Excellent documentary largely made up of sound archives of interviews conducted over 30 years by critic Michel Ciment, one of the very few journalists to have had access to the filmmaker, “Kubrick by Kubrick” can be seen on arte.tv.
Disappeared at the age of 70, Stanley Kubrick has signed only thirteen feature films in fifty years of career. From melodrama (Eyes Wide Shut) to science fiction (2001: A Space Odyssey) via horror (Shining), comedy (Doctor Strangelove), war film (Paths of Glory and Full Metal Jacket) or period (Barry Lyndon), Stanley Kubrick has offered each genre an undeniable gem of the Seventh Art.
Twenty-four years after his death, everything seems to have been said about this legendary filmmaker, probably one of the only ones – if not the only one – to have benefited from almost total freedom to devote himself fully to his art. .
Suspicious of journalists, preferring to communicate through images rather than words, Kubrick spoke very little publicly, which contributed to thicken the mystery that surrounds him. And even largely feed the craziest rumors, on the supposed misanthropy of a man living completely recluse.
A wonderful documentary signed by Gregory Monroe, Kubrick by Kubrick, recently broadcast on Arte but viewable on arte.tv until June 11, is precious. The reason ? It is largely made up of sound recordings of interviews that the filmmaker granted over thirty years to Michel Ciment.
Author of a reference work on the director published in 1980 and republished several times, the film critic, also director of the magazine Positive and columnist at mask and featheris one of the very few journalists to have interviewed him on several occasions, establishing a very long-term dialogue.
John Springer Collection/CORBIS
“My first question will be about the interviews” ventures to drop Cement during his first encounter with the master. “You are more and more reluctant to talk about your films”.
Kubrick’s response fuses, with his soft voice: “I’ve never found it important, or even possible, to talk about the aesthetics of my own films. I don’t particularly like it. movie”.
The filmmaker’s brother-in-law, Jan Harlan, didn’t tell us anything else, when we had the privilege of taking the guided tour with him of the extraordinary exhibition devoted to Kubrick at the Cinémathèque in 2011.
“I wanted to throw Stanley out the window!”
Kubrick, who saw himself as a Napoleon at the head of his armies during the production of his films, was among other things renowned for his absolute perfectionism. Obsessive even. There is no shortage of anecdotes about these actors or actresses who fell apart after dozens and dozens of takes, like Shelley Duvall on shiningor Ryan O’Neal on Barry Lyndon.
On this film moreover, the documentary involves the testimony of the composer, Leonard Rosenman, who delivers a striking anecdote about the filmmaker, and in the most literal sense of the term:
“It was for a scene with a horde of soldiers from the Irish army, I believe. We used authentic instruments. Authentic flutes found in museums, authentic drums, etc…
We did 105 takes and the 2nd one was perfect. The musicians looked at me, I looked at them, as if we were dealing with a madman. 105 catches, do you realize?
I ended up throwing my wand, I grabbed him by the neck. I wanted to throw it out the window. Everyone started laughing nervously. Stanley said, “You’re crazy!” I said, “YOU are driving us all crazy, that’s the problem!”
An acute analysis of our society
If his English mansion of Childwickbury had become the nerve center of his universe, Kubrick was not cut off from the rest of the world. On the contrary, he was perfectly aware of his walk, his drifts, and his violent upheavals.
Speaking with Ciment in the wake of the release of his shock film A Clockwork Orange in 1971, which ran for two years in Britain before being pulled from theaters at Kubrick’s express request (and will not be released there only upon his death), the filmmaker delivers a terribly lucid reflection of burning topicality on violence in our society.
Rights reserved
“One of the most confusing social issues these days is ‘how do you maintain authority without being repressive?’ There is this growing feeling among young people that politics and legal means to change society are too slow and surely useless On the other hand, authority feels threatened by terrorism and this growing sense of anarchism.
The question is: “how to find, if it is still possible, a balance?” The answer is not in the very utopian optimistic vision aimed at destroying authority to make good out of it. Nor is it by saying that authority must be imposed by force. It’s a dilemma.”
Kubrick by Kubrick, to see on arte.tv until June 11, 2023.