Christiane Kubrick

Christiane Kubrick (née Harlan; born 10 May 1932) is a German actress, dancer, painter and singer. She was born into a theatrical family, and was the wife of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick from 1958 until his death in 1999.

Life and career

Christiane Susanne Harlan was born in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony in 1932, the daughter of two opera singers Fritz Moritz Harlan and his wife Ingeborg (née de Freitas). She was trained as an actress but became better known as an artist. Success in her earlier career as an actress led to her being cast in the film Paths of Glory by Stanley Kubrick, credited as Susanne Christian.^[1][2]

In the final scene of Paths of Glory, the young woman she plays is forced to sing to a rowdy, disillusioned tavern-full of French soldiers. Her rendition in German of the German folk song Ein treuer Husar (The Faithful Hussar) slowly wins the hearts of the crowd of men who stop their mocking and carousing, and, one by one, begin to hum and sing along, many of them in tears.^[2]

She and Kubrick married in 1958, shortly after filming was completed. Their marriage lasted until Kubrick's death in 1999; they had two daughters, Anya and Vivian. Christiane has an elder daughter, Katherina, the only child of her first marriage to Werner Bruhns, which ended in 1957.^[1] Anya died in 2009 from cancer, aged 50.^[1]

The Kubrick family moved to England in the early 1960s, where Christiane continued to paint and exhibit. She became highly accomplished and avidly collected artist with a passion for floral settings and still lifes. Her works were featured in two Stanley Kubrick films. In A Clockwork Orange (1971), a large floral oil painting adorns the living room of "Home", the abode of reclusive writer Frank Alexander (Patrick Magee) and his wife (Adrienne Corri) during the infamous "Singin' in the Rain" scene.^[1] Nearly thirty years later, in Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Christiane's vivid paintings adorn nearly every wall of Dr. and Mrs. Hartford's (Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman) NY city apartment. A few paintings by her daughter Katherina are also shown. Her paintings are also featured in various rooms of Ziegler's (Sydney Pollack) NYC mansion (in the billiard room and the upstairs bathroom).^[1]

Her brother Jan Harlan was executive producer for all of Stanley Kubrick's films from Barry Lyndon (1975) onwards, as well as, following Kubrick's death, director of the documentary Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, in which she took full part.^[3] Stanley Kubrick had considered making a film about their uncle, Veit Harlan, the German filmmaker who made the antisemitic Jud Süß (1940).^[4] The two siblings are very active in preservation, exhibit production and publishing related to Stanley Kubrick's life and work, including the Taschen mega-book The Stanley Kubrick Archives and the touring major museum exhibit.

Kubrick continued to live in England, where she and her daughter Katharina held regular painting courses at their home, Childwickbury Manor, in Hertfordshire.^[2]

In March 2001, Kubrick traveled to the Vatican in Rome to screen a newly remastered version of her late husband's film, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The film was shown at the Vatican on the evening of Thursday 1 March under the aegis of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. In 1996, that Council listed the Kubrick film among the most important films of the 20th century. The 2001 Vatican screening was also attended by Archbishop John Foley who was then the president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

Filmography

• Paths of Glory (1957)

References

External links

• Official Website
• Interview of Christiane Kubrick in The Guardian, 10 August 2010