The Bronx Kid

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Joe Gelmas (0:31)

What would you ask if you would say we're a reasonable, intelligent human being? Yeah, I've often thought about that. What would you ask you now, in this situation, somebody who basically likes you in terms of coming through the film?

Ben Mankiewicz (0:43)

It's a very interesting question. That's film critic Joe Gelmas interviewing the filmmaker Stanley Kubrick.

Joe Gelmas (0:48)

Do you feel like you're tightening up? No.

Ben Mankiewicz (0:50)

Or at least trying to interview him.

Joe Gelmas (0:52)

If I ask a simple question, you kill it right away by your cautious conservative not wanting to put yourself on a record.

Stanley Kubrick (1:00)

So it's very difficult. I am inhibited by the fact that I feel that to discuss something that has come out, you know, that works, brings it down somehow.

Ben Mankiewicz (1:10)

Gelmas recorded this interview in 1972 at Stanley's home in England. This interview has never been heard by the public.

Joe Gelmas (1:17)

Okay, well, then, just get it.

Stanley Kubrick (1:18)

I mean.

Weegee (1:19)

I'll keep asking simple questions by the point that I run out of it.

Joe Gelmas (1:22)

Okay. I'm not trying to be difficult.

Stanley Kubrick (1:24)

Yeah, I'm not on that.

Joe Gelmas (1:25)

Okay.

Ben Mankiewicz (1:27)

I believe Stanley when he says he wasn't trying to be difficult, because the truth is, Stanley Kubrick didn't like talking about his movies.

When this interview was recorded, Stanley was on his way to legendary status. He'd made the killing.

SPEAKER_3 (1:43)

You like money. You got a great big dollar sign there where most women ever hired.

Ben Mankiewicz (1:47)

Paths of Glory.

SPEAKER_7 (1:48)

If a commanding officer lacks confidence, what can we expect of his men?

SPEAKER_8 (1:51)

We'll take the Ant Hill.

Ben Mankiewicz (1:53)

Spartacus.

SPEAKER_9 (1:54)

I'm Spartacus. I'm Spartacus.

Ben Mankiewicz (1:56)

Lolita.

SPEAKER_10 (1:57)

Do you know a girl called Lolita?

Ben Mankiewicz (1:58)

And Dr. Strangelove. He'd changed the landscape of movies with 2001 A Space Odyssey.

SPEAKER_8 (2:07)

Open the party doors, please.

SPEAKER_11 (2:09)

I'm sorry, Dave.

SPEAKER_12 (2:10)

I'm afraid I can't do that.

Ben Mankiewicz (2:12)

He was getting ready for the worldwide release of his next film, A Clockwork Orange.

Alexander Singer (2:17)

This is some new form of torture!

Ben Mankiewicz (2:20)

In his future were movies like The Shining, Here's Johnny!

Stanley Kubrick (2:24)

You got a war face?

Ben Mankiewicz (2:25)

Full Metal Jacket, and Eyes Wide Shut.

SPEAKER_15 (2:28)

If you men only knew.

Joe Gelmas (2:33)

I knew you were going to do this. You were going to start asking me questions. That's why I should not have ever mentioned that we were...

Ben Mankiewicz (2:37)

You can't blame Joe Gelmas for trying to figure out Stanley's secret sauce. The two of them, film critic and filmmaker, kept hashing it out during the interview.

At one point, Stanley's daughter interrupts with a crisis involving one of Stanley's lifelong obsessions, his pets.

Sean Corcoran (2:56)

Come in.

Stanley Kubrick (2:59)

We have a problem with two male cats who fight. Well, they're both inducted, and we're waiting for the effect to happen. We've locked one up every other day in the room, and the other one is free.

They don't think he might have. They just sleep.

Ben Mankiewicz (3:15)

They eventually get back to the interview. After rephrasing the question many times, Yelma simply asked Stanley to lay out the steps of making a great movie.

Stanley Kubrick (3:26)

I mean, it's a little bit like saying, the way you score a touchdown is you have to get through the line, get past the secondary, get past the safety, make sure nobody catches everything, make sure you don't fall down. I mean, it has about that much relevance. It's true.

Ben Mankiewicz (3:40)

I feel for Joe Gelmas. He wants to know how Stanley makes his art. It's what we all want to know, but it's a lost cause.

Stanley Kubrick (3:49)

How you do it is hard to really, you know, how does somebody write a story like that? I mean, a great story is really like a miracle. I mean, a story that has narrative power, ideas, characters, doesn't give up, is satisfying finally in the end. I don't know how anybody writes a story like that. And I think, you know, in a more modest sense, I would say the same thing is true of making a film.