Harlan on Kubrick

>> Kubrick's right-hand man, Jan Harlan, reveals the reclusive filmmaker's innermost feelings about his oeuvre

by MATTHEW HAYS

The late Stanley Kubrick was as reclusive a filmmaker as he was brilliant. The man behind films like Dr. Strangelove, 2001 and The Shining, who died two years ago, left behind as many questions as he did exquisite big-screen moments.

Now, his brother-in-law and longtime executive producer, Jan Harlan, has endeavoured to answer at least a few of these questions. In his excellent feature-length documentary, Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, Harlan examines the life of Kubrick, from his beginnings in New York to his family life in Britain. The doc is a delightful and fascinating look at the man, with rare insights from coworkers like Shelley Duvall and Jack Nicholson to peers like Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese. It screens this weekend as part of the Cinéma du Parc's ongoing retrospective, Stanley Kubrick Redux. Harlan will be in town for question-and-answer sessions which will follow each screening.

The Mirror caught up with Harlan at his home in the English countryside, where we asked him for the lowdown and backstories on a number of Kubrick's films.



2001: A Space Odyssey "He was terrified about [the premiere of] 2001," recalls Harlan. "It was a tremendously expensive film. A huge amount of money at that time, $10.2-million (U.S.), which now sounds like nothing, but that's inflation. He felt responsible for the trust that had been put into him. He thought they may lose every cent on it... 2001 put a new switch on things, the same way that Picasso put a new switch on painting. Many didn't like it initially. But he was rescued by the teenagers."

A Clockwork Orange Amazingly, Harlan reports that this was a movie Kubrick actually regretted making. "Very much so, he did. It was a very important and good film and an important document. He thought it was a great film and it was an enormous success, especially considering that it was an arthouse film--but personally, he hated the fact that the British press painted it as this terrible influence on young people, with people openly blaming Kubrick for various copycat killings. He never ever commented on it. Which I urged him to do, but he never did." Harlan says the threats against Kubrick became so pronounced over Orange that he feared sending his children to school.

Barry Lyndon Harlan confirms the plentiful rumours--that Kubrick, ultimately, wasn't so happy with leading man Ryan O'Neal. "In the end, yeah, he wasn't so pleased with him. I remember we had a number of discussions about the casting. I always wanted Malcolm McDowell, not this pretty boy. He wanted someone really good looking with star quality. I can't say he made a mistake. But the other supporting actors are so great they really show O'Neal up."

The Shining "I think Stanley was disappointed that it wasn't so successful at the box office. Again, it was ambiguous, so I think some horror fans were less than thrilled. He always wanted to explore the book in different ways, to change things. Ghost stories never make sense anyway." And Stephen King? "He hated it. King came on the set once, they met politely. We bought the rights to the book, and it was always in Stanley's contract to use the material the way he wanted to. King expressed his dislike to journalists. But this was Stanley's contractual right. King shouldn't have agreed to it if he didn't like it." Harlan's doc includes never-before-seen footage of Kubrick giving Shelley Duvall a hard time for not looking freaked out enough during a key sequence in the film.

Full Metal Jacket Astonishingly, Kubrick said that he didn't really intend this as an anti-war statement, feeling that he'd already made his anti-war movie with Paths of Glory. "Rather," says Harlan, "he simply wanted to make a spectacle about war. But since he obviously didn't like war, everything he did became an anti-war movie. How could it not? War is so perverse. He didn't want to make a moral judgement, but rather just to observe. Kubrick wasn't a moralist." :

Jan Harlan will present his documentary, Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, this weekend, as part of Stanley Kubrick Redux, at the Cinéma du Parc. See repertory listings for showtimes