PATHS OF GLORY Kubrick screening at FOMO Cinema Tbilisi

Stanley Kubrick | 1957 | USA | 1h28m | Presented in the original English audio with English subtitles

PATHS OF GLORY is one of the fiercest anti-war films ever made. Set during the First World War, it begins with a failed French attack ordered by arrogant superiors, then turns toward the military trial of three soldiers chosen to take the blame for that failure. Kubrick strips the story down to something brutal and clear: war as hierarchy, theatre, vanity and organised sacrifice. Kirk Douglas gives the film its moral centre as Colonel Dax, but the real force of PATHS OF GLORY lies in the coldness with which it shows institutions protecting themselves at the expense of the men beneath them.

Humphrey Cobb’s novel gave Kubrick the story, and he tells it with brutal clarity. The tracking shots through the trenches are now part of cinema history for good reason. They do not merely impress. They place the viewer inside a world of mud, claustrophobia and fatal momentum. The contrast with the chateau interiors is just as important. Kubrick sets privilege and slaughter side by side, and the effect is devastating. The film was also controversial on release and faced bans or delayed distribution in several countries because of its portrait of military leadership, which only confirms how directly it hit its target.

PATHS OF GLORY contains much of what would later define Kubrick’s style, but it also stands apart within his body of work for its anger. There is no grandeur here, no redemptive rhetoric, no romance of combat. The film is interested in power at its most cowardly, and in the obscene distance between those who give orders and those who die obeying them. It remains one of the clearest statements cinema has made about the moral bankruptcy of war, and it does so in under ninety minutes, without a wasted scene.

NOTE: This film is being presented as part of a discounted Kubrick Film Double alongside THE KILLING. For more information please visit this page.

FOOD AND DRINK POLICY: FOMO Cinema Lounge Bar opens 1 hour before the first screening of the day and closes at 02:00,.serving a wide selection of beer, wine, cocktails, and non-alcoholic refreshments including coffee and tea, as well as fresh hot popcorn! Outside food is allowed in the bar but not in the cinema. No alcohol from outside allowed. All guests are invited to arrive early and stay late!

LOCATION: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi. A five minute walk from Liberty Square metro.

HOW TO FIND FOMO: Enter Bazari Orbeliani via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs on your left to Level 1. Signage on the door. You can also check our Instagram story highlights for a video showing exactly how to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17933106294029235/