Wartime Lies is a semi-autobiographical novel by Louis Begley first published in 1991. Set in Poland during the years of the Nazi occupation, it is about two members of an upper middle class Jewish family, a young woman and her nephew, who avoid persecution as Jews by assuming Catholic identities. Time and again the boy, who narrates the story from some remote point in time, reminisces about how he learned to lie at an early age in order to survive. Thus, his whole adult life is founded on the "wartime lies" of his childhood.
Wartime Lies won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award in 1991. The French version, Une éducation polonaise, won the Prix Médicis étranger in 1992.
Maciek and his aunt Tania are Polish Jews during World War II. By getting Aryan papers, they elude arrest. [1] In parallel, we follow Maciek, now fifty years old and struck by the tragedy of the consequences of a lying childhood turning the rest of his life into an ongoing fiction.
In 1976, director Stanley Kubrick approached Isaac Bashevis Singer, [2] Nobel Prize in Literature winner of 1978, to write a screenplay about the Holocaust; he declined with, "I don't know the first thing" about it. The project was put on hold until the publication of Begley's book in 1991. In 1993 Warner Brothers green-lit the film under the title "Aryan Papers", the screenplay written by Kubrick. Uma Thurman was approached to play the lead. When it became known that Steven Spielberg's similar-themed movie Schindler's List would be a competitor at the box office at release time, the project was stopped with many roles having already been cast: Joseph Mazzello as the nephew, Johanna ter Steege [3] in the lead role, Elemér Ragályi designated as cinematographer. Independent of these circumstances, Christiane Kubrick, his wife, remarked that working on the movie took a huge toll on Kubrick, putting him in a very depressed emotional state. [4]
In 2005, William Monahan was hired to adapt Wartime Lies for Warner Independent Pictures in cooperation with John Wells Productions. [5]
In 2020, it was reported that Luca Guadagnino hoped to direct a film based on the novel, [6] and that he had examined Kubrick's papers on the project, held at the Stanley Kubrick Archive at University of the Arts London. [7]
Uma Thurman was considered for the role before ter Steege
Eyes Wide Shut is a 1999 erotic mystery psychological drama film directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick. It is based on the 1926 novella Traumnovelle by Arthur Schnitzler, transferring the story's setting from early twentieth-century Vienna to 1990s New York City. The plot centers on a doctor who is shocked when his wife reveals that she had contemplated having an affair a year earlier. He then embarks on a night-long adventure, during which he infiltrates a masked orgy of an unnamed secret society.
Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 war drama film directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford. The film is based on Hasford's 1979 novel The Short-Timers and stars Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio and Adam Baldwin.
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films—nearly all of which are adaptations of novels or short stories—span a number of genres and are known for their intense attention to detail, innovative cinematography, extensive set design and dark humor.
Uma Karuna Thurman is an American actress and former model. She has performed in a variety of films, from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action films. Following her appearances on the December 1985 and May 1986 covers of British Vogue, Thurman starred in Dangerous Liaisons (1988). She rose to international prominence with her performance as Mia Wallace in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award, the BAFTA Award, the Golden Globe Award, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress. Often hailed as Tarantino's muse, she reunited with the director to play the main role in Kill Bill: Volume 1 and 2, which brought her two additional Golden Globe Award nominations.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence is a 2001 American science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg. The screenplay by Spielberg and screen story by Ian Watson were based on the 1969 short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long" by Brian Aldiss. Set in a futuristic society, the film stars Haley Joel Osment as David, a childlike android uniquely programmed with the ability to love. Jude Law, Frances O'Connor, Brendan Gleeson and William Hurt star in supporting roles.
The Shining is a 1980 horror film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick and co-written with novelist Diane Johnson. It is based on Stephen King's 1977 novel of the same name and stars Jack Nicholson, Danny Lloyd, Shelley Duvall, and Scatman Crothers. Nicholson plays Jack Torrance, a writer and recovering alcoholic who accepts a new position as the off-season caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. Lloyd plays his young son Danny, who has psychic abilities, which he learns about from head chef Dick Hallorann (Crothers). Danny's imaginary friend Tony warns him the hotel is haunted before a winter storm leaves the family snowbound in the Colorado Rockies. Jack's sanity deteriorates under the influence of the hotel and the residents, and Danny and his mother Wendy (Duvall) face mortal danger.
A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 dystopian crime film adapted, produced, and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel of the same name. It employs disturbing, violent images to comment on psychiatry, juvenile delinquency, youth gangs, and other social, political, and economic subjects in a dystopian near-future Britain.
Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures is a 2001 documentary about the life and work of Stanley Kubrick, famed film director, made by his long-time assistant and brother-in-law Jan Harlan.
Vivian Vanessa Kubrick, also credited under the pseudonym Abigail Mead, is an American filmmaker and composer. She is the daughter of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick.
Johanna ter Steege is a Dutch actress.
Louis Begley is a Jewish American Polish-born novelist. He is best known for writing the semi-autobiographical Holocaust novel Wartime Lies (1991) and the Schmidt trilogy: About Schmidt (1996), Schmidt Delivered (2000) and Schmidt Steps Back (2012).
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay was written by Kubrick and science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, and was inspired by Clarke's 1951 short story "The Sentinel" and other short stories by Clarke. Clarke also published a novelisation of the film, in part written concurrently with the screenplay, after the film's release. The film stars Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, and Douglas Rain and follows a voyage by astronauts, scientists, and the sentient supercomputer HAL to Jupiter to investigate an alien monolith.
Luca Guadagnino is an Italian film director and producer. His films are characterized by their emotional complexity, sensuality, and sumptuous visuals. He is also known for his frequent collaborations with actors Tilda Swinton, Dakota Johnson, Timothée Chalamet and Michael Stuhlbarg, editor Walter Fasano and screenwriter David Kajganich.
The following is a list of unproduced Stanley Kubrick projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American film director Stanley Kubrick had worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell into development hell or are officially cancelled.
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 widely regarded as being extremely influential.
Call Me by Your Name is a 2017 coming-of-age romantic drama film directed by Luca Guadagnino. Its screenplay, by James Ivory, who also co-produced, is based on the 2007 novel of the same title by André Aciman. The film is the final installment in Guadagnino's thematic "Desire" trilogy, after I Am Love (2009), and A Bigger Splash (2015). Set in 1983 in northern Italy, Call Me by Your Name chronicles the romantic relationship between a 17-year-old, Elio Perlman, and Oliver, a 24-year-old graduate-student assistant to Elio's father Samuel, an archaeology professor. The film also stars actresses Amira Casar, Esther Garrel, and Victoire Du Bois.
Doctor Sleep is a 2019 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Mike Flanagan. It is an adaptation of the 2013 novel of the same name by Stephen King and sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film The Shining. The film stars Ewan McGregor as Dan Torrance, a man with psychic abilities and a drinking problem, who struggles with childhood trauma caused by the horrors at the Overlook Hotel. Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran, and Cliff Curtis have supporting roles as new characters: Abra Stone and Billy Freeman team up with Dan to take down Rose the Hat and her gang of followers.
The Shining is an American supernatural horror media franchise that originated from the 1977 novel of the same name by Stephen King. The novel was later adapted into a 1980 film and a 1997 television miniseries. King later wrote a 2013 sequel novel, Doctor Sleep, which was adapted to film in 2019.
Bones and All is a 2022 romantic horror film directed by Luca Guadagnino from a screenplay by David Kajganich, based on the 2015 novel Bones & All by Camille DeAngelis. Set in the late 1980s, the film stars Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet as a pair of young cannibals who flee together on a road trip across the United States of America and develop feelings for each other. Michael Stuhlbarg, André Holland, Chloë Sevigny, David Gordon Green, Jessica Harper, Jake Horowitz, and Mark Rylance appear in supporting roles.
The Old Guard 2 is an upcoming American superhero film directed by Victoria Mahoney, from a screenplay by Greg Rucka, based on his comic book of the same name. Serving as a sequel to the first film, the film stars Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, Matthias Schoenaerts, Vân Veronica Ngô, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Uma Thurman and Henry Golding.