Summary of Director Stanley Kubrick's Works: A perfectionist and a pessimist, the last master of the 20th century

A perfectionist who pursued the ideal shot to the limit and took multiple takes. A pessimist who looked down on the history of mankind from a god-like perspective and continued to make films filled with nihilism and black humor. Stanley Kubrick, the last great director of the 20th century, has become a legend in and of himself.

Born in Manhattan, New York on July 26, 1928. Although he showed a strong interest in literature and art from an early age, he was not particularly good at school. He eventually became a photographer for the magazine "Look", but still managed to make ends meet by playing chess, which he was good at. His use of one-point perspective in composition was likely cultivated during his time as a photographer.

Inspired by the masterpieces of masters such as Sergei Eisenstein, Max Ophüls, and Orson Welles, he decided to become a film director. He made his long-awaited directorial debut with the short documentary "Battle Day" (51), which followed a boxer, and received high praise for "Fear and Desire" (53) and "The Pitfalls" (55). He founded "Harris Kubrick Productions" with his ally James B. Harris and made PUT YOUR BODY IN CASH" (56).

As we all know, he went on to release a string of masterpieces that will go down in film history, including 2001: A Space Odyssey Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange Orange (1971), and The Shining(1980). A quarter century has passed since Kubrick passed away on March 7, 1999, at the age of 70. Although he left behind only a small number of films, his work continues to spark debate and inspire. Let's take a look at 12 of Stanley Kubrick's greatest works.

Index

Stanley Kubrick's 1950s

• 1. The Trap of Ruthlessness (55) 67 min.
• 2. "PUT YOUR BODY IN CASH" (56)
• 3. "Paths of Glory" (57)

Stanley Kubrick's 1960s

• 4. Spartacus (1960)
• 5. Lolita(62)
• 6. "Dr. Strangelove" (64)
• 7. 2001: A Space Odyssey(68)

Stanley Kubrick's films from the 1970s to the 1990s

• 8. A Clockwork Orange Orange (1971)
• 9. Barry Lyndon (1975)
• 10. The Shining(1980)
• 11. Full Metal Jacket(1987)
• 12. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Stanley Kubrick's 1950s

1. The Trap of Ruthlessness (55) 67 min.

(c) Photofest / Getty Images

This is Kubrick's second feature film after Fear and Desire, in which he took on four roles: director, producer, cinematographer, and editor. It is a stylish film noir about a boxer nearing retirement who tries to save the mistress of a gangster. It is memorable for its location shooting that makes use of the New York cityscape, such as the subway and Times Square, and its hard-edged portrayal of the subtleties of relationships between men and women. Because Fear and Desire was a huge loss, Kubrick somehow managed to complete the film by borrowing $40,000 from a relative, but only managed to recoup half of the production costs. Incidentally, Ruth Sobotka, who plays the ballet dancer Iris, was Kubrick's wife at the time.

2. PUT YOUR BODY IN CASH(56) 85 min

© 1956 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.© 2019 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Kubrick's memorable Hollywood debut. Johnny (Sterling Hayden), a notorious criminal who has just been released from prison, devises a bold criminal plan to rob a racetrack's earnings. He recruits a group of eccentric members, including the racetrack's accountant, a bartender, a corrupt police officer, and a former The Wrestler, and embarks on a big gamble that will make or break the plot. The story is not told in a linear manner, but is told in a nonlinear way that moves back and forth between tenses, which also influenced Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs(1992). By the way, the reading of cash is not "genkin" but "gennama."

Read more: "The PUT YOUR BODY IN CASH" - Kubrick's Hollywood debut that made his talent known to the world

3. "Paths of Glory" (57) 87 min.

© 1957 Harris Kubrick Pictures Corp. All Rights Reserved. © 2019 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The original work was an anti-war novel, "Paths to Glory," published by Humphrey Cobb in 1935. The studio at the time was hesitant to produce the film because World War II was looming. Kubrick gave up on the studio, which was reluctant to go ahead with the film even after the war, and approached actor Kirk Douglas with the idea himself, which led to the film being made. The carefully designed dolly shots, with vertical movement in the trench scenes and horizontal movement in the Paths of Glory scenes, are very effective. Unusually for the cynical Kubrick, the scene in which Major Dax (Kirk Douglas) pleads at the court martial that "the charges against them are a fraud on humanity" is heartwarming and emotional. Kirk Douglas, who first met the young genius director, later described him in his autobiography as "a talented bastard!"

Read more: ' The Paths of Glory,' Stanley Kubrick's emotional anti-war film

Stanley Kubrick's 1960s