Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001) Movie Script

It was... magnificent,
One of his pictures are equivalent...
...to ten of somebody else's,
"Oh, Nicole," and shake his head.
And nobody ever really knew him.
He was known...
...as a kind of future threat.
One of the all-time great
motion picture makers.
A future threat to peace and quiet.
Legendary...
...meanness.
At times he drove me crazy.
He was a very loveable individual.
I love him one minute,
and the next I could kill him.
Maybe the smartest man I ever met.
Did you see the film 'Groundhog Day'?
...because they told stories so fast.
That's what it was like.
This man was born to push the envelope...
There is still a part of Stanley
that is a great mystery.
...and he always pushed it.
You expect someone like that
to be different from us.
We were too scared of him over here.
Everybody pretty much acknowledges
he's the Man...
...and I still feel that underrates him.
This film is about the life and work
of Stanley Kubrick:
An outstanding filmmaker,
one of the great artists of our time.
Stanley Kubrick was an enigma to many people.
In his films he was extrovert...
...challenging, and ready
to break conventions.
But Kubrick himself was intensely private:
Shunning publicity and fiercely
guarding his anonymity...
...happiest at work and at home
with his family...
...and a large circle of friends.
He was a chess player in every sense.
Both cautious and aggressive...
...he took great risks but evaluated
each move with the greatest of care.
Stanley was born in New York and
remained a New Yorker all his life...
...even though he and his family lived
in England for nearly 40 years.
He died at his home
on the seventh of March, 1999.
This film will make use of unique
material which has never been seen.
It is a document about a man
who remained silent...
...whether he was being applauded or damned.
Stanley Kubrick was born in New York
on the 26th of July, 1928.
His father, Jack, was a doctor...
...who'd married Gertrude Perveler
the previous year.
His sister, Barbara, was born
six years later, in 1934.
Today, a lot of people that have
kids that are that far apart...
...they encourage the older one to
nurture the younger one as a baby...
...so they get to love them.
But I gather Stanley was very jealous...
...you know, that I was there.
He was very good, though.
He was very good to me.
Nobody ever accuses him of being playful.
Well, he was playful...
...like on 'The Addams Family'
kind of playful.
When he was little, I think they
considered him kind of a sissy...
...because he just wasn't
like your typical boy.
He read a lot. He always had a book.
Well, my mother read all the time.
She always was behind him, always,
and she really believed it.
She says, "There's nothing you can't do."
She always was supportive of him.
She was really a great mother, I think.
- Were they strict, Gert and Jack?
- No.
Never. He always did what he wanted.
In 1941, when Stanley was 12 years old...
...he went to Taft High School in the Bronx.
At the beginning, I think, of the
second week, Stanley turned to me...
...as the class opened and said...
...could I let him copy the day's
homework? I said, "Sure, why not?"
The next day he asked the same thing.
And the next day after that, and before
I knew it he was doing it every day.
So after about a week or ten days...
...I finally got up enough
aggressiveness to say:
"Stanley, why aren't you doing
your homework?" He said simply...
...and in what I learned was his
characteristic quiet way:
"Well, I'm not interested."
It wasn't as if he were stupid.
He was simply not interested...
...and acted upon that.
Stanley was really quite involved,
quite passionate about photography.
Stanley, you must understand, was,
by the general lights of the time...
...the son of a wealthy person,
as they had their own home.
They could have a darkroom.
His father was interested in photography...
...and I think he encouraged Stanley
to use it and become a photographer.
That darkroom background, actually...
...was one of the bedrock things...
...that enabled him to develop
a very high level...
...of sophistication about photography...
...and then finally cinematography.
Stanley was fascinated by photography.
He was the photographer on the school
newspaper and looked for pictures...
...that would capture the imagination.
We interrupt for a special news bulletin.
A press association has just announced
that President Roosevelt is dead.
Roosevelt was a god to us.
That's what my mother said. She said:
"I'm not sure there's a God," when he died.
And then when he took that picture, whoa.
It made everybody that saw it cry.
They'd just start to cry.
He looked like just the world had ended...
...and Stanley just got that.
It was this photograph of a news vendor
mourning the death of Roosevelt...
...that transformed the amateur
into a professional.
Stanley was just 16 when he sold
this picture to 'Look'...
...one of America's great
illustrated magazines.
When he graduated high school,
he joined 'Look' as a photographer...
...taking thousands of pictures...
...experimenting and gaining experience
for the next stage of his career.
Kubrick shot several features
on boxing for 'Look'...
...one on the rising young fighter
Walter Cartier.
Passionate about the sport...
...he realized he'd found
the subject for his first film.
'Day of the Fight' was Stanley's
first effort at filmmaking.
I was his assistant on that...
...and I'm very proud of the fact
that I operated the second camera...
...during the final fight sequence,
which is a real fight.
And we were alternating with each other:
I was shooting when he was loading.
I got the knockdown
because Stanley was loading.
He's done it. He's KO'd Bobby Jane.
This is a fighter, Walter Cartier.
He's just moved up one more place...
...in a line that may end
with the championship.
Following 'Day of the Fight',
Kubrick quit his job at 'Look'...
...and devoted himself to making films.
He moved to Greenwich Village
and supported himself...
...by making short documentaries,
hustling chess in Washington Square...
...and playing tournaments for money
that wouldn't be enough...
...to fund an entire film.
In 1953, Kubrick's father cashed in
his life insurance...
...to help his son make Fear and Desire...
...a film about a fictitious war.
It was Kubrick's first feature.
- She'll see us.
- Shut up.
He was absolutely and totally involved...
...in the making of this movie.
He knew nothing about acting.
I probably didn't know much more.
He was not a bohemian.
He was not an avant-garde, Left Bank figure.
He was a kid from the Bronx who was smart.
I don't think he had much education.
He was a very good chess player.
The intensity impressed me.
I thought he had a vision
of someplace he was going.
'Fear and Desire' was a youthful
apprentice exercise.
Kubrick would later withdraw the film
from circulation.
It got him noticed and helped to get
financial backing for his next feature.
'Killer's Kiss' revealed Kubrick's
extraordinary ability...
...to play with light.
Stanley was making his second film...
...and I wanted very much
to be the still photographer.
I also wanted to see somebody
discovering and learning.
I knew I'd be seeing that.
This was Stanley at a point where he
had no physical resources at all.
On Fridays, he dismissed the company
for a couple of hours...
...went to the unemployment line and
collected his unemployment check...
...because that's what he
was living on. It was $30 a week.
He just about made it.
He was very ambitious and he knew
this was gonna help him...
...because once, there was a scene
in the morning, and the crew...
...wasn't being paid much either.
Everyone was in a bad mood. He said:
"Well, why don't we just take
the afternoon off?"
I was amazed he was giving us the day off.
He always drove me home.
So on the ride home, I said:
"Why are you always so nice to everyone?"
He said, "Honey, nobody's going to get
anything out of this movie but me."
The release of 'Killer's Kiss' brought
Kubrick to James Harris' attention...
...an up-and-coming producer
who had access to finance.
They teamed up to form
Harris-Kubrick Pictures.
The only thing is, we didn't have
anything to do.
We had no subject to deal with.
That night I left the office
and went to a bookstore...
...and found a book
about the robbery of a race track.
I don't suppose there's dinner.
Of course, darling.
There are all sorts of things.
- There's steak, asparagus, potatoes...
- I don't smell nothing.
You're too far away from it.
Too far away from it?
You don't think I had it all cooked,
do you? It's all at the store.
I thought he was a kid.
Both he and Jim were so very young.
I'm guessing, but I think Stanley
was only 26 at the time.
I don't think anything was difficult
for Stanley.
He had this tremendous confidence
and if he hadn't...
...I don't think he could have worked
with Lucien Ballard as he had.
The cameraman was Lucien Ballard.
Lucien had, I believe,
won an Academy Award...
...was regarded as one of the top 12
or so photographers in the business.
He was a particularly stylish fellow,
married to Merle Oberon...
...a classic example of the old-style
cinematographer.
Stanley had done his own photography
on his two previous films...
...so he knew exactly what he wanted,
and I think that Ballard...
...resented this kid from New York.
The first shot of the picture,
first day, first shot...
...Stanley set up a shot.
It was quite complex.
It was a long dolly shot.
And he's lined it up specifically
with a 25 mm lens.
He set it up and turned it over
to Lucien and Lucien said, "Fine"...
...and began the elaborate business of
lighting and setting a dolly track.
Stanley went over to talk to Jimmy
or do something...
...and looked back over his shoulder
and noticed that the dolly track...
...was much further away
from where he had set the camera.
He said to Lucien,
"What are you doing, Lucien?
I put the camera here,
you're pulling it way back.
Why haven't you put it where I've asked?"
He said, "I haven't changed anything.
I'm using a 50 mm lens...
...to give you precisely the same
coverage that you've asked for...
...but with the 50. It makes...
...my job a lot easier and it'll go
a lot faster."
Stanley listened to this and said:
"What about the change
in perspective that occurs?"
He said, "That doesn't matter."
That particular piece of information
is dead wrong.
The perspective changes.
It's a different shot.
Stanley was aware that Lucien was
simply bulling past him...
...but also what particularly
nettled him was the assumption...
...that he wouldn't understand this
or wouldn't care about it.
Stanley said:
"Put the camera where I told you,
with the lens that I asked for...
...or get off the set and don't come back."
He said it very quietly, very softly...
...and there was a look between them...
...and Lucien changed the setup and
moved the camera where it had to be...
...and there was never an argument
again, about anything.
All right, all right, check it through.
I'm sure you'll find our service
to your complete satisfaction.
I suppose a lot of what Stanley is,
and what he did...
...in more complicated ways
with later films...
...is implicit in this simple movie
about a meticulously planned crime.
The sense the Sterling Hayden
character has that he's on top of it...
...he really knows what he's doing.
At the end of it...
...the little yapping dog gets loose...
...and the money blows all over the place.
It's a brilliant and existential movie.
If existentialism basically posits
that we define ourselves by doing...
...and that chance is the one thing
we can never quite fully comprehend...
...prior to its impinging on our
desires, or plans, or whatever...
It's a brilliant statement of that.
'The Killing' was not a commercial success...
...but it did succeed in building
Kubrick and Harris' reputation.
When I saw 'The Killing' I said, "My God.
Stanley's gonna make it. This is good."
But it's 'Paths of Glory'
that turned it all around.
We walked in the middle,
as we usually did as kids...
...Paths of Glory.
And myself and my friends,
who were war-film buffs...
...we had never seen anything
quite like it, or quite like...
...the tone of it.
We'd seen other anti-war films.
But this one was so honest...
...particularly the trial, and scenes
between Macready and Kirk Douglas.
I ordered an attack.
Your troops refused to attack.
They did attack,
but they could make no headway.
Because they didn't try. I saw it myself.
Half of them never left the trenches.
A third of them were pinned down
by the intense fire.
Don't quibble over fractions.
The fact remains that a good part of
them never left their own trenches.
I'm going to have ten men
from each company in your regiment...
...tried under penalty of death
for cowardice.
- Penalty of death?
- For cowardice.
They've skimmed milk in
their veins instead of blood.
The reddest milk I've ever seen,
my trenches--
- That's enough!
- I won't mince words--
If you continue in this manner,
I shall have to put you under arrest.
It was so honest that it was shocking.
What made it even more shocking
was the nature of the way it was shot.
The use of the tracking camera
in the trenches.
There's something that's happening.
They're trying to be objective:
"I'm just showing you this, man,
make up your own mind.
I'm telling you right now,
this is what went down.
It's bad, it's a lie, it's hypocrisy."
Maybe the attack against the anthill
was impossible.
Perhaps it was an error of judgement
on our part...
...but if your men had been
more daring, they might have taken it.
Why should we have to bear any more
criticism than we have to?
Aside from the fact that many
of your men never left the trenches...
...is the question of the troops' morale.
- The troops' morale?
- Certainly.
These executions will be a perfect
tonic for the division.
There are few things more encouraging
than seeing someone else die.
Many artists, when they put
a canvas up which is blank...
...they start with very detailed,
small, delicate pencil strokes...
...on a canvas.
Stanley started conceptually
on all of his movies...
...from my point of view...
...with large primary-colored
brush strokes...
...and he would just beat
out these concepts that were...
...that were pretty obvious.
In 'Paths of Glory'...
...every sequence hammers its points home...
...but in every sequence the filmmaking
is subtle and gentle almost.
What really hit us was the end.
There's a tendency when you want to
get to that emotion or sentiment...
...not sentimental, not
sentimentality, but sentiment...
...and just portray this aspect
of humanity...
...often you fall into sentimentality.
You really do.
It's very, very hard to pull off.
This one works like--
You cannot see it without weeping.
He was sitting behind his desk
for this interview...
...I was to have because he was
looking for an actress...
...for that scene in 'Paths of Glory'.
You know, I thought he looked extraordinary.
And he just sat there...
...beaming at me, grinning at me
throughout the interview...
...and I must have grinned back.
He's been smiling at me
for 43 years afterwards.
Following 'Paths of Glory', Christiane
and her daughter, Katharina...
...moved with Stanley to Los Angeles.
Stanley and Christiane
were married in 1958...
...and Hollywood would be their home
for the next few years...
...where they were to have two more
children, Anya and Vivian.
For its damning portrayal
of the French officer class...
...'Paths of Glory' would be banned
in France for nearly 20 years.
The film brought its director
firmly to the attention of Hollywood.
He was still only 28.
I think that if the reigning powers
had any respect for good pictures...
...or the people who could make them...
...that this respect was probably
very well tempered...
...by the somewhat cynical observation...
...that poor and mediocre pictures
might just as well prove successful...
...as their pictures of higher value.
Television has changed this completely.
And I think that despite
the unhappy financial upheaval...
...it's caused in the movie industry...
...it's also provided an invigorating
and stimulating challenge...
...which has made it necessary for
films to be made with more sincerity...
...and more daring.
If Hollywood lacks the color
and excitement of its early days...
...with Rolls-Royces
and leopard-skin seat covers...
...on the other hand it provides
the most stimulating atmosphere...
...of opportunity and possibilities
for young people.
Slaves...
...you have arrived at the gladiatorial
school of Lentulus Batiatus.
Here you will be trained by experts
to fight in pairs to the death.
You won't be required to fight
to the death here.
That will only be after you're sold...
...and then for people of quality.
Those who appreciate a fine kill.
A gladiator's like a stallion.
He must be pampered.
You'll be oiled, bathed, shaved, massaged...
...taught to use your heads.
A good body with a dull brain is as
cheap as life itself.
I congratulate you, and may fortune
smile on most of you.
Then Kirk Douglas came to us and was
having trouble with 'Spartacus'.
He had shot for three days...
...and wanted to replace the director
who was on the film...
...and asked if Stanley could be
acquired, sort of on a loan-out basis.
We thought it'd be good for his career
and for our company.
I thought he did an incredible job
of taking that film...
...which the script didn't even have
battle sequences in it...
...and sort of did some recasting
of some of the parts...
...took some of the film to Spain
and did the big battle scenes...
...and turned it into a marvelous epic film.
I was rather dreading the arrival
of Stanley. I didn't know him...
...but I had seen 'Paths of Glory'...
...which I find one of the best
films I've ever seen.
In spite of your vices you are
the most generous Roman of our time.
Vices?
Ladies.
Ladies. Since when are they a vice?
I had a high opinion of him but also
had a great affection for Tony Mann.
Tony Mann directed the early parts
of the film...
...the ones in Death Valley,
which I think probably the studio...
...wanted the reassurance of an older,
more routine man.
Kirk always had the idea of wanting Stanley.
It was a difficult task because
we all had different acting styles.
Olivier and Laughton hated each other.
It was like two dogs.
I'll take republican corruption
along with republican freedom...
...but I won't take
the dictatorship of Crassus...
...and no freedom at all!
That's what he's out for,
and that's why he'll be back.
I think he was 30 years old when he did it.
Yeah, working with Olivier and
Charles Laughton. He was fearless.
If he was terrified, he didn't show it,
because he knew he mustn't.
I think he had an extraordinary ability...
...to concentrate on what is important...
...he did not allow himself
to be sidetracked.
And even if it was emotional turmoil...
...and great worry he wouldn't--
Perhaps it's a chess-playing thing--
He wouldn't allow it...
...to influence him.
And I think that very soon
the actors noticed:
"Oh, yeah, you know, we're quite safe."
Traveled a long ways together.
Fought many battles.
Won great victories.
Now, instead of taking ship for our
homes across the sea...
...we must fight again.
Maybe there's no peace in this world...
...for us or for anyone else. I don't know.
But I do know...
...that as long as we live...
...we must stay true to ourselves.
It's great virtue was...
...it was the only film of that kind
that didn't have Jesus in it.
There was no trace of Christianity
in 'Spartacus' really.
There was faith, but not Christianity.
If Kirk wants to be rewarded for his
courage, which I'd be the first...
...to make a film like that
without Jesus but with Kubrick...
...is already a tremendous achievement.
I think they were both temperamental.
Neither of them would give an inch...
...so there was tension.
But he was uncomfortable
during the making of that film.
But not necessarily because of Kirk alone.
It's because he had
no rights over the script.
All those things he'd got
used to and fought for having...
...he didn't have, he had no say.
Stanley was unhappy because he was dealing...
...with the star who was the producer
and in charge of the production.
There were certain instances...
...where he felt that things
should be done differently...
...but because Kirk was in charge...
...they were done Kirk's way.
I'm not saying that Kirk
was wrong or right...
...but nevertheless, Stanley said:
"From now on, I want to do pictures...
...where I really have final cut."
The first overseas premier
of Ul's screen epic Spartacus...
...is the most brilliant event
on London's show business calendar.
Director Stanley Kubrick...
'Spartacus' was a critical
and commercial success...
...winning four Oscars.
Despite Kubrick's youth...
...he was now a recognized
Hollywood director.
But the process had taught him he had
to have full control over his films.
I had a feeling that during 'Spartacus'
he was biding his time...
...getting on the record as the director...
...of a big and successful film...
...which would give him
greater freedom in the future.
And he did turn his career
into that of an artist...
...whereas it could quite easily,
had he surrendered at any juncture...
...have been that
of a very successful journeyman.
He felt now he had this label:
"I'm a film director, officially.
Now I can make a story
that I have a crush on."
The interpretation of the image,
where to place the camera...
...the nature of the subject matter...
...which at that time, everything was
opening up in the early '60s...
...and it was scandalous.
Put your head back.
Put your head back.
Open your mouth.
You can have one little bite.
I think what a lot of people forget...
...is just what a hot book 'Lolita' was.
Originally, Nabokov couldn't get
a publisher in the States or the UK...
...so it was published
as a dirty book in Paris.
It was in 1955 that Graham Greene
and 'The Sunday Times' in London...
...nominated it as his novel of the year.
It then took off
and it very soon found a publisher.
He thought 'Lolita' was a fantastic book...
...because it clarified
the feeling we all have...
...that good and evil does not
come in the expected package.
I guess I won't be seeing you again.
I shall be moving on.
I must prepare for my work
at Beardsley College in the fall.
Then I guess this is goodbye.
Yes.
Don't forget me.
It shocks me when people say
Stanley didn't make "people" movies.
He made movies about machines or...
It's always confounded me.
'Lolita' is, you know, nothing like the book.
But he did draft the author
to write the screenplay.
They were in collaboration with each other...
...in another kind of version
away from the novel...
...that is much more about the human
condition than the novel was.
'Lolita' works...
...as the very first
Stanley Kubrick film for me...
...because I couldn't imagine
anybody else making 'Lolita'.
It's a comedy but it's got serious elements.
It's got big performances...
...and it works completely.
You're a disgusting, despicable,
loathsome, criminal fraud!
Don't do that.
- Can we discuss--
- Get out of my way.
- Get out of my way!
- No. I want to talk--
Go on, get out of my way.
I'm leaving here today.
You can have all of it.
But you are never going to see
that miserable brat again!
At a time when American cinema in the
early '60s was on the way down...
...the studio system was finishing...
...this was a man with authority making
you look a certain way at things.
"When I stood Adam-naked..."
Adam-naked!
You should be ashamed of yourself, captain.
"Before a federal law
and all its stinging stars."
Tarnation! You old horn toad.
That's mighty pretty. That's a pretty poem.
"Because you took advantage..."
It's getting a bit repetitious, isn't it?
"Because... " Here's another one:
"Because you cheated me."
Because you took her at an age...
- ...when young lads--"
- That's enough!
Say, what'd you take it away for?
It was getting kind of smutty there.
Because of its scandalous theme...
...the film had
a crippling distribution problem.
The Catholic Church had their own censorship.
If they condemned your film,
they would then send notices...
...to their Churches, the Catholic
Churches all over the country...
...that it would be sinful to see this film.
Hum, you just touch me
and I go as limp as a noodle.
It scares me.
Yes, I know the feeling.
That held up the film for six months
because they did condemn it.
There was a picture of Lolita
on the bedside stand...
...so when Humbert
and his wife Charlotte were in bed...
...they felt that Humbert was using
the picture for sexual stimulation.
I denied that. I think that in all
fairness they were right.
Anyway, we agreed to limit the number
of looks at that picture.
To get a release,
Kubrick had to re-cut 'Lolita'.
As he later told 'Newsweek':
"Had I known how severe
the limitations were...
...I wouldn't have made it."
There is acclaim in the film world
for Kubrick...
...director of Lolita,
arriving with Mrs. Kubrick.
'Lolita's' strong performance
at the box office...
...was boosted by the controversy.
Kubrick's next film would prove
even more controversial.
Now then, Dimitri...
...you know how we've always talked
about the possibility...
...of something going wrong with the bomb.
The bomb, Dimitri.
The hydrogen bomb.
Everything wonderful about that movie...
...is because of the way it was directed.
Otherwise, I thought there were flaws
in the writing of the movie...
...and flaws in some of the performances...
...but the directing of the movie
was so bravura...
...and so superb that it just,
it was just a knockout.
The vision and the use of music
of the opening credits--
We knew immediately anything
could happen in this movie.
People remember the film because it
deals with one of the darkest things...
...of the postwar period,
the idea that hanging over us...
...was nuclear oblivion. This is the
time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
It can't have possibly got
closer than those few days...
...where one mistake by either side
could have started World War lll.
This piece of satire just hit it
right on the button...
...and it was frightening.
Very, very frightening.
Well, now, what happened is...
...one of our base commanders,
he had a sort of...
Well, he went a little funny in the head.
You know, just a little funny.
He went and did a silly thing.
Well, I'll tell you what he did,
he ordered his planes...
...to attack your country.
Well, let me finish, Dimitri.
Let me finish, Dimitri.
Well, how do you think I feel about it?
He was able to say what we all knew...
...about the madness of it.
He had bought the book and was
trying to make it straight...
...and realized that he couldn't,
that it was so utterly insane...
...that it couldn't be done that way.
And what he did was say that.
That this is insane, I mean...
...who are we kidding?
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here.
This is the war room!
And it ever after made it very difficult...
...to take seriously
the Strategic Air Command.
I mean, they seemed like they
were nuts from then on.
I think they probably were.
The most extraordinary part
of 'Dr. Strangelove' for me...
...was that 30 years on as part
of a BBC team, I investigated...
...over a period of two years, many
of the central tenets in the film.
What had happened in reality...
...what had happened to Strategic
Air Command in the '50s and '60s.
And the various elements of the film
like the idea that the military...
...would use nuclear weapons
without consulting the president...
I thought only I was in authority
to order the use of nuclear weapons.
That's right, sir. You are the only
person authorized to do so...
...and although I hate to judge
before all the facts are in...
...it looks like General
Ripper exceeded his authority.
...were all, you know, seen as
appalling when that film came out.
Now we know many of those elements
were absolutely smack-on.
Curtis LeMay did a test run to see if
you could provoke the Russians to war.
We talked to an officer who worked
for LeMay's successor...
...General Tommy Power, and they
said this guy was basically psychotic.
This has not come out for 30 years,
but there it is...
...right in the core of 'Strangelove'.
Tell me, Jack, when did you first become...
Well, develop this theory?
I first became aware of it, Mandrake...
...during the physical act of love.
Yes, a profound sense of fatigue...
...feeling of emptiness followed.
Luckily, I was able to interpret
these feelings correctly:
Loss of essence.
I can assure you
it has not recurred, Mandrake.
Women... Women sense my power...
...and they seek the life essence.
I don't avoid women, Mandrake...
...but I do deny them my essence.
The other films that were being made
at the time about these themes...
...about the idea of nuclear war...
...military takeover in the U.S.A...
...films like 'Fail Safe'
and 'Seven Days in May'...
...they're very naturalistic
and rather turgid films.
They have no longevity. They don't endure.
They're not films that you would watch...
...for any reason
except out of sociological interest.
But people will watch 'Dr. Strangelove'
repeatedly because it's so funny.
That was the genius of Kubrick,
but also his collaborators.
I mean, he had the massive fortune
to be working with...
...two of the funniest people ever
involved in the film industry:
Terry Southern and Peter Sellers.
What's happened, you see,
the string in my leg's gone.
- The what?
- The string.
I never told you, but, you see...
...I've got a gammy leg.
Oh, dear, gone shot off.
Stanley was his best audience.
He spent many of the scenes
just being an audience...
...not a director.
He would simply put cameras
everywhere he could...
...so when Peter was off flying high...
...Stanley says, "I don't want
anything to be lost."
He would just lie on his back,
you know, roaring with laughter.
That egged Peter on to ever greater heights.
Also, when you go down into the
mine, everyone will still be alive.
There will be no shocking memories...
...and the prevailing emotion will be
nostalgia for those left behind...
...combined with a spirit...
...of bold curiosity for the adventure ahead.
One of the great things about his film
is the scrupulous detail...
...in which everything-- You know,
that's part of the power of it...
...the detail in 'Dr. Strangelove',
you know, you would think...
...that he'd lived through that experience.
Survival kit contents check.
In them you will find
one.45 caliber automatic...
...two boxes of ammunition...
...four days concentrated emergency
rations...
...one drug issue containing antibiotics...
...morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills...
...sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills...
...one miniature combination
Russian phrase book and Bible.
While we were shooting,
somebody had invited...
...some American service personnel
to come to Shepperton.
They were terrified...
...by the amount of accuracy
we had in this aircraft...
...and the next day I got a memo
from Stanley saying:
"You better make sure that you know
where all your references came from...
...because otherwise we might be
investigated by the FBI."
I discovered very quickly...
...that behind this boyish enthusiasm...
there was this super brain...
...and enormous power...
...and utter dedication to moviemaking.
It was quite demoralizing at
times when he changed his mind...
...but every time he did,
it was for the better.
But I learned a great deal on that film.
Sir, I have a plan.
I can walk!
I was kind of shocked by it at first.
It was so irreverent, and it was
the height of the Cold War.
I was at NYU at the time,
but my friends I saw the film with...
...some were at a Jesuit college called
Fordham, others were street kids.
We went to see this movie. They loved it.
And they were conservative.
The word on the street was, "It's great."
I had a kind of a giddy exhilaration
at the end.
When she was singing,
"We'll meet again, don't know where"
And he's riding the bomb, I thought:
"Man, what kind of an imagination
came up with this?"
'Dr. Strangelove' caused uproar.
Younger audiences loved its
irreverence and anarchic humor...
...but many people saw it
as dangerously subversive.
I remember reading a review in,
I think, a Beverly Hills paper...
...where the critic said that Stanley
should be physically harmed...
...for having made that film.
Now, that's a pretty bad review, I must say.
I can't remember any Stanley Kubrick movie...
...that was released
where there wasn't controversy.
'2001' I remember very well.
I remember Pauline Kael's review of '2001'.
They were not good reviews.
And then ten years go by,
and they're all classics.
By that time I knew that Kubrick was the one.
Yes, all these extraordinary directors
around the world were making films...
...but there was something, after you
saw 'Lolita' and 'Dr. Strangelove'...
I knew that Kubrick--
We had to wait for a Kubrick film.
We knew that when we went to see it...
...that it was extremely special.
We expected a lot from him, quite
honestly, and in '2001' we got it.
By 1963, Kubrick had established
so high a reputation...
...that he could pick his next project
without bowing to Hollywood dictates.
As a director whose films were
popular and critically acclaimed...
...he had won an astonishing degree
of creative independence.
Stanley Kubrick now began work on a film...
...which would establish him
as one of the great film directors.
With '2001: A Space Odyssey'...
...the boy from the Bronx would write
a new chapter in cinema history.
In the early 1960s, space exploration
began when both Russia and the U.S...
...sent men outside the Earth's atmosphere.
As the space race came to dominate
the popular imagination...
...Kubrick captured the spirit of the
times by collaborating on a film...
...with the science fiction writer
Arthur C. Clarke.
Behind everyone alive today
stand 30 ghosts...
...for that is the ratio by which
the dead outnumber the living.
Since the dawn of time, about
a hundred billion human beings...
...have walked on this planet.
Now, a hundred billion
is about the number of stars...
...in our Milky Way galaxy.
So this means that for everyone
who has ever lived...
...there could be a star.
And of course, stars are suns,
with planets circling around them.
So isn't it an interesting thought
that there's enough land in the sky...
...for everyone to have a whole world?
We don't know how many of those worlds
are inhabited...
...and by what kind of creatures.
But one day we should know,
perhaps by radio...
...perhaps by other means,
perhaps by direct contact.
The impact of that on the human race
will be profound...
...especially if we encounter
creatures far in advance...
...of our own primitive species.
It's a wonderful thing to look forward
to and perhaps a terrifying one.
It may happen in our lifetimes.
It may not happen for 1000 years.
But one day, we will know the truth about...
...this incredible and wonderful
universe around us...
...and perhaps understand our
own place in it.
The extraordinary audacity,
power and, I think, guts...
...to say, "Let's screech everything
to a halt, take everybody...
...back to prehistoric times
where it wasn't that fast."
Considering the way the world was
moving so quickly, this just said:
"I want you to see something.
I'll take you through something
you never thought you'd experience."
His way of making a film was
to concentrate...
...on seven or eight, as he called
them, "non-submersible units."
And what this meant was you had a very
good chunk, and you had another...
...and when you had six good chunks,
you were almost home with a movie.
It would be easy to connect them, and...
...you can see this principle operating...
...in particular in '2001'...
...where I believe that the bits
don't quite fit on.
And this is why there's a mystery
about it that still interests people.
I just remember seeing the picture
for the first time...
...and feeling that it wasn't a movie,
it was the first time...
...that the motion picture form
had been changed.
It wasn't a documentary,
and it wasn't a drama...
...and it wasn't really science fiction.
It was more science eventuality.
Hal, despite your enormous intellect,
are you ever frustrated...
...by your dependence on people
to carry out actions?
Not in the slightest bit.
I enjoy working with people.
I have a stimulating relationship
with Dr. Poole and Dr. Bowman.
My mission responsibilities range over
the entire operation of the ship...
...so I am constantly occupied.
I am putting myself
to the fullest possible use...
...which is all, I think, that any
conscious entity can ever hope to do.
Unlike many a science fiction writer...
...including, I must say, myself...
...he regarded the future as unknowable.
This is the first movie, the first work
of science fiction that actually...
...I think, depicts the future as unknowable.
Eighteen months ago...
...the first evidence
of intelligent life off the Earth...
...was discovered.
It was buried 40 feet
below the lunar surface...
...near the crater Tycho.
Except for a single, very powerful...
...radio emission aimed at Jupiter...
...the four-million-year-old monolith
has remained completely inert...
...its origin and purpose...
...still a total mystery.
I respect in awe--
I'm in awe of the mystery of the universe.
Something which Einstein's often said:
"Anyone who isn't awed by the universe,
they haven't any soul."
So from my earliest days the wonder
of space and time has intrigued me...
...and Stanley and I tried to put some
of this feeling into the film.
I think it made people realize
that we were...
...a rather small part
of an enormous universe.
It's hard to realize
when we made that film...
...we didn't know what Earth looked
like from space from any distance.
These things had to be imagined.
The special effects were a quantum
leap forward for the film industry.
These looked the real thing.
Stanley had very firm
and very specific ideas...
...about how these models were to be lit.
The painstaking attention to detail...
...the coloration,
the dirtying up of the models...
This really hadn't been seen before.
One of the best examples
for my contribution...
...is what's known as the slitscan
sequence, the stargate sequence.
There was a lot of evolution
to that concept...
...of how you would be transported
from one dimension to another.
It was never solved in the screenplay.
I remembered, knowing
of an experimental filmmaker...
...who was exploring this whole idea
of long-time exposures...
...and while the shutter is open,
he'd move various kinds of artwork...
...in front of the camera to scan...
...color blocks and objects onto the film...
...in a rather unusual way.
I thought if you took what he did,
which was flat and two-dimensional...
...and made it three-dimensional
in the Z axis...
...you could create this streak exposure.
Like a time exposure.
Car headlights on the freeway.
If you leave the shutter open...
...the car headlight becomes
a streak of light.
It occurred to me that
there might be some way...
...to apply that to the stargate sequence.
I walked that minute
down to Stanley's office.
I said, "I think this is the answer
to the stargate."
And he looked at it and said,
"I think you could be right."
He said, "Do whatever you need to do,
you have carte blanche to do it."
That's an example of my whole
experience on '2001'...
...was support from Stanley
to explore, experiment...
...take risks and produce
something that was different.
If you can imagine a giant Ferris
wheel, and if you were to cover it...
...with a skin.
On the inside edge of that skin...
...imagine the set being built...
...and imagine an endless hallway
with things along the side.
Well, that revolved.
There's a scene where I come down a ladder...
...and the other astronaut,
Gary Lockwood, is eating...
...apparently upside down, because he's
on the other side of the centrifuge.
It looks like I walk upside down to him.
How that actually was done was that
Gary had a hidden harness.
He was upside down,
so I came in right-side up...
...and they just revolved Gary down
to me, and I just walked in place.
There was this theme of constant
rotating, rotating, rotating.
The space station and
the spacecraft are rotating.
Everything's in orbit.
And that established a style...
...of intercuttable shots
that ultimately later...
...leant itself in Stanley's mind
to the Strauss waltz.
I think the history of the cinema
divides into two essential eras:
Before Stanley Kubrick
and after Stanley Kubrick.
Especially in relation
to the use of music in films.
Before Stanley Kubrick, music tended
to be used in films...
...as either decorative
or as heightening emotions.
After Stanley Kubrick, because of his
use of classical music in particular...
...it became absolutely an essential
part of the narrative...
...intellectual drive of the film.
I actually knew that piece of Ligeti
he used...
...and I remember seeing '2001' and thinking:
"This can't possibly be Ligeti
in a Hollywood film."
But it was, and of course, it makes
the sequence utterly unforgettable.
It was for me,
especially the visual fantasy...
...with the speed, with the color
and light changes...
...when the spaceship goes down...
...on the moon of Jupiter.
And then the speed is more and more
and more...
...and it was very clear...
...that Dr. Einstein pretended...
...that the light velocity is
the highest, you cannot go beyond.
But in this film it was suggested
as it would be...
...beyond the speed of light and then
we enter in another world.
I never know whether the images
arose out of the music or vice versa.
The true thing to say is that they
became in his imagination, clearly...
...and so have become in ours,
totally inseparable.
When '2001' opened,
like previous films of Kubrick's...
...it split both the critics
and the audience.
The opening of '2001' was very frightening...
...because we had all the executives
sitting in the audience...
...very old, many of them.
They didn't understand the film at
all and left, whole rows of them.
And we were panic stricken.
Then there was an enormous...
...catastrophic meeting in our hotel room...
...and Stanley was so upset
he lost his voice.
We were up all night. The next
morning we went to this house...
...and Stanley was battling on in New York.
I fell, clutching my handbag, across...
...my bed asleep,
because I hadn't slept all night.
And woke up to the sounds of a DJ...
...saying:
"This is the most fantastic film and
people are queuing around the block."
He was talking about '2001'.
I was desperately trying
to ring Stanley to tell him...
...some people like it, it was the
blue-rinse brigade that walked out.
He told me that the first...
...exhibitor screening of '2001'...
...had, I believe he said, 241 walkouts.
You know, I'm sure he counted them too.
When I first saw '2001', I didn't like it...
...and I was very disappointed.
Then three or four months later,
I was with some woman in California...
...and she was telling me
what a wonderful film it was.
And I went to see it again...
...and I liked it a lot more
the second time I saw it.
Then a couple of years later
I saw it again and I thought:
"Gee, this is really a sensational movie."
And it was one of the few times
in my life that I realized...
...that the artist was much ahead of me.
A lot of people didn't get it
the first time around...
...and I'm really fond of quoting
the MGM executive who said:
"Well, that's the end of Stanley Kubrick."
The message has got over, even though
we didn't intend one specifically.
Stanley wanted to create an experience.
People will get messages from it
according to their own philosophies.
'2001' received a National Catholic
Award for its imaginative vision...
...of man's creative encounter
with the universe.
Some turnaround for Kubrick,
who had so upset...
...the Catholic legion of decency
with 'Lolita'.
'2001' also won an Academy Award
for best visual effects.
As the film's director and designer...
...Kubrick received his only ever Oscar.
It was that kind of process...
...of personally taking
control of not only the people...
...the technology, the art
and the craft of making movies.
He was it. He embodied the whole thing.
And he invited actors, cinematographers...
...and production designers to come
into his family and collaborate...
...which for some was difficult.
After working with him on '2001', I
swore I'd never work for anybody again.
Stanley was a hell of a taskmaster.
He was difficult and demanding.
His level of quality control was
just astronomically near perfection.
I found, as a young guy, this was hard.
His mind was so insatiable and so active...
...that he could barely sleep,
he could barely stop.
I saw that Stanley Kubrick worked
and lived his work seven days a week...
...almost 24 hours a day.
And I think he had a hard time
keeping up with his own intellect.
Kubrick now turned to a mighty
historical character...
...whose triumphs, failures and
personality fascinated him: Napoleon.
Napoleon is still in his grave,
waiting to be brought back to life.
I wonder what Napoleon would think
of Lew Wasserman and David Picker.
Whether he would've liked to have them
passing judgement on his life.
Napoleon represented for him...
...the worldly genius...
...that, at the same time, failed.
Stanley was fascinated by the fact
that somebody so intelligent...
...and so talented, could make such mistakes.
He liked comparing war and chess...
...and making films, and the idea
of seeing everything as a battle.
All directors like battle analogies
for movies...
...and certainly nobody planned...
...with the mixed results.
When somebody that meticulous
plans something...
...anything that goes wrong
seems to wreak havoc.
If Stanley was afraid of anything, it
was of making that kind of mistake...
...where you get carried away
without checking.
There was the chess player in him.
Maybe that's why
he took so long between films.
The Napoleon project was well-prepared.
We were ready to go to Romania...
...where we could have 5000 cavalry,
including commanding officers.
We had paper uniforms and everything ready...
...and then came this film 'Waterloo'.
It was a very well-made film
with Rod Steiger...
...but it failed at the box office, and
our backers got scared and pulled out.
By 1969, the Kubrick family was living
close to the film studios...
...in Elstree, Hertfordshire.
He's always liked living here.
There were moments
where he was homesick for New York...
...but he knew that was
a New York that no longer existed.
When you brought up your children here
and their friends...
...live here, and you know, you get attached.
Do you know what kind of camera that is?
- It's a home movie--
- Arriflex.
I watch the video of me
as a very fresh 10-year-old...
...being very fresh to him.
But also, him being bossy
and too impatient...
...and putting his director's hat on
in an inappropriate way.
Get him off, Anya.
- Anya get him off, we're shooting.
- I'm trying to.
Grab him and get him off.
As a child, I remember thinking:
"You're not supposed to talk
to me like this."
- Do you often find me in a temper?
- Yes!
Oh, I don't believe that.
I can't believe that.
You just went into a temper
a couple of minutes ago.
You can't do this stupid film
because everyone giggles.
And because I can't play like that.
I think I'm one of the most even-
tempered people you'll ever meet.
Kubrick had found privacy
and tranquillity in England...
...but this world was about to be
torn apart by his next project:
An adaptation of Anthony Burgess'
controversial novel:
A Clockwork Orange.
There are certain parts
that you have in a career...
...that nobody else can play,
that you are born to play.
That is one of the parts.
There was me.
That is, Alex, and my three droogs.
That is, Pete, Georgie and Dim.
And we sat in the Korova Milk Bar,
trying to make up our rassoodocks...
...what to do with the evening.
The Korova Milk Bar sold milk plus.
Milk plus vellocet or
synthemesc or drencrom...
...which is what we were drinking.
This would sharpen you up...
...and make you ready for a bit
of the old ultra-violence.
I remember saying to him once,
"How do you direct?
What's your style?" And he said:
"I really don't know.
I never know what I want.
But I do know what I don't want."
I don't think I've ever had
that much fun on a job.
I've worked with other great directors,
certainly Lindsay Anderson...
But, actually, the actual fun
of doing the work...
...was, of course, in the character
of Alex too.
He was a wicked son of a bitch...
...but the great thing that I think
Stanley and I had in common...
...is a wicked sense of humor.
It was my rabbit...
...to help the prison Charlie
with the Sunday service.
He was a bolshy, great burly bastard.
But he was very fond of myself,
me being very young...
...and also now very interested
in the Big Book.
I didn't so much like
the latter part of the Book...
...which is more like all preachy talking...
...than fighting and the old in-out.
I like the parts where these old
yahoodies tolchok each other...
...and then drink their Hebrew vino...
...and getting onto the bed
with their wives ' handmaidens.
That kept me going.
He explored these extreme subjects...
...that you kind of sometimes
wanted to recoil from...
...like in 'Clockwork Orange'.
But they were...
...explored in a way that was
dissecting them.
Truly dissecting them to try to find out...
...what makes that kind of evil tick.
And I think that there was a search
behind all of those films...
...to say, in a way:
In a world where we know man
is capable of the most base...
...shockingly destructive behavior...
...is hope and virtue possible?
Go on! Do me in, you bastard cowards!
I don't want to live anyway.
Not in a stinking world like this.
And what's so stinking about it?
What kind of a world is it at all?
Men on the moon.
Men spinning around the Earth.
And there's not no attention paid...
...to earthly law and order no more.
Oh, dear land
I fought for thee
You'd have to say...
...Stanley's view of human nature...
...was, you know, really very, very bleak.
It's fairly miraculous,
in this day and age...
...to have pursued the kind of career
he pursued...
...in making these uncompromising movies.
It had been a wonderful evening.
And what I needed now
to give it the perfect ending...
...was a bit of the old Ludwig van.
Kubrick is playing around with the music...
...with what he'd done previously.
Having taken like a real classy
classical music score...
...for his previous film...
...now he's saying Beethoven...
...but we'll also have the
"William Tell Overture" played fast.
Kubrick's being playful in the same way
as when Alex visits the record store.
There in the record rack is a copy of '2001'.
Which is a great joke, but also
we're also talking about a director...
...who has given up being
influenced by others.
A film director whose primary
influence has become himself.
For now it was lovely music
that came to my aid.
There was a window open with a stereo on...
...and I viddied right at once what to do.
I did two weeks of narration.
It was like the purest kind of filmmaking.
You know, just a Sennheiser microphone
and a Nagra, that's all he had.
No operator. It was Stanley
pushing the button, that was it.
And it was highly you know,
concentrated, so I'd say:
"I've got to stretch my legs, Stanley."
And he'd say, "Ping-pong."
He was always trying to beat me,
he never did, not at ping-pong.
Chess, another matter.
So we'd have fun, we'd play,
and we'd come back...
...we'd do another piece.
The voice-over works well.
So about six months later, my agent said:
"Malcolm, you have two weeks of
voice-over you haven't been paid for."
I went, "I'm going out to see
Stanley this afternoon.
I'll mention it to him."
Leaving, I think I said,
"By the way, my agent informs me...
...that I haven't been paid
for the two weeks' narration."
He had a slide rule in his pocket
and he took it out.
He went like this, and he went:
"I'll pay you for a week." I went, "A week?"
He goes, "The other week was ping-pong!"
Oh, bliss!
Bliss and heaven!
It was gorgeousness and
gorgeosity made flesh.
It was like a bird
of rarest spun heaven metal.
Or like silvery wine
flowing in a spaceship...
...gravity all nonsense now.
As I slooshied...
...I knew such lovely pictures.
Stanley and Malcolm McDowell got
along like a house on fire.
Stanley was very happy
with the choice of Malcolm...
...and he delivered.
We became very, very close.
I, of course, thought that this
was a great friendship.
I expected to be part of his life.
I didn't understand at the time,
being a young actor...
...and not having done very many films...
...so being somewhat inexperienced...
...that, you know, that the way
of a film life is:
Intense relationship, separate.
Intense relationship, separate.
So I was expecting the relationship
to carry on in some form...
...but he cut it like this.
He didn't really want to know.
It was over for him.
I think the other thing is, some
of the things I said about him...
...which were perhaps unfair...
...maybe it was a cry out to say:
"Stanley, pick up the phone and call me."
And of course, he never did.
I have arranged a little surprise for you.
Surprise?
One that I hope that you will like...
...as a...
...how shall we put it...
...as a symbol of our new understanding.
An understanding between two friends.
'A Clockwork Orange' dealt in part
with media exploitation...
...but now real life imitated art.
The film was blamed for many brutal
crimes committed by youths...
...claiming to have been inspired
by the film's violence.
The reaction had a devastating impact
on Kubrick and his family.
The attack on 'Clockwork Orange'
was fierce in Britain.
It was unbelievable.
He was directly accused of murder and mayhem.
Then every crime in England
was because of 'Clockwork Orange'.
Stanley was accused of inciting violence...
...and it became very, very ugly.
He got terrible letters, you know,
almost death threats.
There were some death threats.
He asked Warner's, "Can you please help me?
I can't live here if this keeps going on.
I'm afraid to send my children to
school, my house is besieged.
I don't want to show the film anymore."
'A Clockwork Orange' had been playing
successfully for 61 weeks...
...but press attacks and threats of
violence against him and his family...
...drove Kubrick to withdraw the film
from British cinemas.
It was an astonishing display
of director power.
What came over to us was that
a filmmaker should have...
...the kind of power that he had
to be able to do it.
There's no other filmmaker who could
stop a studio distributing their film.
Studios are about making money.
For him to be able to do that
was always astonishing to us.
I remember me as a young filmmaker thinking:
"That's extraordinary."
But more than that is, actually,
he had the will to do it.
It hurt him financially, but he didn't care.
It hurt Warner Bros. even more
financially, but they obliged.
It wasn't worth it to them.
Having peace with Stanley, and making
more films with Stanley.
Having him under contract for the
rest of his life was more important...
...than if the film played in England.
For the release of the film, Kubrick
went beyond the role of a director...
...persuading Warner Bros. about
how the film should be sold.
If you've taken all the trouble
with preproduction, shooting...
...with the postproduction
and trying to get the film together...
...and approach it in so many ways...
...why do you not be a part of it
just when the public's gonna see it?
'Clockwork Orange' was the second
largest-grossing film...
...in the history of Warner's
after 'My Fair Lady'.
I'd meet with the foreign distribution
guys and say, "Wait a minute.
What we're doing is
following Stanley's instruction...
...and getting a great result. We're
grossing huge numbers on a picture...
...you said would be a catastrophe
because it was so inaccessible.
Is it not possible that he knows
something we don't know?
Is it not possible that his way
is a better way?"
They go, "No, he doesn't know.
He's just a pain in the ass."
Kubrick had a unique relationship
with Warner Bros.:
Complete creative control and the
support of a major Hollywood studio.
We all envied that more than anything
over here.
The fact that one studio would
support an artist in that way...
...is extraordinary.
It was a question of working with a master...
...and wanting to do
the movies of Stanley Kubrick.
There weren't runaway costs,
it was always overblown...
...and overestimated because he shot
films for long periods of time.
But he did them at low cost.
You'd walk on a Kubrick set, which was
almost never allowed, I might add...
...and marvel at the fact
that there was hardly anyone there.
Compared to most movies, there'd be
crowds of people with donuts...
...and passing coffee and people
coming and going.
I saw it as an absolute priority.
Something that we were gonna
focus our attention on...
...and that continued to nurture
the relationship...
...and to enhance the relationship.
He was obviously always a step ahead
of me. He called me once...
...I was at Warner's...
...I think he was getting ready
to do 'Lyndon'...
...and he said, "Do you have any of those...
...special BNC cameras
that we used for rear process?"
I said, "Why?"
He said, "For sentimental reasons...
...I'd love to buy one from
you if I could get one."
I called the camera department
and I said, "Do you have any?"
They said, "We've got a couple."
I called Stanley back and said,
"I got a couple."
He said, "I'd love to get those
cameras. I admire the workmanship."
I said, "Great," and sent him one
or maybe two, I can't remember.
About six months later, Gottschalk,
who ran Panavision for us...
...and who was a certified camera
and opticals genius, called and said:
"Why are you sending those
rear-projection cameras to Kubrick?"
I said, "He asked for them,
they sit down there...
...we don't use rear projection anymore."
He said, "They're priceless, the most
fantastic works ever put in a camera.
They are brilliantly conceived and
brilliantly executed camera works.
You couldn't build a camera like
it if your life depended on it.
I want to get every one I can,
because I can't duplicate them."
Stanley had anticipated it and
acquired and built his own cameras!
He looked for the old-fashioned
Mitchell BNC cameras...
...for a very specific reason.
These were the only cameras
where he had a chance...
...of fitting these big Zeiss lenses.
Stanley sent me this lens and said,
could I mount it on his BNC camera?
I said it's absolutely impossible
because the BNC has two shutters...
...a thick aperture plate, and all that...
...between the film plane
and the rear element of the lens.
And so I explained that to Stanley
and said we'd have to...
...damn near wreck your camera
and make it purely dedicated.
He said, "Go ahead and do it."
It originally was designed,
developed and manufactured...
...by Zeiss, for NASA.
NASA was planning to use it
in satellite photography.
For that reason, it's an extremely
fast lens. It's an f0.7...
...which is two stops faster than
lenses that are available even today.
Of course, Stanley's intention
for these lenses was to shoot...
...the famous candlelit scenes
in 'Barry Lyndon'.
That being the case, he shot
with the lenses wide open, f0.7.
The consequence of that, he had
practically no depth of field at all.
It was quite a chore
to do it, but of course...
...the images were absolutely gorgeous.
I think Stanley would have a concept
of wanting to do something...
...in a way that it had never
been achieved before.
He wanted to put himself into that
century and with these characters...
...and these settings and give you
a way of seeing them...
...as they would've been seen
at the time the book was written.
Yet he used the most extraordinarily
modern and daring instruments.
The fact that he used these candles.
That's part of it...
...but also the interiors, the
way sunlight came into rooms.
It was to achieve the presence in a period...
...in a way that I don't think anybody
had ever done it before.
I knew it was a costume piece, but I
hoped he'd take it somewhere else.
He took it back in time. The use
of the zoom lens is interesting...
...because you'd never think
to use a zoom lens in the past.
No, the zoom lens flattens it
out like the 18th-century painting.
The movement, body language...
...and the use of music and editing...
...how transporting that moment is
when Ryan O'Neal, who's wonderful...
...and Marisa Berenson as he meets her,
kissing her on the balcony...
...with the music and movement.
Stanley did not want the film to look
like a traditional movie...
...where period clothes look like wardrobes.
He wanted the clothes to move and have life.
He wanted to do something reminiscent
of certain painters of that period.
Stanley sent me to all kinds of
auction houses who were dealing...
...with period costumes, so we
were mixing some period costumes.
Stanley wanted beautiful materials,
as he quite rightly said:
"That's why in those paintings
they gave those wonderful lights."
Everybody talks of 'Barry Lyndon'...
...as a beautiful 18th-century movie.
It's because of the way he shot it,
the way he pushed us to do our work.
You know, as an artist...
...you very often instinctively design...
...and to intellectually justify...
...your creativity...
...is very difficult.
I think the same applies to actors.
Though he knew and respected,
I'm sure, the actors...
...he would permutate their performances...
...almost to the breaking point.
I remember...
...going on the set one day and there
were a thousand candles burning.
Outside there was a huge storm...
...and there were men outside, who,
because of the storm had to hold...
...the big lamps.
There was a huge gale in Dublin
and the rain was icy cold.
I thought "I hope they don't
have to do it too long."
And then the candles are burning down
very gradually.
Stanley's just sitting there
...discussing a problem
Hardy had and he's just saying:
"Well, Hardy, I think we should..."
It was interesting, never getting
flustered, never raising his voice.
He was great working with
actors because it was one-to-one.
You had a relationship with the director.
If he was working with any detail
on a role with an actor...
...the others were there,
but it was just you and him.
What is your call, Lord Bullingdon?
Heads.
It is heads.
Lord Bullingdon will have the first fire.
Lord Bullingdon...
...will you take your ground?
And it was the fact that Stanley
was so open...
...and so engaging.
When I asked him a question...
...it might be about the lighting
or the camera, the lenses...
...he would take the trouble
to talk about it in a really...
...well-detailed way so that
I understood what was happening...
...and that really stimulated me.
If he came onto the floor,
he didn't know how to shoot a scene.
He wasn't sure how he was gonna do it...
...as an actor, I found it stimulating
because he was saying:
"Do whatever it is you think
you're gonna do, but do it for real.
That may change how
I'm thinking about the scene."
Sir Richard, this pistol must be faulty.
I must have another one.
I'm sorry, Lord Bullingdon, but you
must first stand your ground...
...and allow Mr. Lyndon his chance to fire.
I always felt Stanley was...
...a filmmaker most appreciated
by his fellow filmmakers.
Critics were always looking for
something that wasn't in the movie...
...and then they were disappointed.
That's a little bit Stanley's fault...
...for example, 'Barry Lyndon'.
I think everybody was expecting
a kind of raucous 'Tom Jones' movie.
You realize as you look at the movie
that it's about...
...this slightly dim, handsome boy...
...trying to find the clues and the
cues to what's the right behavior.
"What's the behavior that's going
to advance me in this society?"
So it's a movie really about
a young man defining himself...
...in a climate that's foreign to him.
That's not at all what people
were lead to believe it was about.
'Barry Lyndon' was released
just as Hollywood entered...
...the age of the blockbuster action movie.
With a running time of three hours,
the film came in for heavy criticism.
It was labeled as tedious and boring
by critics in America and Britain...
...but in Europe it was hailed
as a film of breathtaking beauty.
I remember it won four Oscars:
Cinematography, production design...
...costume design and the music.
I think Stanley was disappointed
because in the end...
...it wasn't a commercial success.
He was very, very, very sad
and disheartened...
...that particularly smaller papers
and smaller television stations...
...did not at all appreciate...
...the tremendous effort
that went into these films...
...and just simply dismissed it.
Whatever movie Stanley made,
what I love about his work...
...is they are completely conscious.
You may like them, you may not like them...
...you may say, "What about this,
that or the other thing?"
But everybody pretty much
acknowledges he's the Man...
...and I still feel that underrates him.
Kubrick's next film
looked far more commercial.
With Stephen King's
best-selling novel, 'The Shining'...
...he took the chance to make a film
that would satisfy him artistically...
...and meet box office demands.
I'm asking about 'The Shining', and he says:
"In reality, this is an optimistic picture."
I said, "On what basis, Stanley?"
And he said--
As the existential, pragmatic
man that he was, he said:
"Well, in some way this movie
is about ghosts.
Anything that says there's anything
after death is an optimistic story."
'The Shining' has images
that I wake up screaming about.
That little boy in the hall.
The tracking shot...
The boy on the bike.
...of the boy.
The sense of movement it gave that
picture inside this foreboding place.
You know something
is building up in this place.
And the way--
It's the blandness, let's say, of the people.
How quiet they are.
Is Tony the one that tells you things?
How does he tell you things?
It's like I go to sleep
and he shows me things.
But when I wake up,
I can't remember everything.
Has Tony ever told you
anything about this place?
About the Overlook Hotel?
It's holding back this emotional,
powerful punch that'll happen.
You know it'll come somehow, at some time...
...and it just creates such suspense.
Is there something bad here?
At first I was taken aback
by the performance...
...and then after
the third or fourth viewing...
...I understood the level of intensity...
...of what Nicholson was doing.
I'm not sure that it's intended to be...
...what a typical horror movie is,
which is a realistic portrayal...
...of supernatural spookiness.
I think that what's going on in that movie...
...is largely going on
in Jack Nicholson's head.
Hi, Lloyd.
A little slow tonight, isn't it?
Yes, it is, Mr. Torrance.
I like the kind of film he makes.
I don't need to be naturalistic in a film...
...to feel satisfied as an actor.
One thing he said to me that
I'll always remember was:
"In movies you don't...
...try and photograph the reality...
...you try and photograph
the photograph of the reality."
I knew it wouldn't be a performance
about idiosyncratic behaviorism...
...but that it would be--
I always thought of it as balletic...
...in 'The Shining'.
Another lesson was, "Here Jack...
...the script says, 'Jack is not writing.'
The question is, what is he doing?"
I said, "Whenever I'm inside
a big empty place...
...that you normally wouldn't be alone in...
...I always think of doing things
that I might do outside."
And that's where throwing that
tennis ball all during the picture--
And it wound up being a big part of staging.
It rolls into things...
...it's thrown the length of hallways,
all those kinds of things.
And it's from those little things
that he would develop...
...preconceived idiosyncrasy.
He always knew what he was going to get.
He said often that every scene,
really, has been done.
Our job is always to do it
just a little bit better.
Mr. Grady...
...you were the caretaker here.
I'm sorry to differ with you, sir.
But you...
...are the caretaker.
You've always been the caretaker.
I should know, sir.
I've always been here.
We had a good, friendly relationship.
I mean he'd turn on you in a moment and say:
"All right, you're the big fella.
Let's see it."
That's about as harsh as he ever got with me.
He was a completely different
director with Shelley.
- Roll the video?
- Two seconds.
We're killing ourselves. Be ready!
- I'm standing right by the door.
- Mood music?
- I can't hear.
- When you came out like this--
- Look desperate.
- They say, "Wait."
- Then you say, "Go."
- You've got to look desperate.
- You're wasting our time.
- I can't get the door open.
For a person so charming and so likeable...
...indeed loveable...
...he can do some pretty cruel things...
...when you're filming.
Because it seemed to me at times...
...that the end justified the means.
Don't!
Stop it!
Here's Johnny!
It was a very difficult role.
It was a long shoot
and I had to cry and hyperventilate...
...and carry a little boy and run...
...for most of the time we shot.
And that was about a year,
a little over a year.
Anywhere between 30 and 50
videotaped rehearsals...
...before we even rolled film.
I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.
Why? Because of Stanley.
And it was a fascinating learning experience.
It was such intense work,
that I think it makes you smarter.
But I wouldn't want to go through it again.
We were working with the material
in the book...
...and trying to make music
that fit the mood...
...of an updated Gothic horror story.
Which is what 'The Shining' is,
really, as a novel, in any case.
Of course, the stylization
that came out from the filming...
...was not present in the book.
And so we failed in our attempt.
Which is why there's
other music in the movie.
Danny, you win.
Let's take the rest of this walking.
A lot of the music cues are combinations...
...of some of Ligeti's music,
some of Penderecki's music.
And lots of background patterns
and textures...
...with heartbeats and sizzling,
electronic, weird sounds...
...all mixed together. That's how he
finally did what he was looking for.
When 'The Shining' was released,
the response was mixed.
Some people appreciated its riddles
and ambiguities.
Others felt Kubrick had strayed
too far from King's book.
When I say that the people...
...who love Stanley's movies
were mostly movie people...
...they're just looking
at what's in the frame.
What's the "movieness" of the movie.
They, of course, love Stanley
in a very uncomplicated way.
Whereas the critical community...
...tends to fuss and fidget...
...over what Stanley did.
After 'The Shining',
Kubrick and his family...
...moved to a mansion
in the Hertfordshire countryside.
Except when filming on location,
he would do all his work here...
...supported by a small, dedicated team.
The joke we had about Stanley was--
This was the line
you would never hear from him...
...was, "Don't bother me with details,
I've got faith in your judgment."
Stanley would involve himself
to such an extent...
...with the detail of stuff that
one thought was a bit beneath him.
He should've been doing major stuff...
...not worrying about
how you had files in your office.
I guess he saw it as a package deal.
You either cared or you didn't.
When we went to Ireland on 'Barry Lyndon'...
...he left this 15-page document...
...of care instructions
of how to look after the animals.
And the 37th instruction is:
"If a fight should develop
between Freddy and Leo--"
That was a father and son
tomcats that we had--
"The only way you can do anything
is dump water on them...
...try to grab Freddy
and run out of the room.
Do not try and pick up Leo.
Alternatively, if you open a door and
let Freddy out, he can outrun Leo...
...but if trapped in a place where
you can't separate them...
...keep dumping water, shouting,
jumping up and down...
...and distracting and waving shirts.
Just try and get them apart and grab Freddy."
I remember once he had a cat that was
drinking excessively and I said:
"Perhaps you can measure
how much he's drinking."
He said, "No, that's impossible.
There are too many cats."
Then he phoned back and said,
"I could count the number of laps."
And he said, "How much does each lap
take up in terms of water?"
I said, "I don't think
there's any information."
He said, "I'll try and find out."
He'd go off and try and find out...
...then he'd work it out and have a figure.
He was compulsive in that way.
He was a kind of ultimate Jewish mother.
If an animal was ill
or if one of us were ill...
...Stanley was like Superman.
I was very ill myself for quite a while...
...and he was so sweet...
...so kind, so loyal.
Everything you want somebody to be, he was.
He was really, really kind.
However, when you weren't ill...
...that's when you bought it.
He very seldom praised you,
because he had this obsession...
...that if he praised you...
...you would fall to pieces
and not do the job right.
He knew how far he could push you.
That was the other clever thing.
Occasionally he pushed too far
then was confused why you were angry.
Philosophically, he was just no-nonsense...
...honest, had his view...
...very cool view of humanity.
He was a warm guy at home,
I'm sure everybody says that.
Crazy about animals...
...but could be...
...brutal with people he worked with.
He wasn't all that way.
Sometimes he could be generous as well.
But he felt everybody was an opponent.
No matter what, he wasn't sure they weren't--
Didn't have an agenda of their own.
And he wasn't gonna have that
on his pictures.
I'm asking the fucking questions, understand?
Thank you! Can I be in charge for a while?
Are you shook up? Nervous?
Sir, I am, sir!
Do I make you nervous?
Were you about to call me an asshole?
Full Metal Jacket was based on a novel...
...The Short-Timers,
by Gustav Hasford, a Vietnam veteran.
He collaborated on the screenplay
with Kubrick and Herr...
...who covered the war as a correspondent.
He was thinking about making a war movie.
I said, "You already made Paths of Glory."
He said, "People think of that
as an anti-war movie.
I want to make a war movie...
...just to consider the subject...
...without a moral or political position...
...but as a phenomenon."
Holy shit! The sniper has a clean shot
through the hole!
What he ended up doing in
Full Metal Jacket...
...he had almost the detachment of the view.
It's like a god's-eye view of combat
in the second half of the film.
It seems to be so still and removed.
The cleanliness of it...
...and the power of it.
And the beauty of it, because
it was all so beautifully filmed.
And he understood that it was accepted...
...that it was quite okay to acknowledge...
...that among all the things war is,
it's also very beautiful.
It's the only film that's ever given
you a real idea what it's like...
...also what the kids go through
and how important a drill sergeant is.
That's right, Private Pyle...
...don't make any fucking effort
to get up to the top!
If God wanted you up there, He would
have miracled your ass up there!
Get your fat ass up there!
And also the nature...
...of the tragedy of it.
What is your major malfunction, numb-nuts?
Didn't Mommy and Daddy show you
enough attention when you were a child?
Easy, Leonard.
Go easy, man.
And then the whole movie changes
and moves out.
What's interesting about Kubrick
is that the structure is all.
He doesn't deal with traditional
dramatic structure, which is good.
He was experimenting.
Fucking son of a bitch!
Looked like something, didn't it?
For a director who is perceived...
...as being completely
uptight and controlling...
...he was very freeform, Stanley.
He'd try anything.
He'd ask the actors in for meetings...
...and say, "There's no such thing
as a stupid idea in this context.
If you have an idea just say it."
And he'd often adopt them.
I'm not saying Stanley
wasn't a control freak.
I would never say that.
But there were many ways
he was not controlling.
You should probably not be--
Should be more...
...frightened, then get into that.
Do something brilliant.
I loved him, I enjoyed his sense
of humor, but I would be lying...
...if I didn't say there were times
when he was incredibly difficult.
If you weren't willing to solve
the problem as much as he was.
If you weren't...
...as devoted to understanding...
...what it was he was trying to go after...
...it was really hard for him.
Sometimes you didn't know
what it was he was looking for.
I remember walking around
Beckton Gas Works by myself...
...and he drove up in the jeep and said:
"What's wrong? Why are you walking around?"
I said, "I don't know
what it is you want from me."
And he said,
"Are you crazy? Get in the jeep."
He said, "I don't want you to do anything.
I want you just to be yourself,
that's all I want."
You put "Born to Kill" on your helmet
and wear a peace button.
Is that some kind of sick joke?
Well, what does it mean?
- I don't know, sir.
- You don't know very much.
Get your head and your ass wired
together or I will shit on you!
Answer my question
or you'll stand tall before the Man.
I was referring to the duality of man, sir.
The duality of man. The Jungian thing, sir.
Whose side are you on?
Kubrick shot part of
'Full Metal Jacket' in London...
...where a derelict gasworks was made
into the city of Hue, Vietnam.
The four key elements were
the demolition, the signage...
...the palm trees and the smoke.
Most was shot in "magic hour."
"Magic hour" is that delightful time
of day when you're all exhausted...
...and the light's perfect.
He's dead.
You collaborate with Stanley.
It's not easy to impress him
with what you do...
...but if you come out
not ticking off about something...
...you know you've done well.
You get very close.
You're part of the family.
It's a very close unit because you're
with him 24 hours a day sometimes.
You eat, drink and sleep it.
There's no life outside of film with Stanley.
And if you enjoy it,
there's no greater experience.
Everybody earned their pay
when they worked for Stanley.
But nobody earned their pay
the way Stanley earned his pay.
No one worked as thoroughly, deeply...
...obsessively, as Stanley did.
And he understood
when you're making a movie...
...you often don't know what you want
until you see it.
Did you try it? Let's give it a crack.
One way or another...
...I felt utterly compensated...
...for my time with Stanley.
If you're in it only for the money,
you might have a different feeling.
But my feeling was that...
...I have absolutely had no complaints.
Kubrick had started work on the idea
for 'Full Metal Jacket' in 1980.
When released 7 years later...
...several Vietnam movies
had already reached the screen.
Kubrick, the great innovator, had
been overtaken by other filmmakers.
But it still appealed to a wide audience...
...because it bore all the distinctive
hallmarks of a Kubrick film.
He didn't like that he made so few films.
He always wished he could've done more.
If he had anything negative in his life...
...I think it was that feeling
that he was slow.
I suppose the other thing
I noted about Stanley...
...was there were still magnificent
obsessions he never quite realized.
His fascination with World War ll
and with the movie industry...
...and Goebbels during that period.
For years Kubrick had tried to find a way...
...of portraying the appalling
inhumanity of the Holocaust on screen.
He turned Louis Begley's book,
Wartime Lies...
...into 'Aryan Papers'...
...the story of a Jewish family
trying to evade capture by the Nazis.
By the time he was ready for production...
...Spielberg had begun shooting
Schindler's List.
Feeling the similarities were too great...
...Kubrick reluctantly shelved Aryan Papers.
Another thing, he felt it
just couldn't be told.
"If I really want to show
what I've read and know happened--"
And he read everything.
"--How can I even film it?
How can you even pretend it?"
He became very depressed
during the preparation...
...and I was glad when he gave up on it...
...because it was really taking its toll.
Kubrick turned his attention
to another longstanding project...
...based on a short story by Brian Aldiss.
But 'A.I.' evolved
into such a mammoth undertaking...
...he sought the collaboration
of another director.
He said, "You ought to direct 'A.I.'
and I should produce it."
I was shocked. I said, "Yeah, right."
He said, "I'm serious.
It would be a Kubrick production
of a Spielberg film."
I remember him actually giving me
a title card on the whole proposal.
I said, "Why would you want to?"
Because I knew he had been developing
this from his heart for so long...
...and had contributed so many elements...
...beyond Brian's original short story.
And Stanley said:
"I think this movie is closer
to your sensibility than mine."
He was so insistent...
...he said, "When can you come out
and talk in person?"
I said, "When would you like?"
He said, "Tomorrow."
I was on Long Island,
it was during the summer.
So I got on an airplane
the next day and flew to his kitchen.
We, for the first time, sat down and he said:
"I'll show you the storyboards."
And he started to show me
a plethora of work...
...that he had done.
It was a project which needed
many special effects.
He eventually postponed the project
for technical reasons.
Computer technology was about to explode...
...and he figured he would benefit
enormously by waiting a few years.
So the next project became 'Eyes Wide Shut'.
When 'Eyes Wide Shut' was announced
as Kubrick's next film...
...celebrity columnists focused
on the mysterious director...
...who had not made a film
or given an interview in 10 years.
They rehashed old stories...
...which Kubrick had never bothered to deny.
He had been pegged:
"Reclusive filmmaker, probably half mad."
For a man to whom, I think,
control was everything...
...the notion that he could not,
in the last analysis...
...control this image that had
grown up about who he was...
...it must have bought him a despair,
like, "The hell with it.
If that's what they want to think,
I can't do anything about it."
He dealt with it the way he had to.
I knew it was rubbish
which was all that mattered.
And it mostly was all that mattered to him...
...but the more disgusting things upset him.
He would talk about that sometimes.
I know until the end of
'Eyes Wide Shut' he'd started to say:
"Right, now I'm gonna do
a few proper interviews...
...and try and set the record
a little straighter."
He didn't want
to shoot tourists on his lawn...
...then give them money when they bleed.
But also because it's another thing
that fits into...
...the nerdy monster...
...sliming around in his house
and hating women.
Hating women? He was surrounded by them.
I think there are few men who knew
as much about women as he did.
It's impossible for me to just
be objective and say:
"He should have spoken up.
He should have been more gregarious."
Should? He couldn't.
He wasn't. Why should he?
He had a great nerve.
He'd open the door to somebody
looking for Stanley Kubrick and say:
"He's not at home."
For a long time, nobody knew
what his face looked like.
He was very, very knowledgeable
about things, Stanley.
Curious and interested in the world.
I think people aren't aware of that.
They think for someone so obsessive
and so committed...
...that the rest of the world
might pass him by.
He funneled the world into his life,
into his kitchen.
Well, here was a man who set up his life...
...so he was warmed constantly by his
family and by his circle of friends.
He was a matter of minutes
from the place that he worked.
Who among us would be anything but envious...
...of the way he's managed
to set up his life?
The book is a tract about, you know...
...what are the dangers of married life?
What are the silent desperations...
...of keeping an ongoing
relationship alive...
...and what are the choices?
You're either in that or you're not.
And Stanley was very, very much
a family man and in it.
The conjectures that he made about
what it might be like outside it...
...had a lot to do with his curiosity.
It was a theme that we both
talked about a great deal.
He thought about it in many different ways.
It used to come back over the years
again and again...
...and as you see friends getting
divorced and remarried...
...the topic would come up again.
It had so many variations...
...and so much really
serious thought to it...
...that he knew one day
he was going to make it.
May I ask why a beautiful woman...
...who could have any man in this
room, wants to be married?
Why wouldn't she?
Is it as bad as that?
As good as that.
Stanley's expectations of people
were not really, really high.
You see it in his films.
There was human beings he loved.
Christiane was the love of his life.
He would talk about her with-- He adored her.
That's something people didn't know.
His daughters, adored them.
I'd see that because he would
talk to me about them, very proudly.
His understanding of humans...
...was that we are very bittersweet.
But he admired, I think...
...like, passion and commitment and loyalty.
Ultimately, 'Eyes Wide Shut'
is about commitment.
It's a very hopeful film.
People see it as dark...
...but it's very hopeful.
I must see you again.
- That's impossible.
- Why?
Because...
...I'm married.
His films are often thought
to be without pity.
That's a good quality, it seems to me...
...because he's saying, "We are like
this. We are hopeless, muddled...
...fallible, desperate,
needing-love human beings."
In the end, I think that's what
is the central quality of his films.
He tells us about human beings as we are...
...not as we'd like to imagine we are.
The heart of it was illustrating a truth...
...about relationships and sexuality.
It was not illustrated in a literal way...
...but in a theatrical way.
People said the streets weren't
like New York.
I said, "It doesn't matter.
Look at the name of the street.
No such street exists in New York.
In a funny way, it's as if you're
experiencing New York in a dream.
It seems like New York, but it's not.
It seems like your wife, you know,
but what is she telling me?
And do I want to know?
Maybe I shouldn't ask."
Because I'm a beautiful woman...
...the only reason any man
ever wants to talk to me...
...is because he wants to fuck me.
Is that what you're saying?
Well, I don't think it's quite
that black-and-white...
...but I think we both know
what men are like.
So on that basis...
...I should conclude that you
wanted to fuck those two models.
There are exceptions.
And what makes you an exception?
I took that character of Bill home.
At times, that was not a nice place to be...
...sitting, in that character
for that amount of time.
It really is not the kind of person
that I am, that contained...
...noncommunicative,
likes the daily routine...
...the stability of his life.
Ignoring his wife in that relationship.
Not wanting to rock the boat.
Taking things for granted, Bill did.
Took her, his family and his life
for granted.
He's just a little too smug,
and she just goes, "bang."
I first saw him that morning in the lobby.
He was checking into the hotel...
...and he was following the bellboy
with his luggage...
...to the elevator.
He glanced at me as he walked past.
Just a glance.
Nothing more.
But I could hardly...
...move.
When we went to rehearse that scene...
...it was the three of us and we just
kind of got in our underwear...
...not Stanley, we got in our underwear.
And we just talked about the scene...
...and didn't really worry about the lines.
It just slowly evolved.
We were doing take after take.
I said to Stanley, "What do you want?"
He said, "I want the magic.
I want the magic."
But then as the scene progressed,
take after take doing it...
...you'd feel the scene reach a level
everyone felt was interesting...
...then we'd keep working on it
and it would feel bad.
It was stale. It just didn't--
It wasn't working
And then suddenly we could feel it
break into a place...
...that none of us
had really thought of before.
The process of the film was a discovery.
It was never about the result.
It was never about:
"Well, we have a week to shoot
this scene. So quick, let's do it.
We may not fully explore it,
but we'll get something good."
Stanley wanted to explore every avenue...
...and then make his decisions based on that.
And Stanley was not restricted
by time, he refused to be.
That is a great luxury that only
somebody like he could afford...
...because of what he'd achieved
through his career to be able to say:
"Do you want to know what's gold
with filmmaking? Time is gold."
Not having to walk away from a scene...
...before you feel like
you really perfected it.
I wanted to make fun of you...
...to laugh in your face.
And so I laughed as loud as I could.
That must have been when you woke me up.
The other thing Stanley hated doing
was ever explaining himself.
"So, what's the film about, Stanley?"
He'd look down, look away and not answer.
The same for a scene, "What do you
really want this scene to be?"
He'd never answer that.
'Eyes Wide Shut' seems to be
a rake's progress story.
He goes on an adventure that could
turn out any way.
It's an irresponsible adventure
for him to embark on.
It's a fantasy, isn't it? It's a dream film.
I don't think we're supposed to
believe anything that we see.
One thing that people do have
a hard time with in the cinema...
...is ambiguity.
Ambiguity is great, but in the cinema
it's almost verboten.
Perhaps the most extraordinary example
of how a piece of music is used...
...to drive home something
about character and story...
...and atmosphere of a film
is in 'Eyes Wide Shut'.
Please, come forward.
I was in Stalinist...
...terroristic Hungary...
...where this kind of music
was not allowed...
...and I just wrote it for myself.
Stanley Kubrick understood
the dramatics of this moment...
...and this is what he did in the
film. For me, when I composed it...
...in the year 50...
...it was the most desperate.
It was a knife in Stalin's heart.
He had that director's disease...
...of really imagining the easy part
of it until you get there, you know.
I'm sure he didn't go into 'Eyes Wide
Shut' expecting to shoot for 14 months.
I thought the same thing, I said,
"I'll be out of here in three days."
The first scene we did in two hours,
that night at the house...
...where they come in and say hello.
I said "What are all these things
I hear about it taking forever?
I went there, three hours later
I was back at the hotel in London."
I remember him teasing me,
"What are you doing?"
I said, "I know it's great having
you here, Sydney, you're perfect."
Because we shot it in a day.
And then, my God.
Of course, the next day...
...Sydney comes out...
...and he's dressed. He's got his sleeves up.
He's in his pants. He knows every
line of this massive scene.
He says, "Let's run lines. Let's go, Cruise.
Let's go. I got a week.
We're gonna jam this out
and it's gonna be fantastic."
And we're doing the Steadicam shot
of me coming into the room...
...and Sydney goes,
"How do you want me to do this?"
Stanley said, "Well, let's try it and see."
"Well, I can go to the door fast."
"Let's see that."
He says, "Now open the door.
Maybe that's a little too fast."
"Okay, I'll go slower."
We start doing the scene this way, and--
By the third week
when we're in the billiard room...
...I'm saying, "My God. How? How?"
Of course, Stanley said, "I didn't
think you would be much longer.
But don't you want to get it right?"
I tell you, there are a lot of people
in our business who are...
Well, they label themselves
as perfectionists.
That's a kind of euphemism
for a pain in the ass, really.
Stanley was the first real
perfectionist that I met.
I mean, there just wasn't any way...
...for him to go one take less.
He never gave an inch on anything.
So much was expected of him every time.
He wasn't allowed just to make a movie.
It had to be an amazing movie...
...because so many were waiting
for the next Kubrick film.
It had to be an event. I think,
on his shoulders was a responsibility.
When 'Eyes Wide Shut' was shown
for the first time in New York...
...on March 1, 1999...
...to Tom and Nicole
and the heads of the studio...
...the response was very enthusiastic.
Stanley was very, very happy.
A great, heavy weight
was lifted from his shoulders.
I think this change of his being...
...caused almost a physical
change in his body...
...because he had lived with this
enormous responsibility...
...for a very expensive film...
...which was long in the shooting
for two years.
And suddenly it was all gone.
He died a week later.
The enormous intensity that Stanley had...
...with his work,
he also applied to his family.
I always felt very much loved,
and so did the children.
He was consistent...
...in that he always said,
"Either you care or you don't."
Well, Stanley was always a man
who never wanted to repeat himself.
He reinvented himself with every
single motion picture he directed.
As a filmmaker, you know, for me...
...he was a conceptual illustrator...
...of the human condition.
You say, "I wish he'd made more,
but these were enough."
Because there's so much
in each one, you know?
It would've been nice for him to make more...
...but that wasn't his process.
What he did make was so special, a
different movie each time you see it.
I think, as a director...
...I think that what we all
admired the most...
...was that it was a single vision.
It was one man's vision, and no one
interfered with that vision.
The complete control he had
in the making of his films...
...that meant that whatever was in
his head, was up there on the screen.
I know that he struggled a lot
to get to that place.
I think it is something that all
of us have benefited from.
Two major artists were
Orson Welles and Stanley...
...in terms of being, you know, genuine...
...no-holds-barred artists.
So I would put him in the pantheon...
...of the absolute top film directors
that the world has seen.
And he was one of the people
that sort of knew...
...what was wrong with the world
in a weird way...
...and was able to turn that into art.
He just didn't grouse about it...
...or bitch or write lousy editorials.
He converted it into something
that was amazing...
...and important for us as a species.
I always thought I'd work with Stanley again.
We kept in touch over the years
and everything...
...talked about other projects.
It's a sad thing that I won't
have that great opportunity.
I miss him.
How could one not miss him?
He was a man who was completely unique.
He's a man I loved and admired...
...with all the difficulties he had with him.
He was not an easy person,
but it didn't matter.
Obviously I worked with him
for 30 years for good reasons.
Stanley is gone.
There's never gonna be another Kubrick film.
You'll never have a film that will
look like this ever again...
...because it is Stanley...
...and he pushed everyone to the limit.
He pushed the film to the limit.
He pushed the actors emotionally.
But because we all wanted
to go there with him.
Part of Stanley's legacy
on my life is that...
...if you believe in something...
...you passionately believe in
something, devote yourself to it...
...completely, utterly
and don't apologize for doing it.
He felt extremely lucky...
...to be in a situation
where he could tell stories...
...on such a large scale,
and millions of dollars involved.
I think when he was young, he didn't
dare hope he would be able to do that.
I don't think he ever took that for granted.
People would say, "How are you doing, Stan?"
He'd say, "I'm still fooling them."