Biography
Christiane Susanne Harlan was born in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony in 1932, the daughter of two opera singers Fritz Moritz Harlan and his wife Ingeborg (née de Freitas). She was trained as an actress but became better known as an artist. Success in her earlier career as an actress led to her being cast in the film Paths of Glory by Stanley Kubrick, credited as Susanne Christian.
In the final scene of Paths of Glory, the young woman she plays is forced to sing to a rowdy, disillusioned tavern-full of French soldiers. Her rendition of the German folk song (in German) Ein treuer Husar (The Faithful Hussar) slowly wins the hearts of the men who stop their shameless carousing and one-by-one, begin to hum and sing along, many of them shedding tears of sadness and remorse.
She and Kubrick married in 1958 shortly after filming was completed; their marriage lasted until Kubrick's death in 1999 and they produced two daughters, Anya and Vivian. Her eldest daughter, Katherina, was the only child of her first marriage to Werner Bruhns, which ended in 1957. Anya died in 2009 from cancer.
The Kubrick family moved to England in the early 1960s where Christiane continued to paint and exhibit. She became highly accomplished and avidly collected artist with a passion for floral settings and still lifes. Her works were featured in two Stanley Kubrick films.
- In A Clockwork Orange, a large floral oil painting adorns the living room of "Home", the abode of reclusive writer Frank Alexander (Patrick Magee) and his wife (Adrienne Corri) during the famous "Singin' in the Rain" scene.
- In Eyes Wide Shut, Christiane's vivid paintings adorn nearly every wall of Dr. and Mrs. Hartford's (Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman) NY city apartment. A few paintings by her daughter Katherina are also shown. Her paintings are also featured in various rooms of Ziegler's (Sydney Pollack) NYC mansion (billiard room and upstairs bathroom).
Her brother Jan Harlan was executive producer for all of Stanley Kubrick's films from Barry Lyndon (1975) onwards, as well as director of the documentary Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, in which she took full part, following Kubrick's death.
Christiane continues to live in England, where she and her daughter Katharina hold regular painting courses at their home, Childwickbury Manor, in Hertfordshire.
She and her brother Jan Harlan are very active in preservation, exhibit production and publishing related to her husband's life work, including the Taschen mega-book The Stanley Kubrick Archives and the touring major museum exhibit.
In March 2001, Christiane travelled to the Vatican in Rome to screen a newly remastered version of her late husband's 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film was shown at the Vatican on the evening of Thursday 1 March under the aegis of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. In 1996, that Council listed the original Kubrick film among the most important films of the 20th century. The 2001 Vatican screening was also attended by Archbishop John Foley who was then the president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
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