The World of Stanley Kubrick

  The "Directorial Style" I choose to immolate for this project is the distinctive style of Stanley Kubrick. His best works in my opinion are A Clockwork Orange, Fullmetal Jacket, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Paths of Glory, The Shining, Dr. Strangelove, Spartacus, and The Killing. I still have yet to see Eyes Wide Shut, Lolita, Killers Kiss, and Barry Lyndon. The reason why I chose Kubrick is because he is considered by many directors to have a very distinctive in your face, hypnotic, surreal, and beautiful style of film-making.

Many of the stylized traits in his movies include but are not limited to:
- Slow and elongated shots.
- Shots are often symmetrical and picturesque.
- A 2001: A Space Odyssey and Killers Kiss there was a scene of odd colorful imagery and void.
- Booming classical music.
- When a group of people are having a conversation, the shot has a cool and distant feel.
- Beautiful and expansive sets with excellent mood lighting and bright colors.
- The lighting and look in each of his movies differs from the other, for example in A Clockwork Orange there are so many bright contrasting colors along with sexual shapes and imagery often taking place in futuristic looking, artificially lit locations. Whereas in The Shining the hotel in the movie is filled with different rug and wall patterns having little artificial light and only being lit by natural light coming through windows.
- In some of Stanley's films like Fullmetal Jacket and A Clockwork Orange the violence is blatantly put on screen for the audience to experience. Its not necessarily that he is celebrating it, he's simply telling an honest perspective of how sick this world can be.
- Stanley often had sexual imagery or a sense of sexual risqué in his films. In A Clockwork Orange one of the reasons why it was so controversial because of the few rape scenes it showed and raised several questions on what was ok to even show onscreen in a theatre. In Lolita the plot involved a romantic relationship between a man and a considerably younger girl. Fullmetal Jacket showed the graphic nature of the Vietnam war of prostitutes selling themselves to the soldiers. In Eyes Wide Shut it showed several scenes of what looked like people dressed up in masquerades and performing rituals of sex.
- In all of Stanley's career each and every one of his movies was so different from the other ranging from the genres of science fiction, political satire, noir, historical movies, horror, and black comedies.

Overall, Stanley Kubrick was a man who wanted to explore the outer limits of society, censorship, and the universe and he chose to do it through the medium of cinema.

2046 movie review

      Directed by Wong Kar-Wai, Starring Tony Leung, Gong Li, Faye Wong, and Zhang Ziyi. Ive been really meaning to see this film for years and years upon its release because at the time it came out back in 2004, there was really no possible way I could see it because of its R rating for some explicit sex. Its a nice feeling you have when you actually can view something you weren't allowed to do at one point of your life.... adds a whole mystique... anyways thats besides the point. Taking place in the 1960s, the movie focuses on the life of a man which I thought was a hustler and tells the many relationships he's had with many of the women he's come by throughout the decade. Some ending with blood, and some ending with tears. He lives in an apartment complex next to the room his past lover lived in, no. 2046, because he was going to move in with her at some point before she was stabbed to death by a jealous ex-boyfriend.  He then meets other women, having glamorous relationships with in the same apartment number. He is  writing a science fictional story about a japanese man boarding a train with a butler and female androids which the man falls in love with, but it is very uncertain where this train will take him. This story he says is a reflection of his life and contrasts the characters with people whom he has met. The movie is told through a series of stories and is spoken in mandarin and japanese which can be hard to track at times.

     Overall I'd rank this movie as the best romance film of all time. Its a highly ambitious film that takes you through the past and future. The romance in this movie is absolutely appealing. There is also a lot of romantic depth and symbolism. The visuals are absolutely stunning both in the science fictional scenes and the scenes in the 1960s. The music builds a very dramatic atmosphere which is used very well throughout the film. The characters were very distinguished and complex. The camera also has a panavision effect to it which I loved. Ive heard that the film won several awards when it was released in the Cannes film festival. This film reminds me of a time in my life when I made stories about science fictional worlds and parallel realities. I would've really enjoyed it if I saw it back when it was released, but oh well! This movie gets a rating of: A.