Venice Film Festival Reconstructs How Stanley Kubrick’s First Film ‘Fear and Desire’ Screened on the Lido

Description

Research on filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, conducted by Dr James Fenwick, was reported by the Venice Biennale as part of their 90th anniversary. The Biennale reported how James’ research uncovered that Kubrick submitted his first feature film, Fear and Desire, to the Venice Film Festival in 1952 where it screened out of competition in August 1952. The screening of the film, initially titled Shape of Fear, took place at the Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido on August 18, 1952, in a section called Festival of the Scientific Film and Art Documentary.

The subject of the presence of Kubrick’s first film in Venice emerged in the recent monograph by James Fenwick Stanley Kubrick Produces (Rutgers University Press, 2021) based on the documents preserved in the Stanley Kubrick Archives at the London College of Communication.