lusted after

Killer's Kiss
$2.99
Made for only $75,000 (more than half of which was borrowed from his uncle), Stanley Kubrick's second film is absolutely astonishing from a visual perspective. There hadn't been anything quite so showy from a young director in America (Kubrick was only 27 when this film was made) since Orson Welles's early films before the war. Kubrick also wrote the story, which is practically nothing -- a washed-up welterweight boxer (Jamie Smith) becomes involved with a dance-hall girl (Irene Kane), whose jealous crooked boss (Frank Silvera) plots revenge -- , and is unnecessarily complicated by flashbacks. But the cinematography is so tremendous as to carry almost all else before it. Kubrick makes remarkable use of shots through windows, of silhouettes, against rear projections, of silhouettes, and of mirror reflections; he seems intent on showing us everything he can do with a movie camera. (There is even a brief dream sequence which makes spectacular use of negative film.) His greatest accomplishments are his shots of New York City, which is depicted on such a massive scale (in Times Square, Pennsylvania Station, and the warehouses along the river) that against it his human players seem trivial and unimportant. There's a famous sequence emphasizing this inhuman scale at the film's end involving a gladiatorial battle to the death with sharp implements between Smith and Silvera in an eerie dusty mannequin storeroom; even more remarkable is Smith's preceding scramble from Silvera and his henchman along the gigantic warehouse rooftops behind which the massive tenements loom impersonally. There has probably never been another film that quite captures how Manhattan can be akin to an entire dreamlike behemoth film set. The actors seem themselves a bit dehumanized by the post-synced sound (Kubrick was unsatisfied with his ability to keep the mikes out of his shots, and so decided to dub in all the sound after the shooting), but the deep-chested pair of Smith and Kane seem perfectly matched. Whatever the film's shortcomings as a piece of storytelling, as a visual experience this film is so stunning as not to be missed.

Killer's Kiss
$9.99
Made for only $75,000 (more than half of which was borrowed from his uncle), Stanley Kubrick's second film is absolutely astonishing from a visual perspective. There hadn't been anything quite so showy from a young director in America (Kubrick was only 27 when this film was made) since Orson Welles's early films before the war. Kubrick also wrote the story, which is practically nothing -- a washed-up welterweight boxer (Jamie Smith) becomes involved with a dance-hall girl (Irene Kane), whose jealous crooked boss (Frank Silvera) plots revenge -- , and is unnecessarily complicated by flashbacks. But the cinematography is so tremendous as to carry almost all else before it. Kubrick makes remarkable use of shots through windows, of silhouettes, against rear projections, of silhouettes, and of mirror reflections; he seems intent on showing us everything he can do with a movie camera. (There is even a brief dream sequence which makes spectacular use of negative film.) His greatest accomplishments are his shots of New York City, which is depicted on such a massive scale (in Times Square, Pennsylvania Station, and the warehouses along the river) that against it his human players seem trivial and unimportant. There's a famous sequence emphasizing this inhuman scale at the film's end involving a gladiatorial battle to the death with sharp implements between Smith and Silvera in an eerie dusty mannequin storeroom; even more remarkable is Smith's preceding scramble from Silvera and his henchman along the gigantic warehouse rooftops behind which the massive tenements loom impersonally. There has probably never been another film that quite captures how Manhattan can be akin to an entire dreamlike behemoth film set. The actors seem themselves a bit dehumanized by the post-synced sound (Kubrick was unsatisfied with his ability to keep the mikes out of his shots, and so decided to dub in all the sound after the shooting), but the deep-chested pair of Smith and Kane seem perfectly matched. Whatever the film's shortcomings as a piece of storytelling, as a visual experience this film is so stunning as not to be missed.