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¬ Stanley Kubrick's (1928-1999) work has influenced with the film as an art form of the 20th century. His career commenced in New York in the 1940s. Jazz, chess and photography were his main interests. As a 17-year old Kubrick became a staff photographer for Look magazine. He taught himself the art of filming.

Kubrick later rejected FEAR AND DESIRE, his first feature film and witheld further screenings. With KILLER'S KISS and THE KILLING he remodeled the film noir and demonstrated his talent to narrative and filmic composition. The anti-war film, PATHS OF GLORY, starring Kirk Douglas, is regarded as an early masterpiece. SPARTACUS, the wide screen epic on the slave revolt in ancient Rome, earned him worldwide acclaim and gave him the independence he had always sought.

Since LOLITA, based on the then scandalous novel by Vladimir Nabokov, all of Stanley Kubrick's films were produced in England. With the war satire, DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB, Kubrick finally established himself as the most idiosyncratic major director of modern cinema. In 1968 he finished the most ambitious project of his career - 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. For the lavish Special Visual Effects the film was awarded an Oscar in the same year.

Stanley Kubrick's uncompromising way of working and his passion for detail also characterise each of the following films: A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, THE SHINING and FULL METAL JACKET. The film director died on 7 March, 1999 shortly after completing EYES WIDE SHUT.

"He created more than movies. He gave us complete environmental experiences that got more, not less, intense the more you watched them."

Steven Spielberg
from: Christiane Kubrick. Stanley Kubrick - A Life in Pictures. London, 2002


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