my theory about Kubrick films

[Batutta]

I think what you're responding to most is the acting style in his films. Spielberg told Kubrick he thought Nicholson gave a 'kabuki theater' performance in The Shining, and I think that's true, but it's what he goes for. A staple Kubrick shot is the actor frozen in an extreme snapshot of emotion, like a Kabuki mask, while the camera slowly zooms in onto them. It's not realistic, but more like the acting in silent films, or a cartoon. Nicholson said that after a take he asked Kubrick what he thought, and he said something along the lines of 'it was very realistic, but not memorable. Memorable is always better.'

 

[CallaghanFilms]

it occurred to me that Kubrick films are like cartoons. The writing, the style, the characters he creates. Cartoons are over the top. A great cartoon character is iconic

All of Kubrick's characters are iconic in the same way great cartoon characters are iconic. They are bigger than life, they are symbolic of something deeper, they are archetypes.

Archetypal. That's the link between Kubrick's characters, his writing, and cartoons

Who knew?
He might actually be on to something here...
LINK

 

[TheMacB]

that is pretty funny.

 

[Dvader]

Personally I'd like to have his last film striken from his filmography for every conceivable reason. Eyes Wide shut... made my eyes shut for sure. Such an amazing body of work and that POS as the capstone is just not acceptable. Only thing worse than the film is Tom Cruise's attempt to kiss a woman... you can tell he's gay from that one moment. But I digress....

I hardly even know what to say to this, but I believe you to completely wrong. Maybe after a few more screenings you might find the Kubrick and the genius in EWS, it's there.

Also I bet that was really a great experience with Ermey; but the relationship between Ermey and Kubrick is very questionable and I'd have to believe Fields side of the story over Ermey.

"Stanley called me about two weeks before he died," Ermey told Radar Online. "We had a long conversation about Eyes Wide Shut. He told me it was a piece of shi* and that he was disgusted with it and that the critics were going to have him for lunch. He said Cruise and Kidman had their way with him - exactly the words he used."

Field played Nick Nightingale in the film.

"The polite thing would to say No comment. But the truth is that... Let's put it this way, you've never seen two actors more completely subservient and prostrate themselves at the feet of a director," Philip revealed in an interview with slashfilm.com. "Stanley was absolutely thrilled with the film. He was still working on the film when he died. And he probably died because he finally relaxed. It was one of the happiest weekends of his life, right before he died, after he had shown the first cut to Terry, Tom and Nicole. He would have kept working on it, like he did on all of his films. But I know that from people around him personally, my partner who was his assistant for thirty years."

Kubrick was Todd Field's mentor and friend.

Field even claims that Kubrick told him to stay away from the Texas Chainsaw actor: "And I thought about R. Lee Ermey for In the Bedroom. And I talked to Stanley a lot about that film, and all I can say is Stanley was adamant that I shouldn't work with him for all kinds of reasons that I won't get into because there is no reason to do that to anyone, even if they are saying slanderous things that I know are completely untrue.

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

I hardly even know what to say to this, but I believe you to completely wrong. Maybe after a few more screenings you might find the Kubrick and the genius in EWS, it's there.

I agree. Eyes Wide Shut seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it among Kubrick fans. I love Eyes Wide Shut. It's not unlike his other films with it's slow weirdness. Kubrick captured the feeling of being in a dream perfectly.