He’s one of the great names in cinema history. Even people who don’t really know what a director does – which is most of us! – have heard of Stanley Kubrick. Even those who turn up their noses at old movies will know some of his films, by reputation if not from experience.

Spartacus… Dr Strangelove… 2001: A Space Odyssey… A Clockwork Orange… The Shining… These are among the monumental milestones in a singular career that lasted nearly fifty years, yet comprised only thirteen completed feature films. But they are also, to mix metaphors, just the tip of the iceberg.

Famously, Kubrick was a control freak who tried to dominate every aspect of his films. Amazingly, the major Hollywood studios he worked with let him do just that. In a business where most directors don’t have right of final cut, Kubrick liked to have final say on everything – and generally got it.

But since his death in 1999, much more has been revealed about the elusive artist’s creative processes. Thanks to his family’s generosity in making his vast collection of papers available for research, the Stanley Kubrick Archives have provided an invaluable resource for scholars. Books about him continue to tumble off the presses – some of them written by researchers at Sheffield Hallam University.

So if you think you know all there is to know about Kubrick – think again! For the Spring Term of Showroom Film Studies, held in conjunction with SHU, we will be looking afresh at the director’s career, reputation and artistic personality, with screenings of four of his lesser-known – but arguably finest – films.

We kick off with The Killing (2 April), the crime thriller that first brought him to critical attention. A racetrack robbery goes wrong – and the results are spectacularly revealed in an innovative story structure. Kubrick’s version of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (16 April) was among the most controversial films of the Sixties, and one of the decade’s most daring literary adaptations.

Few historical films are so meticulous or vivid in their recreation of the past as Barry Lyndon (30 April), based on Thackeray’s eighteenth-century novel. And no picture about the Vietnam War is as incisive or harrowing as Full Metal Jacket (14 May).

Four films, each from a different decade, and each revealing a different facet of the fascinating, maddening filmmaker that was Stanley Kubrick. Join us to find out more, in fortnightly lectures alternating with the features.

Book tickets now: /kubrickfilmstudies