When Movies and Literature Almost Collide

[ElectricBlue]

Some of you will know that Stanley Kubrick is my favourite director, and John le Carré one of my favourite authors.

Here's a fascinating piece about le Carré novels that might have been filmed, by directors who then did something else.

extract from The Pigeon Tunnel

 

[gunhilltrain]

Some of you will know that Stanley Kubrick is my favourite director, and John le Carré one of my favourite authors.

Here's a fascinating piece about le Carré novels that might have been filmed, by directors who then did something else.

extract from The Pigeon Tunnel

It's behind a paywall, unfortunately. Kubrick had some of his own ideas that he never filmed. One of them was going to be a movie about Napoleon, I believe. He seemed to take longer and longer between each movie. His choice, of course, but I suspect he had trouble striking a balance between being perfect and just getting things done.

A bit of name-dropping: in his childhood Kubrick lived about five blocks from where I grew up. (Harrison Avenue between Tremont and Burnside.) I wasn't alive then, but my dad was nearby. (They were born in the same year.) As a teenager, he lived on the Grand Concourse near 196th Street. He graduated from Taft High School, where he met his first wife, and he briefly took courses at City College. However, academic work didn't interest him much, and that didn't seem to slow his career.

 

[KeithD]

Some of you will know that Stanley Kubrick is my favourite director, and John le Carré one of my favourite authors.

Here's a fascinating piece about le Carré novels that might have been filmed, by directors who then did something else.

extract from The Pigeon Tunnel

Ah, someone else as read The Pigeon Tunnel. Can't be many of us who did. It was hard finding a copy,

 

[SimonDoom]

I always admired Kubrick for the variety of his film work. He never did the same thing twice. As much as I love Scorsese's movies, many of his films (not all of course) repeat the same themes (gangsters, mostly).

Sometimes the combination of a great director and great work of literature don't quite work. For instance, I didn't think Scorsese's film interpretation of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence was great. It was not up to his par. Part of the problem was Winona Ryder, whom I thought was miscast and who is not a good period actress.

It would have been interesting to see Kubrick tackle a La Carre book.

I'd like to see a great director tackle Graham Greene's The Power and The Glory. It's a great novel and it could be a great film.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It's behind a paywall, unfortunately.

Not for me, it wasn't. Limited number of free reads, I guess.

 

[ElectricBlue]

One of them was going to be a movie about Napoleon, I believe. He seemed to take longer and longer between each movie. His choice, of course, but I suspect he had trouble striking a balance between being perfect and just getting things done.

His plans for Napoleon got scuppered after Sergei Bondarchuck released Waterloo in 1970.

Kubrick made A Clockwork Orange instead, but many of his ideas came to fruition in Barry Lyndon, released in '75. That was the one where he wrangled one of two low light lenses from NASA, which enabled filming in candlelight. Taschen Books released a Napoleon collection a decade or so ago, with the screenplay and a bunch of archive material (now held in a German film archive). Fascinating stuff, including test shots of military uniforms made from printed paper.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It would have been interesting to see Kubrick tackle a leading Carre book.

Discussions between them were held in the context of Eyes Wide Shut. That's what triggered my post - I'm re-reading The Night Manager, which le Carré published in 1993, and it has the phrase, eyes wide shut. So that's where the movie title came from - the movie was released in 1999.

Kubrick never got to see 2001, sadly. He died a few days after the private screening of EWS, for Cruise and Kidman, in March '99.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Re: paywalls. These could be useful

12ft dot io

Removepaywall dotcom

 

[gunhilltrain]

Not for me, it wasn't. Limited number of free reads, I guess.

I've probably been on that site more often than I realized. Over the course of months, I loose track of where I've been.

 

[gunhilltrain]

His plans for Napoleon got scuppered after Sergei Bondarchuck released Waterloo in 1970.

Kubrick made A Clockwork Orange instead, but many of his ideas came to fruition in Barry Lyndon, released in '75. That was the one where he wrangled one of two low light lenses from NASA, which enabled filming in candlelight. Taschen Books released a Napoleon collection a decade or so ago, with the screenplay and a bunch of archive material (now held in a German film archive). Fascinating stuff, including test shots of military uniforms made from printed paper.

A Clockwork Orange was the first of his movies that I saw. It struck me as very strange then, and it still does. I read the novel somewhere along the way, but it didn't make as big an impact on me. At the time, I assumed Kubrick was British, because I only knew where he lived. When he started out as a photographer, he did much of his work in New York.

https://images-prod.anothermag.com/900/azure/another-prod/370/8/378052.jpg

 

[gunhilltrain]

Now I remember that Look Magazine gave him some of first paid assignments.

https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/stanley-kubrick-photography-mcny

 

[JGittes]

I read somewhere that HBOMax is making Kubrick's Napoleon in a mini-series produced by Spielberg.

My most regretted movie-literature miss is Orson Welles's production of The Heart of Darkness by Conrad. It was supposed to be his first movie for RKO. He was far into pre-production when the studio balked, and he made Citizen Kane instead.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I read somewhere that HBOMax is making Kubrick's Napoleon in a mini-series produced by Spielberg.

My most regretted movie-literature miss is Orson Welles's production of The Heart of Darkness by Conrad. It was supposed to be his first movie for RKO. He was far into pre-production when the studio balked, and he made Citizen Kane instead.

Here is an article about Kubrick's unmade movies, and Spielberg's Napoleon mini-series.

https://collider.com/stanley-kubrick-unmade-movies/

Jack Nicholson as Napoleon? (Kubrick considered him.) I would have liked to see that, although it sounds improbable. Rod Steiger did a plausible job in Waterloo.