Because I direct films, I have to live in a major English-speaking production center. That narrows it down to three places: Los Angeles, New York and London. I like New York, but it's inferior to London as a production center. Hollywood is best, but I don't like living there.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the challenges of choosing a location for film production based on personal preference and industry standards.
In this quote, Stanley Kubrick reflects on the necessity for filmmakers to reside in major production hubs to effectively direct films. He acknowledges the advantages of Los Angeles as the optimal location for film production, while expressing a personal preference for New York, despite considering London as superior in terms of production facilities. Kubrick's candid thoughts illustrate the tension between professional demands and personal likes.
In practice
In a conversation about the challenges in the film industry, one might quote Kubrick to illustrate the importance of location.
The reality of the final moment, just before shooting [the scene], is so powerful that all previous analysis must yield before the impressions you receive under these circumstances, and unless you use this feedback to your positive advantage, unless you adjust to it, adapt to it and accept the sometimes terrifying weaknesses it can expose, you can never realize the most out of your film.
I've never achieved spectacular success with a film. My reputation has grown slowly. I suppose you could say that I'm a successful filmmaker-in that a number of people speak well of me. But none of my films have received unanimously positive reviews, and none have done blockbuster business.
A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.
The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes.
Anyone who has ever been privileged to direct a film also knows that, although it can be like trying to write 'War and Peace' in a bumper car in an amusement park, when you finally get it right, there are not many joys in life that can equal the feeling.
The essence of dramatic form is to let an idea come over people without it being plainly stated. When you say something directly, it's simply not as potent as it is when you allow people to discover it for themselves.
I like ruins because what remains is not the total design, but the clarity of thought, the naked structure, the spirit of the thing.
Sometimes you stumble across a few chords that put you in a reflective place.
I was drawing a mandolin, and I made the sound hole very small, which made the mandolin look gigantic. I saw that making the details small made the form monumental. So in my figures, the eyes, the mouth are all small, and the exterior form is huge.
Why should a horror film be just a horror film? To me, The Company of Wolves is a fairy tale; it's got all those elements plus a lot more. And we know that fairy tales aren't innocent any more.
The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me.
Labels need to work with artists to help them achieve their best work, not to jam records out that are half-baked or three-quarters baked.
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