Kubrick Stare Copypasta (2024)

FAQs

How to do the Kubrick stare? ›

A Kubrick Stare is a technique to show a character's dwindling sanity named after Stanley Kubrick due to his frequent usage. It involves the character's face tilting down and them looking up beneath the eyebrows. It is notably used in A Clockwork Orange (1971), The Shining (1980) and Full Metal Jacket (1987).

The technique can be traced in almost all of his films, although it finds its 'official' origins in A Clockwork Orange. Throughout the movie, Malcolm McDowell's menacing protagonist, Alex DeLarge, glances at the camera with a terrifying stare as if acknowledging the audience's presence.

The “Kubrick Stare” is one of Stanley Kubrick's most recognizable directorial techniques, a method of shot composition where a character stares at the camera with a forward tilt, to convey to the audience that the character in question is at the peak of their derangement.

The Kubrick stare is a very specific type of shot composition. It's only probably useful if you're making a horror or suspense film.

The film was withdrawn from British release in 1973 by Warner Bros at the request of Kubrick. In response to allegations that the film was responsible for copycat violence Kubrick stated: To try and fasten any responsibility on art as the cause of life seems to me to put the case the wrong way around.

The filmmaker emerges from this biography as a contradictory and enigmatic man. Fanlike in their deep respect for his work, the authors describe his perfectionism in relentless detail.

In 1961, Kubrick left the United States due to concerns about crime in the country, as well as a growing dislike for how Hollywood operated and creative differences with Douglas and the film studios; he settled in England, which he would leave only a handful of times for the rest of his life.

Stanley Kubrick's The Shining Holds The Record For The Most Retakes For A Dialogue Scene. Kubrick shot the scene between Danny (Danny Lloyd) and Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers), during which Dick describes the Shining to him, a whopping 148 times.

None of his films were more of a nightmare to make than his final one, Eyes Wide Shut, starring then-couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. The film set the record for the longest film production at 15 months, including 46 consecutive weeks.

The Kubrick Stare, sometimes referred to as the Kubrick Glare, is a common camera shot of an actor in most of Stanley Kubrick's films. The Kubrick Glare has been called the “heavy-browed look of insanity”.

What is the lighting in Kubrick films? ›

Harnessing Natural Light: A Kubrick Special

Alcott's go-to lighting source in a pinch was a Lowel 1,000-watt light that bounced through umbrellas or the ceiling. He mostly stuck to ARRI cameras and Zeiss lenses, and, on all of Kubrick's films, he always had an Angenieux zoom on hand.