If you are a movie lover, it's likely that you've heard about the perfectionist director Stanley Kubrick. In this article, you can read about his life and three of his greatest works: A Clockwork Orange (1971), The Shining (1980), and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

Stanley Kubrick was born July 26th, 1926 in Manhattan, New York City - and passed away March 7th, 1999 in Harpenden, Hertfordshire. He came from a family of Jewish immigrants from Austria, Romania, and Russia. Although Kubrick received poor grades in school, he was considered to be very intelligent. At age 13, Kubrick was gifted a camera from his father. Kubrick developed a passion for photography, and he became an avid apprentice photographer at age 17. Kubrick worked as a photographer for Look magazine between 1945 and 1950.


Self-portrait with showgirl Rosemary Williams, 1948.


Laboratory at Columbia University, for Look magazine, 1948.

Kubrick moved into film in 1950, when he sank all his savings into making the documentary Day of the Fight (1951). The following 10 years, Kubrick worked on a row of different film projects. However, this was far from a perfect time in Kubrick's life. During these 10 years, he got divorced twice, had numerous disagreements with coworkers, and received a lot of mixed reviews on his work.

In 1961, Kubrick felt so disenchanted with Hollywood that he moved permanently to England. One year later, he released his first UK film, Lolita (1962). From here, Kubrick's career truly flourished. Kubrick's films became famous for their controversial portrayals of sex and violence. As a director, Kubrick became legendary for his unrelenting demands of perfection and commitment of cast and crew. He would often require actors to perform dozens of takes without breaks. In his contract for Eyes Wide Shut (1999), which cost 60 million dollars to produce, it even stated that the film would never be released if Kubrick did not like the final result.

The last project Kubrick worked on was an on-again/off-again collaboration on the science fiction film A.I. Artificial Intelligence. However, progress was slow because special effects technology was not yet up to Kubrick's demanding standards. Sadly, Kubrick died from a heart attack before he was able to finish his work on A.I. Steven Spielberg, who was Kubrick's friend and had great respect for his work, finished writing the screenplay. It remains a mystery how much of Kubrick's vision remains in the finished project, or what he would think of the film as it was released.

Have you watched any Kubrick movies? If so, which is your favorite?

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Shoutout to Fiskarna for the beautiful layout!

Released: May 1980
Genre: Drama, Horror
IMDb rating: 8,4/10
Metascore: 61/100

The Shining initially received mixed responses from critics when it was released, but is today regarded as one of the greatest horror films ever made. The film features Jack Torrance, a novelist who takes the job as winter caretaker of the isolated Overlook Hotel. Jack, his wife, and their son will be the only occupants of the hotel during all season. Danny, the son, is able to see disturbing visions from the hotel's dark past using a telepathic gift known as "The Shining". During the film, Jack is slowly driven to insanity by cabin fever and ghosts who haunt him.

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Released: January 1971
Genre: Crime, Drama, Sci-Fi
IMDb rating: 8,3/10
Metascore: 78/100

A Clockwork Orange is based on a novel written by Anthony Burgess. In the film, we follow the protagonist Alex DeLarge, a boy in his late teens who lives in futuristic Britain. He leads a gang of droogs (from the Russian word for 'friend'). The film chronicles the horrific crime spree of Alex and his thugs, which leads to Alex getting captured. Two years into a jail sentence, Alex eagerly takes up an offer to be a test subject for a controversial psychological conditioning treatment - which is supposed to make him detest violence within two weeks.

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Released: April 1968
Genre: Adventure, Sci-Fi
IMDb rating: 8,3/10
Metascore: 86/100

2001: A Space Odyssey was an instant cult favorite. Many hail this film as the best ever made, and it set the tone for many following science fiction films. The film follows a voyage to Jupiter with the sentient computer named HAL, after the discovery of a monolith on earth. The monolith nudged human evolution, which enabled humankind to reach the surface of the moon - where another monolith is found. This sparks a race between computers and humans to find monolith placers. The winner achieves the next step of evolution, unknowingly what that might be.

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