First things first, let's all watch Eureka! Entertainment's gorgeous new trailer for their Blu-Ray release of Kubrick's unmitigated masterpiece, Paths of Glory, as part of their Masters of Cinema collection. This new release also includes an audio commentary from film scholar Adrian Martin and video interviews with Kubrick scholar Peter Kramer and filmmaker/comic actor Richard Ayoade for some reason (I mean, I love the guy's work, but what the Hell does he have to do with Paths of Glory?). This edition will be available in stores on September 19... a great excuse to see it again, of for the first time ever.
There's been some pretty intense buzz and hype surrounding the upcoming release of the intellectually ambitious science fiction film Arrival recently, including a lot of insinuation that our man Stanley would definitely have approved of its relatively low-key tone (explosions, if they occur, will not be the film's raison d'etre) and apparent university-level exploration of the potential outer limits of xenolinguistic possibilities. The trailer certainly seems promising, and this article on FilmSchoolRejects.com definitely makes me want to see it. I just hope this doesn't turn out to be another Interstellar or Midnight Special, which were also touted as heirs to the Kubrickean mantle of "serious sci-fi", because if it does... aw, who am I kidding. I'll just wait around for the next pile of cinematic disappointment, I suppose. Good luck, folks!
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Here's a Salt Lake City public radio documentary about Anthony Burgess, his novella A Clockwork Orange, and what Burgess really thought about Kubrick's film version of his work. If you've got 50 minutes to spare, you could definitely do a lot worse. And if you're a high-school student looking for something to rip off for your next English class essay, look no further! Lots of great, stealable insights for you here. Caveat Emptor! Don't do this if you're a first year University student, because you might get expelled for academic fraud! This, friends, is pretty much the only substantive difference between your senior year of high-school and your freshman year in college: accountability.
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In keeping with the "academic" and "Clockwork" themes set up by our previous entry, here's an essay from BirthDeathMovies.com that explores the thorny issue of "maternal unconcern" in Kubrick's Clockwork Orange. Author Mustafa Yasar II's entry in the website's week-long series of essays about Bad Moms is short, punchy, and is a pretty darn convincing take on a largely unexplored aspect of the Kubrick/Burgess classic. Recommended!
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Did you ever here the story about that one time Stanley Kubrick liked Albert Brooks' painfully funny dramedy Modern Romance so much that he called him up out of the blue in order to offer up his compliments? Actually, come to think of it, my description pretty much sums up the entirety of the ridiculous little article linked above. So why not instead read this Esquire interview with Brooks, in which he explains how Stanley Kubrick, in his words, saved his life?
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A band called Biffy Clyro have released a music video for their new song, called "Howl". This DIY Mag article claims that it aims to be "Stanley Kubrick meets David Lynch", and while there are obvious echoes of The Shining, I personally find the music mediocre and feel that the references are more Kubrick-via-American Horror Story than anything, but why not judge for yourself? Here it is.
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Winning this edition of KNIB's "Worst Kubrick Article EVER" Award is this Metro.co.UK listicle which lays out "Nine Things That Wouldn't Exist Without Stanley Kubrick", and ends up including heart-shaped sunglasses (huh?), Heath Ledger's Joker (wha?!), Christopher Nolan's Interstellar (groan...), and a goddamn fucking 30 SECONDS TO MARS video (?!?!?!?). I shit you not, my friends; the fine folks at Metro.co.UK shiver at the possibility of living in a world bereft of Jared Leto's band's Shining-inspired video for their song "The Kill (Bury Me)", even bringing up the possibility that "Jared’s pretty cut up he’ll never be able to work with cinema’s big daddy Kubrick himself." God help us all.
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For the first time ever, this edition of KNIB's "Most Inconsequential Kubrick Article EVER" Award has ended in a tie between this Independent IE article about how "celebrity gardener" Diarmuid Gavin has been selected to design a northern English "Royal Gardens" site in "a Stanley Kubrick Theme", and this Vogue article urging readers to "Revamp Your Summer Look With 15 Sunglasses Inspired By Iconic Kubrick Films"! Eyeglasses Wide Shut, anyone?
It's long been obvious that lovable Mythbusters ginger Adam Savage is a huge Kubrick fanatic. I mean, just check out the loving craftsmanship and exacting - dare we call it Kubrickean? - level of detail that went into his creation of a replica version of The Shining's legendary Hedge Maze... a project Savage took it upon himself to complete, simply because he didn't think the Maze that was part of the touring Kubrick Exhibition was up to snuff!
And when he completed his amazing colossal project, what did he do with it? He donated it to the touring Kubrick Exhibition! Now THAT is some serious fandom, folks. Check out this video for more information about Adam's process, and about that amazing Maze!
So what do you do after you've gone out of your way to make a contribution that improves one of the most widely-praised and well-attended traveling public exhibits ever dedicated to the work and life of a single cinematic auteur? Well, obviously, you make your umpteenth visit to said exhibit, of course! And this time, you bring a couple friends and a video camera with you, so you can document the event for posterity's sake.
We here at Kubrick U would like to salute Adam Savage, Kubrick Superfan SUPREME! If we had the budget to hand out statuettes for this honor, Adam, believe us, you'd be cradling one in your fuzzy ginger arms this very instant! Mazel Tov!
Playing catch-up here at Kubrick U, here's a London Guardian article from July featuring an interview with artist Philip Castle about his awesome airbrush illustrations that featured so prominently in the Clockwork Orange posters and promotional campaign. Castle also painted the Full Metal Jacket poster, and did a bunch more illustrations for that film, but most of it went unused (see above). Not to worry, though... most of it appears in Taschen's absolutely essential Stanley Kubrick Archives, which was recently re-released in a smaller, ridiculously affordable edition! Buy it from this link if you're in Canada, or this link if you're in the USA, and I'll get a few shekels in my beggin' cup!
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Speaking of ACO, the New York Post reports that a galley proof copy of the book Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange featuring hand-written marginalia by Kubrick himself has come up for auction, and lawyers for Kubrick's estate are warning any potential buyers that publishing such an artifact for mass consumption would probably be a very bad idea, lawsuit-wise. The Belfast Telegraph had a more thorough (and timely) report, but I haven't been able to find any news about the auction results. If anybody out there knows anything, clue me in!
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In the inaugural entry of a recent Washington Post series on "all the ways America could come to an end", writer Sonny Bunch examines all the ways that Dr Strangelove scrambled the brains of audiences and more serious-minded critics, alike. It's a short, punchy piece, and my favorite bits are definitely when Bunch quotes clearly upset entertainment industry (key word there) trade columnists, like Bosley Crowther, who said of the film: "Somehow, to me, it isn’t funny. It is malefic and sick." Somebody ought to come up with a word describing when someone simultaneously gets the point, and yet also thoroughly fails to realize that they have gotten it. Leave suggestions for such a word in the comments section, please!
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I don't watch the show, myself, but according to Slate, the final episode of the most recent season of the "autismsploitation" TV series Mr Robot featured an extended "homage" to Stanley Kubrick's films, including Eyes Wide Shut, The Shining, and Dr. Strangelove. This should come as little surprise to the show's fans, as creator Sam Esmail, who claims he used to hold Kubrick movie marathons at his suburban home when he was a teen, declared in an interview with Vulture that “one of the biggest influences on the show is Stanley Kubrick in general.”
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Last but not least comes word that incredibly ballsy Canadian wunderkind Matt Johnson's circuitous moon landing mockumentary-cum-satire Operation Avalanche - filmed under highly illegal circumstances on location at NASA for fuck's sake - is just about ready to invade the hearts and minds of Kubrickophiles, parapolitical paranoids, prank fans and lovers of good, old fashioned conspiracy thrillers the world over. No Moonwalkers, here, folks! You've got to shake that shambling waste of celluloid right out of your ganglia by, first, taking a look at Operation Avalanche's great new trailer...
...and then, viddy this joint Sundance interview with Johnson, his editor and producer, wherein they detail the ridiculous lengths to which they went in order to achieve absolute versimilitude... and maximum cinematic legend status. Much as I hate to admit it about one so young, but this Johnson kid is the real deal, in yer old pal Jerky's opinion. Check out his Kevin Smith-enabled The Dirties for a taste of his raging early potential.
