MFA Film Celebrates Stanley Kubrick (Happily Again and Again)

When I was a teenager I remember coming across a movie on a Saturday afternoon that I had never heard of. It was a war film, not my favorite, and it was in black-and-white; but what I saw thrilled me like no other movie I had ever seen before. No doubt its vehement message of injustice served at the hands of corrupt military officials resonated; but what impressed most was the technique: the stark black-and-white photography, the fluid camera movements, the use of close-ups and ferocity of the performances made me realize that movies had a power beyond what I had seen up to that time.

That movie is "Paths of Glory," and the director Stanley Kubrick; and the movie made me realize how an overriding talent can shape its every detail. It was like reading a book by Hemingway, and Kubrick became the first director whose career I followed. I already knew his name having seen (and I'm dating myself now) "Dr. Strangelove" at a drive-in as a drive-in co-feature the summer before. Not long after, I convinced my high school best friend to borrow his mom's car so we could see "2001: A Space Odyssey" in Cinerama, which left me baffled and happily awestruck - what did its mix of monkeys and monoliths mean? By this time Kubrick was a brand, like Hitchcock, and each subsequent release (right up until his death in 1999) was an occasion.

Until the end of the month MFA Film offers its annual festival of Kubrick films, which includes the three aforementioned titles, along with every other feature, save "The Shining," which isn't available at this time for theatrical exhibition.

"There are many reasons to present this retrospective annually," according to the MFA Film's website. "We believe that these films contain a limitless supply of new truths and insights waiting to be unlocked with each new viewing; the experience of watching a Kubrick film is never the same twice. This is true both because the films themselves are so richly laced with meaning, and because there are infinite intellectual positions from which you, the viewer, can choose to approach the films.

"With this in mind, we enlisted our friends and colleagues in the field of film-philosophy to share their thoughts about the existential and epistemological threads in the director's oeuvre. We hope you will enjoy revisiting your favorite Kubrickian masterpiece, and treat yourself to one you have yet to discover.

"All films presented on 35mm film except for "Fear and Desire," which is on BluRay, and "Paths of Glory," which is DCP.

"Note: This year's retrospective will not feature "The Shining" (1980) as the film is unavailable for theatrical exhibition in 2016. We look forward to bringing it back next year.

Below is a list of the films to be seen as the festival continues.

Note: The film's descriptions are from the MFA Film website.

Killer's Kiss (USA, 1955, 65 min.)

New York City boxer Davey Gordon's career is in its final round, his personal life solitary and routine. Hope arrives in the form of Gloria Price, a beautiful dancer who has also unfortunately attracted the romantic attention of her violent boss Vincent. Davey and Gloria find instant romance and redemption in each other, and they make plans to leave the city behind and begin a new life. When Gloria is abducted by Vincent's thugs, their plans are foiled and Davey embarks on a classic film noir investigation searching for her in the dark alleys of New York.

February 11, 8:30 p.m.

The Killing (USA, 1956, 84 min.)

Smooth-talking criminal Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden), fresh from five years in Alcatraz, has learned one thing from doing time: "If you take a chance, be sure the reward's worth the risk." No more small-time jobs for Johnny; instead, he plans a two million dollar racetrack heist requiring immaculately planned choreography between multiple collaborators. All the pieces in place, Kubrick unwinds the scheme by tracing each player's role individually, replacing a straight ahead narrative with chronological jumps and building tension through a series of climaxes that keep reverting to an earlier moment and another point of view.

February 11, 6:30 p.m. & February 12, 8:00 p.m.

Paths of Glory (USA, 1957, 84 min.)

It is 1916 and the Great War has been stalled in the soil for two years. Within the ornate rooms of a palace used as French field headquarters, General Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) informs General Mireau (George Macready) that the troops must storm the "Anthill"-a German stronghold that cannot be conquered without massive casualties. Mireau initially resists, but the order is made sweeter by Broulard's remark that this would win Mireau a promotion, and another star. The rest of the film follows the botched attack and subsequent court martial as three soldiers are tried for cowardice in the face of the enemy, punishable by execution.

February 12, 6:00 p.m. & February 17, 5:00 p.m.

2001: A Space Odyssey (USA/UK, 1968, 161 min.)

An oblique monolith pushes forward life's evolution on earth, each appearance signaling an apotheotic event. Forward to the present day, when a monolith is discovered on the lunar surface; astronauts Dave Bowman and Frank Poole are sent on an exploratory mission to Jupiter to seek its origin. With their onboard supercomputer, HAL 9000, the pair discovers a deeper knowledge of outer space and human existence than they set out to find. They gain an understanding of the position of the human race within the past, present, and future of all living creatures.

February 17, 7:00 p.m. & February 19, 7:00 p.m.

Spartacus (USA, 1960, 196 min.)

Spartacus was conceived as a vehicle for actor Kirk Douglas, whose company produced the film. With an illustrious cast including Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Peter Ustinov, and Jean Simmons, Spartacus centers on a failed slave uprising in the ancient Roman Republic and on Spartacus, the gladiator who was one of its leaders. Stoically fighting against daunting odds and a brutal, vengeful system, Spartacus and the rebel slaves struggle for freedom in a narrative revealing themes of heroism, honor, love, and courage.

February 18, 3:00 p.m. & February 21, 1:30 p.m.

Lolita (1962, UK/US, 152 min)

In this adaptation of the novel by Vladimir Nabokov, a sophisticated Englishman named Humbert Humbert (James Mason) rents a room from the vulgar American Charlotte Haze (Shelly Winters). Charlotte quickly falls for Humbert, but Humbert only has eyes for his landlady's scandalously young daughter, Lolita (Sue Lyon). The pederastic protagonist decides to marry Charlotte in order to be closer to Lolita, becoming her legal guardian.

February 18, 7:00 p.m. & February 20, 11:30 a.m.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (USA/UK, 1964, 95 min.)

Few films have responded to their times as much, or in as unlikely a fashion, as "Dr. Strangelove." Its darkly satirical story turns the fearful days of the Cold War upside down, revealing a dangerously irrational world in the process. The plot revolves around a desperate attempt to prevent World War III when a deranged US general dispatches an American plane to drop nuclear bombs on Moscow. With life on earth in the balance, US leaders try to stop their own bomber before it triggers a deadly Soviet doomsday device.

February 19, 5:00 p.m. & February 21, 11:00 a.m.

Barry Lyndon (UK/USA, 1975, 187 min.)

A work of astounding aesthetic beauty and great moral complexity, Barry Lyndon is perhaps the finest entry in Stanley Kubrick's catalogue. The film's narrative charts the rise and fall - and rise and fall, and so on - of young Irish upstart Redmond Barry (later to become Barry Lyndon of the film's title) as he seeks to secure a place in the English aristocracy. Barry sets out in exile from his small village on a journey that will see him inhabit multiple identities - an English soldier in the 7 Years' War, a Prussian soldier in the same, a games cheat in the wealthiest spas and parlours of Europe, and, finally, a would-be member of the nobility. Chance and fate conspire to offer Barry fortune and misery in equal measure, and he trades one loyalty after another in this beautifully rendered exploration of the contrast between stoic virtue and base opportunism.

February 24, 6:30 p.m. & February 25, 6:30 p.m.

Full Metal Jacket (UK/USA, 1987, 117 min.)

Telling a tragic story of the dehumanizing effects of war on the individual, the film follows the fate of a group of young American Marine Corps recruits preparing to fight in Vietnam. Together in boot camp, they undergo brutal and humiliating training aimed to transform them into killers ready to fight overseas, but when they get to Vietnam, the war reveals itself as a traumatic scene of carnage rather than an opportunity for glory.

February 26, 5:30 p.m. & February 27, 11:30 a.m.

A Clockwork Orange (UK/USA, 1971, 136 min.)

Set in a dystopian Britain of the near future, Kubrick's adaptation of Anthony Burgess's novella focuses on the activities of teenage antihero and narrator Alex and his gang of "droogs." The action opens in the Korova Milk Bar, where the boys drink in preparation for "a bit of the old ultraviolence"-a crime spree that eventually results in Alex's arrest and imprisonment for murder. While in prison, Alex is offered a revolutionary new treatment earning him an early release; his transformation, however, leaves him ill equipped to deal with life in the outside world.

February 26, 8:00 p.m. & February 28, 10:30 a.m.

Eyes Wide Shut (UK/USA, 1999, 159 min.)

At an opulent Christmas party, married couple Bill and Alice (Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman) each have a flirtatious encounter with a stranger (or in Bill's case, a pair of beautiful strangers). Their coquetries spur a marital argument about jealousy and fidelity that leads Alice to confess the longing she once felt for a handsome soldier she glimpsed when vacationing with Bill at the beach. Wounded by the realization that his wife has private fantasies, Bill leaves the domestic warmth of their home looking for revenge. As he wanders through the night he encounters a host of temptations and unusual characters in this shimmering odyssey about the darker side of love.

February 27, 2:00 p.m. & February 28, 1:30 p.m.

For more information, Watch this documentary on the life and career of Stanley Kubrick: