Kubrick by Kubrick (2020) Movie Script
1
[elevator whirring]
[elevator dings]
["The Blue Danube" from
"2001: A Space Odyssey" plays]
[]
[film camera rolling]
["Waltz No. 2"
from "Eyes Wide Shut" plays]
[]
News just in, we've just heard
that the film director
Stanley Kubrick
has died at the age of 70.
Kubrick, who was an American,
began his career in Hollywood,
where he directedSpartacus,
but he decided
to move to Britain,
where he directed
Lolita, Clockwork Orange,
2001: A Space Odyssey
andThe Shining.
Stanley Kubrick
was widely regarded
as one of the greatest and most
controversial masters of cinema.
He'd just finished
what was to be his last film,
Eyes Wide Shut,
which took five years to make.
Stanley Kubrick has been called
the Howard Hughes of cinema
because he was such a recluse.
I prefer to think him
as the Frank Sinatra of cinema
because he always did everything
his way.
You can go back
to any Kubrick film
and feel rebirth.
Kubrick is at the very least
a genuine innovator
who pushes out the boundaries
of what it's possible on film,
and there have never been
many of those about.
He is also an elusive man
who rarely permits himself
to be observed at work.
He was not any of the things
that the newspapers
wrote about him.
And...
he himself said,
"It's very difficult.
How do I defend myself?
Do I write an article, you know,
'Dear public, I'm charming'?"
Um, that's more difficult
than it sounds actually.
'Cause, you know, he never ever
does a television show
or very rarely does
any press interviews.
[]
[]
MICHEL:
Well perhaps the first question
would be about
this problem of interview
because, it seems that more
and more you feel reluctant
to speak about your films ?
STANLEY:
Well, I've never
found it meaningful
or even... possible
to talk about film aesthetics
in terms of my own films.
I also don't particularly enjoy
[chuckles] the interviews
because one always feels
under the obligation
to say some witty,
brilliant summary
of the intentions of the film.
And...
withDr. Strangelove
you could talk about
the problems of nuclear war...
2001 you could talk about
extraterrestrial intelligence,
but I've never been--
MICHEL:
Clockwork Orange
about violence.
STANLEY:
Yes, or future
social structures.
I mean I don't know what led me
to make any of the films,
really, that I've made.
And I realize that
my own thought processes are...
very hard to define,
in terms of you know,
"What story do you want
to make into a film?"
In the end, it does become
this very indefinable thing,
like why do you find
one particular girl attractive,
or why did you marry your wife.
MICHEL:
Yes, and also I suppose
it is more difficult
for you to analyze yourself
because the material
comes from somebody else.
So, it's more difficult to see
the personal reasons
that were behind it
since you didn't
write it yourself
but of obviously the choice
of the subject
is a very personal thing,
because you can choose
between thousands of books
but you chose one.
So, it's-- you become the author
of the book,
in a way, by choosing it.
STANLEY
Well...
if somebody else
has written the story,
you have that one
great first reading.
You never again, once you read
something for the first time,
can ever have that experience.
And the judgment
of the narrative
and the sense of excitement
of what parts of the story
reach you emotionally,
is something which doesn't exist
if you write a story.
MICHEL:
We know,
I mean everybody knows,
it's notorious that you love
to accumulate information
and do research.
Is it a thrill for you,
like being a reporter
or a detective?
STANLEY:
It is a little bit
like a detective
looking for clues.
On Barry Lyndon,
I created a picture file
of thousands of drawings
and paintings.
I think I destroyed
every art book
that you can buy in a bookshop
by tearing the pages out
and sorting them out.
But...
the costumes were all copied
from paintings.
I mean none of the costumes
were quote "designed".
It's stupid to have
quote "a designer"
that interpret the 18th Century
as they may remember it
from art school
or from a few pictures
they get together.
["Sarabande"
from "Barry Lyndon" plays]
MICHEL:
Would you agree
that the more illusion works,
the more realistic it is?
That cinema
has to extremely realistic,
you know, to create illusion?
STANLEY:
Well, I would always
be attracted
to something which offered
interesting
visual possibilities,
but that certainly wouldn't be
the only reason.
And, since part of the problem
of any story
is to make you believe
what you are seeing,
certainly getting
a realistic atmosphere,
especially if it's not
a contemporary period,
is just necessary
as a starting point.
MICHEL:
It's why you came to this idea
of shooting with light,
natural light.
STANLEY:
Well, that's something
that I've always been
very bothered by
in period films
is the light on interiors
is so false.
MARISA:
It was very different
to any kind of other movies
as far as photography
was concerned,
because the lightning was so--
You know, lot of it was shot
by candle light,
a lot of it was shot
with equipment
that Stanley Kubrick had found,
that had never been used before
really, on film.
So, it was quite an experience
working with that.
It was also difficult
because there were times
when you just couldn't even move
a fraction of an inch.
And...
there were days
we would just sit there
and just be lit all day.
[chuckles]
You know...
Literally.
[indistinct chatter]
Samuel, I'm going outside
for a breath of air.
Yes, My Lady, of course.
[indistinct chatter]
STANLEY:
To know about lighting
and lenses and composition
has to be a help
as a movie director.
["Spartacus" theme plays]
[]
STANLEY:
I remember,
when I was makingSpartacus ,
the cameraman, Russ Metty,
used to think it was very funny
that I used to pick set-ups
with a view finder,
and he said to me,
"We are shooting
in that direction
and it's a knee figure shot
and just, you know,
go and rehearse with the actors
and when you come back
we'll have the shot
and the set-up and everything"
He couldn't understand
why I wanted to waste time
making a composition.
STANLEY:
Certainly, photography gave me
the first step
where I could actually try
to make a movie
because without that
how could you make a movie
by yourself
if you didn't know anything
about photography?
MICHEL:
What kind of photographs
were you doing?
I mean
there is the famous photograph
of the newspaper vendor
and the--
STANLEY:
Photojournalism
with natural light.
MICHEL:
Mostly things of the street,
like Cartier Bresson--
STANLEY:
Well unfortunately,
becauseLook always did
feature stories,
the subject matter
always tended to be idiotic.
They would do a story like
"Is an Athlete Stronger
Than a Baby?"
And I would have to go
and there'd be some guy
that would have to try
to get in the same positions
as a baby and things like that.
They were pretty stupid
feature stories,
but occasionally I could do
a sort of personality story,
or a story about something
like a university,
or something like that,
where you had a chance
to take some
reasonable photographs.
MICHEL:
You worked four years atLook ?
STANLEY:
Yeah, about four years.
I was about 20.
[camera shutter clicks]
NARRATOR:
This forest then,
and all that happens now
is outside history.
Only the unchanging shapes
of fear,
and doubt
and death
are from our world.
These soldiers that you see
keep our language and our time,
but have no other country
but the mind.
MICHEL:
You started by making almost
a home movie, when you were 23,
Fear and Desire,
about four men in a patrol.
What was behind this project?
STANLEY:
That was a very arrogant,
flippant script
put together by myself,
and a boy that I knew
who was a poet.
Where we thought
that we were geniuses,
and it was so
incompetently done...
and undramatic...
and so pompous.
But I learnt a lesson
from that.
-[gunshots]
-[thuds]
STANLEY:
At least it had the ambition
of having some ideas in it,
and I suppose you could say
in that sense
there is some continuity
with the rest of my films,
which I've also tried
to make sure that...
you know, they weren't just
hollow entertainments.
[grunts]
-[grunts]
-[objects clattering]
["Sarabande" plays]
[machine gunfire]
["Sarabande" plays over battle]
MICHEL:
You get the feeling
from your films
that really the world
is not only a stage,
but it's a war,
because man is fighting
all the time.
["Sarabande" still playing]
STANLEY:
Well, in a work of fiction
you have to have conflict.
If there isn't a problem
in a story,
it can almost by definition
not be a story.
[]
STANLEY:
You know, how many
happy marriages are there?
And how many stepfathers
love their stepsons?
And how many
stepsons love their stepfather?
And how often...
do people who have ambitions
which only involve money
do they find
a satisfying accomplishment?
Corporal Barry.
[coins jingle]
You are a gallant soldier
and have evidently
come of good stock.
But you're idle,
dissolute and unprincipled.
You've done a great deal of harm
to the men...
and for all your talents
and bravery
I'm sure
you will come to no good.
[]
BARRY:
Barry Lyndon tells
of the rise and fall
of an Irish adventurer
and let's face it, cad,
who becomes a soldier,
a deserter, a gambler, a duelist
and eventuallythe husband
of a very rich widow.
There is I think deliberately
a distance
between the audience
and characters.
You are asked to watch the story
of their adventures
and misadventures,
but not necessarily
to identify with them.
Well,
that's a dangerous approach,
but it works.
What also works
is the leisurely pace
of the film,
the pace that matches
the pace of the novel
and I dare say
of the 18th-Century life itself.
So, if you're expecting
an all-action, swashbuckler,
forget it.
What Kubrick presents instead
is a hard, unromantic
and unsentimental look
at the life and times
of a good-looking
but ill-fated opportunist.
MICHEL:
Some people get out
of the movie and say,
"This character,
we have absolutely
no sympathy for him."
STANLEY:
Well, I don't see
how you can have
no sympathy for him.
On the other hand,
we're well aware of the weakness
of his character
and the trap
that he places himself in
as a result of his ambitions,
and the limitation
of his personality
that arises from the cynicism
which develops
from his early relationships
with people.
He then becomes
a very limited person.
He is completely unsuited
for the life,
not only socially
but temperamentally.
And so he puts himself
into a gilded cage.
And from then on,
everything goes sour.
[]
MICHEL:
But how did you decide
on Ryan O'Neal
for the main role?
STANLEY:
Well, I couldn't think
of anybody else,
to tell you the truth.
I mean...
Obviously, Barry Lyndon
has to be physically attractive.
He couldn't be played
by Al Pacino or Jack Nicholson.
He had to also be able to,
in the beginning,
appear to be young
and yet not look too young
at the end.
MICHEL:
And the actors,
how do you direct actors?
Do you speak with them a lot,
or do you let them feel the text
or do you have an explanation?
STANLEY:
Well, first of all, you discuss
the character in general,
and then you discuss the scene,
what the character's
real attitude is in the scene.
Then comes this terrible moment:
the first time that
you actually rehearse a scene
in the place
you are going to shoot it.
It's always a surprise,
it's never what you thought
it would be.
The text usually
has to be changed
in some way or another.
Then they have to get it
to a level
where it's realistic
and interesting.
And at that point,
it then becomes relatively easy.
MALCOLM:
It was an extraordinary
experience
doingClockwork Orange.
A very long and arduous film
to shoot.
It was seven months shooting.
And I was injured
a couple of times on the film.
I had my ribs dented.
I was off for two weeks
with that.
I think I had tonsillitis
or something, I...
One disaster after another
as far as I wa--
my health was concerned.
I got a couple
of scratched corneas
on my eyes.
But having said all that,
of course,
I suppose one can say
it was worth it.
And if Stanley trusts you,
if he trusts you,
you're all right.
If he doesn't, beware.
Very well,
now listen to me carefully.
The base is being put
on condition red.
I want this flashed
to all sections immediately.
I had the worst time
I've ever had on a picture,
and...
Nothing to do with Stanley,
and everything to do, I guess,
with my own hang-ups.
I worked the first day
at Shepperton,
and I had a great deal
of technical jargon, you know?
And so I started to work
and I began to blow.
You know those clowns outside
are gonna give me a pretty good
going over in a few minutes.
Okay, and so he went
something like 38 takes.
I don't know how well
I could stand up under torture.
And I was getting worse
and worse.
So finally,
he began to do pickups. Hmm?
A sentence at a time.
And I mean this is painful,
this is embarrassing.
Shit, I'm here
and I want to do well, mm?
I know I'll have to answer
for what I've done.
And finally I walked up
and said, "Stanley I'm sorry,
but there is nothing I can do."
He said, "I know that."
He said,
"There's nothing I can do."
I said, "I know that."
He said,
"But I'll tell you one thing."
He said, "The terror,
the terror that's in your eyes
may just give us
the quality that we want."
JACK:
He is a perfectionist.
But I mean,
on a more approvable level.
I mean, you know, it's different
in a movie situation
if you say, "How was it?"
to the operator.
Stanley has the teleprompter
now, so he knows.
And the amount of reason
that he has
why a take is not acceptable...
Quintessentially perfectionist.
GARRETT:
We had discussions
about the elusive quality
of perfection
because down by take 75,
a host of other things
start going wrong.
The tape finally gives out
that held something onto
the wall,
and entropy takes over,
we're all growing older,
you know?
So, the search is extraordinary,
he never gives up.
[battle drums beating]
LEONARD:
It was during a scene
of a great many army people,
or Irish army whatever it was,
but we utilized
a lot of material
that was absolutely authentic.
Authentic flutes from museums,
authentic drums,
and so on and so forth.
And it was very easy.
I've after all recorded
some very avant-garde music
that's very difficult
and this was a cinch.
We did a 105 takes on this thing
and take two was perfect.
And the orchestra looked at me
and I looked at them
as though, "We're dealing
with an insane person."
And 105 takes,
and finally,
I threw down the baton,
ran into the thing,
and grabbed him by the neck.
I wanted to throw him
through the window
when everyone
started laughing...
kind of nervously.
And he said, "You're crazy."
And I said, "Well,
you've driven everybody crazy,
that's... that's the problem."
[battle drums beat]
STANLEY:
Directing a movie,
if you try to do it properly,
is not always fun,
because you are in conflict
with people.
If you try to get it right
and you care about it,
it isn't something which is
the greatest fun in the world.
It's immensely satisfying
sometimes,
but it is a lot of hard work
and there is a lot
of personal tension
that occurs with everybody.
The analogy would better
in a sort of military sense
in that Napoleon,
if he didn't pay
as much attention
to the precise details
of his marching,
how he brought his troops
to the right town
on the right day,
he worked out
all the calculations
where they would come
from different places,
and did all the mathematics
himself,
and got them there
at the right time.
He would never
have an opportunity
to be a genius
on the battlefield.
[military pipes and drums play]
[]
STANLEY:
Battles are like the equivalent
of making a film.
DANN:
The key to his success
as a filmmaker is that
he was the ruthless general
everyone wanted to march with.
He got everyone on his side
and no matter what happened
he expected his cast and crew
to keep up with his standard.
In a way, he kind of represented
something to all of us
because he was over there
on his estate in England,
he was far from Hollywood,
he owned his own cameras,
his own editing equipment,
his own sound
and he worked entirely
according to his own schedule.
It's kind of inspiring at a time
when everybody else seems to be
marching to the drums
of commerce and promotion.
["Sarabande" plays]
[]
You know what kind of
a camera that is?
- What it's called?
- It's...
-A home movie
-Arriflex.
Napoleon is still in his grave,
waiting...
waiting to be brought back
to life.
I wonder what Napoleon
would think
of Lew Wasserman
and David Picker.
Whether he would have liked
to have them passing judgment
on his life.
[film camera rolling]
[]
MICHEL:
You worked
in a disaffected plant?
STANLEY:
Well, the first thing I noticed
was that the architecture
in the peripheral areas
where the fighting
seemed to be,
was this sort of 1930s
industrial functionalism.
And by the sheerest accident
we found this area
that is about a square mile,
and it was designed
by a German architect
in the 30s,
and it looked exactly
like photographs
we'd seen in the Hue
and Saigon borders,
you know, the outskirts
of the city.
And it just seemed like
a miracle,
because I don't know where--
looking back, I don't know
how we could have done
those scenes
with a tiny fraction
of the reality and interest
that we got from this location.
[rubble crumbling underfoot]
STANLEY:
In Hue,
we could never have achieved
this vision of hell
that actually Hue looked like.
[metal clattering]
[tape whirring]
[ghostly music over TV sounds]
[]
STANLEY:
And I had done
tremendous research,
I had thousands of stills
and as much documentary footage
as we could get from archives.
There was so much wonderful
documentary material on Vietnam,
you know, that had not been shot
in any other war.
Including scenes of men dying.
So, looking at 100 hours
of documentary film,
actually probably tells you more
than if you were there
and didn't actually have combat.
[ghostly music plays]
MICHEL:
The title,Full Metal Jacket ,
how did it come?
STANLEY:
Full metal jacket
is a type of bullet design,
which-- where the led
of the bullet
is in encased in copper.
It's done to increase
the reliability of the bullet
feeding up the ramp
into the chamber
from the magazine,
because it's smoother.
And also, I think
the Geneva Convention
has laid down
that it's a more humane type
of bullet
because led expands
a little bit
and this one just goes
and makes a nice clean hole.
[gunfire echoes]
MICHEL:
Do you think the problem
of a war film
is whatever you do to
not to involve the audience
into the battles,
not to give them
a vicarious experience.
But isn't it an ethical problem
for a filmmaker?
STANLEY:
When you read
the memoirs of people
that have survived the war,
many of them look back on it
as being the greatest moments
of their lives.
So, obviously there must be
an aspect to it
that is genuinely inspiring
and spectacular
in the real sense of the word.
And the elements of comradeship,
loyalty, courage,
those things, in retrospect,
people who take part in
are moved.
COMMANDER:
It is then with great pride
that I note the fine work
done by the soldiers
of this command
during the recent operation.
It is with pleasure that I say:
a job well done.
[]
MICHEL:
If you are interested
by war in itself
and the ambiguity of war,
there is no ambiguity
in the way you look
at the hierarchy.
I mean
whether inDr. Strangelove
or even inPaths of Glory ,
or, in this film,
the drill instructor.
STANLEY:
Well, the drill instructor
in this film is as nalve
as the boys are.
I mean, he is just programmed
to do that.
[shouts] Did your parents have
any children that lived?
-Sir, yes, sir.
-I bet they regret that.
You're so ugly you can be
a modern art masterpiece.
STANLEY:
Lee Ermey was a Parris Island
drill instructor.
He actually was what he played.
He was hired
as a technical adviser,
and I was looking
for an actor for the part.
But when we started
interviewing boys
for the recruits
at Parris Island,
we had the idea
that Lee would do
an improvisation with them.
Originally this was just to see
how they would react,
and he did what he did
in the scene:
the most bizarre,
off-the-wall dialogue
you could ever imagine.
He asked one guy
what his name was,
and he said, "Lawrence",
and he actually said to him...
[shouts] Lawrence? Lawrence,
what, of Arabia?
Sir, no, sir.
That name sounds like royalty.
-Are you royalty?
-Sir, no, sir.
Do you suck dicks?
-Sir, no, sir.
-Bullshit!
I'll bet you could suck
a golf ball through a hose!
STANLEY:
So, I suppose drill instructors
are in some way
or another actors,
but Lee of course
I think is special.
I don't like the name Lawrence!
Only faggots and sailors
are called Lawrence!
-From now on you're Gomer Pyle!
-Sir, yes, sir.
Tell me, you were in Vietnam.
Is this realistic?
When you look at the movie,
is that...?
It's very realistic.
I have a cross section...
When somebody hires me
to give technical advice,
I like technical advice
because I like putting
the realism in there.
It's good for me.
-Why?
-Good therapy maybe, I think.
When you look at it,
does it ring true with you?
Is it hard for you to watch?
'Cause you didn't
even like talking
about your experiences
in Vietnam.
It's really not that difficult
for me to watch
because I know it's not...
it's not something
that directly...
that I was involved with, okay?
I don't see the face
of my friend or...
I don't have any problem
with this.
But realism is there.
And you can take
a circle of ten Vietnam vets
and give them each a situation
and they will have
ten different ways
to solve the problem.
So what's real, you know?
[ghostly music plays]
[]
[distant explosions]
STANLEY:
One of the other
central features of the war
was the manipulation
of the reality of the war
by technocrats and quote
"intellectuals" in Washington,
who were always finding
light at the end of the tunnel
and...
encouraging the men there to lie
and to exaggerate kill ratios.
There was an arrogance
back in Washington
by these quote "intellectuals",
who ran the war
like an advertising campaign,
when they suffered
terrific casualties
and accomplished nothing
they thought they would.
You know, they thought people
would actually rise up
and join them.
But, because of the lying,
the press and the public
were so shocked.
Well, it's a bit like
the generals and the men
inPaths of Glory.
But in this case it was more
than just the ambition
of the generals
versus the men's lives.
I ordered an attack.
Your troops refused to attack.
My troops did attack, sir,
but they could make no headway.
Because they didn't try,
Colonel.
I saw it myself.
Half of your men never left
the trenches.
A third of my men
were pinned down
because the fire was so intense.
Don't quibble over fractions,
Colonel.
The fact remains
that a good part of your men
never left their own trenches.
Colonel Dax,
I'm going to have ten men
from each company
in your regiment
tried under penalty of death
for cowardice.
-Penalty of death?
-GENERAL: For cowardice!
[rhythmic gunfire]
[shouts] Aim!
-Fire!
-[gunshots]
MICHEL:
ButPaths of Glory
was not fundamentally different
- in philosophy from this film.
-STANLEY: Hmm.
MICHEL:
WWI was really a fight
- for nothing.
-STANLEY: For nothing.
MICHEL:
Certainly WWI
was a big turning point.
Certainly the Vietnam War
for Americans,
because it was the first time
that America really lost a war.
So, it's a big trauma.
STANLEY:
Well, I think it taught America
that you don't fight a war
because
some intellectuals decide
that it might be a good thing,
you know?
I don't think you're gonna get
Americans to fight a war again
unless they think it really
means something to them.
Now, how far...
that kind of isolationism
will go, I don't know.
Colonel.
Marine, what is that button
on your body armor?
A peace symbol, sir.
-COLONEL: Where d'ya get it?
-I don't remember, sir.
What is that you've got
written on your helmet?
"Born to kill", sir.
You write "Born to kill"
on your helmet
and you wear a peace button.
What's that supposed to be,
some kind of sick joke?
-No, sir.
-What is it supposed to mean?
STANLEY:
And that, of course, is playing
off on the Jungian ideas
of the duality of man.
Altruism and cooperation
versus xenophobia
and aggression, you know?
The fact that people do not see
the dark side of themselves,
and tend to externalize evil.
People do only see themselves
as good
and everybody else
as either weak or evil.
I mean...
there is always a problem
when people are confronted
with the shadow of the side.
["La Gazza Ladra"
from "Clockwork Orange" plays]
[Alex cries out]
[]
-[screams]
-[loud thud]
[sirens wailing in distance]
STANLEY:
Certainly in the case of Alex,
he must be aware of his duality
and he must be aware
of his own weakness
in order to be good,
or to prevent the worst kinds
of personal and social evil.
What crime did you commit?
The accidental killing
of a person, sir.
He brutally murdered
a woman, sir,
in furtherance of theft.
[shouts] Fourteen years, sir!
Excellent.
He's enterprising, aggressive,
outgoing, young, bold...
vicious.
He'll do.
STANLEY:
InClockwork Orange,
he was in conflict with people
who, in a way, were just as bad
as he was in a different sense
and I suppose,
in an emotional way,
seemed less sympathetic.
[screams]
No... No!
[shouts] Stop it!
Stop it, please! I beg you!
It's a sin!
It's a sin!
It's a sin!
It's a sin!
It's a sin! It's a sin!
Sin? What's all this about sin?
[piano music plays]
[crowd shouts indistinctly]
STANLEY:
One of the really most puzzling
social problems today
is how can authority
maintain itself
without becoming repressive?
You have
an ever-increasing feeling
among young people that...
politics and legal means
of social change
are too slow and may be useless.
On the other hand,
you have authority
that feels threatened
by terrorism
and this growing sense
of anarchy
that they can feel.
And the question is,
how do you achieve,
uh, if it is possible anymore,
some kind of...
balance?
It certainly doesn't lie
in this very utopian
sort of optimistic view
that if you destroy authority,
then something good
will come of it.
And it equally doesn't lie
by saying, you know,
authority must impose its will
with greater and greater force.
It's a dilemma.
[menacing drums]
[piano music]
The Scala Cinema in London
is in court today
accused of a breach of copyright
after allegedly showing
the controversial film
Clockwork Orange.
The film has been banned
in Britain for 20 years
at the request
of its director,
after critics claimed
it glamorized violence.
MALCOLM:
You see more violence
on a news program.
You know, you see more violence
in a John Wayne film,
'cause John Wayne always shoots
and you always feel,
"Oh, good old John Wayne.
He is the goody
and he shot the baddy."
And it's an emotional response,
you know?
I personally feel
that it's more violence
of the imagination, of the mind.
I think the film
is very important
because the statement it makes
is about the freedom
of human beings to choose.
And that's more important
than any of these
sensational elements
that the press and people
have been talking about.
STANLEY:
Nobody, except people
who were trying to prove
thatClockwork Orange
was an evil film,
nobody could believe
that one was in favor of Alex.
It's only that in telling
a story like that,
you want to present Alex
as he feels
and as he is to himself.
And in analyzing the film,
you could think
that there was more sympathy
for Alex
but, since
it is satirical story,
and since the nature
of satire is that
you state the opposite
of the truth
as if it is the truth...
I don't see how anybody
of any intelligence,
or even any ordinary person,
could think that you really
thought Alex was the hero.
It's probably what attracted me
to the book.
It was this strange duality
of a character
who is plainly evil,
and yet,
because of him operating
on this unconscious level,
makes you aware of things
within your own personality
which you then identify
with him.
[suspenseful music]
MICHEL:
You are more attracted
by evil characters
than by good ones.
I was thinking of Milton,
makingParadise Lost
much more interesting.
STANLEY:
Uh...
"Better to reign in Hell
than serve in Heaven."
[suspenseful music
grows in volume]
[]
[typewriter keys tapping]
[eerie tinkling music plays]
[]
MICHEL:
How do you see your character
in this film?
How do you see
the reason of his behavior?
It's very ironical
because he wants to write,
to be creative
and he wants to be free
and he is a slave in fact
of his own neurosis.
STANLEY:
Well, you can only fill in
the details
of Jack's personality.
He is bitterly disappointed
with himself,
he is a person who...
who obviously has immense rage.
He is married to a woman
whom he obviously has nothing
but contempt for
and he doesn't like his son.
You then put him in a situation
where he then is exposed
to evil forces in the hotel.
Now, you are getting
into the supernatural side
of the story.
And all those other factors
simply serve to prepare him,
to make him a suitable servant
of their wishes.
[suspenseful music plays]
-[screams]
-[wood cracking]
-No!
-[wood cracking]
Please!
[screams]
[woman shrieks] Please!
[]
MICHEL:
In this story,
I mean at least the way
you have shot it
there is always the possibility
that everything is in the mind.
STANLEY:
Well, this is what I found
so ingenious
about the way
the novel was written.
And you assume as you read it
that the things
that are happening
are probably going to be
a product of his imagination.
And I think this allows you
to start accepting them.
MICHEL:
Do you think
there's an interaction
between the souls in the hotel
and it's not purely a projection
of his mental thing?
Well, you can interpret that.
STANLEY:
Well, I mean I interpret
the story as being real.
I mean I just accept
for the story purposes
that everything is true.
[suspenseful music buzzes]
[]
[wind blows]
[trees creak]
[pants]
MICHEL:
There are three mazes
if I remember well.
There is the real maze,
there is a kind of map
or plan of the maze,
and it's also the maze is
in a way
that the hotel in reduction
because hotels
are full of corridors
and things like that.
So this idea
is extremely powerful
and it goes
with the imaginary dimension
of the film.
[suspenseful music buzzes]
[wind blowing]
[pants]
[]
STANLEY:
I remember once
reading something about
which were maze seem the perfect
kind of metaphor for many things
about life and that somebody
was describing how in a maze
everybody is giving advice
to each other,
and misleading each other
completely by their advice.
So nobody knows quite
what to do,
they are all giving each other
ideas which are all wrong.
[pants]
[suspenseful music buzzes]
[]
STANLEY:
Many types of genre material
are really ways
of thinking about death.
[]
STANLEY:
So that in a way
it is, on a psychological level,
possibly a way of exploring
attitudes towards death.
MICHEL:
Your films give a feeling
of great despair.
STANLEY:
If you make certain assumptions
about the nature of man
and you build a social situation
on false assumptions,
if you assume
that man is fundamentally good,
it will disappoint you.
[suspenseful music crescendos]
[]
[]
ARTHUR:
What we are doing in the movie
2001: A Space Odyssey
is showing some of the things
we will develop in the world
of the future
as a result of our present
first steps into space.
The next generation
will explore the planets,
bring back new knowledge,
answering old questions,
and of course asking fresh ones.
It's really the next stage
in the evolution of mankind.
About half a century ago,
the great Russian
space pioneer, Tsiolkovsky said,
"Earth is the cradle
of mankind
but you cannot live
in the cradle forever."
And that is very true.
And out here among the stars,
lies the destiny of mankind.
[]
STANLEY:
The human species
hasn't changed
since Cro-Magnon men,
and, in terms
of evolutionary time,
we're not going to change much
in the next 100 or 200 years.
The critical problem
of our survival
is going to have to be settled
long before 100 or 200 years.
Now, where is this source
of intelligence
going to come from?
-HAL: Good evening, Dave.
-How you doin', HAL?
HAL:
Everything's running smoothly.
And you?
Oh, not too bad.
HAL:
Have you been doing more work?
-DAVE: A few sketches.
-HAL: May I see them?
Sure.
HAL:
That's a very nice rendering,
Dave.
I think you've improved
a great deal.
STANLEY:
There is something
that's happening already today,
you might say, "a mechaniarchy"
or whatever the word would be.
The love that we have now
for machines.
The smell and the feel
of a beautiful camera,
or a tape recorder.
There is an aesthetic,
an almost sensuous aesthetic
about machines.
I'm sure it will be useful
to them to know
what human feelings are
because it will help them
understand us.
HAL:
The 9000 series
is the most reliable computer
ever made.
No 9000 computer
has ever made a mistake
or distorted information.
We are all,
by any practical definition
of the words,
foolproof and incapable
of error.
INTERVIEWER:
HAL, despite
your enormous intellect
are you ever frustrated
by your dependence on people
to carry out actions?
HAL:
Not in the slightest bit.
I enjoy working with people.
STANLEY:
We do now obviously need
some source of intelligence
of a magnitude
considerably greater
than seems to exist
at the moment.
And you could say
that man's survival depends
on the ultra-intelligent
machine.
I can't think of any reason
why it's a frightening prospect,
because intelligence seems to me
to be something which is good,
and so I can't see
how your ultra-intelligent
machine
is going to be any worse
than a man.
Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL:
I'm sorry, Dave.
I'm afraid I can't do that.
What's the problem?
HAL:
I think you know
what the problem is
just as well as I do.
What are you talking about, HAL?
HAL:
This mission
is too important for me
to allow you to jeopardize it.
I don't know
what you're talking about, HAL.
[]
[air hisses]
[breathes steadily]
HAL:
I'm afraid.
I'm afraid, Dave.
STANLEY:
At the moment,
the problems of the world
appear to be problems
only because man seems to lack
the intelligence to think
his wayout of the present trap
that we seem to be in.
HAL:
Dave.
My mind is going.
I can feel it.
I can feel it.
I can feel it.
I can feel it.
["Masked Ball"
from "Eyes Wide Shut" plays]
[]
[indistinct chatter]
MICHEL:
You have no other projects now?
As usual?
STANLEY:
No, I wish I did.
MICHEL:
But Schnitzler,
you still don't want to do that:
Traumnovelle.
STANLEY:
I am not sure, I might,
it is interesting.
-You've read it?
-MICHEL: It's extraordinary.
["Masked Ball" plays]
[]
[thumps]
TOM:
It's not about sex.
Stanley never said
it was about sex.
It's about sexual obsession.
It's a thriller about
sexual obsession, and jealousy.
And all the rumors that surfaced
about just the wildest stories
you could ever imagine
that were...
It's not pornography.
If he wanted to do that
he would have done that.
If you men only knew.
I tell you what I do know,
is you got
a little stoned tonight,
you've been trying
to pick a fight with me,
and now you're trying
to make me jealous.
But you're not the jealous type,
are you?
No, I'm not.
You've never been jealous
about me, have you?
No, I haven't.
And why haven't you ever been
jealous about me?
Well, I don't know, Alice.
Maybe because you're my wife.
["Masked Ball" plays]
Do you think monogamy
is a natural state?
I think it's a choice.
Uh...
I mean...
if it was just a natural state
why would people desire
other people?
INTERVIEWER:
Do you think
that there is in everybody a...
a thin edge?
A depravity or extreme danger
of desire, I suppose?
Is it in everyone?
Sure.
Yeah.
Uhm...
How honest people are about it
is a different thing,
but I think we all have it.
STANLEY:
Most situations where somebody
is hopelessly in love
with someone
who they shouldn't be,
it always is really,
it tends to be physical.
And most tragic
masochistic relationships
that I'm aware of
are essentially
physical attraction
and this seemed to say it.
This sort of primitive part
of your mind
that is just fascinated
by the mystery
of what's going on.
It's all part of the sort of
gigantic fantasy,
that the male sex fantasy.
I think that the story
would become impossible
if you tried to give
reasons for it.
[]
MICHEL:
I think that you are
an innovator.
I mean you like very much
to break things, new things.
But sometimes you are very
conscious on traditions.
STANLEY:
Well, I think
that one of the things
that characterizes
some of the failures
of 20th-Century art,
in all art forms,
is an obsession
with total originality.
Innovation means
moving it forward,
but not abandoning
the classical form,
the art form
that you are working with.
But I do think that
the real explosion will come
when someone finally liberates
the narrative structure.
["Sarabande" plays]
MICHEL:
What surprises me is that
you have absolutely no prejudice
towards choice of a subject.
I mean, anything can happen.
STANLEY:
Well I might,
but I am not aware of it,
I mean...
A good story you can make
into a film is a miracle,
and it is very hard
to work miracles.
[]
STANLEY:
Someone sent me an article
about Schnitzler.
He died
in the most wonderful way.
He was sitting, writing
at the type writer.
Somebody was in the next room
and he got up to give him a page
and he just fell over,
and that was it.
He hadn't been ill or anything,
he was just working,
and dying.
TOM:
I was supposed to talk to him
on Sunday.
And sometimes
Stanley would call,
you know,
in the middle of the night.
I remember thinking...
The phone rang,
it was either Nick or Stanley,
the only people who usually call
in the middle of the night.
And it was Leon,
and he said,
"Tom, you know,
Stanley Kubrick...
died in his sleep."
And...
And I remember just thinking,
"This just isn't happening."
-[lights shut]
-[electricity crackles]
[film camera whirring]
["Midnight, the Stars & You"
from "The Shining" plays]
[]
STANLEY:
How disappointing
you make the end of a film
is a matter of, I suppose,
taste or artistic balance,
whatever it is, but you always
are faced with the problem
of are you going to try
to reinforce
this illusion
which melodrama fosters
or are you going to try
to reflect
what one sees about life?
Melodrama uses
all the problems of the world
and all the disasters
which befall the main characters
to finally show you that...
the world is a benevolent
and fair place,
and all the tests and trials
and seeming misfortunes
which occur, in the end
just reinforce this belief.
But tragedy, or honesty,
or an attempt at presenting life
in a way that seems closer
to reality than melodrama...
can leave you
with a feeling of desolation.
But certainly,
the formula approach,
which presents the world
in a way other than it is,
doesn't seem to have
a great deal of merit
unless you're just...
making entertainment.
MICHEL:
Thank you very much.
["Midnight, the Stars & You"
continues to play]
[]
[elevator whirring]
[elevator dings]
["The Blue Danube" from
"2001: A Space Odyssey" plays]
[]
[film camera rolling]
["Waltz No. 2"
from "Eyes Wide Shut" plays]
[]
News just in, we've just heard
that the film director
Stanley Kubrick
has died at the age of 70.
Kubrick, who was an American,
began his career in Hollywood,
where he directedSpartacus,
but he decided
to move to Britain,
where he directed
Lolita, Clockwork Orange,
2001: A Space Odyssey
andThe Shining.
Stanley Kubrick
was widely regarded
as one of the greatest and most
controversial masters of cinema.
He'd just finished
what was to be his last film,
Eyes Wide Shut,
which took five years to make.
Stanley Kubrick has been called
the Howard Hughes of cinema
because he was such a recluse.
I prefer to think him
as the Frank Sinatra of cinema
because he always did everything
his way.
You can go back
to any Kubrick film
and feel rebirth.
Kubrick is at the very least
a genuine innovator
who pushes out the boundaries
of what it's possible on film,
and there have never been
many of those about.
He is also an elusive man
who rarely permits himself
to be observed at work.
He was not any of the things
that the newspapers
wrote about him.
And...
he himself said,
"It's very difficult.
How do I defend myself?
Do I write an article, you know,
'Dear public, I'm charming'?"
Um, that's more difficult
than it sounds actually.
'Cause, you know, he never ever
does a television show
or very rarely does
any press interviews.
[]
[]
MICHEL:
Well perhaps the first question
would be about
this problem of interview
because, it seems that more
and more you feel reluctant
to speak about your films ?
STANLEY:
Well, I've never
found it meaningful
or even... possible
to talk about film aesthetics
in terms of my own films.
I also don't particularly enjoy
[chuckles] the interviews
because one always feels
under the obligation
to say some witty,
brilliant summary
of the intentions of the film.
And...
withDr. Strangelove
you could talk about
the problems of nuclear war...
2001 you could talk about
extraterrestrial intelligence,
but I've never been--
MICHEL:
Clockwork Orange
about violence.
STANLEY:
Yes, or future
social structures.
I mean I don't know what led me
to make any of the films,
really, that I've made.
And I realize that
my own thought processes are...
very hard to define,
in terms of you know,
"What story do you want
to make into a film?"
In the end, it does become
this very indefinable thing,
like why do you find
one particular girl attractive,
or why did you marry your wife.
MICHEL:
Yes, and also I suppose
it is more difficult
for you to analyze yourself
because the material
comes from somebody else.
So, it's more difficult to see
the personal reasons
that were behind it
since you didn't
write it yourself
but of obviously the choice
of the subject
is a very personal thing,
because you can choose
between thousands of books
but you chose one.
So, it's-- you become the author
of the book,
in a way, by choosing it.
STANLEY
Well...
if somebody else
has written the story,
you have that one
great first reading.
You never again, once you read
something for the first time,
can ever have that experience.
And the judgment
of the narrative
and the sense of excitement
of what parts of the story
reach you emotionally,
is something which doesn't exist
if you write a story.
MICHEL:
We know,
I mean everybody knows,
it's notorious that you love
to accumulate information
and do research.
Is it a thrill for you,
like being a reporter
or a detective?
STANLEY:
It is a little bit
like a detective
looking for clues.
On Barry Lyndon,
I created a picture file
of thousands of drawings
and paintings.
I think I destroyed
every art book
that you can buy in a bookshop
by tearing the pages out
and sorting them out.
But...
the costumes were all copied
from paintings.
I mean none of the costumes
were quote "designed".
It's stupid to have
quote "a designer"
that interpret the 18th Century
as they may remember it
from art school
or from a few pictures
they get together.
["Sarabande"
from "Barry Lyndon" plays]
MICHEL:
Would you agree
that the more illusion works,
the more realistic it is?
That cinema
has to extremely realistic,
you know, to create illusion?
STANLEY:
Well, I would always
be attracted
to something which offered
interesting
visual possibilities,
but that certainly wouldn't be
the only reason.
And, since part of the problem
of any story
is to make you believe
what you are seeing,
certainly getting
a realistic atmosphere,
especially if it's not
a contemporary period,
is just necessary
as a starting point.
MICHEL:
It's why you came to this idea
of shooting with light,
natural light.
STANLEY:
Well, that's something
that I've always been
very bothered by
in period films
is the light on interiors
is so false.
MARISA:
It was very different
to any kind of other movies
as far as photography
was concerned,
because the lightning was so--
You know, lot of it was shot
by candle light,
a lot of it was shot
with equipment
that Stanley Kubrick had found,
that had never been used before
really, on film.
So, it was quite an experience
working with that.
It was also difficult
because there were times
when you just couldn't even move
a fraction of an inch.
And...
there were days
we would just sit there
and just be lit all day.
[chuckles]
You know...
Literally.
[indistinct chatter]
Samuel, I'm going outside
for a breath of air.
Yes, My Lady, of course.
[indistinct chatter]
STANLEY:
To know about lighting
and lenses and composition
has to be a help
as a movie director.
["Spartacus" theme plays]
[]
STANLEY:
I remember,
when I was makingSpartacus ,
the cameraman, Russ Metty,
used to think it was very funny
that I used to pick set-ups
with a view finder,
and he said to me,
"We are shooting
in that direction
and it's a knee figure shot
and just, you know,
go and rehearse with the actors
and when you come back
we'll have the shot
and the set-up and everything"
He couldn't understand
why I wanted to waste time
making a composition.
STANLEY:
Certainly, photography gave me
the first step
where I could actually try
to make a movie
because without that
how could you make a movie
by yourself
if you didn't know anything
about photography?
MICHEL:
What kind of photographs
were you doing?
I mean
there is the famous photograph
of the newspaper vendor
and the--
STANLEY:
Photojournalism
with natural light.
MICHEL:
Mostly things of the street,
like Cartier Bresson--
STANLEY:
Well unfortunately,
becauseLook always did
feature stories,
the subject matter
always tended to be idiotic.
They would do a story like
"Is an Athlete Stronger
Than a Baby?"
And I would have to go
and there'd be some guy
that would have to try
to get in the same positions
as a baby and things like that.
They were pretty stupid
feature stories,
but occasionally I could do
a sort of personality story,
or a story about something
like a university,
or something like that,
where you had a chance
to take some
reasonable photographs.
MICHEL:
You worked four years atLook ?
STANLEY:
Yeah, about four years.
I was about 20.
[camera shutter clicks]
NARRATOR:
This forest then,
and all that happens now
is outside history.
Only the unchanging shapes
of fear,
and doubt
and death
are from our world.
These soldiers that you see
keep our language and our time,
but have no other country
but the mind.
MICHEL:
You started by making almost
a home movie, when you were 23,
Fear and Desire,
about four men in a patrol.
What was behind this project?
STANLEY:
That was a very arrogant,
flippant script
put together by myself,
and a boy that I knew
who was a poet.
Where we thought
that we were geniuses,
and it was so
incompetently done...
and undramatic...
and so pompous.
But I learnt a lesson
from that.
-[gunshots]
-[thuds]
STANLEY:
At least it had the ambition
of having some ideas in it,
and I suppose you could say
in that sense
there is some continuity
with the rest of my films,
which I've also tried
to make sure that...
you know, they weren't just
hollow entertainments.
[grunts]
-[grunts]
-[objects clattering]
["Sarabande" plays]
[machine gunfire]
["Sarabande" plays over battle]
MICHEL:
You get the feeling
from your films
that really the world
is not only a stage,
but it's a war,
because man is fighting
all the time.
["Sarabande" still playing]
STANLEY:
Well, in a work of fiction
you have to have conflict.
If there isn't a problem
in a story,
it can almost by definition
not be a story.
[]
STANLEY:
You know, how many
happy marriages are there?
And how many stepfathers
love their stepsons?
And how many
stepsons love their stepfather?
And how often...
do people who have ambitions
which only involve money
do they find
a satisfying accomplishment?
Corporal Barry.
[coins jingle]
You are a gallant soldier
and have evidently
come of good stock.
But you're idle,
dissolute and unprincipled.
You've done a great deal of harm
to the men...
and for all your talents
and bravery
I'm sure
you will come to no good.
[]
BARRY:
Barry Lyndon tells
of the rise and fall
of an Irish adventurer
and let's face it, cad,
who becomes a soldier,
a deserter, a gambler, a duelist
and eventuallythe husband
of a very rich widow.
There is I think deliberately
a distance
between the audience
and characters.
You are asked to watch the story
of their adventures
and misadventures,
but not necessarily
to identify with them.
Well,
that's a dangerous approach,
but it works.
What also works
is the leisurely pace
of the film,
the pace that matches
the pace of the novel
and I dare say
of the 18th-Century life itself.
So, if you're expecting
an all-action, swashbuckler,
forget it.
What Kubrick presents instead
is a hard, unromantic
and unsentimental look
at the life and times
of a good-looking
but ill-fated opportunist.
MICHEL:
Some people get out
of the movie and say,
"This character,
we have absolutely
no sympathy for him."
STANLEY:
Well, I don't see
how you can have
no sympathy for him.
On the other hand,
we're well aware of the weakness
of his character
and the trap
that he places himself in
as a result of his ambitions,
and the limitation
of his personality
that arises from the cynicism
which develops
from his early relationships
with people.
He then becomes
a very limited person.
He is completely unsuited
for the life,
not only socially
but temperamentally.
And so he puts himself
into a gilded cage.
And from then on,
everything goes sour.
[]
MICHEL:
But how did you decide
on Ryan O'Neal
for the main role?
STANLEY:
Well, I couldn't think
of anybody else,
to tell you the truth.
I mean...
Obviously, Barry Lyndon
has to be physically attractive.
He couldn't be played
by Al Pacino or Jack Nicholson.
He had to also be able to,
in the beginning,
appear to be young
and yet not look too young
at the end.
MICHEL:
And the actors,
how do you direct actors?
Do you speak with them a lot,
or do you let them feel the text
or do you have an explanation?
STANLEY:
Well, first of all, you discuss
the character in general,
and then you discuss the scene,
what the character's
real attitude is in the scene.
Then comes this terrible moment:
the first time that
you actually rehearse a scene
in the place
you are going to shoot it.
It's always a surprise,
it's never what you thought
it would be.
The text usually
has to be changed
in some way or another.
Then they have to get it
to a level
where it's realistic
and interesting.
And at that point,
it then becomes relatively easy.
MALCOLM:
It was an extraordinary
experience
doingClockwork Orange.
A very long and arduous film
to shoot.
It was seven months shooting.
And I was injured
a couple of times on the film.
I had my ribs dented.
I was off for two weeks
with that.
I think I had tonsillitis
or something, I...
One disaster after another
as far as I wa--
my health was concerned.
I got a couple
of scratched corneas
on my eyes.
But having said all that,
of course,
I suppose one can say
it was worth it.
And if Stanley trusts you,
if he trusts you,
you're all right.
If he doesn't, beware.
Very well,
now listen to me carefully.
The base is being put
on condition red.
I want this flashed
to all sections immediately.
I had the worst time
I've ever had on a picture,
and...
Nothing to do with Stanley,
and everything to do, I guess,
with my own hang-ups.
I worked the first day
at Shepperton,
and I had a great deal
of technical jargon, you know?
And so I started to work
and I began to blow.
You know those clowns outside
are gonna give me a pretty good
going over in a few minutes.
Okay, and so he went
something like 38 takes.
I don't know how well
I could stand up under torture.
And I was getting worse
and worse.
So finally,
he began to do pickups. Hmm?
A sentence at a time.
And I mean this is painful,
this is embarrassing.
Shit, I'm here
and I want to do well, mm?
I know I'll have to answer
for what I've done.
And finally I walked up
and said, "Stanley I'm sorry,
but there is nothing I can do."
He said, "I know that."
He said,
"There's nothing I can do."
I said, "I know that."
He said,
"But I'll tell you one thing."
He said, "The terror,
the terror that's in your eyes
may just give us
the quality that we want."
JACK:
He is a perfectionist.
But I mean,
on a more approvable level.
I mean, you know, it's different
in a movie situation
if you say, "How was it?"
to the operator.
Stanley has the teleprompter
now, so he knows.
And the amount of reason
that he has
why a take is not acceptable...
Quintessentially perfectionist.
GARRETT:
We had discussions
about the elusive quality
of perfection
because down by take 75,
a host of other things
start going wrong.
The tape finally gives out
that held something onto
the wall,
and entropy takes over,
we're all growing older,
you know?
So, the search is extraordinary,
he never gives up.
[battle drums beating]
LEONARD:
It was during a scene
of a great many army people,
or Irish army whatever it was,
but we utilized
a lot of material
that was absolutely authentic.
Authentic flutes from museums,
authentic drums,
and so on and so forth.
And it was very easy.
I've after all recorded
some very avant-garde music
that's very difficult
and this was a cinch.
We did a 105 takes on this thing
and take two was perfect.
And the orchestra looked at me
and I looked at them
as though, "We're dealing
with an insane person."
And 105 takes,
and finally,
I threw down the baton,
ran into the thing,
and grabbed him by the neck.
I wanted to throw him
through the window
when everyone
started laughing...
kind of nervously.
And he said, "You're crazy."
And I said, "Well,
you've driven everybody crazy,
that's... that's the problem."
[battle drums beat]
STANLEY:
Directing a movie,
if you try to do it properly,
is not always fun,
because you are in conflict
with people.
If you try to get it right
and you care about it,
it isn't something which is
the greatest fun in the world.
It's immensely satisfying
sometimes,
but it is a lot of hard work
and there is a lot
of personal tension
that occurs with everybody.
The analogy would better
in a sort of military sense
in that Napoleon,
if he didn't pay
as much attention
to the precise details
of his marching,
how he brought his troops
to the right town
on the right day,
he worked out
all the calculations
where they would come
from different places,
and did all the mathematics
himself,
and got them there
at the right time.
He would never
have an opportunity
to be a genius
on the battlefield.
[military pipes and drums play]
[]
STANLEY:
Battles are like the equivalent
of making a film.
DANN:
The key to his success
as a filmmaker is that
he was the ruthless general
everyone wanted to march with.
He got everyone on his side
and no matter what happened
he expected his cast and crew
to keep up with his standard.
In a way, he kind of represented
something to all of us
because he was over there
on his estate in England,
he was far from Hollywood,
he owned his own cameras,
his own editing equipment,
his own sound
and he worked entirely
according to his own schedule.
It's kind of inspiring at a time
when everybody else seems to be
marching to the drums
of commerce and promotion.
["Sarabande" plays]
[]
You know what kind of
a camera that is?
- What it's called?
- It's...
-A home movie
-Arriflex.
Napoleon is still in his grave,
waiting...
waiting to be brought back
to life.
I wonder what Napoleon
would think
of Lew Wasserman
and David Picker.
Whether he would have liked
to have them passing judgment
on his life.
[film camera rolling]
[]
MICHEL:
You worked
in a disaffected plant?
STANLEY:
Well, the first thing I noticed
was that the architecture
in the peripheral areas
where the fighting
seemed to be,
was this sort of 1930s
industrial functionalism.
And by the sheerest accident
we found this area
that is about a square mile,
and it was designed
by a German architect
in the 30s,
and it looked exactly
like photographs
we'd seen in the Hue
and Saigon borders,
you know, the outskirts
of the city.
And it just seemed like
a miracle,
because I don't know where--
looking back, I don't know
how we could have done
those scenes
with a tiny fraction
of the reality and interest
that we got from this location.
[rubble crumbling underfoot]
STANLEY:
In Hue,
we could never have achieved
this vision of hell
that actually Hue looked like.
[metal clattering]
[tape whirring]
[ghostly music over TV sounds]
[]
STANLEY:
And I had done
tremendous research,
I had thousands of stills
and as much documentary footage
as we could get from archives.
There was so much wonderful
documentary material on Vietnam,
you know, that had not been shot
in any other war.
Including scenes of men dying.
So, looking at 100 hours
of documentary film,
actually probably tells you more
than if you were there
and didn't actually have combat.
[ghostly music plays]
MICHEL:
The title,Full Metal Jacket ,
how did it come?
STANLEY:
Full metal jacket
is a type of bullet design,
which-- where the led
of the bullet
is in encased in copper.
It's done to increase
the reliability of the bullet
feeding up the ramp
into the chamber
from the magazine,
because it's smoother.
And also, I think
the Geneva Convention
has laid down
that it's a more humane type
of bullet
because led expands
a little bit
and this one just goes
and makes a nice clean hole.
[gunfire echoes]
MICHEL:
Do you think the problem
of a war film
is whatever you do to
not to involve the audience
into the battles,
not to give them
a vicarious experience.
But isn't it an ethical problem
for a filmmaker?
STANLEY:
When you read
the memoirs of people
that have survived the war,
many of them look back on it
as being the greatest moments
of their lives.
So, obviously there must be
an aspect to it
that is genuinely inspiring
and spectacular
in the real sense of the word.
And the elements of comradeship,
loyalty, courage,
those things, in retrospect,
people who take part in
are moved.
COMMANDER:
It is then with great pride
that I note the fine work
done by the soldiers
of this command
during the recent operation.
It is with pleasure that I say:
a job well done.
[]
MICHEL:
If you are interested
by war in itself
and the ambiguity of war,
there is no ambiguity
in the way you look
at the hierarchy.
I mean
whether inDr. Strangelove
or even inPaths of Glory ,
or, in this film,
the drill instructor.
STANLEY:
Well, the drill instructor
in this film is as nalve
as the boys are.
I mean, he is just programmed
to do that.
[shouts] Did your parents have
any children that lived?
-Sir, yes, sir.
-I bet they regret that.
You're so ugly you can be
a modern art masterpiece.
STANLEY:
Lee Ermey was a Parris Island
drill instructor.
He actually was what he played.
He was hired
as a technical adviser,
and I was looking
for an actor for the part.
But when we started
interviewing boys
for the recruits
at Parris Island,
we had the idea
that Lee would do
an improvisation with them.
Originally this was just to see
how they would react,
and he did what he did
in the scene:
the most bizarre,
off-the-wall dialogue
you could ever imagine.
He asked one guy
what his name was,
and he said, "Lawrence",
and he actually said to him...
[shouts] Lawrence? Lawrence,
what, of Arabia?
Sir, no, sir.
That name sounds like royalty.
-Are you royalty?
-Sir, no, sir.
Do you suck dicks?
-Sir, no, sir.
-Bullshit!
I'll bet you could suck
a golf ball through a hose!
STANLEY:
So, I suppose drill instructors
are in some way
or another actors,
but Lee of course
I think is special.
I don't like the name Lawrence!
Only faggots and sailors
are called Lawrence!
-From now on you're Gomer Pyle!
-Sir, yes, sir.
Tell me, you were in Vietnam.
Is this realistic?
When you look at the movie,
is that...?
It's very realistic.
I have a cross section...
When somebody hires me
to give technical advice,
I like technical advice
because I like putting
the realism in there.
It's good for me.
-Why?
-Good therapy maybe, I think.
When you look at it,
does it ring true with you?
Is it hard for you to watch?
'Cause you didn't
even like talking
about your experiences
in Vietnam.
It's really not that difficult
for me to watch
because I know it's not...
it's not something
that directly...
that I was involved with, okay?
I don't see the face
of my friend or...
I don't have any problem
with this.
But realism is there.
And you can take
a circle of ten Vietnam vets
and give them each a situation
and they will have
ten different ways
to solve the problem.
So what's real, you know?
[ghostly music plays]
[]
[distant explosions]
STANLEY:
One of the other
central features of the war
was the manipulation
of the reality of the war
by technocrats and quote
"intellectuals" in Washington,
who were always finding
light at the end of the tunnel
and...
encouraging the men there to lie
and to exaggerate kill ratios.
There was an arrogance
back in Washington
by these quote "intellectuals",
who ran the war
like an advertising campaign,
when they suffered
terrific casualties
and accomplished nothing
they thought they would.
You know, they thought people
would actually rise up
and join them.
But, because of the lying,
the press and the public
were so shocked.
Well, it's a bit like
the generals and the men
inPaths of Glory.
But in this case it was more
than just the ambition
of the generals
versus the men's lives.
I ordered an attack.
Your troops refused to attack.
My troops did attack, sir,
but they could make no headway.
Because they didn't try,
Colonel.
I saw it myself.
Half of your men never left
the trenches.
A third of my men
were pinned down
because the fire was so intense.
Don't quibble over fractions,
Colonel.
The fact remains
that a good part of your men
never left their own trenches.
Colonel Dax,
I'm going to have ten men
from each company
in your regiment
tried under penalty of death
for cowardice.
-Penalty of death?
-GENERAL: For cowardice!
[rhythmic gunfire]
[shouts] Aim!
-Fire!
-[gunshots]
MICHEL:
ButPaths of Glory
was not fundamentally different
- in philosophy from this film.
-STANLEY: Hmm.
MICHEL:
WWI was really a fight
- for nothing.
-STANLEY: For nothing.
MICHEL:
Certainly WWI
was a big turning point.
Certainly the Vietnam War
for Americans,
because it was the first time
that America really lost a war.
So, it's a big trauma.
STANLEY:
Well, I think it taught America
that you don't fight a war
because
some intellectuals decide
that it might be a good thing,
you know?
I don't think you're gonna get
Americans to fight a war again
unless they think it really
means something to them.
Now, how far...
that kind of isolationism
will go, I don't know.
Colonel.
Marine, what is that button
on your body armor?
A peace symbol, sir.
-COLONEL: Where d'ya get it?
-I don't remember, sir.
What is that you've got
written on your helmet?
"Born to kill", sir.
You write "Born to kill"
on your helmet
and you wear a peace button.
What's that supposed to be,
some kind of sick joke?
-No, sir.
-What is it supposed to mean?
STANLEY:
And that, of course, is playing
off on the Jungian ideas
of the duality of man.
Altruism and cooperation
versus xenophobia
and aggression, you know?
The fact that people do not see
the dark side of themselves,
and tend to externalize evil.
People do only see themselves
as good
and everybody else
as either weak or evil.
I mean...
there is always a problem
when people are confronted
with the shadow of the side.
["La Gazza Ladra"
from "Clockwork Orange" plays]
[Alex cries out]
[]
-[screams]
-[loud thud]
[sirens wailing in distance]
STANLEY:
Certainly in the case of Alex,
he must be aware of his duality
and he must be aware
of his own weakness
in order to be good,
or to prevent the worst kinds
of personal and social evil.
What crime did you commit?
The accidental killing
of a person, sir.
He brutally murdered
a woman, sir,
in furtherance of theft.
[shouts] Fourteen years, sir!
Excellent.
He's enterprising, aggressive,
outgoing, young, bold...
vicious.
He'll do.
STANLEY:
InClockwork Orange,
he was in conflict with people
who, in a way, were just as bad
as he was in a different sense
and I suppose,
in an emotional way,
seemed less sympathetic.
[screams]
No... No!
[shouts] Stop it!
Stop it, please! I beg you!
It's a sin!
It's a sin!
It's a sin!
It's a sin!
It's a sin! It's a sin!
Sin? What's all this about sin?
[piano music plays]
[crowd shouts indistinctly]
STANLEY:
One of the really most puzzling
social problems today
is how can authority
maintain itself
without becoming repressive?
You have
an ever-increasing feeling
among young people that...
politics and legal means
of social change
are too slow and may be useless.
On the other hand,
you have authority
that feels threatened
by terrorism
and this growing sense
of anarchy
that they can feel.
And the question is,
how do you achieve,
uh, if it is possible anymore,
some kind of...
balance?
It certainly doesn't lie
in this very utopian
sort of optimistic view
that if you destroy authority,
then something good
will come of it.
And it equally doesn't lie
by saying, you know,
authority must impose its will
with greater and greater force.
It's a dilemma.
[menacing drums]
[piano music]
The Scala Cinema in London
is in court today
accused of a breach of copyright
after allegedly showing
the controversial film
Clockwork Orange.
The film has been banned
in Britain for 20 years
at the request
of its director,
after critics claimed
it glamorized violence.
MALCOLM:
You see more violence
on a news program.
You know, you see more violence
in a John Wayne film,
'cause John Wayne always shoots
and you always feel,
"Oh, good old John Wayne.
He is the goody
and he shot the baddy."
And it's an emotional response,
you know?
I personally feel
that it's more violence
of the imagination, of the mind.
I think the film
is very important
because the statement it makes
is about the freedom
of human beings to choose.
And that's more important
than any of these
sensational elements
that the press and people
have been talking about.
STANLEY:
Nobody, except people
who were trying to prove
thatClockwork Orange
was an evil film,
nobody could believe
that one was in favor of Alex.
It's only that in telling
a story like that,
you want to present Alex
as he feels
and as he is to himself.
And in analyzing the film,
you could think
that there was more sympathy
for Alex
but, since
it is satirical story,
and since the nature
of satire is that
you state the opposite
of the truth
as if it is the truth...
I don't see how anybody
of any intelligence,
or even any ordinary person,
could think that you really
thought Alex was the hero.
It's probably what attracted me
to the book.
It was this strange duality
of a character
who is plainly evil,
and yet,
because of him operating
on this unconscious level,
makes you aware of things
within your own personality
which you then identify
with him.
[suspenseful music]
MICHEL:
You are more attracted
by evil characters
than by good ones.
I was thinking of Milton,
makingParadise Lost
much more interesting.
STANLEY:
Uh...
"Better to reign in Hell
than serve in Heaven."
[suspenseful music
grows in volume]
[]
[typewriter keys tapping]
[eerie tinkling music plays]
[]
MICHEL:
How do you see your character
in this film?
How do you see
the reason of his behavior?
It's very ironical
because he wants to write,
to be creative
and he wants to be free
and he is a slave in fact
of his own neurosis.
STANLEY:
Well, you can only fill in
the details
of Jack's personality.
He is bitterly disappointed
with himself,
he is a person who...
who obviously has immense rage.
He is married to a woman
whom he obviously has nothing
but contempt for
and he doesn't like his son.
You then put him in a situation
where he then is exposed
to evil forces in the hotel.
Now, you are getting
into the supernatural side
of the story.
And all those other factors
simply serve to prepare him,
to make him a suitable servant
of their wishes.
[suspenseful music plays]
-[screams]
-[wood cracking]
-No!
-[wood cracking]
Please!
[screams]
[woman shrieks] Please!
[]
MICHEL:
In this story,
I mean at least the way
you have shot it
there is always the possibility
that everything is in the mind.
STANLEY:
Well, this is what I found
so ingenious
about the way
the novel was written.
And you assume as you read it
that the things
that are happening
are probably going to be
a product of his imagination.
And I think this allows you
to start accepting them.
MICHEL:
Do you think
there's an interaction
between the souls in the hotel
and it's not purely a projection
of his mental thing?
Well, you can interpret that.
STANLEY:
Well, I mean I interpret
the story as being real.
I mean I just accept
for the story purposes
that everything is true.
[suspenseful music buzzes]
[]
[wind blows]
[trees creak]
[pants]
MICHEL:
There are three mazes
if I remember well.
There is the real maze,
there is a kind of map
or plan of the maze,
and it's also the maze is
in a way
that the hotel in reduction
because hotels
are full of corridors
and things like that.
So this idea
is extremely powerful
and it goes
with the imaginary dimension
of the film.
[suspenseful music buzzes]
[wind blowing]
[pants]
[]
STANLEY:
I remember once
reading something about
which were maze seem the perfect
kind of metaphor for many things
about life and that somebody
was describing how in a maze
everybody is giving advice
to each other,
and misleading each other
completely by their advice.
So nobody knows quite
what to do,
they are all giving each other
ideas which are all wrong.
[pants]
[suspenseful music buzzes]
[]
STANLEY:
Many types of genre material
are really ways
of thinking about death.
[]
STANLEY:
So that in a way
it is, on a psychological level,
possibly a way of exploring
attitudes towards death.
MICHEL:
Your films give a feeling
of great despair.
STANLEY:
If you make certain assumptions
about the nature of man
and you build a social situation
on false assumptions,
if you assume
that man is fundamentally good,
it will disappoint you.
[suspenseful music crescendos]
[]
[]
ARTHUR:
What we are doing in the movie
2001: A Space Odyssey
is showing some of the things
we will develop in the world
of the future
as a result of our present
first steps into space.
The next generation
will explore the planets,
bring back new knowledge,
answering old questions,
and of course asking fresh ones.
It's really the next stage
in the evolution of mankind.
About half a century ago,
the great Russian
space pioneer, Tsiolkovsky said,
"Earth is the cradle
of mankind
but you cannot live
in the cradle forever."
And that is very true.
And out here among the stars,
lies the destiny of mankind.
[]
STANLEY:
The human species
hasn't changed
since Cro-Magnon men,
and, in terms
of evolutionary time,
we're not going to change much
in the next 100 or 200 years.
The critical problem
of our survival
is going to have to be settled
long before 100 or 200 years.
Now, where is this source
of intelligence
going to come from?
-HAL: Good evening, Dave.
-How you doin', HAL?
HAL:
Everything's running smoothly.
And you?
Oh, not too bad.
HAL:
Have you been doing more work?
-DAVE: A few sketches.
-HAL: May I see them?
Sure.
HAL:
That's a very nice rendering,
Dave.
I think you've improved
a great deal.
STANLEY:
There is something
that's happening already today,
you might say, "a mechaniarchy"
or whatever the word would be.
The love that we have now
for machines.
The smell and the feel
of a beautiful camera,
or a tape recorder.
There is an aesthetic,
an almost sensuous aesthetic
about machines.
I'm sure it will be useful
to them to know
what human feelings are
because it will help them
understand us.
HAL:
The 9000 series
is the most reliable computer
ever made.
No 9000 computer
has ever made a mistake
or distorted information.
We are all,
by any practical definition
of the words,
foolproof and incapable
of error.
INTERVIEWER:
HAL, despite
your enormous intellect
are you ever frustrated
by your dependence on people
to carry out actions?
HAL:
Not in the slightest bit.
I enjoy working with people.
STANLEY:
We do now obviously need
some source of intelligence
of a magnitude
considerably greater
than seems to exist
at the moment.
And you could say
that man's survival depends
on the ultra-intelligent
machine.
I can't think of any reason
why it's a frightening prospect,
because intelligence seems to me
to be something which is good,
and so I can't see
how your ultra-intelligent
machine
is going to be any worse
than a man.
Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL:
I'm sorry, Dave.
I'm afraid I can't do that.
What's the problem?
HAL:
I think you know
what the problem is
just as well as I do.
What are you talking about, HAL?
HAL:
This mission
is too important for me
to allow you to jeopardize it.
I don't know
what you're talking about, HAL.
[]
[air hisses]
[breathes steadily]
HAL:
I'm afraid.
I'm afraid, Dave.
STANLEY:
At the moment,
the problems of the world
appear to be problems
only because man seems to lack
the intelligence to think
his wayout of the present trap
that we seem to be in.
HAL:
Dave.
My mind is going.
I can feel it.
I can feel it.
I can feel it.
I can feel it.
["Masked Ball"
from "Eyes Wide Shut" plays]
[]
[indistinct chatter]
MICHEL:
You have no other projects now?
As usual?
STANLEY:
No, I wish I did.
MICHEL:
But Schnitzler,
you still don't want to do that:
Traumnovelle.
STANLEY:
I am not sure, I might,
it is interesting.
-You've read it?
-MICHEL: It's extraordinary.
["Masked Ball" plays]
[]
[thumps]
TOM:
It's not about sex.
Stanley never said
it was about sex.
It's about sexual obsession.
It's a thriller about
sexual obsession, and jealousy.
And all the rumors that surfaced
about just the wildest stories
you could ever imagine
that were...
It's not pornography.
If he wanted to do that
he would have done that.
If you men only knew.
I tell you what I do know,
is you got
a little stoned tonight,
you've been trying
to pick a fight with me,
and now you're trying
to make me jealous.
But you're not the jealous type,
are you?
No, I'm not.
You've never been jealous
about me, have you?
No, I haven't.
And why haven't you ever been
jealous about me?
Well, I don't know, Alice.
Maybe because you're my wife.
["Masked Ball" plays]
Do you think monogamy
is a natural state?
I think it's a choice.
Uh...
I mean...
if it was just a natural state
why would people desire
other people?
INTERVIEWER:
Do you think
that there is in everybody a...
a thin edge?
A depravity or extreme danger
of desire, I suppose?
Is it in everyone?
Sure.
Yeah.
Uhm...
How honest people are about it
is a different thing,
but I think we all have it.
STANLEY:
Most situations where somebody
is hopelessly in love
with someone
who they shouldn't be,
it always is really,
it tends to be physical.
And most tragic
masochistic relationships
that I'm aware of
are essentially
physical attraction
and this seemed to say it.
This sort of primitive part
of your mind
that is just fascinated
by the mystery
of what's going on.
It's all part of the sort of
gigantic fantasy,
that the male sex fantasy.
I think that the story
would become impossible
if you tried to give
reasons for it.
[]
MICHEL:
I think that you are
an innovator.
I mean you like very much
to break things, new things.
But sometimes you are very
conscious on traditions.
STANLEY:
Well, I think
that one of the things
that characterizes
some of the failures
of 20th-Century art,
in all art forms,
is an obsession
with total originality.
Innovation means
moving it forward,
but not abandoning
the classical form,
the art form
that you are working with.
But I do think that
the real explosion will come
when someone finally liberates
the narrative structure.
["Sarabande" plays]
MICHEL:
What surprises me is that
you have absolutely no prejudice
towards choice of a subject.
I mean, anything can happen.
STANLEY:
Well I might,
but I am not aware of it,
I mean...
A good story you can make
into a film is a miracle,
and it is very hard
to work miracles.
[]
STANLEY:
Someone sent me an article
about Schnitzler.
He died
in the most wonderful way.
He was sitting, writing
at the type writer.
Somebody was in the next room
and he got up to give him a page
and he just fell over,
and that was it.
He hadn't been ill or anything,
he was just working,
and dying.
TOM:
I was supposed to talk to him
on Sunday.
And sometimes
Stanley would call,
you know,
in the middle of the night.
I remember thinking...
The phone rang,
it was either Nick or Stanley,
the only people who usually call
in the middle of the night.
And it was Leon,
and he said,
"Tom, you know,
Stanley Kubrick...
died in his sleep."
And...
And I remember just thinking,
"This just isn't happening."
-[lights shut]
-[electricity crackles]
[film camera whirring]
["Midnight, the Stars & You"
from "The Shining" plays]
[]
STANLEY:
How disappointing
you make the end of a film
is a matter of, I suppose,
taste or artistic balance,
whatever it is, but you always
are faced with the problem
of are you going to try
to reinforce
this illusion
which melodrama fosters
or are you going to try
to reflect
what one sees about life?
Melodrama uses
all the problems of the world
and all the disasters
which befall the main characters
to finally show you that...
the world is a benevolent
and fair place,
and all the tests and trials
and seeming misfortunes
which occur, in the end
just reinforce this belief.
But tragedy, or honesty,
or an attempt at presenting life
in a way that seems closer
to reality than melodrama...
can leave you
with a feeling of desolation.
But certainly,
the formula approach,
which presents the world
in a way other than it is,
doesn't seem to have
a great deal of merit
unless you're just...
making entertainment.
MICHEL:
Thank you very much.
["Midnight, the Stars & You"
continues to play]
[]