The presentation of Kubrick's filmic life is chronological; it's a simple and non original method that is compensated by the clarity of the speech and the coherence of the internal structure. This speech is made from a duality which is inherent of Kubrick's social and filmic life. He has been considered as a genius for his director capabilities, but also as a madman for the inaccessibility of his private life.
The documentary begins with a negative approach, illustrated with quotations showing how mad were Kubrick's projects. This negation will soon be compensated with positive contemporary interviews from his family, directors and actors. This double movement will reproduce itself all along the documentary with an alternation between Kubrick's films and his state of mind within and between the shootings. All is presented in the optic to show us that whatever the press has said about Kubrick, he was really a good director who made great movies with great people.
The content of the documentary is as impressive as the art of Kubrick, even if his begins are shortly showed. That's not astonishing because Kubrick himself has never considered his begins worth seeing it (he denied his first movie, Day of the light). His second movie, Fear and desire, and his third one, Killer's kiss, are not detailed, but Jon Harlan makes us understand that Kubrick genius was already there.
A switch in the art of Kubrick is showed from his Spartacus, produced by Kirk Douglas. There, Kubrick understood that sharing responsibilities was a dead end, the producer riding the boat while the director was washing it. Over, from there, Kubrick will made his movies alone..from Lolita to Eyes wide shut.
The documentary shows then his second task: to give humanity to a non-human director. The press said that he didn't like mankind, which was a real paradox because in all his movies, the central interest was the search for humanity in mankind..but nobody understood that point.
The only problem with this documentary is that Jon Harlan has too much orientated his speech; the interviewed actors are just saying how human he was and how good he was..it's a little bit boring a the end (but very interesting as well !!)
We'll expected a better form for the content of this documentary, but Jon Harlan has the merit to make us believe that even if Kubrick was a genius director, he was also a human being. It's a good point.
The documentary begins with a negative approach, illustrated with quotations showing how mad were Kubrick's projects. This negation will soon be compensated with positive contemporary interviews from his family, directors and actors. This double movement will reproduce itself all along the documentary with an alternation between Kubrick's films and his state of mind within and between the shootings. All is presented in the optic to show us that whatever the press has said about Kubrick, he was really a good director who made great movies with great people.
The content of the documentary is as impressive as the art of Kubrick, even if his begins are shortly showed. That's not astonishing because Kubrick himself has never considered his begins worth seeing it (he denied his first movie, Day of the light). His second movie, Fear and desire, and his third one, Killer's kiss, are not detailed, but Jon Harlan makes us understand that Kubrick genius was already there.
A switch in the art of Kubrick is showed from his Spartacus, produced by Kirk Douglas. There, Kubrick understood that sharing responsibilities was a dead end, the producer riding the boat while the director was washing it. Over, from there, Kubrick will made his movies alone..from Lolita to Eyes wide shut.
The documentary shows then his second task: to give humanity to a non-human director. The press said that he didn't like mankind, which was a real paradox because in all his movies, the central interest was the search for humanity in mankind..but nobody understood that point.
The only problem with this documentary is that Jon Harlan has too much orientated his speech; the interviewed actors are just saying how human he was and how good he was..it's a little bit boring a the end (but very interesting as well !!)
We'll expected a better form for the content of this documentary, but Jon Harlan has the merit to make us believe that even if Kubrick was a genius director, he was also a human being. It's a good point.