Kidman on Kubrick

This is a 19 minute sitdown interview, wherein Nicole Kidman talks about her experiences with Kubrick(R.I.P.). It's part of a series that also includes Tom Cruise and, seemingly most logically, Spielberg. Until watching this, I figured that only the fellow director made sense of the three - the longest and deepest friendship, and clearly another person of high intellect. As for why the Scientologist is a strange choice, one needs look no further, if one even can, than his massive ego(and the inverse proportion it shares with his deeper insights).

However, I have to admit, she fares the best of the three. With no cuts, we follow her go through very different moods - from discussing the craft through a brief recounting of her reaction to his death, both dealt with in unflinching honesty and vulnerable detail. This Movie Star(capitalization intentional) lets her guard down, because of, and to go into detail about, how much Stanley meant to her.

She goes into the initial meeting, the early wracked nerves, the thoroughness he would allow for - time is no an object to him, to his production - to how he treated, and encouraged through actions, the perception of film-making as not a business, but an art-form. All of this of course tethered to their working together on Eyes Wide Shut. Her points about the character she portrays reveals a compelling understanding of it(that she at no point attempts to employ to "score points" with the audience), and provides impetus to take in another viewing.

In short, this accomplishes everything it should.

There is mature thematic content in this. I recommend this to any fan of the masterful director. 8/10