As the Venice Film Festival prepares to celebrate its 90th anniversary, researchers have reconstructed how Stanley Kubrick’s first film, now known as “Fear and Desire,” came to screen on the Lido in 1952.
The screening of the film, initially titled “Shape of Fear,” took place at the Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido on Aug. 18, 1952, in a section called Festival of the Scientific Film and Art Documentary.
Basically, Kubrick’s debut was invited for a special screening after not making the cut for competition due to “the length and character of the film,” as an exchange of letters between the 23-year-old Kubrick and then Venice chief Antonio Petrucci attests (see below).
The whole story has been reconstructed for the first time in the letters and documents preserved in the archives of the fest’s parent organization, the Venice Biennale, ahead of an international conference celebrating the 90th anniversary of the world’s oldest film festival,...
The screening of the film, initially titled “Shape of Fear,” took place at the Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido on Aug. 18, 1952, in a section called Festival of the Scientific Film and Art Documentary.
Basically, Kubrick’s debut was invited for a special screening after not making the cut for competition due to “the length and character of the film,” as an exchange of letters between the 23-year-old Kubrick and then Venice chief Antonio Petrucci attests (see below).
The whole story has been reconstructed for the first time in the letters and documents preserved in the archives of the fest’s parent organization, the Venice Biennale, ahead of an international conference celebrating the 90th anniversary of the world’s oldest film festival,...
- 6/8/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Virginia Leith, a model and actress who starred in Stanley Kubrick’s debut feature Fear and Desire, has died. She was 94.
She passed away in Palm Springs on November 4 after a brief illness, according to family spokesperson Jane Chalmers.
Leith met Kubrick when he was a photographer and shot her for the cover of Look magazine. Once Kubrick made the transition to film, he cast her in Fear and Desire as a “half-animal” peasant girl captured and eventually killed by a soldier played by Paul Mazursky. The 1953 war film generated lukewarm interest at the box office, and after distributor Joseph Burstyn died, it was taken out of circulation.
Kubrick was no fan of the finished product and was said to have destroyed the original negative. He released a statement through Warner Bros., calling the movie “a bumbling amateur film exercise.”
In 1954 Leith became a contract player for 20th Century Fox...
She passed away in Palm Springs on November 4 after a brief illness, according to family spokesperson Jane Chalmers.
Leith met Kubrick when he was a photographer and shot her for the cover of Look magazine. Once Kubrick made the transition to film, he cast her in Fear and Desire as a “half-animal” peasant girl captured and eventually killed by a soldier played by Paul Mazursky. The 1953 war film generated lukewarm interest at the box office, and after distributor Joseph Burstyn died, it was taken out of circulation.
Kubrick was no fan of the finished product and was said to have destroyed the original negative. He released a statement through Warner Bros., calling the movie “a bumbling amateur film exercise.”
In 1954 Leith became a contract player for 20th Century Fox...
- 11/13/2019
- by Anita Bennett
- Deadline Film + TV
Actress and model Virginia Leith, who starred in Stanley Kubrick’s first film “Fear and Desire,” which he later disavowed, has died. She was 94.
According to family spokesperson Jane Chalmers, Leith died after a brief illness at her home in Palm Springs, Calif. on Nov. 4.
Born on Oct. 15, 1925, Leith met Kubrick in the 1950s when he shot her for the cover of Look magazine.
“Fear and Desire,” which received moderately positive critical reviews upon its release, was not a box office success. After distributor Joseph Burstyn died, the film fell out of circulation and Kubrick is said to have destroyed the original negative and any other prints he could find. Some original prints still exist, however, and Film Forum organized a screening in 1994. Kubrick released a statement through Warner Bros. at the time, calling it “a bumbling amateur film exercise” and urging press not to attend.
Following her appearance in “Fear and Desire,...
According to family spokesperson Jane Chalmers, Leith died after a brief illness at her home in Palm Springs, Calif. on Nov. 4.
Born on Oct. 15, 1925, Leith met Kubrick in the 1950s when he shot her for the cover of Look magazine.
“Fear and Desire,” which received moderately positive critical reviews upon its release, was not a box office success. After distributor Joseph Burstyn died, the film fell out of circulation and Kubrick is said to have destroyed the original negative and any other prints he could find. Some original prints still exist, however, and Film Forum organized a screening in 1994. Kubrick released a statement through Warner Bros. at the time, calling it “a bumbling amateur film exercise” and urging press not to attend.
Following her appearance in “Fear and Desire,...
- 11/13/2019
- by Erin Nyren
- Variety Film + TV
Often we hear stories about directors who think less of their early work, but no filmmaker was more critical of his foray into cinema than the perfectionist otherwise known as Stanley Kubrick. The obsessive director reportedly tried to destroy all copies of his 1953 debut feature, Fear and Desire. The “amateur” film, as Kubrick described it, was almost lost to the cinematic ether when distributor Joseph Burstyn died and Kubrick discouraged any commercial distribution. The rarely screened film underwent a major restoration process and made its television debut in 2011. Kino Video followed up with a DVD and Blu-ray release in 2012. The antiwar drama is now available online, preceded by a brief 1966 interview with Kubrick. Fear and Desire centers on four...
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- 6/2/2014
- by Alison Nastasi
- Movies.com
Stanley Kubrick's debut feature Fear and Desire has been restored for DVD and Blu-ray release. The independent film, remastered by the Library of Congress in conjunction with Kino Lorber, will be commercially available in the UK for the first time courtesy of Eureka Entertainment. First released in 1953, Fear and Desire follows a group of soldiers behind enemy lines in an unnamed conflict. The movie was given a limited release at the time, debuting at the Guild Theater in New York thanks to the efforts of distributor Joseph Burstyn. Ron Benson, managing director of Eureka, said: (more)...
- 9/12/2012
- by By Mark Langshaw
- Digital Spy
Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association--the landmark case that could've changed the way that video games get sold and developed--finally got an opinion handed down today. In the last day of the Supreme Court's current session, the Justices ruled 7-2 in favor of video games, declaring that interactive entertainment should enjoy the same freedom of expression as books, film and other works of cultural production.
The core issue was the supposed danger of video game violence in titles rated Mature. California politician Leland Yee wrote a bill--later signed into law by the Governator-- that would've made the sale or rental of such games illegal in the state. But the Ninth Circuit Court of California struck down the law as unconstitutional, saying that it restricted free speech for video games. Things moved to the Supreme Court last year with arguments made in November. Today's decision marks the probable end of an era...
The core issue was the supposed danger of video game violence in titles rated Mature. California politician Leland Yee wrote a bill--later signed into law by the Governator-- that would've made the sale or rental of such games illegal in the state. But the Ninth Circuit Court of California struck down the law as unconstitutional, saying that it restricted free speech for video games. Things moved to the Supreme Court last year with arguments made in November. Today's decision marks the probable end of an era...
- 6/28/2011
- by Evan Narcisse
- ifc.com
This post will self-destruct in two weeks...well, not exactly, but the videos below will be since Google unceremoniously announced the end of Google Video over the weekend that they are putting a kibosh on the video service as of April 29th that unlike the one they eventually bought, YouTube, allowed users to upload video longer than 10 minutes. This development won't be mourned by many, as the video quality was never that great and since 2009, users lost the ability to upload videos, so it became something of a barren wasteland in terms of content.
However, unrestricted by time and largely ungoverned, the site also became the place on the Internet where cinema's orphans could be widely seen, either because they now belong to the public domain or because issues legal or otherwise have prevented their release through traditional means. Naturally, this meant there was plenty of piracy on the site of more recent films,...
However, unrestricted by time and largely ungoverned, the site also became the place on the Internet where cinema's orphans could be widely seen, either because they now belong to the public domain or because issues legal or otherwise have prevented their release through traditional means. Naturally, this meant there was plenty of piracy on the site of more recent films,...
- 4/18/2011
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
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