Stanley Kubrick was an extremely eccentric guy, and as a director, he was a notorious perfectionist, often shooting over 100 takes of a single shot. Also, there were some weird quirks about his movies. All of his movies had a scene that used a bathroom, he never recorded a film in stereo (he didn't trust it), and in many of his movies, the number "114" was used... as the name of the decoder in "Dr. Strangelove," the "license plate number" of the Jupiter Explorer in "2001," the serum "Alex" is given when undergoing treatment in "A Clockwork Orange," and so on. Does that number represent anything? I have no clue.
Unfortunately, I've never seen his early movies, I've only seen his later movies, the ones that were infamous for their ongoing theme of dehumanization. He was a true auteur with those movies, being director, as well as producer and writer (though most of his movies were adapted from novels). Also, he had what most filmmakers can only dream of. He had final cut. He had some serious clout.
There has been some controversy as to the fate of "Eyes Wide Shut," Stanley Kubrick's final film which is set to be released on July 16. As it turns out, Kubrick had a rough cut of the film screened for Warner Bros., and thankfully, they love it as it is. Not that Tom Cruise would allow them to touch it anyway. He's already gone on record as saying that NO ONE is allowed to make any changes to the movie outside of the small technical ones that are to be handled only by the editor, who knows EXACTLY what Kubrick wanted. And Cruise is one of the most powerful celebrities in Hollywood right now, so I'm more than confident that the "Eyes Wide Shut" that will be released to the masses will be the one that Kubrick wanted.
With the death of Stanley Kubrick, the world has lost one of the
greatest artists to ever walk the earth.
STANLEY KUBRICK'S FILMOGRAPHY