Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes – More4 Documentary
Right then, this post was originally an adjunct to a recent Flotsam And Jetsam post but I simply lost control and have gone into ‘one’. In my arrogance I expected to learn nothing new given my previously explained obsession but man, there was some magic in there for the Kubrick film nerd with some enchanting footage and insights which deserve a full post, here is the documentary all in one file. Quel suprise I thought the documentary was woefully short at only an hour but hey, I doubt I’d be satisfied with a 12 part mini-series but that’s just me.
First of all, I loved the photography down London’s Commercial Road, a street literally within spitting distance from me which I meandered down on the way up to Stratford to see ‘Double Indemnity’ a couple of weeks ago. Growing up in Peterborough it’s still something of a strangeness that the great man lived and worked down the road in St. Albans – maybe I even walked past him one day, even though I have never really gravitated to hanging round near stationary shops – this will make a little more sense if you saw the documentary. Kinda.
Given the tales that Leon Vitali had burnt at Kubrick’s instruction all the outtakes and alternative scenes of his movies shot since 1961 it was stunning to see some of the (albeit brief) footage from ‘Lolita’ and of course the EIGHTEEN hours of material that his step-daughter shot on the making of ‘Full Metal Jacket’ in a manner similar to her documentary on the shooting of ‘The Shining’ – someone will put this together at some point I’m sure for another fascinating documentary. I am available by the way <crosses fingers…prays…>…..
All the stuff about the shell Empirium film company (for employing proof readers to collate interesting media stories and enhance existing projects – I’m sure the Web in its current development would have literally blown Kubricks mind in this fashion) was new and the references to his abandoned ‘Aryan Papers‘ again made me vaguely angry that Spielberg beat him to the chase for possibly a far more affecting and honorable treatment of one of the most terrible events of the 20th century. I’ve bored friends with his opinion on this and I’ll bore you too – Kubrick said ‘The story of the Holocaust isn’t the 600 Jews that were saved, it’s the story of the six million who didn’t’. Make of that what you will but the stories of him, this alleged misanthrope literally breaking down into tears amongst the horde of research materials he had collected speaks volumes to me.
One of the older Kubrick books I own made a very accurate point to my mind that he really should have pulled his finger out, just stopped obsessing so much and got out there to shoot stuff to put together films like he did in the 50’s and early 60’s instead of pulling the whole Prospero type thing toward the end of his career. I guess in his defence he was so venerated, so admired and so much was expected of him that the bad reviews did sting him even when they were inaccurate and failed to appreciate his being ahead of the curve – the Pauline Kael review of ‘2001’ really affected him (she said ‘It’s a monumentally unimaginative movie’) even though she eventually recanted and understood that it was so visionary and ambitious she didn’t get it amongst the morass of a dozen plus films that a professional reviewer will view in a week.
I’ve always admired tales I’ve read of his reach around the globe from his home base in East Anglia. I loved the fact that his concern that his films be projected perfectly in the ideal environment was such that he cultivated a network of contacts in the film industry around the world who would visit cinemas in their market (Edgar Reitz in Germay, Bertrand Tavernier in France for example) and check the film gates, the projectors, the marketing strategy in the local press, the whole release pattern and delivery. That my friends is delegation. My absolute personal best though is when SF author Iain Banks was working with him on A.I when they got to a point of disagreement on the current geography of New York, Stan’s home town and a place that Iain had never visited. Stan calls the manager of Macys and asks if he can photograph the view from the department store, an area where some scenes were set. Manager thinks it’s a fraud and hangs up. Exasperated, Kubrick calls the VP of Warner Brothers in New York who intercedes and the shots are acquired, Fed-Ex’d and arrive in St. Albans a week later. It’s such a wonderful example of his reach, method and kudos.
Just to finish on a quick rant I’ll just point out that a film fucking season should be properly fucking scheduled – they showed his movies at ridiculous times, including a screening of arguably his best film – ‘Barry Lyndon‘ (2001 always for me but hey) at 1.00am – yeah, that’ll get the people watching a three hour movie. I wouldn’t mind but given the effort they made with the season trailer this strikes me as a perfect example of the contemporary UK attitude to the visual arts and domination of worthless, pointless, fast food trash that pollutes the communication channels. <sulks>. Anyway, to close I’ll chorus Ronson’s conclusion with the footage of Kubrick accepting the D.W Griffith Directors Award from 1998. Says it all.
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