For those who are not regular readers, I've decide to watch my way through the filmography of the great Stanley Kubrick in an effort to become better acquainted with his work. Seemed like the right thing to do for a self-professed movie geek that, for one reason or another, never got around to seeing most this acclaimed director's films.
You can read my first entry in this project, wherein in explain my rationale behind this whole endeavor, here.
A few days ago, I blogged about Fear and Desire, Kubrick's first film. Today, I will tackle his sophomore effort, Killer's Kiss.
Right out of the gate, the most noticeable thing about this film is the huge improvement it was upon Fear and Desire. Part of that was undoubtedly due to the increased budget, though, like the first film Killer's Kiss was independently financed by loans from Kubrick's family. But, it was clearly more than improved financing.
In Fear and Desire, Kubrick seemed to pay more attention on simply setting up the scenes, focusing more on the interaction of the actors than on the composition of any given shot. There were a few exceptions, of course, but the scenery itself and the specific locales never really came into play. In Killer's Kiss, however, it's easy to see the influence of Kubrick's background as a photographer (prior to beginning his career as a filmmaker, he had gained some prominence as a photographer for Look magazine).
