STANLEY KUBRICK – FEAR AND DESIRE
If Hitchcock is considered one of the greatest directors of the first half of the 20th century then many would argue that Stanley Kubrick reigned over the second half. Not as prolific a film-maker as his predecessor, Hitchcock directed 47 films while Kubrick only turned out 16.
Kubrick quit his job as a photographer for Look magazine and because he had already shot two short documentaries in 1951, by 1953 he felt his experience was such that he could make his feature directorial debut with Fear and Desire. It would, however, be far from a labor of love and uncharacteristic of a director who would so infamously be known for his perfectionism and desire to get just the right take. He’s in the Guinness Book of Records for a scene in his 1980 horror classic that took 127 takes to satisfy
Inexperience would see the production falter as Kubrick ran into trouble blocking certain scenes, shooting errors and keeping continuity consistent during filming. He would later denounce this first outing as a director, describing it as a “bumbling amateur film exercise” and that he considered it like a child’s drawing on a fridge.
disowned the film soon after its release and wanted to make sure it was never seen again by not re-releasing the print. What he didn’t know was that Kodak, when making a print for a film, had a policy of making an extra print for its archives. It is this one that survives and where the DVD-R and VHS bootleg prints come from.
