The Complete Kubrick
Killer's Kiss and Early Works
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Synopsis
A titan of cinema whose influence extends across visual art, philosophy, politics, technology, fashion, and beyond, Stanley Kubrick created an unprecedented string of masterpieces, from Paths of Glory to Dr. Strangelove to 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Eyes Wide Shut. Bending disparate genres to his will, he imbued his creations with a cuttingly ironic worldview and an iconographic, mesmerizingly precise visual style, probing the anxieties, enigmas, and horrors of the twentieth century with a coolly devastating eye. Tracing his evolution from independent maverick to Hollywood rebel to visionary transnational auteur whose every film from the mid-1960s on became a manifesto of a radically new sensibility, The Complete Kubrick brings together the entirety of a body of work that opened popular cinema up to new realms of moral profundity and metaphysical mystery.
Collected here for the first time are Kubrick’s thirteen features and three shorts, all restored in 4K, with their original soundtracks alongside the 5.1 mixes, restored and remastered; over twenty-five hours of interviews, documentaries, and behind-the-scenes materials; and deluxe packaging illustrated with rare photographs, artwork, and documents annotated by Kubrick himself, all housed in a singular box inspired by the director’s legendary archive.
Picture 8/10
Opening their latest director-centric box set, The Complete Kubrick, The Criterion Collection presents five early works from the director, all with Dolby Vision on a triple-layer disc: his first two features, Fear and Desire (the longer premiere version only) and Killer’s Kiss, alongside his three shorts, Day of the Fight (in two versions), Flying Padre, and The Seafarers. All of the films are presented in 2160p/24Hz ultra high-definition at an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 and are sourced from 4K restorations. Killer’s Kiss is sourced primarily from the 35mm original camera negative, with a composite fine-grain filling in where needed. Fear and Desire’s 4K restoration was performed by Kino Lorber and is sourced from the 35mm original camera negative and a fine-grain master preserved by the Library of Congress. The shorts have been restored by The Criterion Collection: Day of the Fight from a 35mm composite positive print and a 35mm duplicate negative; Flying Padre from a 35mm composite positive; and The Seafarers from a 16mm original reversal positive. The set also includes a standard dual-layer Blu-ray featuring the films alongside a handful of video supplements.
The print materials for all of the films can hinder things to a degree, but even then, I thought all five presentations looked very strong, with Killer’s Kiss probably being the best of the lot. Its low-budget origins are still obvious, but the presentation is surprisingly sharp overall, at least where the original photography and elements allow. Film grain is rendered cleanly, and the encode handles it beautifully. The grayscale also looks quite a bit wider compared to the presentation included in Criterion’s edition of The Killing, where Killer’s Kiss appeared as a bonus. A flashback sequence featuring a ballerina’s performance looks especially strong, with the bright stage lights gradually breaking away into the darkness. Even the bright lights of the city exteriors look wonderful, as does the lighting during the boxing match. It’s all very striking and a significant improvement over that old high-def master.
A few minor marks remain, and the transition from the negative to the composite fine-grain is fairly obvious, with grain getting a little heavier and the grayscale a bit narrower. But despite that, the image is incredibly stable on the whole.
Compared to Kino’s release, though, this presentation does look a little different. At first glance, Kino’s does look a little sharper, specifically when it comes to the grain, as it did with The Killing. I also noticed something similar when comparing Criterion’s edition of 12 Angry Men to Kino’s. At first, at least with 12 Angry Men, I had figured some minor filtering had been applied to Criterion’s presentation, though after looking at The Killing, and now Killer’s Kiss, I don’t think that is what is going on. Looking at them more closely, the grain does look a little off on the Kino presentations, almost as though the image has been sharpened, though I ultimately don’t think that is the case either. The encodes just appear to be handling that grain a little differently, with the Kino presentations looking mildly pixelated, whereas the grain in Criterion’s presentations comes off as more organic and natural, not as sharp.
I also think the grayscale is a hair wider on Criterion’s presentation, with the image a bit darker on the whole, which I think also pulls out a little more detail, at least in the close-ups. Both presentations ultimately look fine, but after going back and forth between the two (and then the presentations for The Killing), I’d give Criterion’s the ever-so-slight edge.
Fear and Desire, on the other hand, probably features the weakest presentation of all the films in the set, though I can’t say that’s too big of a shock, and it still looks quite a bit better than I would have expected. I never picked up Kino’s release, having only seen the Masters of Cinema Blu-ray presentation prior to this, and despite any shortcomings, this does deliver a hell of an upgrade over that one. The 4K digital presentation, as one would probably hope, is far stronger than what’s on that Blu-ray and there is a more organic, film-like appearance, with grain rendered cleanly for the most part. Grain can also get a little heavier when jumping to what I assume is the fine-grain source, but even then, it’s rendered nicely. Details are surprisingly strong, and while it can be a hair fuzzy at times, the image is generally sharp and crisp, with textures coming through incredibly well, like the leather jacket worn by one of the primary characters.
Grayscale looks pretty good as well, definitely wider than the Blu-ray’s, and the highlights look cleaner, never clipping out details. HDR plays into this a bit, though I think the grading here is fairly subtle.
The restoration work has also cleaned things up well enough, though quite a bit of damage remains, from scratches and bits of dirt to larger marks. The frame does shift about, too, jumping up and down subtly, which I think leads to some odd effects at times, like a buzzy appearance around tree leaves blowing in the distance for starters. But the strong encode helps mitigate much of this (Kino’s encode was apparently very weak, so I can only assume this all looked much worse).
The shorts were probably the biggest surprise here. All of them have been restored fairly meticulously, and damage is primarily limited to bits of dirt and a few scratches. On the whole, they’re all surprisingly clean. Day of the Fight is presented in two versions: Kubrick’s original and an RKO version used for a television segment. The RKO version adds some material around the main feature, and that material has more of an archival look, but once you get to the meat and potatoes of it, what Kubrick actually directed, it looks nice. The other two are also quite good, with nice detail and particularly sharp colors in The Seafarers (the sole color film on the disc). All three encodes also look very good.
Overall, these five films receive the weakest presentations in the set, though that isn’t too much of a surprise considering the more limited materials available here. That said, they’re still all quite solid and offer sharp improvements over the previous high-def presentations I had seen.
(Screen captures are from Fear and Desire and Killer's Kiss.)
The Complete Kubrick - Screen Captures
Audio 6/10
The two features include lossless PCM monaural soundtracks, while the three shorts are oddly presented in Dolby Digital 1.0 mono.
The shorts come off a little harsher compared to the other films but are generally fine; they’re clean, with decent enough range, and don’t sound as though they’ve been filtered.
Fear and Desire seems to show its age a little more, but on the whole, range can be decent. Dialogue was apparently looped in during post, but it’s clear and easy to hear, and doesn't come off as detached from the feature. Some of the effects, like gunshots, can be a bit harsh.
Killer’s Kiss sounds reasonably good as well. Dialogue sounds fine, and range can be fairly wide. The film’s score can also get a bit harsh in the higher registers, but in general, it’s fine. There’s also no significant damage present.
Extras 4/10
On both the 4K and Blu-ray discs, Killer’s Kiss is presented as the main feature in the menu, with Fear and Desire and the three shorts included under a section called “Early Works.” Supplements are then found on the Blu-ray under the “Supplements” heading.
Special features are pretty sparse for this group of films and easily make up the most disappointing selection in the set. They include a trailer for Killer’s Kiss, along with a 10-minute interview with Geoffrey O’Brien, originally recorded for Criterion’s 2011 Blu-ray of The Killing, which also included Killer’s Kiss as a bonus film. He ultimately provides a defense of the film, even suggesting that its weaknesses are part of its charm, something I do ultimately agree with. He also goes over how it differs from Kubrick’s later work.
Also here is a 13-minute interview with Kubrick’s childhood friend and early collaborator, Alexander Singer. He recalls how he first met Kubrick in school and then talks about how Kubrick came to make Day of the Fight and some of the luck he experienced while filming, including managing to capture the knockout punch despite the odds being against him.
And that’s it. Nothing about the other shorts, and nothing about Fear and Desire. I assume the lack of material around latter is due to Kubrick being dismissive of the film, but more background on its history and his feelings about it is something I would have expected.
Closing
Weakest set of supplements in the set, but the presentations are all very strong.
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