Jan Harlan worked in Frankfurt, Vienna, New York, and Zurich with two companies dealing with business organization before joining Stanley Kubrick in 1969 for his project Napoleon, a film that was unfortunately never made. He stayed with Kubrick, becoming manager of his business affairs and his executive producer in 1973 working for Warner Bros. After Kubrick’s death in 1999, he worked with Steven Spielberg during the pre-production on A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and made the documentary Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures for Warner Bros.
Harlan continues to be involved in the management of the Kubrick estate. Together with the Film Museum in Frankfurt, he initiated a large exhibition on the life and works of Stanley Kubrick that is touring the world. Frankfurt, Berlin, Melbourne, Gent, Zurich were past stations and right now they are enjoying a huge success in Rome. Eventually this splendid display will be merged with the Stanley Kubrick Archive at its permanent home, the University of the Arts in London. He worked with Alison Castle and TASCHEN publishers on a substantial and rather unique book on the work and archive of Stanley Kubrick.
He has produced various bonus materials for Warner Brothers' new Stanley Kubrick DVD collection presently released in the USA and shortly thereafter around the world. His documentary film on Malcolm McDowell, “O Lucky Malcolm,” is an extra on the A Clockwork Orange DVD.
He was kind enough to respond to a few questions about the new set:
What are the origins for the new collection? Was it something Warner Brothers pushed for or was it the Kubrick camp?
The Kubrick family generally supports the wishes of Warner Bros. - they are the main “trustees” for the Kubrick legacy and own the titles of one of the great American artists of his generation.
Was it motivated by the HD format at all?
No doubt the new technology and the fact that more and more people watch films at home has an influence on marketing decisions.
Why does this set not include Dr. Strangelove, Lolita, and Barry Lyndon as previous Kubrick collections did? Are there any plans for new editions of those films to be released?
Dr. Strangelove belongs to Sony/Columbia. I can’t tell you why this is not included this time. This is a commercial and legal issue. I hope that Lolita and Barry Lyndon will come out in the future. These two films have not yet been re-mastered. I just received a unique interview conducted by Michel Ciment with Stanley Kubrick on Barry Lyndon which would be a perfect “bonus” item.
Article comments
1 - DukeDeMondo
Sir Bicho, excellent interview, beautifully written as ever. I'm torn on the matter of Kubrick. Times i think he's grossly overrated, and certainly two of my favorites - Full Metal Jacket and A Clockwork Orange - are really only Half Great films (explicitly in the case of Full Metal Jacket, you can pinpoint the precise moment when it turns from somethin extraordinary to somethin a bit less than that). But then there's Strangelove and The Shining which are, no doubt, flawless from start till end. I dunno. But that has no bearing on this article, which, as i mentioned, is a joy,
2 - El Bicho
Duke, you are too kind.
I know a lot of people only care for the first half of FMJ, and I have seen it more times than I remember, but the second half worked for me, maybe even more than the first, as it examined "The duality of man. The Jungian thing, sir."
With most Stanley's films, I see more in them with each viewing.
Now let's imagine for a moment a world where all films were a bit less than something extraordinary.
3 - Mark Saleski
i would like to point out that i saw A Clockword Orange in the movie theatre on a field trip when i was in 5th grade.
that may explain something about me, though i'm not too sure.