How Stanley Kubrick Utilized Close-Up Shots to Convey Specific Emotions That Otherwise Went Unsaid

Julian Palmer of The Discarded Image examines how legendary director Stanley Kubrick used various closeup techniques in order to convey strong emotions that otherwise went unsaid in the scene. Kubrick is particularly known for a specific type of closeup that offers the audience a view inside the disturbed mind of particular characters.

It’s the infamous Kubrick deranged closeup – his calling card. This particular brand of the closeup gives us a glimpse of humanity’s ugliest states of mind. Through the gaze of these characters the primordial lizard brain has taken over Kubrick often focuses on humanity in groups rather than individuals, whether it’s apes, soldiers, droogs, sex cults. So when he stages a sequence with a solitary close-up on a character or object he forces the viewer to question its significance.

via The Awesomer