The NFB's influence on Kubrick
As summer begins, we invite you to rediscover the full body of work of the legendary Stanley Kubrick on the big screen. From war films to period pieces, from science fiction to horror, from dystopian fiction to satire, the filmmaker transcended genres, delivered one masterpiece after another, and never ceased to innovate. In dialogue with his work, we present two documentaries that inspired him for 2001 and Full Metal Jacket respectively: Universe by Canadian filmmakers Roman Kroitor and Colin Low; and Basic Training by Frederick Wiseman, whose memory we honor following his recent passing.
Arthur Lipsett's first film is an avant-garde blend of photography and sound. It looks behind the business-as-usual face we put on life and shows anxieties we want to forget. It is made of dozens of pictures that seem familiar, with fragments of speech heard in passing and, between times, a voice saying: "very nice, very nice."
A triumph of film art, creating on the screen a vast, awe-inspiring picture of the universe as it would appear to a voyager through space, this film was among the sources used by Stanley Kubrick in his 2001: A Space Odyssey. Realistic animation takes you into far regions of space, beyond the reach of the strongest telescope, past Moon, Sun, and Milky Way into galaxies yet unfathomed.
