Breathtaking beyond words!

Rating: 10/10 (2 April 1999)

I still have not recovered from the tragic news of Stanley Kubrick's death that came as such a shock to me on the morning of March 8, 1999. I am rarely moved by the passing of a "public figure", but that was an exception. Having been born in 1946, my "coming of age" is intimately associated with Mr. Kubrick's greatest films, "Dr. Strangelove", "2001: A Space Odyssey", and "A Clockwork Orange". It has always seemed something of a miracle (or profound genius) to me that one man, almost single handedly, could have created three of the greatest masterpieces in all of the cinema within a period of less than a decade.
Very, very few films are able to convey an equal or greater visual or emotional impact on successive viewings than they did on first viewing, but each of those films does. The passage of time has not diminished the genius or relevance of any of them in any way whatever; and in many ways, they seem even more relevant - or disturbing - than they did 30 years ago. It sounds like a cliche, but I do believe that I have lived in an era that has produced very few artistic geniuses - the only three that come to mind as having had a profound effect on my intellectual development are Tennessee Williams, Leonard Bernstein, and Stanley Kubrick. I must confess that when I first saw "2001", I was overwhelmed by the "space-time convolution" sequence (for want of a better description) near the end of the film, and I felt then that I did not understand it at all. But that one sequence etched itself into my mind so indelibly that I have been drawn back, again and again, to the film ever since. (In hindsight, I suspect that this was exactly the effect that Mr. Kubrick had in mind from the outset, rather than any specific or "profound" philosophical interpretation of the sequence.) That sequence is one of only three works of art that I can think of that, for me, can conjure up the illusion of a near "out-of-body" experience. (The other two being the final act of "Tristan und Isolde", and the trio from the last act of "Der Rosenkavalier"; all three are creations of almost indescribable audio-visual beauty and perfection.) In summary, good-bye, Mr. Kubrick. We shall all miss your towering, if hidden, presence, but we can take comfort in the knowledge that you have once again set out on your journey to whatever lies "beyond the infinite...."