Ahead of Yourself

I really, really admire Stanley Kubrick. Couldn’t really say I’m the kind of obsessive fan that knows all his films by heart, release date, actors and such, I will probably never be able to remember every detail as much as I’d like to. The funny thing though, finding a favourite among his films is hard to do – gut would say ‘Full Metal Jacket’ but it wouldn’t do justice to the others.

Also, I’m not the kind of person that could watch a whole film, beginning to end two or more times, repeatedly, but I could watch various scenes over and over again, without getting bored of them. Because most of the time it’s the 10-minute bits that get me every time. When you know the plot and action by heart and know what will happen next, there’s some strange joy in just watching only the parts you like best once, twice, as many times needed. Maybe it’s just me.

Films that leave room to so many interpretations have always been a weakness of mine; sparking a conversation that extends further than ‘What did you think of the movie?’ – ‘It was good’ is priceless, at least nowadays when I can go into a store and buy about twenty films for under £100 but only two of them might live up to this expectation. For every ten ‘pure entertainment’ films, I will appreciate a good one more than anything else.

At the time being, Eyes Wide Shut was the film for me. Couldn’t be able to tell why, it’d mean too much text so I’ll save that for some other time but I’ve seen so many people interpret either the film as a whole or just scenes from it – decor, movements, colours and such. There was no YouTube back then (“Really grandma? What was life without YouTube?”) and people wouldn’t be able to illegally upload ‘my favourite bit from the film’ on it* so you’d just be stuck with a DVD and a fast forward button to take you to wherever you wanted to go. I liked it, despite hating Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman (which I still do, but separately) and managed to watch all of it twice, then was just sat in the sofa with a remote, clicking back and forth through it.

* At the time of writing this, the Google Video front page shows as ‘Hottest Video’ the scene from The Dark Knight where the Joker does his pencil trick, in camera quality.

Obviously that’s purely subjective. But yesterday I managed to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey on TV and it made me think a lot more about Kubrick; his films achieved ‘cult status’ among so many people for so many reasons it’s intriguing – in a world where it’s now hard to please anyone, he could make a film about space as brilliant as he could make a film about violence.

I stumbled across a 3-piece documentary (Entire documentary here) about Stanley Kubrick’s boxes. What boxes?

Before he died of natural causes at his Hertfordshire manor, Kubrick apparently filled his house with loads of boxes. Archives of letters, photos, correspondence, documentary material. Thousands and thousands of photos maybe. Research for his films. The documentary tells about the numerous photos of London interiors, houses, cafes, interior design, gates, architecture, street views. All of them in the search for the perfect filming location; even so, he chose to film some of them on a set because he couldn’t find the right one.

What’s amazing is not only the amount of, well, stuff he had, but his family explaining how he’d work. He wouldn’t lock himself up in a room and ask for quiet like most people do when they have to get things done. He could always be interrupted, at any time, by anyone. He never said no to people and he was so passionate about his work he’d make others feel bad about taking days off or going on holiday; his passion actually made people feel like they must do things for him and it would be a shame to disappoint him.

With at least 30,000 photos only for Eyes Wide Shut, his family tells of never seeing him overwhelmed by his work and amount of material to go through. It was his driving force, which is what makes him an amazing person; the Stanley Kubrick on the set would never be the same as Stanley Kubrick the father or husband – each person saw a different side of him, depending on what he needed to project. He cared about everything and everyone and never forgot things – just got delayed on the way.

I wish there were more people like him. Like when you film an ad. Let’s not pick this place just because it’s too complicated to get approval for the other. Let’s not shoot this product just because it looks better on film than the one we’re actually selling. Let’s never be too busy or uninterested because we might never know what we’re missing out on.

“Stanley had a hard time keeping up with himself.”