Experimental with a hint of Realism

As a devoted student of narrative filmmaking, I have very little experience with works considered extremely experimental. What I do have some experience with, however, is narrative films that utilize experimental elements to tell their stories.

Recently I have been exploring the works of Stanley Kubrick. I meant to begin this journey sooner, but there were other filmmakers I was more interested in. I have realized now that this decision was a huge mistake, because Kubrick has an interesting way of combining experimental with narrative filmmaking to make something subtly unnerving. In the past two weeks I watch The Shinning and A Clockwork Orange, both of which I found very intriguing. Kubrick has an amazing way of playing with the sound of a world that puts the viewer on edge. And he questions what exactly is real. In The Shinning he explored the limits of the human mind when placed in solitude. In A Clockwork Orange, he created an entirely different world in which things resembled ours, but were slightly askew. Using this world he questioned the idea of forcing a person to lose their own will for the protection of mankind. A Clockwork Orange also utilized sound to unnerve the audience, and used very blunt visuals to make the viewer uncomfortable. For some reason, however, I found myself extremely emotionally attached to the main character, despite his despicable life style, repeated bad decisions, and lack of remorse towards his wrong doings. When he went to jail, before he even wanted to reform, I felt compelled to cry for the loss of his freedom. This to me was the mark of a good filmmaker. Kubrick somehow made me care for this character without doing it in an obvious manner.