[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Torn Curtain

 

The photography is undeniably great, but watching the evolution of a highly despicable character for 3 hours is a bit annoying, all the more as the plot isn't that great (it's pretty mechanical and predictable especially in the second half - cf the chapter titles). My least favourite Kubrick film with Eyes wide shut.

Kubrick's flaw is probably a (strong) tendency to be overly technical on the expense of the humanity of his characters.

oh maaaaan! this is one of my most loved kubrick movies!!! i've seen it a bunch of times

yes i get what you sway about the coldness and emphasis on the technical (and what technique! those wide shots make me nauseous with pleasure) but

a) i don't find lyndon particularly more despicable than the rest of the people around him-- he's just a different social class

b) all tragedies are predictable in their trajectories

no, i get why you don't like it, i do, but that's precise it why i like it so much at the same time. even the choice of that particularly wooden actor (the same thing he does with tom cruise in the other movie you dislike) serves to make the circumstances bigger than the person. you get the same flavor out of early soviet cinema.

check out robert bresson's "notes sur le cinématographe" for an alternative theory on acting ("models" he called them). even if bresson didn't completely follow with it in practice-- it's the approach away from filmed theatre to something else entirely.