Past Event: From Photography to Film Noir: Stanley Kubrick’s Early Career

Stanley Kubrick, renowned director of such classic films as Dr. Strangelove, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket, actually began his career at just 17 years old as a magazine photographer, not a filmmaker. Drawing inspiration from the nightclubs, street scenes, and sporting events that made up his first assignments, young Kubrick trained his camera on his native city with a sophistication that belied his age. Inspired by our exhibition Through a Different Lens: Stanley Kubrick Photographs, examine two of the first films Kubrick ever made, Day of the Fight (1951, 16 min) and Killer’s Kiss (1955, 67 min), in this screening and talkback. New York magazine film critic Emily Yoshida and co-curators of the exhibition Donald Albrecht and Sean Corcoran will consider the connections between these formative films and Kubrick's early start in photography, as well as the imaginative eye and visual flair that would come to define his later work.  

This program accompanies our exhibition, Through a Different Lens: Stanley Kubrick Photographs (on view through October 28, 2018). To view all of the programs in the series, click here.

About the Films: 
Day of the Fight (Stanley Kubrick, 1951, 16 min)
In his first short documentary film, Kubrick follows Irish-American boxer Walter Cartier on April 17, 1950 as he goes through his daily ritual in preparation for a fight with Bobby James.

Killer’s Kiss (Stanley Kubrick, 1955, 67 min)
In this romantic film noir, Davey Gordon (Jamie Smith), a washed up New York City boxer, falls in love with dancer Gloria Price (Irene Kane) and must embark on a dangerous mission to save her.

About the Speakers:
Donald Albrecht is the Museum’s Curator of Architecture and Design and co-curated our exhibition,Through a Different Lens: Stanley Kubrick Photographs. He has organized numerous exhibitions at the Museum and frequently contributes essays to books about architecture and design. He has written extensively about the relationship between architecture and film.

Sean Corcoran is the Museum’s Curator of Prints and Photography and has organized several recent exhibitions including Through a Different Lens: Stanley Kubrick Photographs, as well as A City Seen: Todd Webb’s Postwar New York, Muslim in New York, In the South Bronx of America: Remembering Mel Rosenthal, and Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse.

Emily Yoshida is a film critic at New York magazine and Vulture. She was previously the entertainment editor at The Verge and a writer for Grantland. Yoshida is also a director and actor whose films include Abigail (2008) and Salad Days (2011). Most recently she wrote and directed the short film Sitting (2017).