Editing Stanley Kubrick (section)

=== Writing and staging scenes ===
[[File:Tunnel Arancia Meccancia.jpg|thumb|The tunnel used in the making of ''A Clockwork Orange'']]
Film author Patrick Webster considers Kubrick's methods of writing and developing scenes to fit with the classical [[auteur theory]] of directing, allowing collaboration and improvisation with the actors during filming.{{sfn|Webster|2010|p=68}} Malcolm McDowell recalled Kubrick's collaborative emphasis during their discussions and his willingness to allow him to improvise a scene, stating that "there was a script and we followed it, but when it didn't work he knew it, and we had to keep rehearsing endlessly until we were bored with it".{{sfn|Baxter|1997|p=68}}
Once Kubrick was confident in the overall staging of a scene, and felt the actors were prepared, he would then develop the visual aspects, including camera and lighting placement. Walker believes that Kubrick was one of "very few film directors competent to instruct their lighting photographers in the precise effect they want".{{sfn|Walker|1972|p=26}} Baxter believes that Kubrick was heavily influenced by his ancestry and always possessed a European perspective to filmmaking, particularly the Austro-Hungarian empire and his admiration for Max Ophuls and [[Richard Strauss]].{{sfn|Baxter|1997|p=13}}

[[Gilbert Adair]], writing in a review for ''Full Metal Jacket'', commented that "Kubrick's approach to language has always been of a reductive and uncompromisingly deterministic nature. He appears to view it as the exclusive product of environmental conditioning, only very marginally influenced by concepts of subjectivity and interiority, by all whims, shades and modulations of personal expression".{{Sfn|Duncan|2003|pp=12–3}} Johnson notes that although Kubrick was a "visual filmmaker", he also loved words and was like a writer in his approach, very sensitive to the story itself, which he found unique.{{sfn|Ciment|1980|p=295}} Before shooting began, Kubrick tried to have the script as complete as possible, but still allowed himself enough space to make changes during the filming, finding it "more profitable to avoid locking up any ideas about staging or camera or even dialogue prior to rehearsals" as he put it.{{sfn|Walker|1972|p=26}} Kubrick told Robert Emmett Ginna: "I think you have to view the entire problem of putting the story you want to tell up there on that light square. It begins with the selection of the property; it continues through the creation of the story, the sets, the costumes, the photography and the acting. And when the picture is shot, it's only partially finished. I think the cutting is just a continuation of directing a movie. I think the use of music effects, opticals and finally main titles are all part of telling the story. And I think the fragmentation of these jobs, by different people, is a very bad thing".{{sfn|Duncan|2003|p=145}} Kubrick also said: "I think that the best plot is no apparent plot. I like a slow start, the start that gets under the audience's skin and involves them so that they can appreciate grace notes and soft tones and don't have to be pounded over the head with plot points and suspense tools."{{sfn|Duncan|2003|p=157}}

In terms of Kubrick's screenwriting and narratives, posthumous analysis of his films often highlight a pervasive "misanthropy", an unsentimental style, and being less interested in the specific emotions or personality traits of his characters.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Emerson |first=Jim |title=Stanley Kubrick hates you {{!}} Scanners {{!}} Roger Ebert |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/scanners/stanley-kubrick-hates-you |access-date=May 13, 2023 |website=www.rogerebert.com/ |language=en |archive-date=May 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230514000021/https://www.rogerebert.com/scanners/stanley-kubrick-hates-you |url-status=live }}</ref> Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino describes the manner in which Kubrick writes characters and films as "cold" and detached.<ref>{{Cite news |last=MacFarquhar |first=Larissa |date=October 12, 2003 |title=The Movie Lover |language=en-US |work=The New Yorker |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/10/20/the-movie-lover |access-date=December 4, 2023 |issn=0028-792X |archive-date=September 1, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220901051128/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/10/20/the-movie-lover |url-status=live}}</ref>