Stanley Kubrick is a monument of modern cinema: nobody who has seen a Kubrick movie could remain untouched by the experience. Born in New York in 1928, his first job was as a photographer for Look magazine but he was soon looking to make films. A first feature, Fear and Desire (1953), about a group of soldiers trapped behind enemy lines, was so bad in his eyes that he suppressed it, but the critic Gavin Lambert, whilst agreeing the film was "incredibly awful", also thought the director "incredibly talented." Kirk Douglas was to call Kubrick a "talented shit" after their battles on Spartacus (1960), but Kubrick learned a valuable lesson from these experiences: having talent meant protecting it and allowing it to flourish on its own terms. Join this first leg of an artistic journey undertaken by of one of the most unpredictable, extraordinary explorers the cinema has ever known.
