Several years after Christine Kubrick, his sister, introduced them, Jan Harlan formed a lasting collaboration with the director of 2001: A Space Odyssey, a partnership that endured until Kubrick’s death in 1999. Harlan served as executive producer on Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, and Eyes Wide Shut. In essence, his career traces the living history of cinema. He traveled to Sitges to receive a prize he felt he deserved, an Honorary Grand Prize that recognized a lifetime of contribution to the art.
Were you expecting to work in cinema before Kubrick invited you to assist in the pre-production of his ambitious Napoleon project that never fully came together?
No, not at all. I was very happy with my job in New York, working in business planning and data processing. I met him in 1963, and we clicked right away. Classical music was a hobby of mine, something Kubrick shared an interest in. I never imagined working for him, and it hadn’t occurred to me to say anything about it. Five or six years ago, while living in Zurich, he asked me to accompany him to Romania for a year to pursue the Napoleon project.
It appears that the main goal was to mediate for the Ceaușescu regime, and unlike Kubrick, he spoke German.
The plan was to recount the first Italian campaign and the invasion of Russia in 1812, making Romania an ideal shooting location with southern Italian atmosphere and northern mountains. The Ceaușescu regime would provide cavalry, which was useful since such forces were scarce in England. To mount this, a shoot in a communist country seemed necessary. Yet everything collapsed when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer pulled out, leaving Kubrick deeply disappointed. The author admits to a brief period of sadness, nearly two weeks, and a longing to return to life in Zurich or New York.
Despite the setback, the collaboration endured for decades. Do you sense how envious many film buffs are of your position? He watched how cinema history was being written up close.
What I witnessed was a profound amount of pain. Every shoot was a struggle. Kubrick was relentlessly self-critical and meticulous in his choices. He was never fully satisfied with himself.
The first Kubrick project under contract with Warner Bros. was to be Traumnovelle, a project finally realized years later as Eyes Wide Shut. Why did it take so long to realize this vision?
His eyes seemed closed to the project. It was based on a short 1920s novel by Schnitzler, and he wanted to modernize it by moving from Vienna to New York. Time and again he could not find the exact approach he desired. It did not matter who wrote the screenplay; eventually he grasped the central theme: jealousy, a concept that transcends time and space and has always existed and will always exist.
As he explained, the one field where his and others’ knowledge aligned was music. Did you suggest much music in hopes of it shaping future films?
I offered suggestions from time to time, and his reaction varied. I recommended a piece called Piano Trio No. for Barry Lyndon and helped rework and arrange music for the film. He appreciated the Schubert piece named 2, though I approached this as a hobby rather than a formal job.
What about the many theories surrounding The Shining? As a confidant, do you privately know the true reading, or are all interpretations valid?
Kubrick recognized that the movie made little logical sense, and that was part of its allure. A horror film can break rules, and that irregularity helped it become a cult classic despite a lukewarm box-office performance. Forty years later, it remained a misunderstood landmark rather than a blockbuster success starring Jack Nicholson.
You also worked with Steven Spielberg on Artificial Intelligence, an adaptation connected to Kubrick’s aborted project. Many see Spielberg as more distinctly Spielbergian than Kubrick. Do you share that view, or is this really the way Kubrick would have wanted it?
Yes, I agree with that assessment. Stanley believed this is a film Spielberg should have made before him. All characters and creations belonged to Kubrick, including the sentient Teddy bear. Yet Spielberg took the film in his own direction, and the result was strong.
He is now expected to collaborate with Spielberg on a miniseries based on the never-filmed Napoleon script. How is that progressing?
The project remains in development. It is quite intricate, and a director has yet to be secured since Cary Joji Fukunaga left the project. It is unclear what will happen next. Meanwhile, another film about Napoleon is in development at Apple TV+. Napoleon remains a compelling figure, celebrated across Europe for his influence and teachable moments, even as he sparked controversy and revenge as a driving force in his career.