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Pushing It
For years Kubrick has represented the sort of artist I respect but in very few ways resemble. All too often I like to think that I share certain characteristics with the people I admire, and though this will always be the case to some degree, I've always felt distant from Kubrick. It's fitting, I think, that my illustration of him seems a little odd. Off, in a way. Jay Somerset had the following to say about the late director:
French composer Edgard Varese once said, "The artist is never ahead of his time. Everyone else is behind the times." After reading this quote, the first person I thought of was Stanley Kubrick. No other director continuously provoked, engaged and angered like he did. His films command, indeed demand an emotional response. One cannot view his work without feeling fright, amusement, curiosity, isolation. What matters is that the audience experience real emotion, good or bad. "I would not think of quarreling with your interpretation nor offering any other," Kubrick once said, "as I have found it always the best policy to allow the film to speak for itself." ¶ Kubrick was born on July 26, 1928 in the Bronx, New York. His first film, a 16-minute documentary called Day of the Fight, tells the story of boxer Walter Cartier. In 1953 he made his first feature length movie, Fear and Desire. Kubrick's final work, Eyes Wide Shut, came out in July 1999. Kubrick died four months prior to its release on March 7, 1999. ¶ In early January, I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time in years. After the film, five of us discussed the film and its meaning, its place. Each one of us came to different conclusions, different interpretations; equally valid, equally passionate. We all felt wonder, and this, I believe, is the reaction Kubrick thirsted for. "How could we possibly appreciate the Mona Lisa," said Kubrick, "if Leonardo had written at the bottom of the canvas: 'The lady is smiling because she is hiding a secret from her lover.' This would shackle the viewer to reality." ¶ Fantasy is reality. Don't you want to go where the rainbow ends?
—Jay Somerset (email), January 2001 |
