This is and will most likely, for the foreseeable future remain the only, qualified and official life account of the late Stanley Kubrick. Stanley Kubrick was one of the few scholars of the art of film. He did not explain his work much the same way a painter seldom explains his painting, as he expressed it "I will not comment on your interpretation of it, nor will I offer any other" (not an exact quote) concerning 2001: A Space Odyssey. He was, as it has been expressed in this documentary "a man that remained silent, wheter he was applauded or damned" (not an exact quote). This documentary gives an insight into his highly private life, a privilege that has been up to now granted only to a very narrow group of people. Some do not approve of this film since it was not detailed enough, I believe that are missing the point. For example I can not see the reason for knowing what his directorial style was, it would be as seeing some mythical key to Dalis paintings in the way he hold the brush. I believe this film as such is a skilled documentary, and I must confess that I enjoyed it, and still do enjoy when from time to time I watch it again. The film only states facts and presents people who knew him with their personal and subjective opinions and experiences of him. Kubrick himself gave extremely few interviews, and thus remains and will remain as an unknown. This film is more about the shadow of the man, his legacy and his works. The title states clearly, A Life In Picures. He let his films fend for them self, he let the pictures be what they are, it is and will always be the perogative of an artist to create art. Once art is being explained it is then no longer valid. As such, his life collected so fittingly for a filmmaker in pictures is his final work, as we all leave our legacy in the trace that remains once we are gone, as our creations and the memory of us among those left behind he left his. This film is only a collection of this legacy, it is but the frame of the Stanley Kubrick project, his LIFE.
Review of Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures
