Alas, Godlike work is in the detail
On Sunday night I watched the excellent documentary, Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes.
It was a brilliant insight into the meticulous files of research that the greatest film director of all time (he is; just check out his hit for shit ratio: all great films, no shit ones – and yes, that includes Eyes Wide Shut) built up on movies both made and unmade.
At one point we discover that he was researching Schindler’s List for the same amount of time it took Spielberg to research and make the film. We also found that he send his photographer nephew around London for a year, taking 30,000 location photos for EWS. The icing on the cake was the fact that all these documents were packed into boxes that were ordered with a similar attention to detail: ‘lids to be not too lose or too tight – JUST RIGHT!’.
Anyway, the point of all this seemed to be that there is indeed a way to achieve greatness and, unfortunately for the lazy amongst you, it’s hard work, and lots of it.
It’s always tempting to be led by the rare example of people who created something excellent by simply turning up on the day, making it up as they went along and catching everyone on their best day – after all, that takes much less time and effort, and it also seems much ‘cooler’. Unfortunately, those victories are few and far between. The ones that happen by working your tits off may still be rare, but they’re far more likely than the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants, hit-it-and-hope variety.
Mr. Kubrick could only create 2001, Dr. Strangelove, Barry Lyndon, Spartacus, Full Metal Jacket, The Shining, Lolita etc. by putting an enormous amount of time into getting every single part of every single aspect of every single moment exactly right.
So that’s what it takes to be the best.
Just in case you were wondering.
Also: RIP Alex Melvin, one of the founders of 180. Our paths crossed only briefly when I worked there for a couple of months, but he certainly gave off the ‘really good bloke’ vibes. As far as legacies go, that agency is a fine reflection of a good man.
Been reading for a while – this is really interesting nice one.
All that attention to detail and he couldn’t spell ‘loose’.
i fucking loved that documentary. and i love that stanley was from the bronx but somehow ended up in England coz he was afraid of flying. he just bent the world to his whim. have to admire that.
I’m very similar to Stanley Kubrick insofar as we have both used the same supplier to make our neon signs……I do prefer a tighter box though.
Isn’t that opposite of Spileberg’s and Lucas’ approach to Indiana Jones? Spielberg once said that he learned that he didn’t have to love every frame, and each set up was only allotted 20mins of shooting time (struggle to believe that one myself).
Wholly subjective, but in the end I think I’d rather have been responsible for Spielberg’s body of work that Kubrick’s.
Interesting.
I’d rather have Kubrick’s.
Chacun a son gout as we say over here.
Would you rather have Spielberg’s hit rate though? He’s made a few stinkers (Crystal Skull, War of the Worlds), and as Ben pointed out, Kubrick hasn’t really (I don’t think).
…the trouble with The Shining is that Jack Nicholson isn’t very scary….in fact from ‘Here’s Johnny” onwards it’s downright comedy.
I liked Spartacus though.
the difference between Spielberg and Kubrick was that Spielberg was a hollywood guy and cared about the numbers. Kubrick, much like the honey badger, didn’t give a fuck.
On what planet is Eyes Wide Shut not a stinker. I guess it performs well on nipple count.
Personally I don’t rate Kubrick as highly as Scorcese. His work is very stagy. At its best Scorcese feels amazingly spontaneous and fluid – the helicopter scenes in Goodfellas, for example, would be beyond the ability of Kubrick in my view although you might put that down to Scorcese shooting a lot more freely and getting his amazing editor Thelma Schoonmaker to pull it together. Anyway, there is very little naturalism in Kubrick’s films.
Also if Kubrick is such a perfectionist why do the combat scenes in Full Metal Jacket look strangely like they were shot in the docklands?
But Goodfellas was Scorsese’s last great film. I’m a gig fan of The Age of Innocence, and I concede that there’s merit in about half of Casino and Kundun, but golly has he made a lot of kids’ films since then.
Gangs of NY, The Aviator, The Departed, and to cap it all, what looks like the worst film ever made:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xk02gd_hugo-cabret-bande-annonce-trailer-vost-hd_shortfilms
He had his day, he made some of the greatest films of all time, but he’s been mugging for the Academy for a depressingly long time.
You can’t say that about Kubrick.
And what’s so great about naturalism, anyway? Ask Powell and Pressburger how they got by without it for so long.
@ Drole
Er…is Germany a planet? Well it obviously isn’t. But for some reason EWS is huge there. The DVD sales alone outstrip the rest of the world combined. Nearly. Can they see something everyone else can’t?
Slightly off topic..Anyone shooting commercials when Stanley was shooting EWS would tell you that every crew they booked contained at least three people who’d been fired off the film. In the end Kubrick’s production office ran out of crew to fire and had to go back and employ people who’d already fired earlier. Then we started to get people who’d been fired TWICE from the film….
“Why did you get fired the first time?”
“Haven’t got a clue.”
“And the second time?”
“Same. Probably doing whatever it was that got me fired the first time. Whatever that was.”
“Do not make eye contact with Mr Cruise or Ms Kidman” was specific instruction to each crew member. Allegedly.
kubrick was a master. his films are art. they have a deeper meaning and criticism which might not be the same to everyone or apparent, but its there.
not dissing spielberg or anyone, but kubrick played in another league i think.
btw, the product placement in 2001 is done in such a subtle way that i wish it would be done like this nowadays.
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