INFLUENCES

Alexander Walker, in his book Stanley Kubrick Directs, notes that Kubrick often mentioned Max Ophüls as an influence on his moving camera, especially the tracking shots in Paths of Glory.[ His "fascination with the fluid camera" of Ophuls, writes critic Gene D. Phillips, was also used effectively in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Kubrick described this effect in discussing Ophuls' films le Plaisir and The Earrings of Madam De: "the camera went through every wall and every floor."He once named Ophüls' Le Plaisir his favorite film. However, Ophüls himself derived this technique from his early work as assistant with director Anatole Litvak in the 1930s, whose own cinematography style is described as "replete with the camera trackings, pans and swoops which later became the trademark of Max Ophuls."

Geoffrey Cocks sees the influence of Ophüls as going beyond this to include a sensibility drawn to stories of thwarted love and a preoccupation with predatory men. Critic Robert Kolker sees evident influence of Welles on the same moving camera shots, while biographer Vincent LeBrutto states that Kubrick consciously identified with Welles.LeBrutto sees much influence of Welles' style on Kubrick's The Killing, "the multiple points of view, extreme angles, and deep focus" and on the style of the closing credits of Paths of Glory, and Quentin Curtis in The Daily Telegraph describes Welles as " great influence, in composition and camera movement." One particular film of John Huston, The Asphalt Jungle, sufficiently impressed Kubrick as to persuade him he wanted to cast Sterling Hayden in his first major feature The Killing.
Walker states that Kubrick never acknowledged Fritz Lang as an influence on him, but holds that Lang's interests are analogous to Kubrick's with regard to an interest in myth and "the Teutonic unconscious". Michael Herr's memoir Kubrick states that Kubrick was deeply inspired by G. W. Pabst. In particular Pabst had for several decades also considered adapting Schnitzler's Traumnovelle, the basis of Eyes Wide Shut, although Pabst had been unable to come up with a suitable approach.
As a young man, Kubrick also was fascinated by the films of Russian filmmakers such as Eisenstein and Pudovkin. Kubrick also as a young man read Pudovkin’s seminal theoretical work, Film Technique which argues that editing makes film a unique art form, which needs to be effectively employed to manipulate the medium to its fullest. Kubrick recommended this work to others for years to come. Thomas Nelson describes this book as "the greatest influence of any single written work on the evolution of private aesthetics".
Russian documentary film maker Pavel Klushantsev made a groundbreaking film in the 1950s entitled Road to the Stars, which is believed to have significantly influenced Kubrick's technique in 2001: A Space Odyssey, particularly with regard to its accurate depiction of weightlessness and rotating space station. Indeed Encyclopedia Astronautica describes some scenes from 2001 as a "shot-for-shot duplication of Road to the Stars". Specific comparisons of shots from the two films have been analyzed by filmmaker Alessandro Cima. A 1994 issue of American Cinematographer states "When Stanley Kubrick made 2001: a Space Odyssey in 1968, he claimed to have been first to fly actor/astronauts on wires with the camera on the ground, shooting vertically while the actor's body covered the wires" but observes that Klushantsev had actually preceded him in this.
Kubrick was also a great admirer of the films of Bergman, Vittorio De Sica, Jean Renoir, and Federico Fellini, but the degree of their influence on his own style has not been assessed. In an early interview with Horizon magazine in the late 1950s, Kubrick stated, "I believe Ingmar Bergman, Vittorio De Sica and Federico Fellini are the only three filmmakers in the world who are not just artistic opportunists. By this I mean they don't just sit and wait for a good story to come along and then make it. They have a point of view which is expressed over and over and over again in their films, and they themselves write or have original material written for them."


Late in life, Kubrick became enamored with the works of David Lynch, being particularly fascinated by Lynch's first major film Eraserhead, which he asked cast members of The Shining to watch to establish the mood he wanted to convey.