The Kubrick stare is a technique used to portray insane or unstable characters in film. [2]
The Kubrick stare is a technique used to portray insane or unstable characters in film. [2]
In a Kubrick stare, an actor looks out from under the brow line and tilts their head towards the camera. [3] Actors often use the stare to foreshadow something "intense". [1] Deemed "one of cinema's most recognizable shots" by The Daily Telegraph , [4] the technique is named after Stanley Kubrick, who often used it, but it has also been used by other directors before and since. [4] The term was coined by cinematographer Douglas Milsome to describe one of Alex's facial expressions in the Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange (1971). [5]
Film critics have noted the Kubrick stare for its ability to break the fourth wall and to evoke fear. Robbie Collin has written on how some actors are more suited to perform the Kubrick stare because of their facial structures. [6]
A Kubrick stare involves an actor looking out from under the brow line and tilting their head towards the camera. [3] Sometimes, the actor will smile in a sinister fashion. [7] It is often used to convey that a character has become dangerously mentally unstable. Thus, the stare has been described as looking creepy. [2] It often heralds that something "intense" will soon take place, [1] and has been described by The Telegraph as "one of cinema's most recognizable shots". [4]
The origin of the term lies in the making of director Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971). According to actor Malcolm McDowell, whilst filming the movie, Kubrick requested that McDowell react to hearing music by Beethoven for a scene. After several tries, they agreed upon an expression. [1] McDowell spoke about the experience in 2014:
So [Kubrick] said, “I’m going to play the Beethoven Choral Symphony real loud. See what happens.” So I was doing various things, like—don’t forget I’m also supposed to be a little high. And so kind of this look came, and he suddenly started to laugh. And he was laughing because the eyes were kind of up and glazed over and the mouth kind of took on a weird look. And when he started to laugh, we knew we had it. We knew that that’s what it was going to be. Because we were making a comedy, let’s face it. And all I had to do was repeat it for that beginning shot. [8]
Director of photography Douglas Milsome dubbed it the "Kubrick stare", coining the term. [5] Kubrick found McDowell's gaze compelling enough to put on the poster for A Clockwork Orange. [6] Kubrick went on to extensively use the technique that bore his name in almost all his films, [1] most notably in Full Metal Jacket (1987) and The Shining (1980). [9]
Other directors and actors have relied on the technique to convey derangement. [1] Psycho (1960), a work which predates A Clockwork Orange, uses what has been described as a Kubrick stare near the ending. [10] [1] It can be seen in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Donnie Darko (2001), and Batman (1989). [11]
In particular, the supervillain the Joker has become associated with the Kubrick stare due to actor Heath Ledger heavily using it in The Dark Knight (2008). [9] The movie Smile (2022) revolves around a woman who is haunted by a many-faced entity that constantly smiles at her while giving a Kubrick stare. [12]
Drawing on Lacanian scholarship about cinematic gaze, Far Out writer Aimee Ferrier argues that the Kubrick stare breaks down the barrier between the fictional world and that of the viewers, causing the audience to become further invested in the media. [1] Similarly, researcher Matthew Melia notes that an actor performing the stare will give the impression that they are looking past the fourth wall and directly at the audience. He describes the technique as "invasive" and "troubling". [13] Slate remarks that the facial expression is perhaps unrivalled in evoking fear in cinema. [9] Similarly, The Telegraph describes the stare as reveling in the viewer's unease. [4]
In analyzing Private Pyle's Kubrick stare from Full Metal Jacket, Jens Kjelgaard-Christiansen, who studies communication and culture, [14] notes that the character's lowered eyebrows and smiling mouth seem to contradict one another, indicating both anger and joy at the same time. He adds that abnormal gazes can come across as creepy, as humans read emotions from the eyes. [2]
Robbie Collin, writing in The Daily Telegraph, opines that only actors with an innate "coiled menace" in their facial structures are able to perform a Kubrick stare well, regardless of acting ability. [6] He comments that Jack Nicholson appears to constantly look as if he were giving a Kubrick stare, [4] due to the "hunch of his eyebrows and curl of his lip". [6] Manohla Dargis, reviewing Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024), comments that Anya Taylor-Joy is suited to perform a Kubrick stare as she has large eyes, whose whites are accentuated when she looks up. [15]
Reviewing A Clockwork Orange, film critic Roger Ebert opines that filming the amoral character Alex from above makes him look "messianic" instead of villainous. [16] He also criticizes Kubrick for using the technique in a review of Full Metal Jacket, stating that it "promises exactly what happens and spoils some of the suspense." [17]
A Clockwork Orange is a dystopian satirical black comedy novella by English writer Anthony Burgess, published in 1962. It is set in a near-future society that has a youth subculture of extreme violence. The teenage protagonist, Alex, narrates his violent exploits and his experiences with state authorities intent on reforming him. The book is partially written in a Russian-influenced argot called "Nadsat", which takes its name from the Russian suffix that is equivalent to '-teen' in English. According to Burgess, the novel was a jeu d'esprit written in just three weeks.
Barry Lyndon is a 1975 epic historical drama film written, directed, and produced by Stanley Kubrick, based on the 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray. Narrated by Michael Hordern, and starring Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Leonard Rossiter and Hardy Krüger, the film recounts the early exploits and later unravelling of an 18th-century Anglo-Irish rogue and golddigger who marries a rich widow to climb the social ladder and assume her late husband's aristocratic position.
Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 war film directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick from a screenplay he co-wrote with Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford. The film is based on Hasford's 1979 autobiographical novel The Short-Timers. It stars Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio, Adam Baldwin, Dorian Harewood, and Arliss Howard.
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or short stories, spanning a number of genres and gaining recognition for their intense attention to detail, innovative cinematography, extensive set design, and dark humor.
The Killing is a 1956 American film noir directed by Stanley Kubrick and produced by James B. Harris. It was written by Kubrick and Jim Thompson and based on Lionel White's novel Clean Break. It stars Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, and Vince Edwards, and features Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook Jr., Jay C. Flippen and Timothy Carey.
Alex is a fictional character in Anthony Burgess' novel A Clockwork Orange and Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of the same name, in which he is played by Malcolm McDowell. In the book, Alex's surname is not stated. In the film, however, Kubrick chose it to be DeLarge, a reference to Alex calling himself The Large in the novel. Later on in the film, two newspaper articles print his name as "Alex Burgess", a reference to Anthony Burgess. In addition to the book and film, Alex was portrayed by Vanessa Claire Smith in the ARK Theatre Company's multimedia adaptation of A Clockwork Orange, directed by Brad Mays.
A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 dystopian crime film adapted, produced, and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel. It employs disturbing and violent themes to comment on psychiatry, juvenile delinquency, youth gangs, and other social, political, and economic subjects in a dystopian near-future Britain.
Vivian Vanessa Kubrick, also credited under the pseudonym Abigail Mead, is an American former film composer and director. She is the daughter of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick.
Philip Stone was an English actor known for portraying film characters such as "Pa", the father of Alex DeLarge, in A Clockwork Orange; General Alfred Jodl in Hitler: The Last Ten Days; Delbert Grady in The Shining; and Captain Phillip Blumburtt in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. His final film role was as the Bishop in The Baby of Mâcon.
The 37th New York Film Critics Circle Awards honored the best filmmaking of 1971. The winners were announced on 29 December 1971 and the awards were given on 23 January 1972.
John Alcott, BSC was an English cinematographer known for his four collaborations with director Stanley Kubrick: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), for which he took over as lighting cameraman from Geoffrey Unsworth in mid-shoot, A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), the film for which he won his Oscar, and The Shining (1980). Alcott died from a heart attack in Cannes, France, in July 1986; he was 55. He received a tribute at the end of his last film No Way Out starring Kevin Costner.
Douglas Milsome BSC, ASC is an English cinematographer. A former camera operator for John Alcott on films like A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, and The Shining, Milsome became a collaborator with director Stanley Kubrick following Alcott's death in 1986. His filmography includes numerous genre films including Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Highlander: Endgame, Dungeons & Dragons, and Dracula III: Legacy. He has also worked with Jean-Claude Van Damme on films such as Legionnaire and The Hard Corps.
The Stanley Kubrick Archive is held by the University of the Arts London in their Archives and Special Collection Centre at the London College of Communication. The Archive opened in October 2007 and contains material collected and owned by the film director Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999). It was transferred from his home in 2007 through a gift by his family. It contains much of Kubrick's working material that was accumulated during his lifetime.
Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange is a soundtrack album released in 1972 by Warner Bros. Records, featuring music from Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film A Clockwork Orange. It includes pieces of classical music and electronic music by American composer and musician Wendy Carlos, whom Kubrick hired to write the film's original score. Music that Carlos recorded for the film that remained unreleased, including complete tracks, was released three months later on her album Walter Carlos' Clockwork Orange.
Hawk Films was a British film production company formed by American filmmaker Stanley Kubrick to produce his 1964 film Dr. Strangelove. Kubrick also used it as a production company for his later films A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), The Shining (1980), and Full Metal Jacket (1987).
Shirley Matilda Jaffe was a British actress. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, before embarking on a career on stage and screen, most famously appearing in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. After a lengthy break raising a family, she returned to professional acting in 2002.
A list of books and essays about Stanley Kubrick and his films.
Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999) directed thirteen feature films and three short documentaries over the course of his career. His work as a director, spanning diverse genres, is regarded as highly influential.
Part of the New Hollywood era of cinema, Kubrick's films are considered by film historian Michel Ciment to be "among the most important contributions to world cinema in the twentieth century", and he is frequently cited as one of the greatest and most influential directors in the history of cinema. According to film historian and Kubrick scholar Robert Kolker, Kubrick's films were "more intellectually rigorous than the work of any other American filmmaker."