Stanley Kubrick

When Kubrick unleashed his final cinematic work Eyes Wide Shut in1999, like all his previous films, it was grievously misunderstood by audiences and critics alike. Based on Arthur Schnitzler’s 1926 novella Traumnovelle (Dream Story), Kubrick upholds a psychoanalytic parallel between the two, as the source story heavily borrowed from Freud’s theory of life (Eros) and death instincts (Thanatos). The task of transporting the overall…

Stanley Kubrick’s acclaimed film, 2001: A Space Odyssey opens with a black screen and a haunting overture that spans the length of nearly three minutes. Eventually, the overture fades out, and the audience can see it’s first glimpse of color; a dark blue background surrounding the film studio’s logo before the film’s first act officially begins. The momentary silence created by the ended overture does not last for long. The beginning of the film’s first act is marked by an operatic title…

Visions of space, time, and technological progress Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey relies on simple editing and sound to create an epic story of space, time, and technological progress. Kubrick sets the film in three different places: the African desert, inside a space station in orbit, and in space itself. When Dr. Heywood Floyd reaches the outpost station on the moon, Kubrick uses a wide angle lens to exploit the distortion of the lines. Such distortions make the station appear…

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love a film directed by Stanley Kubrick is a satirical film, which derides the Cold War fears politicians had over nuclear conflict between the Soviet Union and U.S. but also a reflection of popular American opinion on what could occur if a nuclear outbreak. The U.S. felt the need to contain the communist expansion of the Soviet Union in Europe and to avoid it being spread to the eastern hemisphere which lead to Americans to develop nuclear…

perspective lends Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) a resonating voice in the film genre. By utilizing comedy, one of the most powerful tools in fiction, he created an exceptionally savage film. Kubrick’s political satire is a landmark film and one of the most significant pieces concerning the cold war. The film’s satirical spirit is every bit as caustic now as it was over fifty years ago. To convey the film as a black comedy, Kubrick…

Richard Strauss, a german composer from the 1940s, has composed a timeless score under the name of “Einleitung, oder Sonnenaufgang” in 1896. However, the classical piece has only intrigued the youth of the Twentieth century when it was used by Stanley Kubrick in the 1968 popular film “A Space Odyssey.” Another example of an immortalized classical composition is “The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution” scored by the Italian maestro Gioachino Rossini in 1819 . This piece has been proven…

Mise-en-scène Mise-en-scène is all the elements placed in front of the camera to be photographed such as settings and props, lighting, costumes, make-up and actors and their behavior. In a clip from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick, mise-en-scene is used heavily to convey the major elements of the two sequences without the use of dialogue. The first sequence is of a space ship moving through outer space, heading towards Jupiter. It is immediately easy to notice how…

is well known for his terrifying and striking novels, and The Shining (1977) is definitely one of them. However, it is disputed that even with King’s well known recognition, The Shining (1980) became widely popular after the film adaptation of Stanley Kubrick. Like many of his film, the adaptation is known as a masterpiece, however, The Shining differs in which it is almost common knowledge how iconic the movie is. Alas, as I conducted research on the movie,…

Writers therefore often need a place to write in which they are isolated from other people. Just north of London, there is a small hamlet down the road from an excessively grandiose manor, both called Childwickbury. Childwickbury used to belong to Stanley Kubrick, a popular movie director. Since Stanley's death in 1999, the estate has belonged to his wife, Christiane. Last summer, I stayed with a college friend of my father's, Stanley's son-in-law, who lives on the premise of Childwickbury Manor…

Part One: Short Answer Definitions Satire: Satire is the use of exaggerated humor to poke fun at people’s stupidity. Satire is often used in the context of political and social issues that society is relatively familiar with. Satire needs two factors in order to work properly. First, the target of the satire must be well known. Secondly, the audience needs to accept that the target is fit for mockery. A great example of a satire is the film Life of Brian. Everyone is familiar with the story of…