If you’re a child of the ’70s, you can probably attribute a few nightmares (and fantasies) to Stanley Kubrick, whose impressive and disturbing oeuvre includes such cult faves as The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Part of Kubrick’s genius was in crafting moods, not just scenes — a mastery on full display in these animated GIFs created by Gustaf Mantel . In a single gesture, they capture an indelible moment in film history in a way no film still possibly could.

Dr. Strangelove:

“Mr. President, I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops.”

These types of animated GIFs, dubbed “cinematographs,” ripped up the Internet earlier this year when the photographer Jamie Beck and the motion graphics artist Kevin Burg began creating them as a way of splitting the difference between a still photograph and a video. They’ve managed to elevate the format into something of an art form, by taking series of photographs and then using image-editing software to select the area that will appear to move. (Read John Pavlus’s excellent post about Beck and Burg’s work here, and a tutorial on how to make your own animated GIF, here.)

These GIFs don’t carry the pretense of artwork and are by no means as polished and fluid as Beck and Burg’s, but they convey the iconic power of Kubrick’s scenes — and the deft performances of his actors — in a way that mere film stills cannot.

2001: A Space Odyssey: