Kubrick in filmmaking
The distinctive factor in filmmaking is what distinguishes good directors and those who move with the waves. Kubrick was a genius when it came to developing the plot of a movie through the use of mise-en-scene and cinematography. I agree with Sarri that “The way a film looks and moves should have some relationship to the way a director thinks and feels” (Sarri, 516). This is depicted on the Kubrick last film Wide Eyes Shut, where he incorporated his distinctive use of source location lighting, which was also used in his previous films such as “The Shining.” The light was a recurring factor when it came to Kubrick films because he wanted to relate to the current mood of the film location when shooting. This can be described by the long time he took in completing a movie. Another recurring motif was the use of the Christmas tree, which is seen in almost all the scenes in Wide EyesShut (Kubrick, 1999, 06:11). The recurring Christmas tree depicted Kubrick love for lighting in his movies. The Wide Eyes recurring motif of Christmas described auteurism showed personal influence and artistic control when it came to the use of light. This recurrent Christmas lightings throughout the film show the characteristics of the style used by Kubrick in directing his movie. Kubrick is, however, known for his diverse approach when it comes to his films, but lighting remained recurring through his notable films such as The Shining and Wide Eyes Shut.
The Filmworker introduces the collaborating experience between Kubrick and Leon Vitalli. Vitalli influenced some of the characteristic style of Kubrick through the many scenes both in The Shinning and the Wide Eyes Out. The cinematographer was instrumental in capturing Kubrick styles in these significant movies. Kubrick was a director who would not allow or even attempt to include cinematographers or his assistant, such as Vitalli, in his notion about how a movie was ought to be executed. In Filmworker, Vitalli is seen as just a person who was taking orders from his boss and thus did not implicate the notion of Kubrick in directing the critical characteristic in movies. Leon says, according to Kubrick, “if there was a short, then you were done” (Zierra 2017, 45:50). This means that the director’s notion overshadowed Leon’s action as an assistant to Kubrick. According to Andrews, the modern film industry had changed, and “the pursuit of the individual good at the expense of the collective good” (63). This was the case when it came to Vitalli’s relationship with Kubrick, where he only took the director’s order because he thought that the ideas of other people were not substantial. This shows why Kubrick is considered as one of the most distinctive auteurs because he enforced his opinions on other people and thus making all his movies through his personality. The Filmworker interviews support Sarri’s sentiment that “Over a group of films, a director must exhibit certain recurrent characteristics of style, which serve as his signature” (562). This describes the personality of Kubrick in instilling his ideas on other members of the cast during the direction.