when directing. Michael Herr was surprised when visiting him on the set: "I was amazed at how fast he moved, and how light, darting around the crew and cameras like one of the Sugar Rays, grace and purpose in motion." Kubrick states that he rarely adds camera instructions in the script, preferring to handle that after a scene is created: }}

Cinematography

Kubrick credited the ease with which he photographed scenes to his early years as a photographer. It was his first "step up to movies", and for Kubrick the one essential piece of knowledge required to film well.

John Alcott also saw the connection, stating that Kubrick "is, in his heart of hearts, a photographer,... As a result, even in his later films,...Kubrick would still collaborate with his cinematographers to make sure they captured scenes exactly as he wanted. " He adds that Kubrick displayed his talent as a photographer in some of his earliest films, noting especially the tracking shots in the trenches of ''Paths of Glory'' which "because of the angle chosen and the general movement of the scene, appears extremely stable."

Having worked with Kubrick as cinematographer on four films over ten years, he states that Kubrick was "capable of becoming an expert in every field," adding that as a result, "with him there can be no excuses and no tricks because he is on to them immediately." For him, the positive aspect to Kubrick's attention to cinematic detail, was that he gave his crew a great deal of inner energy. "When you're shooting a film with him, it's eight o'clock in the evening before you know it."

Among Kubrick's notable innovations in cinematography are his use of special effects, as in ''2001'', where he used both slit-scan photography and front-screen projection, which won Kubrick his only Oscar for special effects.

''The Shining'' was among the first half-dozen features to use the then-revolutionary Steadicam (after the 1976 films ''Bound for Glory'', ''Marathon Man'' and ''Rocky''). Kubrick used it to its fullest potential, which gave the audience smooth, stabilized, motion-tracking by the camera. Kubrick described why he wanted to use it in many scenes: }}

Garrett Brown, its inventor, was the operator of the Steadicam for the film. In order to use it, it had to be mounted to a spring-loaded arm attached to a frame, which is then strapped to the operator's shoulders, chest and hips. Kubrick states that it "in effect, makes the camera weightless." During filming, Kubrick would walk alongside him and direct the camera's movements and angles. A scene showing the Steadicam being used while running on the hedge-maze set was filmed by Vivian Kubrick for her documentary ''The Making of "The Shining"''.

Kubrick catalyzed the most important extension to the Steadicam since its inception. Since he wanted it to be able to shoot from just above floor level, Brown came up with the "low mode" bracket which mounts the camera on an inverted post, greatly increasing the creative angles of the system which previously could not go much lower than the operator's waist height.

Kubrick was among the first directors to use video assist during filming. At the time he began using it in 1966, it was considered cutting-edge technology, requiring him to build his own system. Having it in place during the filming of ''2001'', he was able to view a video of a take immediately after it was filmed.

On some films, such as ''Barry Lyndon'', he used custom made zoom lenses. This allowed him to start a scene with a close-up and slowly zoom out to capture the full panorama of scenery. LoBrutto records that he ordered the customized 20:1 zoom lens along with a special joystick directly from the manufacturer. He also had them develop a quick-response aperture adjustment device. It allowed him to film long takes under changing outdoor lighting conditions by making aperture adjustments while the cameras rolled. LoBrutto notes that Kubrick's technical knowledge about lenses "dazzled the manufacturer's engineers, who found him to be unprecedented among contemporary filmmakers." Kubrick also operated the cameras himself for many scenes.

For that film he also used a specially adapted high-speed (f/0.7) Zeiss camera lens, originally developed for NASA, to shoot numerous scenes lit only with candlelight. Actor Steven Berkoff recalls that Kubrick wanted scenes to be shot using "pure candlelight," and in doing so Kubrick "made a unique contribution to the art of filmmaking going back to painting . . . You almost posed like for portraits." LoBrutto notes that the candlelight scenes became an "instant legend" in the film business. }}

Ryan O'Neal remembers that Kubrick often looked through 18th century art books as reference for setting up a scene: "He found a painting—I don't remember which one—and posed Marisa and me exactly as if we were in that painting."

Editing

For Kubrick, written dialogue was one element to be put in balance with mise en scène (set arrangements), music, and especially, editing. Inspired by Pudovkin's treatise on film editing, Kubrick realized that one could create a performance in the editing room and often "re-direct" a film. Kubrick explained this: }}

Kubrick stated that he used two Steenbeck editing tables and a Moviola, which he said allowed him to work faster. Nevertheless, he often spent extensive hours editing, often working seven days a week, and more and more hours a day as he got closer to deadlines.

Walker adds that whether he was directing or editing, "his work so obsessed him that nothing was allowed to distract him from it, disturb or destabilize him. Everything in his daily agenda was arranged with that singular aim." And because he often shot numerous takes of scenes, he could edit with copious options, explains biographer John Baxter:

Music selection

In his last six films, Kubrick usually chose music from existing sources, especially classical compositions. He preferred selecting recorded music over having it composed for a film, believing that no hired composer could do as well as the public domain classical composers. He also felt that building scenes from images great music often created the "most memorable scenes" in the best films.

His attention to music was an aspect of what many referred to as his "perfectionism" and extreme attention to minute details. In one instance, for a scene in ''Barry Lyndon'' which was written into the screenplay as merely, "Barry duels with Lord Bullingdon," he spent forty-two working days in the editing phase. During that period, he listened to what Lobrutto describes as "every available recording of seventeenth-and eighteenth- century music, acquiring thousands of records to find Handel's sarabande used to score the scene." Jack Nicholson likewise observed his attention to music for his films, stating that Kubrick "listened constantly to music until he discovered something he felt was right or that excited him."

Kubrick is credited with introducing Hungarian composer György Ligeti to a broad Western audience by including his music in ''2001'', ''The Shining'' and ''Eyes Wide Shut''. His music in ''2001'' employed the new style of micropolyphony, which used sustained dissonant chords that shift slowly over time, a style which he originated. Its inclusion in the film became a "boon for the relatively unknown composer" partly because it was introduced alongside background by notable composers, Johann Strauss and Richard Strauss.

Personal life

Marriages and family

Kubrick married his high-school sweetheart Toba Metz in May 1948, when he was nineteen years of age. They lived together in Greenwich Village and divorced three years later in 1951.

He met his second wife, the Austrian-born dancer and theatrical designer Ruth Sobotka, in 1952. They lived together in New York's East Village from 1952 until their marriage in January 1955. They moved to Hollywood six months afterwards, where she played a brief part as a ballet dancer in Kubrick's film, ''Killer's Kiss'' (1955). The following year she was art director for his film, ''The Killing'' (1956). They divorced in 1957.

During the production of ''Paths of Glory'' (1957) in Munich, Kubrick met and romanced young German actress Christiane Harlan, who played a small though memorable role. She was his girlfriend at the time, and Kubrick created a new ending to the film which he felt was too grim. Herr describes the part and its significance: }}

Kubrick married Harlan in 1958, and in 1959 they settled into a home in Beverly Hills with Harlan's daughter, Katherina, age six. They also lived in New York, during which time Christiane studied art at the Art Students League of New York, later becoming an independent artist. Like Kubrick, she wanted "solace to think, study, and practice her craft," writes LoBrutto. They remained together 40 years, until his death in 1999. Besides his stepdaughter, they had two daughters together.

Shortly after his death, Christiane assembled a personal collection of never-before-seen photographs and commentary into a book, ''Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures''. Included among the photos was only one of Kubrick's family together, taken in 1960. In 2010, she gave a videotaped interview with U.K.'s ''Guardian'', where she discussed his personality, his love of editing films, and some reasons why he chose to not make ''Aryan Papers.''

Actor Jack Nicholson, who starred in ''The Shining'' (1980), observed that "Stanley was very much a family man." Similarly, Nicole Kidman, who starred in ''Eyes Wide Shut'' (1999), adds that Christiane "was the love of his life. He would talk about her, he adored her, something that people didn't know. His daughters adored them . . . I would see that, and he would talk about them very proudly." The opinion was shared by Malcolm McDowell, who starred in ''A Clockwork Orange'': "He was happily married. I remember his daughters, Vivian and Anya, running around the room. It was good to see such a close-knit family."

Settling in England

Kubrick moved to England to make ''Lolita'' because of easier financing and freedom from censorship. When he hired one of its stars, Peter Sellers, to also work on his next film, ''Dr. Strangelove'', Sellers was unable to leave England. Kubrick made England his permanent home thereafter, although "he never considered himself an expatriate American," notes Walker. He also shunned the Hollywood system and its publicity machine, resulting in little media coverage of him as a personality.

Kubrick purchased the Childwickbury Manor in Hertfordshire, England, where he set up his life so that family and business were one. Christiane Kubrick told the London ''Times'' how rough New York had become, with children having to be escorted to school by police, people being rude, and smashed glass all over the street. Although he thrived on the manic energy of New York, Kubrick soon adapted to the more genteel atmosphere of England.

LoBrutto notes that living in England brought peace to the Kubrick family. After moving to England, recalls Christiane, one of the first British radio shows they heard was on gardening. The area's many landscaped parks, gardens and animals was an enormous contrast to New York. "It's very pleasant," said Kubrick, "very peaceful, very civilized here. London is in the best sense the way New York was" in the early 1900s.

His friend, screenwriter Michael Herr, points out however that he did not live in England because he disliked America:"God knows; America was all he ever talked about. It was always on his mind, and in his blood."

Kubrick's home in the English countryside, a half-hour drive from London, gave him "energy, inspiration, and confidence," states Walker. It provided him with a "favorable psychological climate in which to function," with more privacy and time for reflection. Kubrick's close friend, Julian Senior, who was vice president for Warner Brothers' London office, compared Kubrick's lifestyle to "a medieval craftsman whose home was his workshop." However, he did manage to stay up on current affairs, and read the ''New York Times'' daily, notes Jan Harlan, adding that Kubrick remained a "New Yorker" at heart his entire life.

Home and workplace

His new home, originally a large country mansion once owned by a wealthy racehorse owner, became a workplace for Kubrick and Christiane. One of the large ballroom-size rooms became her painting studio. Kubrick converted the stables into extra production rooms besides ones within the home that he used for editing and storage. Christiane called their home "a perfect family factory."

A film trailer was kept in the driveway, and she took care of keeping visiting crew, staff, and actors, ensuring they were well fed and cared for. They both made special effort to keep their home warm and friendly, yet they shared a need for privacy. She adds, "When Stanley is relaxed he plays chess and likes to be very quiet. . . . Stanley is so gentle, such a shy and sensitive person." At home, children and animals would frequently come in and out of the room as he worked on a script or met with an actor. Kubrick's many dogs and cats, toward which he showed an extraordinary affection, were often brought onto film sets or editing rooms.

Diane Johnson, co-screenwriter of ''The Shining'', notes that he enjoyed sharing his work with his family: "They all worked together, creating art and film on the kitchen table, so to speak. . . . Stanley was in no way an isolated individual, and never excluded his family from what he was doing."

Kubrick rarely left England during the forty years before he died. "He lived a simple (outer) life, and a largely devotional one," writes Herr, who describes his home and workplace:

}}

Despite once holding a pilot's license, Kubrick became averse to air travel with a fear of flying, and refused to take airplane trips. However, Kubrick kept in constant contact with business associates in the U.S. and elsewhere mostly by telephone, calling associates at all hours for conversations that lasted from under a minute to many hours. Many of Kubrick's admirers and friends spoke of these telephone conversations with great affection and nostalgia after his death. Kubrick also frequently invited people to his house, ranging from actors to close friends, admired film directors, writers, and intellectuals. He rarely took vacations, even after completing a major film, and would simply begin preparing for his next one by catching up on seeing movies that had come out during the last year and searching through books and magazines for his next project idea.

Kubrick was an early user of desktop computers and had five that he worked with at home. LoBrutto describes Kubrick's home office: }}

Screenwriter Michael Herr remembers working with him on ''Full Metal Jacket'', in what he describes as Kubrick's home "War Room" which was a large space "crammed with desks and computers and filing cabinets" and "long trestle tables littered" with sketches and idea papers and photos of "streets, pagodas, prostitutes, shrines, and signs."

Personal characteristics

His appearance was not well known in his later years, to the extent that a British man named Alan Conway successfully impersonated Kubrick locally for a number of years. Biographer Vincent LoBrutto notes that his privacy led to spurious stories about his reclusiveness, "producing a mythology more than a man," similar to those about Greta Garbo, Howard Hughes, and J. D. Salinger.

However, Michael Herr, Kubrick's co-screenwriter on ''Full Metal Jacket'', and someone who knew him well, considers his "reclusiveness" to be myth: ". . . he was in fact a complete failure as a recluse, unless you believe that a recluse is simply someone who seldom leaves his house. Stanley saw a lot of people . . . he was one of the most gregarious men I ever knew, and it didn't change anything that most of this conviviality went on over the phone." He hated being photographed, notes Herr, although he let a few people, including his daughter, Vivian, take a few candids when working.

Herr also describes his voice and conversational style, noting that he had an "especially fraternal temperament" and quite a few women found him "extremely charming." He adds that despite his living in England, his Bronx accent was still noticeable, but added that his voice was fluent and "melodious". "it was as close to the condition of music as speech can get and still be speech"

"Stanley always seemed supernaturally youthful to his friends," writes Herr. "His voice didn't age over the almost twenty years that I knew him [and] he had a disarming way of 'leavening' serious discourse with low adolescent humor, . . ." Ciment adds that he was "soft-spoken, with a crisp, surprisingly youthful voice, alternately serious and humorous in tone." Some of those qualities were also observed by Marisa Berenson, who starred in Barry Lyndon: }}

Kubrick dressed simply, wearing the same style clothes every day: beat chinos, a basic blue work shirt, a ripstop cotton fatigue jacket with many pockets, and a pair of well-worn running shoes. "Many producers and actors thought he dressed like a beatnik," notes Herr, and his wife thought his baggy trousers made him look like a "balloon vendor." His meals were also simple, "he has no time to waste," writes Ciment.

His eyes were "dark, focused, and piercing:" }}

According to screenwriter Frederic Raphael, who worked with him on ''Eyes Wide Shut'', "vanity was not his style; he never cited his own work with complacency and often admired other people's. He could be pitiless, but never conceited. . . he solicited my views quite as if I were some venerable oracle." That view was shared by Herr: "Nobody who really thinks he's smarter than everyone else could ask as many questions as he always did, . . . and trying to see every movie ever made." His inquisitiveness about photography and films started when he was a teenager. He later infiltrated film facilities around New York, hung around editing rooms, laboratories and equipment stores, constantly asking questions.

Herr also notes similarities between Kubrick's temperament and satirist and comedian Lenny Bruce, who was nearly the same age, with their love of jazz, ball games, and their common hipster persona. His temperament as a hipster also reflected Kubrick's likes and dislikes in everyday society. Among those, writes Herr, were his aversions to "waste, haste, . . . [and] bullshit in all its proliferating manifestations, subtle and gross, from the flabby political face telling lies on TV to the most private, much more devastating lies we tell ourselves." According to Herr, Kubrick felt that "hypocrisy was not some petty human foible, it was the corrupted essence of our predicament. . . "

After he moved to England, Kubrick especially enjoyed watching his favorite TV shows, including ''The Simpsons'', the Johnny Carson Show, ''Seinfeld'', and ''Roseanne'', thinking they were excellent comedies that portrayed American life. He had friends in the U.S. send him tapes of television shows, along with sports events and news broadcasts. Gay Hamilton, one of the stars in ''Barry Lyndon'', recalls one night she couldn't get his attention while he and Ryan O'Neal were watching a boxing video he received from the U.S.

"He was fiercely unpretentious," notes Herr. "He was exclusive, he had to be, but he wasn't a snob. It wasn't America he couldn't take. It was L.A." According to Ciment, "social standing means nothing to him and he has no interest in acquiring it; money serves exclusively to guarantee him independence."

Desire for privacy

Herr points out that most of what people knew about Kubrick came from the press, primarily the entertainment press. However, few of the journalists that wrote about his life actually met him or knew much about it. He rarely gave interviews, "because he thought you had to be crazy to do interviews unless you had a picture coming out," adds Herr, who contrasted this with the many celebrities eager for the spotlight and thought this contributed to the public image of Kubrick as reclusive.

Among the notable aspects of his desire for privacy, in his home and film life, was that he never talked about his movies while they were being made. Nor did he like discussing them even afterwards, except to friends. He most of all avoided discussing their "meaning," notes Herr, because "he believed so completely in their meaning that to try and talk about it could only spoil it" for the listener. "He might tell you ''how'' he did it, but never why." When he was once asked how he thought up the ending for ''2001'', he replied, "I don't know. How does anybody ever think of anything?"

This aspect of his penchant for privacy may have also contributed to the negative reviews of many of his films or about him personally. Herr states that "it can never turn out well when a square takes a hipster for his subject." Similarly, Ciment argues that his refusal to "become one of the 'family' may have also "wrecked his chances of ever being honored" in Hollywood as a director, similar to the way Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles and Robert Altman were denied Oscars, all of them considered at the time to be "rebels" within the film world.

When he did grant interviews, however, he did so "with good grace and modesty," writes Ciment. A chauffeur would drive reporters to either a pub or to his home office, which was also his editing room. Interviewers would join him in his room "piled high with cans of film, newspapers, files and card-indexes, like some enormous artist's loft in Montparnasse or Greenwich Village — where this 'eternal student' can work away in privacy."

Death

On March 7, 1999, four days after screening a final cut of ''Eyes Wide Shut'' for his family and the stars, Kubrick died in his sleep from a heart attack at the age of 70. His funeral was held on March 12th at his home estate with only close friends and family in attendance, totaling approximately 100 people. The media was kept a mile away outside the entrance gate.

Alexander Walker, who attended the funeral, describes it as a "family farewell, . . . almost like an English picnic," with cellists, clarinetists and singers providing song and music from many of his favorite classical compositions. Although Kaddish, the Jewish prayer of mourning, was recited, the funeral had no religious overtones, and few of his obituaries mentioned his Jewish background.

Among those who gave eulogies were Terry Semel, Jan Harlan, Steven Spielberg, Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise. He was buried next to his favorite tree in Childwickbury Manor, Hertfordshire, England. In her book dedicated to Kubrick, his wife Christiane included one of his favorite quotes by Oscar Wilde: }}

Influence on film and television

Influence on film industry

Leading directors, including Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Woody Allen, Terry Gilliam, the Coen brothers, Ridley Scott, and George A. Romero, have cited Kubrick as a source of inspiration, and in the case of Spielberg, collaboration. On the DVD of ''Eyes Wide Shut'', Steven Spielberg, in an interview, comments on Kubrick that "nobody could shoot a picture better in history" but the way that Kubrick "tells a story is antithetical to the way we are accustomed to receiving stories". Writing in the introduction to a recent edition of Michel Ciment's ''Kubrick'', film director Martin Scorsese notes that most of Kubrick's films were misunderstood and under-appreciated when first released. Then came a dawning recognition that they were masterful works unlike any other films. Perhaps most notably, Orson Welles, one of Kubrick's greatest personal influences and all-time favorite directors, famously said that: "Among those whom I would call 'younger generation' Kubrick appears to me to be a giant." The directors Richard Linklater, Sam Mendes, Joel Schumacher, Taylor Hackford, and Darren Aronofsky have all mentioned Kubrick as having made one of their favorite films.

Kubrick continues to be cited as a major influence by many directors, including Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, Guillermo del Toro, David Lynch, Lars Von Trier, Michael Mann, and Gaspar Noé. Many filmmakers imitate Kubrick's inventive and unique use of camera movement and framing. For example, several of Jonathan Glazer's music videos contain visual references to Kubrick. The Coen Brother's ''Barton Fink'', in which the hotel itself seems malevolent, contains a hotel hallway Steadicam shot as an homage to ''The Shining''. The storytelling style of their ''Hudsucker Proxy'' was influenced by ''Dr. Strangelove''. Director Tim Burton has included a few visual homages to Kubrick in his work, notably using actual footage from ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' in ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', and modeling the look of Tweedledee and Tweedledum in his version of ''Alice in Wonderland'' on the Grady girls in ''The Shining''. Film critic Roger Ebert also noted that Burton's ''Mars Attacks!'' was partially inspired by ''Dr. Strangelove''. The video for The Killers song ''Bones'' (2006), Burton's only music video, includes clips from Kubrick's ''Lolita'', as well as other films from the general era.

Paul Thomas Anderson (who was fond of Kubrick as a teenager) in an interview with ''Entertainment Weekly'', stated "it's so hard to do anything that doesn't owe some kind of debt to what Stanley Kubrick did with music in movies. Inevitably, you're going to end up doing something that he's probably already done before. It can all seem like we're falling behind whatever he came up with." Reviewer William Arnold described Anderson's ''There Will Be Blood'' as being stylistically an homage to Kubrick "particularly "2001: A Space Odyssey" – opening with a similar prologue that jumps in stages over the years and using a soundtrack throughout that employs anachronistic music."

Although Michael Moore specializes in documentary filmmaking, at the beginning of shooting his only non-documentary feature film ''Canadian Bacon'', he sat his cast and crew down to watch Stanley Kubrick's ''Dr. Strangelove''. He told them "What this movie was in the '60s, is what we should aspire to with this film." Moore had previously written Kubrick a letter telling him how much ''Bacon'' was inspired by ''Strangelove''.

Film director Frank Darabont has been inspired by Kubrick's use of music. In an interview with ''The Telegraph'', he states that ''2001'' took "the use of music in film" to absolute perfection, and one shot employing classical music in ''The Shawshank Redemption'' follows Kubrick's lead. On the other hand, while Darabont has followed Kubrick in directing two Stephen King adaptations, Darabont shares Stephen King's negative view of Kubrick's adaption of ''The Shining''. In the same interview, Darabont said

; Darabont also echoes these criticisms}}

Critics occasionally detect a Kubrickian influence when the actual filmmaker acknowledges none. Critics have noticed the influence of Stanley Kubrick on Danish independent director Nicolas Winding Refn. Jim Pappas suggests this comes from Refn's employment of Kubrick's cinematographer for ''The Shining'' and ''Barry Lyndon'' in his film ''Fear X'', suggesting "it is the Kubrick influence that leaves us asking ourselves what we believe we should know is true". The apparent influence of Kubrick on his film ''Bronson'' was noted by the ''Los Angeles Times'' and the French publication ''Evene'' However, when asked by ''Twitch'' about the very frequent comparisons by critics of the film ''Bronson'' to ''A Clockwork Orange'', Refn denied the influence. Refn stated

Homages

The 2012 Sundance Film Festival held viewings of ''Room 237'', a new documentary directed by Rodney Ascher, which examines overt and hidden meanings behind Kubrick's ''The Shining'' (1980). The film includes footage from that, and other Kubrick films, along with discussions by a number of Kubrick experts. The film includes nine segments, with each segment focusing on different elements within the film which "may reveal hidden clues and hint at at a bigger thematic oeuvre."

In 2001, a number of persons who worked with Kubrick on his films created the documentary ''Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures'', produced and directed by Kubrick's brother-in-law, Jan Harlan, who had executive produced Kubrick's last four films. It consists of several chapters each covering one of Kubrick's films, as well as an introductory section on Kubrick's childhood.

In 2000, BAFTA renamed their Britannia life-time achievement award the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award. Kubrick is among filmmakers such as D. W. Griffith, Laurence Olivier, Cecil B. DeMille, and Irving Thalberg, all of whom have had annual awards named after them. Kubrick won this award in 1999, one year prior to its being renamed in his honor.

In popular culture

The TV series ''The Simpsons'' is said to contain more references to Kubrick films than any other pop culture phenomenon. References abound to many of his films, including ''2001'', ''A Clockwork Orange'', and ''The Shining''. When the Director's Guild of Great Britain gave Kubrick a lifetime achievement award, they included a cut-together sequence of all the homages from the show.

In 2009, an exhibition of paintings and photos inspired by Kubrick's films was held in Dublin, Ireland, entitled 'Stanley Kubrick: Taming Light'. In 2010, painter (and film storyboard artist) Carlos Ramos held an exhibition entitled "Kubrick" in Los Angeles, featuring paintings in a variety of styles based on scenes from Stanley Kubrick films.

Among her multiple allusions to Kubrick in song and video, pop singer Lady Gaga's video for ''Bad Romance'' appeared to pay homage to Kubrick, and her concert shows have included the use of dialogue, costumes, and music from ''A Clockwork Orange''.

Films about elements of Kubrick's life

In the early 1990s, a con artist named Alan Conway frequented the London entertainment scene claiming to be Stanley Kubrick, and temporarily deceived ''New York Times'' theatre critic Frank Rich, as well as multiple aspiring actors. Kubrick's personal assistant, Anthony Frewin, who helped track Conway down, wrote the screenplay for a film based on the Conway affair ''Colour Me Kubrick'' starring John Malkovich as Alan Conway. Kubrick's widow, Christiane Kubrick, was also a consultant for the film. The film contains several tongue-in-cheek homages to scenes from Kubrick's films. Conway was earlier the subject of a short documentary film ''The Man Who Would be Kubrick''.

In 2002, the French documentary film maker William Karel (occasionally referred to as "Europe's Michael Moore") made initial plans for a documentary on Stanley Kubrick, but changed course. Karel was fascinated by the pervading conspiracy theory that Kubrick had faked footage of the NASA moon landings during the filming of ''Space Odyssey'', and chose to make a parody "mockumentary" entitled ''Dark Side of the Moon'' advancing the same thesis entirely in jest. He had the help of Kubrick's surviving family who both acted as consultants for the film and gave scripted fake interviews. In spite of clues that the film is a news parody, some test audiences believed the film to be sincere, including at least one believer in the moon landing conspiracy.

Kubrick has been portrayed on film by actor Stanley Tucci in the film ''The Life and Death of Peter Sellers''. Although Sellers acted in two of Kubrick's films, the material here is almost wholly focused on their work together in ''Dr. Strangelove''.

Filmography

Documentary short films

;As director, writer, cinematographer, and sound ''Day of the Fight'' (1951, RKO Radio Pictures)(also producer and uncredited editor) ''Flying Padre'' (1951, RKO Radio Pictures)(also writer) ''The Seafarers'' (1953, Seafarers International Pictures)(also editor)

''Day of the Fight'' was part of RKO-Pathé's "This Is America" series. ''The Flying Padre'' was an RKO-Pathe Screenliner. ''The Seafarers'' and ''Spartacus'' were Kubrick's only color films prior to ''2001: A Space Odyssey''.

Feature films

! Year	! Film	! Director	! Producer	! Screenplay(in part or whole)	! Editor	! Cinematographer	! Special effectsdesigner and director
1953	''Fear and Desire''
1955	''Killer's Kiss''
1956
1957	''Paths of Glory''		1
1960
1962				1
1964	''Dr. Strangelove''
1968
1971
1975	''Barry Lyndon''
1980
1987	''Full Metal Jacket''
1999	''Eyes Wide Shut''
2001	''A.I. Artificial Intelligence''

¹ Uncredited

²Stanley Kubrick was responsible for the underlying concept of Steven Spielberg's ''A.I.: Artificial Intelligence'' which was produced after his death, by his brother-in-law, Jan Harlan. Kubrick is thanked in the credits, but is not credited as writer. A new screenplay was written by Steven Spielberg based on a 90-page story treatment done in 1990 by Ian Watson which in turn had closely followed Kubrick's stated directives. The film is based on a short story by Brian Aldiss.

Turner Classic Movies reports that Kubrick effectively took over the job of cinematographer on the set of ''Spartacus'' from credited cinematographer Russell Metty by micromanaging him. Metty complained the Kubrick was taking over his job, and Kubrick thought of himself as the "real" cinematographer. Many other sources report general clashes between Metty and Kubrick on the set. ''Spartacus'' won Metty his only Oscar.

In 1976, production designer Ken Adam, who had worked with Kubrick on ''Dr. Strangelove'' and ''Barry Lyndon'', asked him for advice on how to light the enormous 007 soundstage prepared for the James Bond movie ''The Spy Who Loved Me''.(Kubrick's stepdaughter was already working as Adam's assistant). Kubrick agreed to consult if promised that nobody would ever know of his involvement. The agreement was honored until after Kubrick's death in 1999, when in 2000 it was revealed by Adam in the 2000 documentary Inside 'The Spy Who Loved Me'.

Awards and nominations

All of Stanley Kubrick's later films, except for ''The Shining'', were nominated for Oscars or Golden Globes, in various categories. ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' received numerous technical awards, including a BAFTA award for cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth and an Academy Award for best visual effects, which Kubrick (as director of special effects on the film) received. This was Kubrick's only personal Oscar win among 13 nominations. Nominations for his films were mostly in the areas of cinematography, art design, screenwriting, and music. Only four of his films were nominated by either an Oscar or Golden Globe for their acting performances, ''Spartacus'', ''Lolita'', ''Dr. Strangelove'', and ''A Clockwork Orange''.

Personal awards for Kubrick:

''The Killing (film)

Year !! Title !! Awards (limited to Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Saturns and Razzies)
1953	''Fear and Desire''
1955	''Killer's Kiss''
1956	The Killing'' ||rowspan=2|Nominated for BAFTA Award: Best Film from Any Source
1957	''Paths of Glory''
1960	Spartacus (1960 film)>Spartacus''
1962	Lolita (1962 film)>Lolita''
1964	''Dr. Strangelove''
1968	2001: A Space Odyssey (film)>2001: A Space Odyssey''
1971	A Clockwork Orange (film)>A Clockwork Orange''
1975	''Barry Lyndon''
1980	The Shining (film)>The Shining''
1987	''Full Metal Jacket''
1999	''Eyes Wide Shut''

Kubrick received two awards from major film festivals: "Best Director" from the Locarno International Film Festival in 1959 for ''Killer's Kiss'', and "Filmcritica ''Bastone Bianco'' Award" at the Venice Film Festival in 1999 for ''Eyes Wide Shut''. He also was nominated for the "Golden Lion" of the Venice Film Festival in 1962 for ''Lolita''. The Venice Film Festival awarded him the "Career Golden Lion" in 1997. He received the D.W. Griffith Lifetime Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of America, and another life-achievement award from the Director's Guild of Great Britain, and the ''Career Golden Lion'' from the Venice Film Festival. Posthumously, the Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival awarded him the "Honorary Grand Prize" for life achievement in 2008. He also received the coveted Hugo Award three times for his work in science fiction.

See also

Hawk Films

Stanley Kubrick Archive

''Stanley Kubrick's Boxes''

''Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures''

List of famous amateur chess players

Notes

References

(Storyboard for ''The Shining'', Castle, Alison (editor) and Kubrick, Stanley (photographs)) Reprinted in: Philips 2001; extract in The ALT.MOVIES.KUBRICK FAQ

Raphael, Frederic. ''Eyes Wide Open: A Memoir of Stanley Kubrick'', Ballantine, 1999

Further reading

Lyons, V and Fitzgerald, M. (2005) ‘’Asperger syndrome : a gift or a curse?’’ New York : Nova Science Publishers. ISBN 978-1-59454-387-6

Deutsches Filmmuseum (Ed.): Stanley Kubrick ; Kinematograph Nr. 14, Frankfurt/Main, 2004. ISBN 978-3-88799-069-5 (English edition)

;Documentary

''Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures''. Documentary film. Dir. Jan Harlan. Warner Home Video, 2001. 142 min.

External links

The Authorized Stanley Kubrick Web Site by Warner Bros.

Video: ''Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures'' Introduction, 2.5 minutes

(identical to bio at Yahoo Movies)

Kubrick on Senses of Cinema (In Depth Biography)

Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database

The Guardian: Citizen Kubrick

The Kubrick Site

Stanley Kubrick Interviews, by Stanley Kubrick, Gene D. Phillips

Detailed analysis about Stanley Kubrick (French language)

Stanley Kubrick Archive at the London College of Communication

Kubrick Multimedia Film Guide

Multi-media Kubrick archive

List of interviews and Look photographs

List of all the published Look photographs

Photo gallery: Kubrick on set

Category:1928 births Category:1999 deaths Category:Academy Award winners Category:American cinematographers Category:Obscenity controversies Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:American film directors Category:American film editors Category:American film producers Category:People from Manhattan Category:American people of Austrian-Jewish descent Category:American people of Romanian-Jewish descent Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent Category:American agnostics Category:American emigrants to the United Kingdom Category:American screenwriters Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Best Visual Effects Academy Award winners Category:Censorship in the arts Category:City College of New York alumni Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:People from the Bronx Category:Amateur chess players Category:Special effects people Category:Jewish American writers

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name	Sue Lyon
birth name	Suellyn Lyon
birth date	July 10, 1946
birth place	Davenport, Iowa
years active	1960–1980
spouse	Hampton Fancher (1963–1965) (divorced) Roland Harrison (1971–1972) (divorced) 1 child Cotton Adamson (1973–1974) (divorced) Edward Weathers (1983–1984) (divorced) Richard Rudman (1985–2002) (divorced) }}

Sue Lyon (born July 10, 1946 in Davenport, Iowa) is an American actress.

Film career

''Lolita''

Sue Lyon was 14 years old when she was cast in the role of Dolores "Lolita" Haze, the sexually charged adolescent and the object of an older man's obsessions in Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film, ''Lolita''. She was chosen for the role partly because her curvy figure suggested an older adolescent. Based on the Vladimir Nabokov novel of the same name, Kubrick's ''Lolita'', though a toned-down version of the book (Lolita is only 12 at the beginning of the novel and 17 at the end), was nonetheless one of the most controversial films of its day. Lyon was 16 when the film premiered in September 1962. She became an instant celebrity and won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Female. Despite her inexperience, she was praised for holding her own in scenes with the three top-billed stars of the film, James Mason, Shelley Winters, and Peter Sellers.

Sue Lyon recorded two songs for the MGM-Seven Arts Presentation of Harris-Kubrick's "Lolita" on an MGM 45 rpm record, Side-A, "Lolita Ya Ya" (Riddle-Harris) and Side-B, "Turn Off the Moon" (Stillman-Harris).

Later films

In 1963, Lyon was again cast as a seductive teen in John Huston's ''The Night of the Iguana'' (1964), competing for the affections of Richard Burton's defrocked preacher against the likes of Deborah Kerr and Ava Gardner. Again, controversy surrounded her because of a provocative scene in the film in which Lyon is shown emerging from the water. In 1965, she played a mission worker in China in director John Ford's last feature film, ''7 Women''. Lyon played the female lead in the 1967 comedy ''The Flim-Flam Man'' and had a supporting role in 1967's ''Tony Rome'' which starred Frank Sinatra. She played the wife of daredevil Evel Knievel in the 1971 film ''Evel Knievel''.

By the 1970s, she was relegated to mainly secondary roles. She continued to work in film and television until 1980.

Filmography

''Alligator'' (1980) as ABC Newswoman

''Towing'' (1978) as Lynn

''Fantasy Island'' as Jill Nolan (1 episode, 1978)

''Don't Push, I'll Charge When I'm Ready''(1977) (TV) as Wendy Sutherland

''End of the World'' (1977) as Sylvia Boran

''Crash!'' (1977) as Kim Denne

''Smash-Up on Interstate 5'' (1976) (TV) as Burnsey

''Invisible Strangler'' (1976) as Darlene DeLong

''Love, American Style'' as Barbara Eric (segment "Love and the Bed") /(2 episodes, 1969–1974)

''Gota de sangre para morir amando, Una'' (1973) as Ana Vernia

''Tarot'' (1973) as Angela

''Night Gallery'' as Betsy (1 episode, 1971)

''Evel Knievel'' (1971) as Linda

''Storefront Lawyers'' (1 episode, 1971)

''The Virginian'' as Belinda Ballard (1 episode, 1970)

''But I Don't Want to Get Married!'' (1970) (TV) as Laura

''Four Rode Out'' (1970) as Myra Polsen

''Arsenic and Old Lace'' (1969) (TV) as Elaine Harper

''Tony Rome'' (1967) as Diana Pines

''The Flim-Flam Man'' (1967) as Bonnie Lee Packard

''7 Women'' (1966) as Emma Clark, Mission Staff

''The Night of the Iguana'' (1964) as Charlotte Goodall

''Lolita'' (1962) as Lolita

''Letter to Loretta'' as Laurie (1 episode, 1959)

References

External links

Category:1946 births Category:Living people Category:People from Davenport, Iowa Category:American actors Category:American child actors Category:American expatriates in Spain Category:Actors from Iowa Category:MGM Records artists

de:Sue Lyon es:Sue Lyon fr:Sue Lyon it:Sue Lyon ja:スー・リオン ru:Лайон, Сью sv:Sue Lyon

LeRoy Holmes (born Alvin Holmes September 22, 1913, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – July 27, 1986, Los Angeles, California) was an American songwriter, composer, arranger and conductor.

Holmes studied music at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and the Juilliard School in New York, before working with a number of bandleaders during the 1930s and early 40s. These included Ernst Toch, Vincent Lopez, and Harry James

After serving as a lieutenant in the US Navy during the Second World War, he moved to Hollywood, where he was hired by MGM Music Studios as a house arranger and conductor, before later moving to United Artists. During his time with MGM, he backed numerous vocalists, including Judy Garland, and in 1954 made what is possibly his best known recording, a version of the theme to the film The High and the Mighty. The song is known for its distinctive accompanying whistling, which was provided by Fred Lowery. Holmes provided the orchestration for Tommy Edwards epic 1958 hit "It's All In The Game", and tried rock and R&B; with his backing to the Impalas "Sorry (I Ran All The Way Home)". Holmes also wrote the theme song to the television series ''International Detective''.

He moved to United Artists Records in the early 1960s, where he contributed to many compilations of movie themes, released albums under his own name and backed a succession of singers, notably Connie Francis, Gloria Lynne, Shirley Bassey and Puerto Rican singers like Tito Rodríguez and Chucho Avellanet. In addition, he produced albums for a number of United Artists acts, including the Briarwood Singers. He also worked on the music for the 1977 film ''The Chicken Chronicles'' (''see'' 1977 in film).

External links

LeRoy Holmes at Space Age Pop

Category:1913 births Category:1986 deaths Category:American bandleaders Category:American conductors (music) Category:Northwestern University alumni Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:MGM Records artists

name	Ennio Morricone
background	non_performing_personnel
birth date	November 10, 1928
alias	Maestro
genre	Film music, classical music, pop music, jazz, lounge music, easy listening
origin	Rome, Italy
occupation	Composer, orchestrator, music director, conductor, trumpeter
associated acts	Bruno Nicolai, Alessandro Alessandroni, Mina, Yo-Yo Ma, Mireille Mathieu, Joan Baez, Andrea Bocelli, Roger Waters, Sarah Brightman, Amii Stewart, Paul Anka, Milva, Gianni Morandi, Dalida, Catherine Spaak, Pet Shop Boys, Hayley Westenra, and others
years active	1946–present
website	http://www.enniomorricone.it }}

Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , (born November 10, 1928) is an Italian composer and conductor, who has written music for more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces. Morricone is most famous for his work in the Spaghetti Westerns directed by his friend Sergio Leone, including ''A Fistful of Dollars'' (1964), ''For a Few Dollars More'' (1965), ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' (1966), and ''Once Upon a Time in the West'' (1968) but his career includes a wide range of composition genres making him one of the film world's most versatile artists. He is considered as one of the most influential film music composers of the 20th century.

Born in Rome, Italy, Morricone took up the trumpet as a child and attended the National Academy of Santa Cecilia to take lessons on the instrument at the age of nine. He formally entered a conservatory at the age of 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony programme. He received his trumpet diploma in 1946 and started working professionally, composing the music to "Il Mattino" ("The Morning"). Morricone soon gained popularity by writing his first background music for radio dramas and quickly moved into film.

In the 1950s he received the "Diploma in Instrumentation for Band" (fanfare) where he won a diploma in Composition under the composer Goffredo Petrassi. In 1955, Morricone started to ghost write and arrange music for other, already established film composers. Morricone soon came to the attention of his former school friend Sergio Leone, who hired Morricone to compose the music to some of his best known films. Together they created a distinctive score to accompany Leone's different version of the Western, ''A Fistful of Dollars''.

In the 80s and 90s, Morricone continued to write the music for Leone's later films, including ''Once Upon a Time in America'' (1984). He also composed the music to Joffé's ''The Mission'' (1986), De Palma's ''The Untouchables'' (1987) and Tornatore's ''Cinema Paradiso'' (1988). His more recent compositions include the scores for ''Malèna'' (2000), ''Fateless'' (2005), and ''Baaria - La porta del vento'' (2009).

Morricone has received two Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, five BAFTAs during 1979–1992, seven David di Donatello, eight Nastro d'Argento, and the Polar Music Prize in 2010. In 2007, he received the Academy Honorary Award "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music" and has been nominated for a further five Oscars in the category of Best Original Score during 1979–2001, but has never won competitively.

Biography

Early career

Ennio Morricone was born in Rome, the son of Libera and Mario Morricone, a jazz trumpeter. Morricone wrote his first compositions when he was six years old and was encouraged to develop his natural talents. Compelled to take up the trumpet, he attended the National Academy of Santa Cecilia to take lessons on the instrument at the age of nine. Morricone formally entered the conservatory in 1940 at the age of 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony program. According to various reports, he completed it in either two years or six months (date approximate). He studied the trumpet, composition, choral music, and choral direction under Goffredo Petrassi, who deeply influenced him and to whom Morricone has dedicated concert pieces.

These were the difficult years of World War II in the heavily bombed "open city"; the composer remarked that what he mostly remembered of those years was the hunger. His wartime experiences influenced many of his scores for films set in that period.

After he graduated, he continued to work in classical composition and arrangement. In 1946, Morricone received his trumpet diploma and in the same year he composed "Il Mattino" ("The Morning") for voice and piano on a text by Fukuko, first in a group of 7 "youth" Lieder. Other serious compositions are "Imitazione" (1947) for voice and piano on a text by Giacomo Leopardi and "Intimità" for voice and piano on a text by Olinto Dini.

In the early 1950s, Morricone began writing his first background music for radio dramas. Nonetheless he continued composing classical pieces as "Distacco I e Distacco II" for voice and piano on a text by Ranieri Gnoli, "Verrà la Morte" for contralto and piano on a text by Cesare Pavese, "Oboe Sommerso" for baritone and five instruments on a text by Salvatore Quasimodo.

Although the composer had received the "Diploma in Instrumentation for Band" (fanfare) in 1952, his studies concluded in 1954, obtaining a diploma in Composition under the composer Goffredo Petrassi. In 1955, Morricone started to write or arrange music for films credited to other already well-known composers (ghost writing). He occasionally adopted Anglicized pseudonyms, such as Dan Savio and Leo Nichols.

Morricone wrote more works in the climate of the Italian avant-garde. A few of these compositions have been made available on CD, such as "Ut", his trumpet concerto dedicated to the soloist Mauro Maur, one of his favorite musicians; some have yet to be premiered. From the mid-sixties and onwards, he was part of Gruppo di Improvvisazione di Nuova Consonanza, a group of composers who performed and recorded avant garde free improvisations, even scoring a few films during the 1970s.

Leone film scores

Well-versed in a variety of musical idioms from his RCA experience, Morricone began composing film scores in the early 1960s. Though his first films were undistinguished, Morricone's arrangement of an American folk song intrigued director and former schoolmate Sergio Leone. Leone hired Morricone, and together they created a distinctive score to accompany Leone's different version of the Western, ''A Fistful of Dollars'' (1964). As budget strictures limited Morricone's access to a full orchestra, he used gunshots, cracking whips, whistle, voices, guimbarde (jaw harp), trumpets, and the new Fender electric guitar, instead of orchestral arrangements of Western standards à la John Ford. Morricone used his special effects to punctuate and comically tweak the action—cluing in the audience to the taciturn man's ironic stance. Though sonically bizarre for a movie score, Morricone's music was viscerally true to Leone's vision. As memorable as Leone's close-ups, harsh violence, and black comedy, Morricone's work helped to expand the musical possibilities of film scoring. Morricone was initially billed on the film as Dan Savio.

Morricone composed music for over 40 Westerns (the last was ''North Star'' (1996)), most of them Spaghetti Westerns. He scored Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns, from ''A Fistful of Dollars'' (1964) and including ''For a Few Dollars More'' (1965), ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' (1966), and ''Once Upon a Time in the West'' (1968), as well as later films such as ''A Fistful of Dynamite'' (1971), ''My Name Is Nobody'' (1973), and ''A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe'' (1975). The collaboration with Leone is considered one of the exemplary collaborations between a director and a composer.

With the score of ''A Fistful of Dollars'', Morricone began his 10-year collaboration with his childhood friend Alessandro Alessandroni and his Cantori Moderni. Alessandroni provided the whistling and the twanging guitar on the film scores, while his Cantori Moderni were a flexible troupe of modern singers. Morricone specifically exploited the solo soprano of the group, Edda Dell'Orso, at the height of her powers—"an extraordinary voice at my disposal".

In addition, Morricone composed music for many other, not so popular Spaghetti Westerns, including ''Duello nel Texas'' (1963), ''Le pistole non discutono'' (1964), ''A Pistol for Ringo'' (1965), ''The Return of Ringo'' (1965), ''Navajo Joe'' (1966), ''The Big Gundown'', (1966), ''Face to Face'' (1967), ''Death Rides a Horse'' (1967), ''The Hellbenders'' (1967), ''A Bullet for the General'' (1967), ''The Mercenary'' (1968), ''Tepepa'' (1968), ''The Great Silence'' (1968), ''Guns for San Sebastian'' (1968), ''…And for a Roof a Sky Full of Stars'' (1968), ''The Five Man Army'' (1969), ''Queimada!'' (1969), ''Vamos a matar, compañeros'' (1970), ''Two Mules for Sister Sara'' (1970), ''Sonny and Jed'' (1972), and ''Buddy Goes West'' (1981).

Notable film scores

Most of Morricone's film scores of the 1960s were composed outside the Spaghetti Western genre, while still using Alessandroni's team. Their music included the themes for ''Il Malamondo'' (1964), ''Slalom'' (1965), ''The Battle of Algiers'' (1965), and ''Listen, Let's Make Love'' (1967). In 1968, Morricone reduced his work outside the movie business and wrote scores for 20 films in the same year. The scores included psychedelic accompaniment for Mario Bava's superhero romp ''Danger: Diabolik'' (1968). The next year marked the start of a series of evocative scores for Dario Argento's stylized thrillers, including ''The Bird with the Crystal Plumage'' (1969), ''The Cat o' Nine Tails'' (1971), and ''Four Flies on Grey Velvet'' (1974). In 1970, Morricone wrote the score for ''Violent City''. That same year, he received his first Nastro d'Argento for the music in ''Metti una sera a cena'' (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 1969) and his second only a year later for ''Sacco e Vanzetti'' (Giuliano Montaldo, 1971), in which he had made a memorable collaboration with the legendary American folk singer and activist Joan Baez. In 1973, he scored a theme for the crime film ''Revolver'' (1973). Morricone composed the score for John Carpenter's science-fiction/horror movie ''The Thing'' (1982) as well as Brian De Palma's war drama ''Casualties of War'' (1989).

Morricone has worked for television, from a single title piece to variety shows and documentaries to TV series, including the US TV Western ''The Men From Shiloh'' (1970), ''Moses'' (1974) and ''Marco Polo'' (1982). One notable composition, "Chi Mai" was used in the films, ''Maddalena'' (1971) and ''Le Professionnel'' (1981) as well as the TV series ''The Life and Times of David Lloyd George'' (1981). It was a surprise hit in the UK, almost topping the charts. He wrote the score for the Mafia television series ''La piovra'' seasons 2 to 10 from 1985 to 2001, including the themes "Droga e sangue" ("Drugs and Blood"), "La morale", and "L'immorale". Morricone worked as the conductor of seasons 3 to 5 of the series. He also worked as the music supervisor for the television project ''La bibbia'' ("The Bible"). In the late 1990s, he collaborated with his son, Andrea, on the ''Ultimo'' crime dramas. Their collaboration yielded the BAFTA-winning ''Nuovo cinema Paradiso''. In 2003, Ennio Morricone scored another epic, for Japanese television, called ''Musashi'' and was the Taiga drama about Miyamoto Musashi, Japan's legendary warrior. A part of his "applied music" is now applied to Italian television films.

Concerts and live orchestrations

Since 2001, Morricone has been on a world tour, the latter part sponsored by Giorgio Armani, with the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta, touring London (Barbican 2001; 75th birthday ''Concerto'', Royal Albert Hall 2003), Paris, Verona, and Tokyo. Morricone performed his classic film scores at the Munich Philharmonie in 2005 and Hammersmith Apollo Theatre in London, UK, on 2006-12-01 and 2006-12-02.

He made his North American concert debut on January 29, 2007 Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City and four days later at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The previous evening, Morricone had already presented at the United Nations a concert comprising some of his film themes, as well as the cantata ''Voci dal silenzio'' to welcome the new Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. A ''Los Angeles Times'' review bemoaned the poor acoustics and opined of Morricone: "His stick technique is adequate, but his charisma as a conductor is zero." Morricone, though, has said: "Conducting has never been important to me. If the audience comes for my gestures, they had better stay outside."

On December 12, 2007, Morricone conducted the Roma Sinfonietta at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, presenting a selection of his own works. Together with the Roma Sinfonietta and the Belfast Philharmonic Choir, Morricone performed at the Opening Concerts of the Belfast Festival at Queen's, in the Waterfront Hall on October 17 and 18, 2008. Morricone and Roma Sinfonietta also held a concert at the Belgrade Arena (Belgrade, Serbia) on February 14, 2009.

On April 10, 2010, Morricone conducted a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the Roma Sinfonietta and (as in all of his previous London concerts) the Crouch End Festival Chorus. On August 27, 2010, he conducted a concert in Hungary. Two other concerts took place in Verona and Sofia (Bulgaria) on 11 and 17 September 2010.

Recent works

Morricone provided the string arrangements on Morrissey's "Dear God Please Help Me" from the album ''Ringleader of the Tormentors'' in 2006.

Quentin Tarantino originally wanted Morricone to compose the soundtrack for his most recent film, ''Inglourious Basterds''. However, Morricone refused because of the sped-up production schedule of the film. Tarantino did use several Morricone tracks from previous films in the soundtrack.

Morricone instead wrote the music for Baaria - La porta del vento, the most recent movie by Giuseppe Tornatore. The composer is also writing music for Tornatore's upcoming movie Leningrad.

In spring and summer 2010, Morricone worked with Hayley Westenra for a collaboration on her album ''Paradiso''. The album features new songs written by Morricone, as well as some of his best known film compositions of the last 50 years. Hayley recorded the album with Morricone's orchestra in Rome during the summer of 2010.

Public reputation

In 1956, Morricone started to support his family by playing in a jazz band and arranging pop songs for the Italian broadcasting service RAI. He was hired by RAI in 1958, but quit his job on his first day at work when he was told that broadcasting of music composed by employees was forbidden by a company rule. Subsequently, Morricone became a top studio arranger at RCA, working with Renato Rascel, Rita Pavone, and Mario Lanza. A particular success was one of his own songs, "Se telefonando".

Performed by Mina, it was a standout track of ''Studio Uno 66'', the fifth-biggest-selling album of the year 1966 in Italy. Morricone's sophisticated arrangement of "Se telefonando" was a combination of melodic trumpet lines, Hal Blaine–style drumming, a string set, a '60s Europop female choir, and intensive subsonic-sounding trombones. The Italian Hitparade #7 song had eight transitions of tonality building tension throughout the chorus.

During the following decades, the song was covered by several performers in Italy and abroad—most notably by Françoise Hardy and Iva Zanicchi (1966), Delta V (2005), Vanessa and the O's (2007), and Neil Hannon (2008). In the reader's poll conducted by the la Repubblica newspaper to celebrate Mina's 70th anniversary in 2010, 30,000 voters picked the track as the best song ever recorded by Mina. Throughout the '60s Morricone composed songs for other artists including Milva, Gianni Morandi, Paul Anka, Amii Stewart, and Mireille Mathieu.

Personal life

On 13 October 1956, he married Maria Travia and had his first son, Marco, in 1957. Travia has written lyrics to complement her husband's pieces. Her works include the Latin texts for ''The Mission''. They have three sons and a daughter, in order of birth: Marco, Alessandra, the conductor and film composer Andrea (Andrew), and Giovanni (a filmmaker who lives in New York City).

Influence and modern references

Morricone's influence also extends into the realm of pop music. Hugo Montenegro had a hit with a version of the main theme from ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' in both the United Kingdom and the United States. This was followed by his album of Morricone's music in 1968.

Aside from his music having been sampled by everyone from rappers (Jay-Z) to electronic outfits (the Orb), Morricone wrote "Se Telefonando", which became Italy's fifth biggest-selling record of 1966 and has since been re-recorded by Françoise Hardy, among many others, and scored the strings for "Dear God, Please Help Me" on Morrissey's 2006 "Ringleader of the Tormentors" album.

Morricone's film music was also recorded by many artists. John Zorn recorded an album of Morricone's music, ''The Big Gundown'', with Keith Rosenberg in the mid-1980s. Lyricists and poets have helped convert some of his melodies into a songbook.

Morricone collaborated with world music artists, like Portuguese fado singer Dulce Pontes (in 2003 with ''Focus'', an album praised by Paulo Coelho and where his songbook can be sampled) and virtuoso cellist Yo-Yo Ma (in 2004), who both recorded albums of Morricone classics with the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra and Morricone himself conducting.

In 1990 the American singer Amii Stewart, best known for the 1979 disco hit "Knock On Wood", recorded a tribute album entitled ''Pearls - Amii Stewart Sings Ennio Morricone'' for the RCA label, including a selection of the composer's best known songs. Since the mid 1980s Stewart resides in Italy, the ''Pearls'' album features Rome's Philharmonic Orchestra and was co-produced by Morricone himself.

The 2003 Quentin Tarantino film ''Kill Bill'' Volumes 1 & 2 makes extensive use of several Morricone pieces from several 1960s film scores. The 2009 film ''Inglourious Basterds'' also uses many Morricone pieces, as well as sharing "Il Mercenario (Ripresa)" with Kill Bill.

Metallica uses Morricone's ''The Ecstasy of Gold'' as an intro at their concerts (shock jocks Opie and Anthony also use the song at the start of their XM Satellite Radio and CBS Radio shows.) The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra also played it on Metallica's Symphonic rock album S&M;. Ramones used the theme from ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' as a concert intro. The theme from ''A Fistful Of Dollars'' is also used as a concert intro by The Mars Volta.

His influence extends from Michael Nyman to Anna Calvi to Muse. He even has his own tribute band, a large group which started in Australia, touring as The Spaghetti Western Orchestra.

Morricone is mentioned by Myles, a musician/scorer (played by Jack Black in ''The Holiday''), as creator of magical sounds that formed a character as much as lines of music in his films. This played out in a scene at a video rental store between Black and actress Kate Winslett.

In 2007, the tribute album ''We All Love Ennio Morricone'' was released. It features performances by various artists, including Sarah Brightman, Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion, Bruce Springsteen and Metallica.

On their 2008 album "Red of Tooth and Claw" the independent rock band, Murder by Death, composed and included a song as a theme/tribute to Morricone entitled "Theme (for Ennio Morricone)."

British band Muse cites Morricone as an influence for the songs "City of Delusion", "Hoodoo", and "Knights of Cydonia" on their album ''Black Holes and Revelations''.. The band has recently started playing the song "Man With A Harmonica" live played by Chris Wolstenholme, as an intro to "Knights of Cydonia".

In January 2010, tenor Donald Braswell II released his album "We Fall and We Rise Again" on which he presented his tribute to Ennio Morricone with his original composition entitled "Ennio".

The score for ''The Thing'' 2011 prequel film composed by Marco Beltrami was inspired and uses several elements from Morricone's original soundtrack from the 1982 film of the same name.

Discography

Ennio Morricone has sold over 50 million records worldwide, including 6.5 million copies in France and more than two million albums in Korea.

Top worldwide film grosses

Ennio Morricone has been involved with eight movies grossing over $25 million at the box office:

{|class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Year !! class="unsortable"|Title !! class="unsortable"|Director !! Gross |- | 1966 || ''The Good, The Bad & The Ugly'' || Sergio Leone || $25,100,000 |- | 1977 || ''Exorcist II: The Heretic'' || John Boorman || $30,749,142 |- | 1987 || ''The Untouchables'' || Brian De Palma || $76,270,454 |- | 1991 || ''Bugsy'' || Barry Levinson || $49,114,016 |- | 1993 || ''In the Line of Fire'' || Wolfgang Petersen || $176,997,168 |- | 1994 || ''Wolf'' || Mike Nichols || $131,002,597 |- | 1994 || ''Disclosure'' || Barry Levinson || $214,015,089 |- | 2000 || ''Mission to Mars'' || Brian De Palma || $110,983,407 |}

Other successful movies with Morricone's work are ''Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2'' (2003, 2004) and ''Inglourious Basterds'' (2009), though the tracks used are sampled from older pictures.

Awards

He received his first Academy Award nomination in 1979, for the score to ''Days of Heaven'' (Terrence Malick, 1978). He was later nominated for a further two awards; in 1986 for ''The Mission'' and in 1987 for ''The Untouchables''. He later nominated for the score to ''Bugsy'' (Barry Levinson) (1991). His last nomination was for ''Malèna'' (2000).

Morricone and Alex North are the only composers to receive the Honorary Oscar since the award's introduction in 1928. North was nominated for fifteen Oscars, but like Morricone, he never won competitively.

Morricone received an honorary Academy Award on February 25, 2007, presented by Clint Eastwood, "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music." With the statuette came a standing ovation. Not only nominated five times, but also he received a lifetime achievement Oscar, five Baftas and two Golden Globes. In conjunction with the honor, Morricone released a tribute album, ''We All Love Ennio Morricone'', that featured as its centerpiece Celine Dion's rendition of "I Knew I Loved You" (based on "Deborah's Theme" from ''Once Upon a Time in America''), which she performed at the ceremony. Behind-the-scenes studio production and recording footage of "I Knew I Loved You" can be viewed in the debut episode of the QuincyJones.com Podcast. The lyric, as with Morricone's ''Love Affair'', had been penned by Oscar-winning husband-and-wife duo Marilyn and Alan Bergman. Morricone's acceptance speech was in his native Italian tongue and was interpreted by Clint Eastwood, who stood to his left. Eastwood and Morricone had in fact met two days earlier—for the first time in 40 years—at a reception.

List of prizes and awards

1965 – Nastro d'Argento for ''A Fistful of Dollars''

1967 – Diapason d'Or

1969 – Premio Spoleto Cinema

1970 – Nastro d'argento for ''Metti una sera a cena''

1971 – Nastro d'argento for ''Sacco e Vanzetti''

1972 – Cork Film International for ''La califfa''

1979 – Academy Awards nomination for ''Days of Heaven''

1979 – Premio Vittorio de Sica

1981 – Premio della critica discografica for ''Il prato''

1984 – Premio Zurlini

1985 – Nastro d'argento and BAFTA for ''Once Upon A Time In America''

1986 – Academy Awards Nomination, BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards for ''The Mission''

1986 – ''Premio Vittorio de Sica''

1988 – Academy Awards nomination, Nastro d'argento, BAFTA and Grammy Awards for ''The Untouchables''

1988 – David di Donatello for ''Gli occhiali d'oro''

1989 – David di Donatello for ''Nuovo Cinema Paradiso''

1989 – Ninth Annual Ace Winner for ''Il Giorno prima''

1989 – Pardo d'Oro alla carriera Locarno Film Festival

1990 – BAFTA, Prix Fondation Sacem del XLIII Cannes Film Festival and David di Donatello for ''Nuovo Cinema Paradiso''

1991 – David di Donatello for ''Stanno tutti bene''

1992 – Academy Award nomination for ''Bugsy''

1992 – Pentagramma d'oro

1992 – Premio Michelangelo

1992 – Grolla d'oro alla carriera (Saint Vincent)

1993 – David di Donatello and Efebo d'Argento for ''Jonas che visse nella balena''

1993 – Globo d'oro Stampa estera in Italia

1993 – Gran Premio SACEM audiovisivi

1994 – ASCAP ''Golden Soundtrack Award'' (Los Angeles)

1995 – Premio Rota

1995 – Golden Lion Honorary Award by the Venice Film Festival

1996 – ''Premio citta' di Roma''

1996 – ''Premio Cappelli''

1996 – Premio Accademia di Santa Cecilia

1997 – Premio Flaiano

1998 – Columbus Prize

1999 – Erich Wolfgang Korngold Internationaler Preis für Film

1999 – Exsquibbidles Film Academy lifetime achievement award

2000 – Golden Globe for ''The Legend of 1900'' (1998)

2000 – David di Donatello and Nastro d'argento for ''Canone Inverso''

2000 – Academy Awards nomination for ''Malèna''

2000 – Nastro d'argento for ''Malèna''

2001 – Mikeldi de Honor at "Zinebi – International Festival of Documentary and Short Films" of Bilbao

2002 – Honorary Degree by the "Seconda Università" of Rome

2003 – Golden Eagle Award by the Russian National Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences of Russia for ''72 Meters (film)''

2003 – Honorary Senator of the Filmscoring Class of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München

2006 – Grand Officer OMRI, nominated by Carlo Azeglio Ciampi

2007 – Honorary Academy Award for career achievement

2007 – The Film & TV Music Award for Lifetime Achievement

2007 – David di Donatello and Nastro d'argento for ''La sconosciuta''

2008 – Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental, performed by Bruce Springsteen

2008 – Knight of the Legion of Honour

2009 – Medal of Merits for Macedonia

2009 – America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation

2010 – Polar Music Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of the Arts

Sources

Horace, B. ''Music from the Movies'', film music journal double issue 45/46, 2005: ISSN 0967-8131

Miceli, Sergio. ''Morricone, la musica, il cinema''. Milan: Mucchi/Ricordi, 1994: ISBN 88-7592-398-1

Miceli, Sergio. "Morricone, Ennio". ''The Nesw Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.

Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. ''Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 3. Dal 1960 al 1969''. Gremese, 1993: ISBN 88-7605-593-2

Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. ''Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 4. Dal 1970 al 1979* A/L''. Gremese, 1996: ISBN 88-7605-935-0

Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. ''Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 4. Dal 1970 al 1979** M/Z''. Gremese, 1996: ISBN 88-7605-969-5

Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. ''Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 5. Dal 1980 al 1989* A/L''. Gremese, 2000: ISBN 88-7742-423-0

Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. ''Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 5. Dal 1980 al 1989** M/Z''. Gremese, 2000: ISBN 88-7742-429-X

References

Further reading

Lhassa, Anne, and Jean Lhassa: ''Ennio Morricone: biographie''. Les Planches. Lausanne: Favre; [Paris]: [diff. Inter-forum], 1989. ISBN 2-8289-0418-0,

Wagner, Thorsten. "Improvisation als 'weiteste Ausdehnung des Begriffs der aleatorischen Musik': Franco Evangelisti und die Improvisationsgruppe Nuova Consonanza". In ''...hin zu einer neuen Welt: Notate zu Franco Evangelisti'', edited by Harald Muenz.48-60, 2002. Saarbrücken: Pfau-Verlag. ISBN 3-89727-177-X.

Webb, Michael D. ''Italian 20th Century Music: The Quest for Modernity''. London: Kahn & Averill. ISBN 978-1-871082-89-0

External links

Ennio Morricone Myspace

The Ennio Morricone Online Community

Streaming audio of Morricone's "The Man with the Harmonica," from his soundtrack to ''Once upon a Time in the West''

TÊTE-À-TÊTE: Ennio Morricone by Nic Harcourt at Los Angeles Times Magazine

Making It In Hollywood A documentary which filmed the exclusive first meeting in 40 years with Clint Eastwood.

Category:1928 births Category:20th-century classical composers Category:Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia alumni Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:European Film Awards winners (people) Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Italian composers Category:Italian film score composers Category:Living people Category:Virgin Records artists Category:People from Rome Category:Spaghetti Western composers Category:Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Category:David di Donatello winners‎ Category:David di Donatello Career Award winners

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