Richard Ayoade about 'Paths of Glory' (1957)

Interview with filmmaker Richard Ayoade

[obren]

Insightful and beautifully articulated. One of the best analyses I have seen of Kubrick's films.

[auroracastelli]

Such a wonderful, adorable, hilarious and intelligent human being.

[maxevans]

I love seeing people talk about things theyre passionate about god bless !!

[fliegeroh]

I wonder if Paths of Glory worked so well because so many of its actors were actual veterans of war:
Actor, role in Paths of Glory, (branch of service and war)

Kirk Douglas as Colonel Dax, (US Navy World War 2)
Ralph Meeker as Corporal Philippe Paris, (US Navy World War 2)
Adolphe Menjou as Major General Georges Broulard, (US Army World War 1)
Wayne Morris as Lieutenant Roget, (US Navy Fighter Ace World War 2)
Richard Anderson as Major Saint-Auban, (US Army World War 2)
Joe Turkel as Private Pierre Arnaud, (US Army World War 2)
Bert Freed as Staff Sergeant Boulanger, (US Army World War 2)

All of these men carried some real memories of war. And it is ironic that Wayne Morris, a decorated combat fighter pilot in the Pacific, plays a cowardly drunken officer, Lieutenant Roget. Thank you for your service, and a great movie gentlemen.

[sh]

I bet I have watched Paths of Glory a dozen times than this guy but I don't notice what this guy noticed. This is why I am just a movie watcher and he is a critic. Good analysis of a great movie by a wonderful director.

[C.G.Jr.]

It's funny going from seeing Richard in Darkplace being an absolute goof and here he is dissecting Kubrick hahaha. Love this guy, clearly a very smart man - and talented too

[shmekoaltham]

Richard looks like he has been crying. Hearing him describe how emotionally powerful the film is makes me think he was

[gunterangel]

Some further fun facts about this movie:

Kirk Douglas played not only the lead role, but served also as producer of the movie thru his own production company, Bryna-Productions.

The movie was completely shot on a pretty tight budget at the Bavaria Studios, Munich-Geiselgasteig and some nearby surroundings in Germany.

The trenches were built and the battle scenes filmed on a field near Munich-Pullach.

The "New Castle Schleißheim" in Oberschleißheim is the location, where the execution scene was filmed in front of, and also the trial scenes were filmed inside that same castle.

The specialist providing the
(then still solely ) practical pyrotech effects was the famed German FX-man, Karl "Charlie Boom Boom" Baumgartner, who'd provide the pyrotech effects for some thirty years for many international movies, among them
"The Longest Day"
(USA 1962),
"Dunkirk 1940"
( France 1964),
"The Bridge at Remagen"
(USA 1968),
"Waterloo"
( Italy/USSR 1970),
"A Bridge too Far"
(GB 1977),
"Steiner - The Iron Cross"
( Germany 1977) and
"Das Boot"
(Germany 1979/80/81)

The accomplished director of photography of the movie, Georg Krause, was from Germany too.
Shortly before this movie he had also photographed two parts of the classic trilogy of the "o8 / 15" - movies, which were among the first movies made in Germany about WW2 in 1954/55.

To save the production same money ironically all the ( non-speaking ! ) extras playing French soldiers were actually German policemen recruited from the state police of Bavaria, because they got payed by the Bavarian federal state and were by law not allowed to earn some extra money, because, as said, they were state officials.

There really lies some irony in the fact, that all the extras playing French soldiers were actually Germans, doesn't it !? ;)

This was a rather cheap method for the Bavarian goverment to promote the movie production facilities in Munich to foreign producers and attract them to produce their movies there.

The policemen would be sent to the movie set during their official work hours and got paid by the state.

Another advantage of hiring policemen as extras was, that they were naturally used to handle arms, so the production had not to spend considerable time in give unexperienced extras some training lessons in it.

( Five years later another classic American war movie would be produced here as well :
"The Great Escape"
with an all star cast.
And in 1979/80 another classic,
"Das Boot", this time as a complete German production.)

But it is pretty likely, that most of these men had also actually fought as soldiers, the older ones in WW1 ( and maybe they were even forced to fight again in the "Volksturm" during the last months of WW2 ) and the younger men probably in WW2.

So most of the non-speaking extras certainly knew the song and could fully understand the lyrics.
So it was probably no big acting deal for them to tear up, when Christiane Kubrick had sung it in front of them so movingly and in such plain fashion like a German mother from a hundred years ago would have sung it to her little child.

There lies so much "innocence" in the unpretentious way she sings this simple tune, that you can't help but being deeply touched by it.

Kind regards from a classic movie buff from Germany !

[dinertoast]

This is amazing. Just to be able to speak for 20+ minutes on just one director & one film is so awesome to hear.

[willhovell]

Respect for him and his analysis. Had viewed him as a witty moaner in his city breaks.

[Fatherofheroesandheroines]

As a veteran I have always enjoyed this movie. My father and I were both veterans and we watched this together many times. The arrogant officer type here does indeed exist still. So this is still relevant.

[bryankerr]

From listening to this dude talk, you can tell he's a good actor.

[JustSwell]

What a great analysis of Kubrick, his film-making, and Paths of Glory. Sometimes I can go two ways with Kubrick which what makes his films so interesting. The first way, is he is a genius and everything is deliberate and meant for you to analyze. The second is that he was just highly meticulous and everything isn't meant to mean something else. For example, he just likes everything technically proficient and clean, and exposition see is on the nose because of that. But, then I always just go back to genius.

[shawn]

I love the phrase "vanity unraveller". Really rolls off the tongue.

[juanitaonthego]

Anyone else failing at focusing on what he´s saying due to how indescribable cute he is?

[TheSwordofTheGentiles]

He's a genius from Ipswich, one of ya own....clever dude

[Apeksim]

Hey, Dean Lerner has a good taste in movies after all!

[valtokic]

Insight is bad in hellish situations, great for film appreciation though.

I think about Kubrick a lot and this had several insights i haven't heard. Fantastic!

[justaghoulintheworld]

Kubrick was only 29 when this movie released. I was unaware of his work having only known his name from 2001 a space Odyssey a movie considered ahead of its time.

[RomanesEuntDomus]

On an old VHS tape I have "Paths of Glory" paired with Losey's "King and Country". I can't say which is the better movie.