Filippo Ulivieri - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Filippo Ulivieri
Senses of Cinema, Jul 2020
Stephen King famously dislikes Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of his celebrated horror novel, The S... more Stephen King famously dislikes Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of his celebrated horror novel, The Shining. He called the film “a big, beautiful Cadillac with no engine inside it” and has criticised every element, from casting to Kubrick’s execution.
“Jack Torrance has no arc in that movie,” King has said, because “Jack Nicholson seems crazy from the beginning.” Even worse, “Shelley Duvall’s Wendy is really one of the most misogynistic characters ever put on film,” very different from the sympathetic wife he had created. But the real problem according to King is that “Kubrick sent out to make a horror picture with no apparent understanding of the genre.” “Nothing in the movie is really scary,” he concluded.
King has explained his antipathy by saying that Kubrick had made a “cold” film out of a “hot” novel. More profoundly, King has acknowledged “a fundamental difference of opinion” about the origin of evil: external for King, and internal for Kubrick.
Analysing four decades’ worth of interviews with Stephen King, this article goes deep inside his mind and explores his keen personal attachment to the novel’s characters, especially that of Jack Torrance, which, by King’s own admission, is his most autobiographical.
The survey, while illuminating two radically irreconcilable philosophies, also exposes a number of stories that Stephen King has embellished to aggrandise his involvement in the film’s making – many of which are still widely repeated. The relationship between Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is therefore revealed to be more complex than a mere rejection.
SegnoCinema, Aug 2018
Per commemorare i 50 anni di 2001: Odissea nello Spazio di Stanley Kubrick – uscito il 2 aprile 1... more Per commemorare i 50 anni di 2001: Odissea nello Spazio di Stanley Kubrick – uscito il 2 aprile 1968 negli Stati Uniti e l’11 dicembre nel nostro paese – ripercorriamo i quattro intricatissimi anni di lavorazione del film attraverso il più dettagliato calendario di produzione mai compilato.
Intrecciando le informazioni contenute in libri e periodici inglesi e statunitensi con documenti di produzione dell’Archivio Kubrick di Londra si ottiene un diario quasi giornaliero degli anni 1964-1968 che rivela quanto complicata sia stata la realizzazione del film e soprattutto quale sia stato il vero ruolo di Stanley Kubrick nell’immaginare, preparare, sviluppare, dirigere e presentare al pubblico il più grande film di fantascienza di tutti i tempi.
Il Giornale, Nov 18, 2018
Il Giornale, Jul 18, 2018
Il film sull'adulterio fu progettato (e scritto) nel 1956. Riflette le ossessioni del regista
Essais - Hors Series, 2017
If a general member of the public is asked who Stanley Kubrick was, the answer would likely featu... more If a general member of the public is asked who Stanley Kubrick was, the answer would likely feature such expressions: a master technician, an unrelenting perfectionist, a tyrannical boss for his cast and crew, an obsessive genius, a cryptic auteur, a man progressively alienated from the physical world, rarely conceding interviews, never seen in public, sitting “in the dark, surrounded by computers and machines, controlling the Earth. Doctor Mabuse No. 2” –as Kubrick himself quipped in an interview.
Despite Kubrick’s repeated attempts to counteract the most extreme aspects of such a peculiar public persona, and despite the new, largely positive insights into his personality and modus operandi that have been offered by the members of the Kubrick family and his closest collabo- rators since he died, this mythological image of Stanley Kubrick stuck in the people’s imagi- nation and is still largely believed.
Yet, no systematic study has been attempted so far. The mythology has simply gone unques- tioned, as something that followed and troubled Kubrick, and whose origin are to be placed somewhere in the media, sometime in the past. This essay investigates into the Kubrick mythology for the first time, with the aim to explore the birth and the development of Kubrick’s public persona, to study how and why such a mythology came to light, where its building blocks were first introduced, and how it changed throughout the years.
By surveying news stories that have been published in American and English media from 1948, the year of Kubrick’s first interview as a photographer, to 1999, the year the director died, this essay chronicles Kubrick’s 50-year journey from “boy genius” to “barking loon” and takes a new look into the role the director played in marketing himself with the audience and within the film industry.
Attingendo dal carteggio conservato alla Clarke Collection dello Smithsonian Institution di Washi... more Attingendo dal carteggio conservato alla Clarke Collection dello Smithsonian Institution di Washington, l'articolo ricostruisce brevemente lo sviluppo della sceneggiatura del film e racconta soprattutto l'estenuante tira e molla tra Kubrick e Clarke per la pubblicazione del romanzo collegato al film, una saga parallela che rivela la personalità dei due artisti. Dalle lettere, fax e cablogrammi transoceanici, Kubrick emerge come un manipolatore in grado di piegare tutti al proprio volere, per di più dotato di nervi d'acciaio.
A survey of Stanley Kubrick’s unfinished films generally includes Napoleon, Aryan Papers and A.I.... more A survey of Stanley Kubrick’s unfinished films generally includes Napoleon, Aryan Papers and A.I. Artificial Intelligence. A few extra projects are commonly included as well: One-Eyed Jacks, The German Lieutenant and The Burning Secret. Three more scripts have enjoyed media recognition recently, after the announcement of their tentative production: Lunatic at Large, The Down Slope and God Fearing Man. But this only scratches the surface of the extensive range of cinematic interests that Kubrick manifested. The following article lists all the projects the director considered, developed and abandoned in his career. A study of Kubrick’s work that encompasses his unsuccessful endeavors could help us better understand his tastes, methodology and the necessary ingredients that would make a good film according to Stanley Kubrick.
Arrow Films, Jun 2017
The long story behind the making of One-Eyed Jacks.
Screening the Past, Oct 2017
After Stanley Kubrick’s death many people wrote about their experiences with the famously reclusi... more After Stanley Kubrick’s death many people wrote about their experiences with the famously reclusive director, producing an unexpected plethora of recollections. At the strongly hyped eve of Eyes Wide Shut, co-scenarist Frederic Raphael published a somewhat bitter memoir, Eyes Wide Open, that caused such a sensation that it prompted Michael Herr to write an opposite account. The memoirs that were penned in the subsequent years by actors, writers and different collaborators produced a mosaic portrait of Kubrick as seen through their eyes.
When I was asked to write Emilio D’Alessandro’s memoir, I found a unique story. Emilio, a former racing car driver, worked for Kubrick from 1971 to 1999, a time span unmatched by any of his collaborators. His duties during the films’ production gave him unrivalled access to the director, both in his private offices and on set. Being a complete alien to movie business, Emilio had the impartiality of an outside observer, without any preconceptions or expectations. The result of his experience, as written in Stanley Kubrick And Me: Thirty Years At His Side, is both a confirmation of the literature, and a complete revolution of Kubrick’s image: for the first time Kubrick is written about not as the filmmaking genius of the 20th century or a mysterious, bizarre character, but as a hard-working independent artisan.
Puss Puss, Apr 2016
It is a very well known fact that Stanley Kubrick took infinite care in making his films. 2001: a... more It is a very well known fact that Stanley Kubrick took infinite care in making his films. 2001: a Space Odyssey, Barry Lyndon, The Shining all stand as an indelible testament to his masterful command of the cinematic medium. A slightly less known fact, perhaps, is that he took as much care in dealing with his beautiful and nervous cats. Emilio D’Alessandro, his personal assistant from 1970 to 1999, shares a few stories about the director’s soft spot.
Il Giornale, Aug 2, 2015
Un'analisi del copione sulla Guerra di Secessione Americana scritto da Stanley Kubrick e mai real... more Un'analisi del copione sulla Guerra di Secessione Americana scritto da Stanley Kubrick e mai realizzato.
Segnocinema, Mar 2014
Il copione dal titolo The German Lieutenant, scritto da Stanley Kubrick nel 1959 e mai realizzato... more Il copione dal titolo The German Lieutenant, scritto da Stanley Kubrick nel 1959 e mai realizzato, è un calco quasi esatto di personaggi e situazioni dell’appena concluso Orizzonti di Gloria: cosa spinse il regista che proverbialmente non si ripete mai verso un nuovo film di guerra?
Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, 2015
Un'indagine sul copione "Le Ultime Cento Ore - di Stanley Kubrick" conservato presso la Bibliotec... more Un'indagine sul copione "Le Ultime Cento Ore - di Stanley Kubrick" conservato presso la Biblioteca Luigi Chiarini del Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia a Roma.
Conference Presentations by Filippo Ulivieri
NECS, 2021
What if I told you that everything you know about Stanley Kubrick is false? With a slight exagger... more What if I told you that everything you know about Stanley Kubrick is false? With a slight exaggeration, this is the feeling that one gets after delving into the Kubrick Archive. The classic narrative of how Kubrick made his films is shattered by the documents held inside the Special Collection Centre at the London College of Communication, UAL: letters to and from collaborators, script drafts, ideas for unmade films, unreleased interviews – every item discloses a new piece of information, often radically changing our perception of Kubrick.
From its opening in 2007, the Kubrick Archive has thus quickly become a paramount source of information to study the life and the work of Stanley Kubrick, calling for renewed attention to empirical research as a way to better understand the modus operandi of an artist.
This presentation will show how factual information retrieved by consulting material from the Kubrick Archive and other archival repositories, interviewing Kubrick’s collaborators, and mining the historical databases of newspapers and magazines can counteract the mythology surrounding Kubrick, providing a more truthful account of his work, and basically rewriting the history of such iconic filmmaker.
Behind Eyes Wide Shut, 2019
Eyes Wide Shut is commonly regarded as a very personal film from Kubrick, or even his most person... more Eyes Wide Shut is commonly regarded as a very personal film from Kubrick, or even his most personal. But what does it mean, exactly: is Eyes Wide Shut more imbued with Kubrick’s artistry, or more revealing of his personality? Why should this particular film be special among Kubrick’s works? It is easy, obvious even, to say that an intimate, marital story draws from an artist’s personal experiences. To me, all works of art are the product of the artist’s sensibility and personality, but I agree that, among Kubrick’s films, Eyes Wide Shut does seem a very intimate film. This talk will be an exploration of such supposed closeness between the artist and his work of art. Or, in other words, why was Stanley Kubrick obsessed with Arthur Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle?
Stanley Kubrick, Life and Legacy, 2019
A discussion over my list of Kubrick's unmade films, adding up at 55 individual projects. What th... more A discussion over my list of Kubrick's unmade films, adding up at 55 individual projects. What these unmade films can tell us about Kubrick's method of work and his interests, how to further investigate the field, etc.
A Clockwork Symposium, 2018
When the film A Clockwork Orange – adapted for the screen, produced and directed by Stanley Kubri... more When the film A Clockwork Orange – adapted for the screen, produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick – opened in 1971, novelist Anthony Burgess was “very pleased with the way Kubrick handled my book.” A few months later, he went on to say the film was “technically brilliant, thoughtful, relevant, poetic, mind-opening,” “a radical remaking” of his novel rather than a “mere interpretation of it,” to the extent that he “felt it was no impertinence to blazon it ‘Stanley Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange’.”
As soon as the film generated a stir of controversy and copycat crimes started to appear, Burgess defended both his own novel and Kubrick’s adaptation without distinguishing between the two: both works were moral parables that shared the same aspiration, “that it is preferable to have a world of violence undertaken in full awareness than a world conditioned to be good or harmless” and that Kubrick “found remarkable cinematic equivalents for my own literary devices.”
It may come as a surprise then to read what Burgess wrote in 1987 at the end of his own musical adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. While a valedictory chorus sings to the tune of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, the writer concluded the play with an iconoclastic stage direction: “A man bearded like Stanley Kubrick comes on playing, in exquisite counterpoint, Singin’ in the Rain on a trumpet. He is kicked off the stage.”
This image summarises quite effectively – and in Burgess’s style – two decades of conflicting views, acerbic comments, lawsuits, and contradictory statements by the writer about Kubrick’s adaptation and in fact about his own literary creation. A few years later, just months before he died, Burgess went even further and admitted he “was not being wholly sincere” when he denied the possibility of the film’s stirring juvenile mayhem: at the end of his life, he reluctantly had to accept the thesis he had vehemently fought against for twenty years – that “art is dangerous.”
With an extensive use of archival sources and interviews, this talk aims to reconstruct what lies underneath Burgess’s change of mind and analyse the complex, ever-changing relationship between the author and his endlessly controversial novel.
Stanley Kubrick, Nouveaux Horizons, 2017
In June 1987, Stanley Kubrick was in his office at Pinewood, receiving a string of journalists an... more In June 1987, Stanley Kubrick was in his office at Pinewood, receiving a string of journalists and film critics. He was there to give interviews to promote his new film, Full Metal Jacket, but also, for the first time, to challenge the stories that had been plaguing his image in the media. “Part of my problem is that I cannot dispel the myths that have somehow accumulated over the years,” he admitted regretfully. “The stories get more elaborate as they’re repeated in the papers,” Kubrick explained to a different reporter, so that – he concluded to a third one with a hint of bitter humor – “The general picture is that I’m a recluse surrounded by high walls and computers who wears a football helmet while driving at 30 miles an hour and has a helicopter spray his garden.”
These stories were in fact widely – and wildly – circulating as early as 1971 with the director already dismissing them as “your usual Kubrick anecdotes.” Subsequent years only cemented the director’s public persona, which is now taken for granted, and inevitably has to be confronted by anyone who wants to write or speak about him, both personally and professionally.
This talk is an attempt to study how Kubrick’s image shifted through his career, from “boy wonder”, “unkempt”, “perfectionist” “genius”, to “obsessed”, “reclusive”, “megalomaniac” “tyrant”, up to the libelous “loon”.
By surveying news stories that have been published in American and English media from 1948, the year of Kubrick’s first published profile as a photographer, to 1999, the year the director died, we can determine where the building blocks of such a distinctive image were first introduced, and by who. We know Kubrick’s ultimate reaction to the negative ones, but what prompted it? Was there a saturation point? And above all, did he play any part in the construction of his own mythology?
Stanley Kubrick: A Retrospective, 2016
When one thinks about Stanley Kubrick’s unmade films, Napoleon, Aryan Papers and A.I. Artificial ... more When one thinks about Stanley Kubrick’s unmade films, Napoleon, Aryan Papers and A.I. Artificial Intelligence easily come to mind. A few other projects are known to have been developed or considered by the director during the 1950s (One-Eyed Jacks, The German Lieutenant, The Burning Secret, etc.); recently, three even enjoyed wide media recognition (Lunatic at Large, The Downslope, God Fearing Man).
However, these are only the top of a remarkably vast amount of stories, ideas and literary properties that Kubrick examined during his career.
Making extensive use of trade magazine back issues, rare archival sources, and several interviews with James B. Harris, Kubrick’s former producing partner during the 1950s and ‘60s, this presentation reveals around forty projects that were considered and abandoned by Kubrick at various stages of completion. This exploration of Kubrick’s unmade cinema illustrates both his catholic and dynamic range of interests, and his recurring thematic fascinations, such as a life-long attempt to make a film about World War II and the Nazi Germany.
A particular focus will be given on the hectic years of the late ‘50s when Harris-Kubrick Pictures desperately tried to develop a number of original screenplays achieving “nothing but failure”, as Kubrick himself had to admit in a private letter. This analysis will thus shed light on the birth of a key feature of Kubrick’s cinema: the crucial discovery of a good story.
Books by Filippo Ulivieri
The story of how '2001: A Space Odyssey' came to be made is in many ways as epic as the events po... more The story of how '2001: A Space Odyssey' came to be made is in many ways as epic as the events portrayed in the film itself—and until now, just as mysterious. In 1964, with 'Dr. Strangelove' ready for release, Stanley Kubrick was uncertain about what his next project would be, and considered making a film dealing with several contemporary themes. It was only when he encountered Arthur C. Clarke that he decided to make a science fiction film. Yet it took more than four years for '2001: A Space Odyssey' to reach the screen—a productive and creative odyssey that involved experimentation, last-minute rethinks, strokes of genius, quarrels, ultimatums, feats of will, and mental breakdowns. Drawing extensively from never before seen material, including production documents and private correspondences, '2001 between Kubrick and Clarke' gives for the first time a complete account of the two authors’ creative collaboration; one which casts lights on their on-again, off-again relationship, as well as revealing new information about the genesis, production, and reception of the first and most important film about space, the origin of humankind and its destiny among the stars. — With a foreword by Dan Richter.
Senses of Cinema, Jul 2020
Stephen King famously dislikes Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of his celebrated horror novel, The S... more Stephen King famously dislikes Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of his celebrated horror novel, The Shining. He called the film “a big, beautiful Cadillac with no engine inside it” and has criticised every element, from casting to Kubrick’s execution.
“Jack Torrance has no arc in that movie,” King has said, because “Jack Nicholson seems crazy from the beginning.” Even worse, “Shelley Duvall’s Wendy is really one of the most misogynistic characters ever put on film,” very different from the sympathetic wife he had created. But the real problem according to King is that “Kubrick sent out to make a horror picture with no apparent understanding of the genre.” “Nothing in the movie is really scary,” he concluded.
King has explained his antipathy by saying that Kubrick had made a “cold” film out of a “hot” novel. More profoundly, King has acknowledged “a fundamental difference of opinion” about the origin of evil: external for King, and internal for Kubrick.
Analysing four decades’ worth of interviews with Stephen King, this article goes deep inside his mind and explores his keen personal attachment to the novel’s characters, especially that of Jack Torrance, which, by King’s own admission, is his most autobiographical.
The survey, while illuminating two radically irreconcilable philosophies, also exposes a number of stories that Stephen King has embellished to aggrandise his involvement in the film’s making – many of which are still widely repeated. The relationship between Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is therefore revealed to be more complex than a mere rejection.
SegnoCinema, Aug 2018
Per commemorare i 50 anni di 2001: Odissea nello Spazio di Stanley Kubrick – uscito il 2 aprile 1... more Per commemorare i 50 anni di 2001: Odissea nello Spazio di Stanley Kubrick – uscito il 2 aprile 1968 negli Stati Uniti e l’11 dicembre nel nostro paese – ripercorriamo i quattro intricatissimi anni di lavorazione del film attraverso il più dettagliato calendario di produzione mai compilato.
Intrecciando le informazioni contenute in libri e periodici inglesi e statunitensi con documenti di produzione dell’Archivio Kubrick di Londra si ottiene un diario quasi giornaliero degli anni 1964-1968 che rivela quanto complicata sia stata la realizzazione del film e soprattutto quale sia stato il vero ruolo di Stanley Kubrick nell’immaginare, preparare, sviluppare, dirigere e presentare al pubblico il più grande film di fantascienza di tutti i tempi.
Il Giornale, Nov 18, 2018
Il Giornale, Jul 18, 2018
Il film sull'adulterio fu progettato (e scritto) nel 1956. Riflette le ossessioni del regista
Essais - Hors Series, 2017
If a general member of the public is asked who Stanley Kubrick was, the answer would likely featu... more If a general member of the public is asked who Stanley Kubrick was, the answer would likely feature such expressions: a master technician, an unrelenting perfectionist, a tyrannical boss for his cast and crew, an obsessive genius, a cryptic auteur, a man progressively alienated from the physical world, rarely conceding interviews, never seen in public, sitting “in the dark, surrounded by computers and machines, controlling the Earth. Doctor Mabuse No. 2” –as Kubrick himself quipped in an interview.
Despite Kubrick’s repeated attempts to counteract the most extreme aspects of such a peculiar public persona, and despite the new, largely positive insights into his personality and modus operandi that have been offered by the members of the Kubrick family and his closest collabo- rators since he died, this mythological image of Stanley Kubrick stuck in the people’s imagi- nation and is still largely believed.
Yet, no systematic study has been attempted so far. The mythology has simply gone unques- tioned, as something that followed and troubled Kubrick, and whose origin are to be placed somewhere in the media, sometime in the past. This essay investigates into the Kubrick mythology for the first time, with the aim to explore the birth and the development of Kubrick’s public persona, to study how and why such a mythology came to light, where its building blocks were first introduced, and how it changed throughout the years.
By surveying news stories that have been published in American and English media from 1948, the year of Kubrick’s first interview as a photographer, to 1999, the year the director died, this essay chronicles Kubrick’s 50-year journey from “boy genius” to “barking loon” and takes a new look into the role the director played in marketing himself with the audience and within the film industry.
Attingendo dal carteggio conservato alla Clarke Collection dello Smithsonian Institution di Washi... more Attingendo dal carteggio conservato alla Clarke Collection dello Smithsonian Institution di Washington, l'articolo ricostruisce brevemente lo sviluppo della sceneggiatura del film e racconta soprattutto l'estenuante tira e molla tra Kubrick e Clarke per la pubblicazione del romanzo collegato al film, una saga parallela che rivela la personalità dei due artisti. Dalle lettere, fax e cablogrammi transoceanici, Kubrick emerge come un manipolatore in grado di piegare tutti al proprio volere, per di più dotato di nervi d'acciaio.
A survey of Stanley Kubrick’s unfinished films generally includes Napoleon, Aryan Papers and A.I.... more A survey of Stanley Kubrick’s unfinished films generally includes Napoleon, Aryan Papers and A.I. Artificial Intelligence. A few extra projects are commonly included as well: One-Eyed Jacks, The German Lieutenant and The Burning Secret. Three more scripts have enjoyed media recognition recently, after the announcement of their tentative production: Lunatic at Large, The Down Slope and God Fearing Man. But this only scratches the surface of the extensive range of cinematic interests that Kubrick manifested. The following article lists all the projects the director considered, developed and abandoned in his career. A study of Kubrick’s work that encompasses his unsuccessful endeavors could help us better understand his tastes, methodology and the necessary ingredients that would make a good film according to Stanley Kubrick.
Arrow Films, Jun 2017
The long story behind the making of One-Eyed Jacks.
Screening the Past, Oct 2017
After Stanley Kubrick’s death many people wrote about their experiences with the famously reclusi... more After Stanley Kubrick’s death many people wrote about their experiences with the famously reclusive director, producing an unexpected plethora of recollections. At the strongly hyped eve of Eyes Wide Shut, co-scenarist Frederic Raphael published a somewhat bitter memoir, Eyes Wide Open, that caused such a sensation that it prompted Michael Herr to write an opposite account. The memoirs that were penned in the subsequent years by actors, writers and different collaborators produced a mosaic portrait of Kubrick as seen through their eyes.
When I was asked to write Emilio D’Alessandro’s memoir, I found a unique story. Emilio, a former racing car driver, worked for Kubrick from 1971 to 1999, a time span unmatched by any of his collaborators. His duties during the films’ production gave him unrivalled access to the director, both in his private offices and on set. Being a complete alien to movie business, Emilio had the impartiality of an outside observer, without any preconceptions or expectations. The result of his experience, as written in Stanley Kubrick And Me: Thirty Years At His Side, is both a confirmation of the literature, and a complete revolution of Kubrick’s image: for the first time Kubrick is written about not as the filmmaking genius of the 20th century or a mysterious, bizarre character, but as a hard-working independent artisan.
Puss Puss, Apr 2016
It is a very well known fact that Stanley Kubrick took infinite care in making his films. 2001: a... more It is a very well known fact that Stanley Kubrick took infinite care in making his films. 2001: a Space Odyssey, Barry Lyndon, The Shining all stand as an indelible testament to his masterful command of the cinematic medium. A slightly less known fact, perhaps, is that he took as much care in dealing with his beautiful and nervous cats. Emilio D’Alessandro, his personal assistant from 1970 to 1999, shares a few stories about the director’s soft spot.
Il Giornale, Aug 2, 2015
Un'analisi del copione sulla Guerra di Secessione Americana scritto da Stanley Kubrick e mai real... more Un'analisi del copione sulla Guerra di Secessione Americana scritto da Stanley Kubrick e mai realizzato.
Segnocinema, Mar 2014
Il copione dal titolo The German Lieutenant, scritto da Stanley Kubrick nel 1959 e mai realizzato... more Il copione dal titolo The German Lieutenant, scritto da Stanley Kubrick nel 1959 e mai realizzato, è un calco quasi esatto di personaggi e situazioni dell’appena concluso Orizzonti di Gloria: cosa spinse il regista che proverbialmente non si ripete mai verso un nuovo film di guerra?
Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, 2015
Un'indagine sul copione "Le Ultime Cento Ore - di Stanley Kubrick" conservato presso la Bibliotec... more Un'indagine sul copione "Le Ultime Cento Ore - di Stanley Kubrick" conservato presso la Biblioteca Luigi Chiarini del Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia a Roma.
NECS, 2021
What if I told you that everything you know about Stanley Kubrick is false? With a slight exagger... more What if I told you that everything you know about Stanley Kubrick is false? With a slight exaggeration, this is the feeling that one gets after delving into the Kubrick Archive. The classic narrative of how Kubrick made his films is shattered by the documents held inside the Special Collection Centre at the London College of Communication, UAL: letters to and from collaborators, script drafts, ideas for unmade films, unreleased interviews – every item discloses a new piece of information, often radically changing our perception of Kubrick.
From its opening in 2007, the Kubrick Archive has thus quickly become a paramount source of information to study the life and the work of Stanley Kubrick, calling for renewed attention to empirical research as a way to better understand the modus operandi of an artist.
This presentation will show how factual information retrieved by consulting material from the Kubrick Archive and other archival repositories, interviewing Kubrick’s collaborators, and mining the historical databases of newspapers and magazines can counteract the mythology surrounding Kubrick, providing a more truthful account of his work, and basically rewriting the history of such iconic filmmaker.
Behind Eyes Wide Shut, 2019
Eyes Wide Shut is commonly regarded as a very personal film from Kubrick, or even his most person... more Eyes Wide Shut is commonly regarded as a very personal film from Kubrick, or even his most personal. But what does it mean, exactly: is Eyes Wide Shut more imbued with Kubrick’s artistry, or more revealing of his personality? Why should this particular film be special among Kubrick’s works? It is easy, obvious even, to say that an intimate, marital story draws from an artist’s personal experiences. To me, all works of art are the product of the artist’s sensibility and personality, but I agree that, among Kubrick’s films, Eyes Wide Shut does seem a very intimate film. This talk will be an exploration of such supposed closeness between the artist and his work of art. Or, in other words, why was Stanley Kubrick obsessed with Arthur Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle?
Stanley Kubrick, Life and Legacy, 2019
A discussion over my list of Kubrick's unmade films, adding up at 55 individual projects. What th... more A discussion over my list of Kubrick's unmade films, adding up at 55 individual projects. What these unmade films can tell us about Kubrick's method of work and his interests, how to further investigate the field, etc.
A Clockwork Symposium, 2018
When the film A Clockwork Orange – adapted for the screen, produced and directed by Stanley Kubri... more When the film A Clockwork Orange – adapted for the screen, produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick – opened in 1971, novelist Anthony Burgess was “very pleased with the way Kubrick handled my book.” A few months later, he went on to say the film was “technically brilliant, thoughtful, relevant, poetic, mind-opening,” “a radical remaking” of his novel rather than a “mere interpretation of it,” to the extent that he “felt it was no impertinence to blazon it ‘Stanley Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange’.”
As soon as the film generated a stir of controversy and copycat crimes started to appear, Burgess defended both his own novel and Kubrick’s adaptation without distinguishing between the two: both works were moral parables that shared the same aspiration, “that it is preferable to have a world of violence undertaken in full awareness than a world conditioned to be good or harmless” and that Kubrick “found remarkable cinematic equivalents for my own literary devices.”
It may come as a surprise then to read what Burgess wrote in 1987 at the end of his own musical adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. While a valedictory chorus sings to the tune of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, the writer concluded the play with an iconoclastic stage direction: “A man bearded like Stanley Kubrick comes on playing, in exquisite counterpoint, Singin’ in the Rain on a trumpet. He is kicked off the stage.”
This image summarises quite effectively – and in Burgess’s style – two decades of conflicting views, acerbic comments, lawsuits, and contradictory statements by the writer about Kubrick’s adaptation and in fact about his own literary creation. A few years later, just months before he died, Burgess went even further and admitted he “was not being wholly sincere” when he denied the possibility of the film’s stirring juvenile mayhem: at the end of his life, he reluctantly had to accept the thesis he had vehemently fought against for twenty years – that “art is dangerous.”
With an extensive use of archival sources and interviews, this talk aims to reconstruct what lies underneath Burgess’s change of mind and analyse the complex, ever-changing relationship between the author and his endlessly controversial novel.
Stanley Kubrick, Nouveaux Horizons, 2017
In June 1987, Stanley Kubrick was in his office at Pinewood, receiving a string of journalists an... more In June 1987, Stanley Kubrick was in his office at Pinewood, receiving a string of journalists and film critics. He was there to give interviews to promote his new film, Full Metal Jacket, but also, for the first time, to challenge the stories that had been plaguing his image in the media. “Part of my problem is that I cannot dispel the myths that have somehow accumulated over the years,” he admitted regretfully. “The stories get more elaborate as they’re repeated in the papers,” Kubrick explained to a different reporter, so that – he concluded to a third one with a hint of bitter humor – “The general picture is that I’m a recluse surrounded by high walls and computers who wears a football helmet while driving at 30 miles an hour and has a helicopter spray his garden.”
These stories were in fact widely – and wildly – circulating as early as 1971 with the director already dismissing them as “your usual Kubrick anecdotes.” Subsequent years only cemented the director’s public persona, which is now taken for granted, and inevitably has to be confronted by anyone who wants to write or speak about him, both personally and professionally.
This talk is an attempt to study how Kubrick’s image shifted through his career, from “boy wonder”, “unkempt”, “perfectionist” “genius”, to “obsessed”, “reclusive”, “megalomaniac” “tyrant”, up to the libelous “loon”.
By surveying news stories that have been published in American and English media from 1948, the year of Kubrick’s first published profile as a photographer, to 1999, the year the director died, we can determine where the building blocks of such a distinctive image were first introduced, and by who. We know Kubrick’s ultimate reaction to the negative ones, but what prompted it? Was there a saturation point? And above all, did he play any part in the construction of his own mythology?
Stanley Kubrick: A Retrospective, 2016
When one thinks about Stanley Kubrick’s unmade films, Napoleon, Aryan Papers and A.I. Artificial ... more When one thinks about Stanley Kubrick’s unmade films, Napoleon, Aryan Papers and A.I. Artificial Intelligence easily come to mind. A few other projects are known to have been developed or considered by the director during the 1950s (One-Eyed Jacks, The German Lieutenant, The Burning Secret, etc.); recently, three even enjoyed wide media recognition (Lunatic at Large, The Downslope, God Fearing Man).
However, these are only the top of a remarkably vast amount of stories, ideas and literary properties that Kubrick examined during his career.
Making extensive use of trade magazine back issues, rare archival sources, and several interviews with James B. Harris, Kubrick’s former producing partner during the 1950s and ‘60s, this presentation reveals around forty projects that were considered and abandoned by Kubrick at various stages of completion. This exploration of Kubrick’s unmade cinema illustrates both his catholic and dynamic range of interests, and his recurring thematic fascinations, such as a life-long attempt to make a film about World War II and the Nazi Germany.
A particular focus will be given on the hectic years of the late ‘50s when Harris-Kubrick Pictures desperately tried to develop a number of original screenplays achieving “nothing but failure”, as Kubrick himself had to admit in a private letter. This analysis will thus shed light on the birth of a key feature of Kubrick’s cinema: the crucial discovery of a good story.
The story of how '2001: A Space Odyssey' came to be made is in many ways as epic as the events po... more The story of how '2001: A Space Odyssey' came to be made is in many ways as epic as the events portrayed in the film itself—and until now, just as mysterious. In 1964, with 'Dr. Strangelove' ready for release, Stanley Kubrick was uncertain about what his next project would be, and considered making a film dealing with several contemporary themes. It was only when he encountered Arthur C. Clarke that he decided to make a science fiction film. Yet it took more than four years for '2001: A Space Odyssey' to reach the screen—a productive and creative odyssey that involved experimentation, last-minute rethinks, strokes of genius, quarrels, ultimatums, feats of will, and mental breakdowns. Drawing extensively from never before seen material, including production documents and private correspondences, '2001 between Kubrick and Clarke' gives for the first time a complete account of the two authors’ creative collaboration; one which casts lights on their on-again, off-again relationship, as well as revealing new information about the genesis, production, and reception of the first and most important film about space, the origin of humankind and its destiny among the stars. — With a foreword by Dan Richter.
La storia della realizzazione di "2001: Odissea nello Spazio" è tanto epica quanto gli eventi nar... more La storia della realizzazione di "2001: Odissea nello Spazio" è tanto epica quanto gli eventi narrati dal film – e finora altrettanto misteriosa.
Nel 1964, concluso "Il Dottor Stranamore," Stanley Kubrick era incerto su come bissare il successo appena ottenuto e stava considerando i temi più caldi del momento; solo quando incontrò Arthur C. Clarke si decise per un film di fantascienza. Occorsero tuttavia più di quattro anni perché "2001: Odissea nello Spazio" arrivasse sugli schermi: un titanico sforzo produttivo e creativo, costellato di ripensamenti, esperimenti, colpi di genio, debiti, litigi, minacce, esaurimenti nervosi e prove di forza.
Attingendo a fonti inedite, tra cui i documenti di produzione del film e il carteggio tra lo scrittore e il regista, "2001 tra Kubrick e Clarke" racconta per la prima volta in modo completo l'odissea tecnica e artistica dei due autori, getta luce sulla loro relazione altalenante e rivela particolari finora sconosciuti sulla nascita e la realizzazione del "proverbiale buon film di fantascienza" il primo e il più grande film sullo spazio, l'origine della specie umana e il suo destino tra le stelle.
Understanding Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey: Representation and Interpretation, Intellect, 2018
When Kubrick started working on 2001: a Space Odyssey in 1964, he faced what was his most ambitio... more When Kubrick started working on 2001: a Space Odyssey in 1964, he faced what was his most ambitious and complex work yet.
Kubrick began thinking about making a film on the possibility of advanced entities in the universe in 1963, around the release of Dr. Strangelove. In March 1964 he approached scientist and novelist Arthur C. Clarke and proposed him that they should collaborate on “the proverbial ‘really-good’ science-fiction movie”. Although they worked exceptionally well together, it took more than four years for this idea to reach the screen.
Kubrick had to solve countless problems, from developing a strong story with Clarke to securing a multimillion-dollar budget at MGM, from inventing new film techniques for the special effects to coping with copyright issues for the music he intended to use. When 2001 opened in April 1968, it was met with mixed reviews, but all the critics agreed that it was the singular vision of one artist. Or was it?
By cross-referencing published memoirs by those who participated in the film’s production with academic studies, newspaper articles, production documents and web resources, a new comprehensive account of the lengthy creation of 2001: a Space Odyssey has been compiled, achieving an almost day-to-day chronology of Kubrick’s massive undertaking.
Studying the history of the four-year-long making of the film allows us to better understand the intricacy of the production, its plan (or lack of it), where exactly lies the seminal nature of the film, the role of every company and artist that took part in it, and most importantly what was Kubrick’s own real role in imagining, developing, shaping and delivering what indeed proved to be that legendary really good science-fiction movie.
Edizioni ETS, 2005
E' possibile comprare su Internet e sentirsi tranquilli affidando la propria carta di credito all... more E' possibile comprare su Internet e sentirsi tranquilli affidando la propria carta di credito alla rete? Questo saggio vuole fornire le risposte ai dubbi sulla sicurezza del commercio elettronico, dimostrando come tali diffidenze possano essere superate trasferendo sul Web i modelli comportamentali del commercio tradizionale. A partire da un'analisi di natura socio-cognitiva si chiarisce che cosa sia la fiducia e si definiscono le ragioni per cui vengono accettati i rischi impliciti nelle relazioni personali. Presentando esempi concreti e consigli pratici, il libro si rivolge tanto ai consumatori che vogliono comprare online, quanto alle imprese che intendono servirsi di un nuovo canale commerciale per la vendita dei loro prodotti.
Il Saggiatore, 2012
È il 1971. Emilio D'Alessandro lavora a Pinewood, accompagna attori e produttori in giro per i se... more È il 1971. Emilio D'Alessandro lavora a Pinewood, accompagna attori e produttori in giro per i set a bordo della sua Ford Capri. È stato chiamato per una corsa a Abbots Mead, una villa alla periferia nordest di Londra. Suona alla porta d'ingresso, solo qualche minuto, e dal corridoio spunta un signore barbuto sulla quarantina. "Buongiorno, sono Stanley Kubrick. È lei il pilota di cui si parla in questo articolo?" domanda, mostrando un vecchio ritaglio di giornale. Kubrick sta ultimando le riprese di 'Arancia meccanica' e cerca un autista. Non sanno ancora che quell'incontro cambierà le loro vite. In trent'anni di sodalizio professionale e umano con il regista, Emilio D'Alessandro scopre i segreti della settima arte, un mondo fantasmagorico, lontanissimo dalle sue origini, che lui vive da protagonista. Emilio D'Alessandro, insieme a Filippo Ulivieri, racconta la sua esperienza straordinaria, grazie anche a un'inedita documentazione fotografica e alla raccolta delle lettere e dei messaggi che Kubrick gli ha inviato. Gesti quotidiani, drammi familiari, partenze e ricongiungimenti, chiacchiere davanti a una tazza di caffè americano, lunghi viaggi in auto in cerca di location. Giorno dopo giorno, Emilio diventa indispensabile per Stanley e Stanley per Emilio. "Stanley Kubrick e me" è la cronaca della carriera di un genio del cinema raccontata attraverso gli occhi del suo assistente personale, ma anche la storia di una profonda amicizia e di una meravigliosa avventura.
Arcade Publishing, 2016
This intimate portrait by his former personal assistant and confidante reveals the man behind the... more This intimate portrait by his former personal assistant and confidante reveals the man behind the legendary filmmaker—for the first time.
Stanley Kubrick, the director of a string of timeless movies from Lolita and Dr. Strangelove to A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Full Metal Jacket, and others, has always been depicted by the media as the Howard Hughes of filmmakers, a weird artist obsessed with his work and privacy to the point of madness. But who was he really? Emilio D'Alessandro lets us see. A former Formula Ford driver who was a minicab chauffeur in London during the Swinging Sixties, he took a job driving a giant phallus through the city that became his introduction to the director. Honest, reliable, and ready to take on any task, Emilio found his way into Kubrick's neurotic, obsessive heart. He became his personal assistant, his right-hand man and confidant, working for him from A Clockwork Orange until Kubrick's death in 1999.
Emilio was the silent guy in the room when the script for The Shining was discussed. He still has the coat Jack Nicholson used in the movie. He was an extra on the set of Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick's last movie. He knew all the actors and producers Kubrick worked with; he observed firsthand Kubrick's working methods down to the smallest detail. Making no claim of expertise in cinematography but with plenty of anecdotes, he offers a completely fresh perspective on the artist and a warm, affecting portrait of a generous, kind, caring man who was a perfectionist in work and life.
A partire dalle dichiarazioni di Stanley Kubrick contenute nelle oltre 200 interviste da lui rila... more A partire dalle dichiarazioni di Stanley Kubrick contenute nelle oltre 200 interviste da lui rilasciate alla stampa, il corso intende analizzare il suo peculiare modo di fare cinema: dalla scelta della storia all'adattamento, dalla direzione degli attori alla fotografia, dal montaggio alla promozione presso il pubblico. Lasciando parlare il regista sarà possibile vedere i suoi film depurati dalle interpretazioni di critici e dagli stereotipi perpetuati dalla stampa: uno sguardo nuovo, filologico, per scoprire il vero metodo kubrickiano ed evidenziare la mano sicura del regista in un corpus d'opere coerente e compatto. Il corso si avvarrà di materiali d'archivio inediti e raramente visti in Italia. Programma Kubrick su Kubrick ha una durata minima di 10 ore e fa largo uso di clip tratte da tutti i film del regista, per studiarne la grammatica cinematografica e analizzarne i meccanismi di produzione del senso. Le dichiarazioni di Kubrick accompagnano tutto il corso come un lungo e articolato running commentary, un contenuto extra di un immaginario making-of onnicomprensivo. Per documentare le scelte di messinscena, direzione degli attori, fotografia, montaggio e musica vengono presentati anche estratti video da documentari inediti in Italia (in inglese sottotitolati in italiano).
1. Bio-filmografia: dal 1928 al 1999, la carriera del regista corredata da informazioni produttive, accoglienza critica dell'epoca e risultati al botteghino.
2. Il processo creativo: come Kubrick pensava, scriveva, produceva e girava i suoi film; un'analisi approfondita delle fasi necessarie alla realizzazione di un'opera cinematografica secondo il metodo-Kubrick.
3. La promozione: case history del marketing sbagliato di "2001: Odissea nello Spazio" e dell'innovativa strategia comunicativa per "Arancia Meccanica".
4. I progetti incompiuti: gli studi per “Napoleon”, “Aryan Papers” e “A.I. Artificial Intelligence”.
Il corso si rivolge sia a coloro che già conoscono i film di Kubrick, dei quali scopriranno aneddoti sulla realizzazione e i perché dietro le scelte artistiche, sia a chi non ha mai visto i suoi film e vuole capire cosa abbia mai di così importante questo Stanley Kubrick e perché non si è ancora smesso di parlarne.
La vita, il cinema, i progetti incompiuti.
Internationales Kubrick symposium, Deutsches Filmmuseum , 2018
Stanley Kubrick is characterized by a peculiar image: a perfectionist, a tyrannical boss for his ... more Stanley Kubrick is characterized by a peculiar image: a perfectionist, a tyrannical boss for his cast and crew, an obsessive genius, a cryptic auteur, a control freak, a misanthropic recluse who rarely conceded interviews. Despite many recent positive accounts from members of his family and close collaborators, this “Kubrick mythology” is still pervasive and believed. But how did such an image come to light, and why? More intriguingly, did Kubrick play any role in its origin and evolution?