Fear and Desire
Stanley Kubrick, 1952, 72 min

“In this existential drama – which has the feeling of a waking dream rather than a conventional war film – four soldiers return to their senses after crash-landing in a forest behind enemy lines. Blindly navigating their way back to their unit, they attack an isolated cabin occupied by enemy soldiers, then apprehend a peasant woman (Virginia Leith) who is tormented by the deranged young soldier assigned to guard her (Paul Mazursky). On the verge of freedom, they discover an outpost of enemy officers and must decide whether to slip silently past or stage a violent confrontation with their doppelgängers. For decades, the 62 minute version was all that existed of Fear and Desire, which a still dissatisfied Kubrick withheld from release throughout his lifetime. (...) Now, seven decades later, audiences can finally see Fear and Desire as it was first released and witness the first awkward blossoming of a 23-year old Stanley Kubrick’s cinematic genius.” – Bret Wood

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Never on Sunday is a series of screenings of rare classics, archive masterpieces, obscure delights and forgotten gems carefully curated and introduced by Ehsan Khoshbakht and taking place the last Sunday of each month at Close-Up.