Fear and Desire

Dir. Stanley Kubrick. 1953. 62 mins. 35mm. With Frank Silvera, Paul Mazursky, Kenneth Harp, Steve Coit, Virginia Leith. Kubrick’s first feature was long unavailable to the public before its revival at the 1993 Telluride Film Festival and subsequent restoration in 2010. Begun when Kubrick was just 23, this allegory of war follows four soldiers who capture and torment an innocent peasant girl behind enemy lines. Made for $10,000 raised from friends and family with a script written by high school classmate and future Pulitzer Prize–winner Howard Sackler, this formally and practically inventive film is impressive enough to have earned the admiration of James Agee, even if Kubrick himself would later dismiss it as “amateur.” Preceded by Kubrick’s 1953 documentary short The Seafarers.