The Filmmaking Technics Kubrick Uses to Create a Metaphorical Reality

Stanley Kubrick is an endless topic of discussion, and although for good reasons, you can sometimes feel close to an overdose of “mastery”. (Or I can.) However I couldn’t help but feeling that, Stanley Kubrick – The Cinematic Experience, the latest video essay by Criswell, uploaded and banned several times on YouTube and that got him sued, is worth watching and talking about.

Criswell is an ambitious video essayist, going for longer form and developing several ideas within one video, which forces you to watch his work several times (a consistent note about his work). The video below follows the same pattern, and I follow my pattern on highlighting a point within Criswell’s work.

[pullquote]”In movies you don’t try and photograph the reality, you try and photograph a photograph of the reality” Stanley Kubrick[/pullquote]

What I really appreciate in this essay is that Criswell admits what is rarely said: Kubrick’s work is not easy to watch, and is often not a pleasant watch on a first viewing. But there’s a reason to that:

“Kubrick’s films often feel very distant, and that’s because they’re supposed to be. You can sense a certain barrier between the viewer and the film’s universe. A barrier that’s strengthen by the film’s cinematic methods to disengage the viewer from personally identifying with the world. Technics that stand out are essential, because Kubrick was creating a unique perspective. This is not our world, this world is exclusive of the movie.”

At the same time, because Kubrick is more interested in ideas and concepts than a specific life, the audience’s job is to discover meaning for themselves:

“Kubrick’s manner of filmmaking was to give all the information to the audience, just not tell them that that information is there. Subtle seeds had to be planted into the audience’s consciousness.”

This was made possible thanks to Kubrick’s legendary attention (borderline obsession) to details, the fact that the filmmaker always retained full creative control on his work, and his habit of manipulating the mise-en-scène to plant crumbles of clues throughout his stories.

The goal was to tell larger than life stories through a powerful and cinematic style. That meant often breaking rules and bringing something new to the table.

So, here are four filmmaking technics Kubrick used to create a metaphorical reality in his films (i.e.: a photograph of a photograph of reality):

Amplification of reality through camera angle. In Kubrick’s world, that means going for extremes: extreme wide angles, extreme low angles. Religious use of zooms: barely used nowadays because of how distracting they are, Kubrick used zooms repeatedly throughout some of his films (36 zooms in Barry Lyndon, 22 in Dr. Strangelove) Zero attachment for suspension of disbelief. Usually filmmakers want to create a world that feels real, so the leap to reach suspension of disbelief for the audience is as small as possible. Kubrick’s goal was to keep his metaphorical world and the real world separated. That meant heightening camera movements and editing to make the distance always palpable. Focus on an actor’s performance through long takes. Kubrick found it more important to show how people reacted to situations rather than the situations themselves.

Watch the full essay below -and while you can, because who knows how long it will be up. The point here to me is not only to (re)appreciate the work of a major filmmaker, but also to think how this way of tackling a story can apply for your own stories.

Below the video, you can find other articles on Kubrick and his work.



The Art of Stanley Kubrick: A Crash Course on the Filmmaker’s Early Years

Stanley Kubrick About the Importance and Consequences of Researching for a Movie

Doing It the Kubrick Way: Clockwork Orange Making-Of

When We Used to Write: Kubrick’s Fan Letter to Bergman

Pioneer VFX Artist Douglas Trumbull’s Masterclass (2001: Space Odyssey, Blade Runner)

5 Things to Learn From the 1966 Making-Of of 2001: a Space Odyssey