Kubrick One-Point Perspective

Kogonada likes to delve into the compositional techniques of the directors he admires, as proven also by his video essay on Wes Anderson’s symmetrical shots. In this short supercut, he takes on Stanley Kubrick.

 

The famously reclusive director liked to use one-point perspective, with the vanishing point positioned in the exact center of the image. In Kubrick’s movies, this compositional strategy takes on an ominous quality: the images are ruthlessly rigid, inescapable and claustrophobic, stable but unsettling at the same time. The powerful music Kogonada chose, stresses the dramatic quality of the shots.