a doc on kubrick

[kevin baggott]

Just saw this -
Nicole Kidman said of her experience on "Eyes Wide Shut" that Kubrick would shoot her page-long monologue over and over, and just when she found herself mentally and emotionally exhausted, they would continue shooting, and that was when she began surprising herself and her director.

Kubrick wasn't very hands-on in terms of directing his actors, but he had a tendency for shooting many takes, as a means of getting his cast beyond their most obvious choices and discovering more dissonant and interesting ways to portray any given scene.

[kevin baggott]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnge8MJeGB4 - if you go to 1:05 the interviewer asks her about Kubrick doing so many takes. I guess it was Kubrick's way of getting what he wanted. I don't know how frankly a film director would rehearse with actors in a traditional sense without knowing their (actors) language. If you don't have that background - you probably have a good bull**** detector and figure out how to get there one way or another. Scorsese apparently says very little to actors . He says he never took acting classes. But then again - he can tell someone like Paul Newman "Try not to be funny," when Newman was having a hard time with a scene.

[kevin baggott]

"IMO he was not the best director of actors" I quoted in another post Kurosawa saying at 76 he was only now figuring out how to make a film. And I really don't think it was hyperbole. Bergman said in an interview "I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I really don't. It's all so mysterious." Ford saying famously, 'the best things in films are accidents.' etc. Really - what director did it all? And I think Kubrick knew a thing or two about acting. Nicholson said Kubrick was not interested in naturalism. Kubrick wanted it heightened. Lots of actors who worked with him said great things about him. Sure others not. Duvall even said she'd even work with him again in a heartbeat. There are great performances in all of his films. I personally think Ryan O'Neil is pretty damn good in Barry. Kubrick's family all talked about how emotional he was. Anyway. Just my 2 cents.

[kevin baggott]

ya guys nailed the lighting and camera moves for sure - pretty funny.

[CharlesPapert]

Continental breakfast and the nervous mob boss (surprise bday party)? Both brilliantly done

Yes, the triumphantly weird Continental Breakfast. The gangster one I had in mind was this one. We mashed up the camera moves of Goodfellas with the lighting style of Casino. It took a bunch of takes to get the dolly in/zoom in right (at :13) but the director and I knew at the same time when we hit it.

[ahalpert]

Yes I remember seeing that clip in some doc on Kubrick. Good stuff. I remember Sydney Pollack saying in some doc "Lots of people in my business claim to be perfectionists. Trust me. There was only one. Stanley." ha.

That may be so, but that doesn't mean that he was actually good at everything. IMO he was not the best director of actors. And I feel like his weaknesses were a consequence of his strengths in that his highly analytical mind was also not terribly emotional. Some may disagree with me. But take Barry Lyndon, for example, which I consider to be a near-perfect film. IMO all that holds it back is the performance of the lead, which lacks nuance, depth, and development. I think Ryan O'Neal has turned in some fine performances, and I suspect that the blame for his shortcomings in that role falls on Kubrick. Kubrick is my favorite director, but that's my opinion.

[kevin baggott]

Yes I remember seeing that clip in some doc on Kubrick. Good stuff. I remember Sydney Pollack saying in some doc "Lots of people in my business claim to be perfectionists. Trust me. There was only one. Stanley." ha.

[Mitch Gross]

I think just about everything one needs to know about Kubrick's obsessive-compulsiveness is contained in his personal design for boxes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSO-BAi_vOc

[ahalpert]

We once did a Key & Peele sketch that tied into the Shining and we duplicated the ending slow dolly-in to the vintage photograph, which was frankly a bit of an emotional moment for me because of my history with the film (another was when we emulated the Scorcese camera moves and Richardson lighting style for a mobster sketch). Walking in the footsteps of giants!

Continental breakfast and the nervous mob boss (surprise bday party)? Both brilliantly done

[kevin baggott]

Funny enuf a video came up on my feed last night of 2 guys re-creating the top light from The Godfather. They threw one light up on a stand and well - what do you know. Gordy was smiling somewhere.

[CharlesPapert]

I'm also reminded of my experience on American History X where director Tony Kaye took out a full page ad in Variety before the film went into production stating that he was the greatest filmmaker since Kubrick (a combination of hubris and hype). On set the Kubrick influence largely seemed to consist of a preference to center-punch people in the frame. I was instructed to keep the crosshairs between the eyes to the point where I started to feel that Tony was training me to become an assassin rather than a camera operator.

We once did a Key & Peele sketch that tied into the Shining and we duplicated the ending slow dolly-in to the vintage photograph, which was frankly a bit of an emotional moment for me because of my history with the film (another was when we emulated the Scorcese camera moves and Richardson lighting style for a mobster sketch). Walking in the footsteps of giants!

[kevin baggott]

"I believe Kubrick stated something to the effect that one should plan a shoot in minute detail" For his Napoleon project - it was said Kubrick knew what Napelon was up to every single day of his life. I believe it.

[kevin baggott]

Charles - when I was younger I worked at the Carnegie Hall Cinema - a revival house in NYC. I got off work at 11:30 pm - around the corner where the shining was playing at The Ziegfield - there last show for months was at midnight. I would see the film each night there. I saw it projected maybe 70 times. Yeah - it sleeps on the floor of my unconscious now. At 14 you were doing all of that - I'm jealous - I was sniffing glue at 14 - that stuff eating my brain cells like a pac man. I have to draw with chalk a line back home these days because of it

[ahalpert]

Given the immaculate precision in his filmmaking style at that time one would more typically imagine a Coen Brothers type of fastidious storyboarding versus that kind of spontaneity.

Really? I believe Kubrick stated something to the effect that one should plan a shoot in minute detail but be prepared to throw all the planning out the window if one sees something inspiring on set. I recall that he also anguished over the the opening or defining shot of each scene and felt that the cinematography of the scene would flow from that initial decision.

Relatedly, I think that was one reason he enjoyed working with practically-lit sets (and IIRC insisted on rebuilding the entirety of the Shining sets that burned down rather than just what was specifically called for in the remainder of the unshot screenplay) -- because basically he didn't want any limitations on where he could point the camera.

[CharlesPapert]

Ah, I see, Kevin. Since this footage was unaired I assumed that Kubrick never even saw it in his lifetime. It seems like the original intent (ghost hunting) wasn't explored too intensely, other than asking Kubrick his feelings on the supernatural.

"The Shining" had such a profound influence on my life. It was the first time I identified Steadicam shots (I remember sitting in the theatre, 14 yrs old, going "how did they do that?) which ultimately sparked my future career. After reading and re-reading the American Cinematographer article I was certainly aware that the Overlook was a set built on stage, but when I eventually saw Vivian's documentary it was still jarring to watch the opening scenes where she follows Nicholson down the stairs from his dressing room into the set. The movie has for me a mythic quality. I've bugged Garrett Brown for many stories over the years!