Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

One of Stanley Kubrick’s favourite films was White Men Can’t Jump

Christopher Hooton
Monday 15 August 2016 16:04 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Stanley Kubrick might be regarded as a visionary, a master, a savant, but he was no elitist.

His favourite films include, yes, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Citizen Cane and Metropolis, but also…1992 basketball comedy White Men Can’t Jump.

The movie forms part of a list compiled by Criterion in 2012 but doing the rounds again this week, and it’s pretty eclectic.

Scraped from interviews with Kubrick’s friends, family and colleagues along with the man himself, it includes (in no particular order): Citizen Kane, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Godfather, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Dog Day Afternoon, Roxie Hart, Hell's Angels, An American Werewolf in London, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Metropolis, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Abigail's Party, Roger & Me and oddly enough Mary Poppins, White Men Can't Jump, Modern Romance and The Jerk.

Kubrick's script will be brought into the screen 16 years after the iconic filmmaker's death
Kubrick's script will be brought into the screen 16 years after the iconic filmmaker's death (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

These can be added to a similar list made by BFI in 2013. Here’s some interesting tidbits from it.

Kubrick on…

Ingmar Bergman

"Your vision of life has moved me deeply, much more deeply than I have ever been moved by any films. I believe you are the greatest film-maker at work today" (from letter sent to Bergman in February 1960)

David Lynch

He apparently showed The Shining cast Eraserhead to “put them in the mood” that he wanted to achieve with the film

Federico Fellini

“I know only La Strada [of Fellini’s films] but that is amply sufficient to see in him the most interesting poetic personality of the Italian cinema.”

Roman Polanski

According to a biographer, Kubrick decided to make The Shining because he though Rosemary’s Baby (Polanski) and The Exorcist (William Friedkin) were brilliant and felt compelled to make a horror of his own.

BFI’s ‘Master List’:

1. Henry V

Laurence Olivier

2. Alexander Nevsky

Sergei Eisenstein

3. Le plaisir

Max Ophuls

3. (tie)

La ronde

Max Ophuls

3. (tie)

The Earrings of Madame de . . .

Max Ophuls

4.

Smiles of a Summer Night

Ingmar Bergman

4. (tie)

Wild Strawberries

Ingmar Bergman

4. (tie)

Cries and Whispers

Ingmar Bergman

5.

Eraserhead

David Lynch

6.

Beauty and the Beast

Jean Cocteau

7.

La strada

Federico Fellini

8.

Children of Paradise

Marcel Carné

8. (tie)

I vitelloni

Federico Fellini

9.

The Spirit of the Beehive

Víctor Erice

10.

If....

Lindsay Anderson

11.

La notte

Michelangelo Antonioni

12.

Rashomon

Akira Kurosawa

12. (tie)

Seven Samurai

Akira Kurosawa

12. (tie)

Throne of Blood

Akira Kurosawa

13.

The Silence of the Lambs

Jonathan Demme

14.

The Battle of Algiers

Gillo Pontecorvo

15.

Harold and Maude

Hal Ashby

16.

Solaris

Andrei Tarkovsky

17.

Closely Watched Trains

Jiří Menzel

18.

The Phantom Carriage

Victor Sjöström

19.

Babette’s Feast

Gabriel Axel

20.

Rosemary’s Baby

Roman Polanski

21.

The Bank Dick

Edward Cline

22.

City Lights

Charles Chaplin

23.

Picnic at Hanging Rock

Peter Weir

24.

Danton

Andrzej Wajda

25.

The Firemen’s Ball

Miloš Forman

26.

The Vanishing

George Sluizer

27.

Blood Wedding

Carlos Saura

28.

Bob le flambeur

Jean-Pierre Melville

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in