Stanley Kubrick: The Film Fan

Kubrick was granted enormous freedom as an artist, nestled away in the English countryside far from prying eyes.  As a result, he was often caricatured as a recluse, unengaged with the wider culture, and his imagination wrestled with film technology for years before unleashing startling cinematic visions.  For all of the emphasis given to Kubrick’s innovative use of NASA lenses and candlelight in “Barry Lyndon” (1975), as well as the ghostly Steadicam glide of “The Shining” (1980), there has been little attention given to the cinematic influences that inspired his work.

Three of Kubrick’s late films are suffused with visual tropes that link his work to the art cinema of America, Europe and Japan. The movies are: “A Clockwork Orange” (1971), “The Shining” (1980) and “Eyes Wide Shut” (1999), which all feature protagonists who are governed by outside forces and seem to be shaped in part by movies from the past. Many of Kubrick’s images are inspired by the novels that his movies were based on. However, by pinpointing his cinematic references, we get a sense of the breadth of his film knowledge and enthusiasm for diverse genres. Our understanding of Kubrick’s work is aided by observing how a range of films resonate and sympathise with one another, perhaps coincidentally, often with absolute intent.

it seems clear that Kubrick readily paid homage to other films and found inventive ways to blend the radical practices of art cinema with the more conventional procedures of Hollywood filmmaking.