Our good friend Anton Halldin, from Gothenburg, Sweden, the man behind the epic work of obsessive Kubrickean analysis known as Space5001Odyssey.com, has been kind enough to send along his latest creative work.
2001: A Space Odyssey is a Hall of Mirrors is a hypnotic video essay in which he posits that Stanley's well-known penchant for symmetry and matching shots is far more than a mere stylistic conceit, and that a more accurate cataloging of all the instances in which he uses his mirroring techniques could possibly lead to a better understanding of the myriad mysteries contained within his films... 2001 in particular, of course. Enjoy!
Oh dear God, this work of art, in which a movie camera is shown in cutaway with the interior full of movie scenes (including multiple Kubrick films), is beautiful. And what makes it even better is the fact that the camera in question is an Arriflex 35 IIC, one of Kubrick's favorite cameras, and the one he used extensively, hand-held, for Clockwork Orange. If I had walls worthy of this masterpiece, I'd scarf it up in a heartbeat.
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Music and art act Tom and Hebron have put together a tribute song/video to celebrate the half century anniversary of the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's gorgeous. Enjoy!
Steven Spielberg once told an incredible anecdote about visiting Stanley Kubrick in post production. They way Spielberg told it, he once asked Kubrick why he was looking at the same shot on eight different monitors. Kubrick explained that they were actually eight very slightly different takes and proceeded to explain the minor differences between each take. As a viewer, Spielberg- a clear master of profession as well- simply wasn’t looking for the same thing out of the image as Kubrick, who was attempting to perfect his vision, so the subtleties were lost on Spielberg as a viewer because all of the shots were likely near-perfect.
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Click HERE if you'd like to know what Christopher Nolan would ask Stanley Kubrick if he had the chance to ask him only one question. Actually... never mind, I'll just tell you. Actually... never mind. I'll just let HIM tell you. Check out the video beneath to find out.
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Should I even bother mentioning that a director has been chosen for the "sequel" to The Shining, called Doctor Sleep? I mean, it's going to be a sequel to the novel (and, one assumes, the absolutely dire Stephen King TV miniseries), and NOT to Kubrick's masterpiece distillation/re-imagining of King's novel. So this will probably be the last time I mention it, unless director Mike Flanagan (who admittedly did a very good job with King's Gerald's Game for Netflix last year) says something stupid about Kubrick's film.
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People are calling this ad for a doubled-up Christmas sweater "Kubrick-esque". Aside from the Shining Twins (and Kubrick's obsession with doubling in general), and the slow zoom and the perfect symmetry of the shots and the willful breaking of the 180% rule... can't say's I see it!
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Noel Vera has cooked up one of the more intriguing critical appraisals of Kubrick (and Nabokov)'s Lolita that I've ever read. It's well worth your time. And then, when you're done reading that, why not move on to this Conversation article by Margaret Leclere, in which she argues that it's time for Nabokov's legendarily huge and "unfilmable" screenplay got its due. Personally, I'd love to see it come out in book version, at least, and have always said so. Filming it, I imagine, would be an incredibly difficult proposition. But it sure would be interesting!
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J.M. Tyree's appreciation of one of Kubrick's finest transition moments - maybe even his second best after the bone-into-satellite transition from 2001 - is a fun and insightful read that has enhanced my own appreciation for said moment. Can you guess which transition it might be? Click through for a pleasant surprise, and a damn fine piece of writing!
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Say hello to the newly-discovered Dendropsophus kubricki, aka Kubrick's Tree Frog! Why Kubrick, you ask? Well, it's probably got something to do with the distinct coloration of the markings on its body, and also with Anthony Burgess once explaining the title of his novel A Clockwork Orange by saying: "I've implied the junction of the organic, the lively, the sweet - in other words, life, the orange - and the mechanical, the cold, the disciplined." You can find out more, HERE.
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As a former member of my own alma mater's college paper, it's always a nice for me to run across some quality, punchy writing in a current student newspaper. And this delight is only compounded when that writing is about a subject so dear to my own heart as the works of Stanley Kubrick. So check out Ryan Suppe's funny love letter to his cinematic crush (weren't we all there at some point), titled Kubrick: Criticizing the Greedy, Rich and Powerful Through Art.
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The great Jordan Peele explains how he snuck a Kubrick reference into his excellent, Oscar-nominated film, Get Out.
Well, this is an interesting project. The Bartlett School of Architecture's Interactive Architecture lab has put together a multifaceted project called Neural Kubrick, which kind of like... well... here, I'll let them explain it:
Stanley Kubrick in 1968 speculated on the arrival of human-level Artificial Intelligence in “2001 A Space Odyssey”. Some 16 years past his prediction, our project “Neural Kubrick” examines the state of the art in Machine Learning, using the latest in “Deep Neural Network” techniques to reinterpret and redirect Kubrick’s own films. Three machine learning algorithms take respective roles in our AI film crew; Art Director, Film Editor and Director of Photography.
The outlook of the project is an artist-machine collaboration. The limitations of the machine are achieved by the artist and the limitations of the artist are achieved by the algorithm. In the context of the project, what the machine interprets is limited to either numbers, classification of features or generation of abstract images. This output is curated by us into a coherent narrative, translated back into human perception.
The project is based on Stanley Kubrick’s movies as input for three machine learning models, namely The Shining, A Clockwork Orange and 2001 A Space Odyssey. The generated videos display a machinic interpretation of the three movies, through a collaborative effort between the artist and the algorithm.
Simple enough, right? No? Okay, maybe this "introduction video" will clear things up.
Once you're done checking out the above article, you should also give this awesome audio retrospective on the Task&Purpose podcast a listen. Entitled "To the Everlasting Glory of Full Metal Jacket", this podcast is created by, and geared towards, veterans and currently serving members of the American military, which makes for a great perspective on this cinematic masterpiece.
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And finally re: FMJ, check out this Collider article in which Matthew Modine discusses two major scenes that were cut from the final version of the film, and this CinemaBlend article about a scene inspired by R.Lee Ermey's dirty poetry. Combine all of this with a fresh viewing of the flick, and you will have properly celebrated the 30th anniversary of Kubrick's most underrated flick, the immortal Full Metal Jacket.
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Here's a funny little thing to watch...
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In this Movie Pilot overview, Eric Hanson explores Kubrick's oeuvre in terms of his accomplishments as a translator of literature into cinema, and the various conflicts and controversies that have arisen from his relationships with many of the authors whose work he has adapted. This piece is, unfortunately, short and insubstantial. Hanson doesn't even address the extremely interesting history of Kubrick's relationships with Calder Willingham, Jim Thompson, Vladimir Nabokov, or Gustav Hasford! So please don't mistake me linking to this article as giving it my seal of approval. I do NOT. However, it does point future article writers towards what I believe could be a very intriguing topic for exploration. Who knows? I might just write such an article myself for this blog.
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This little video tells the viewer how to use (and get away with breaking) the 180 degrees rule.
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You know, when it comes to oddball ways directors have scraped together money for their projects, Kubrick hustling chess games to scam unwitting potzers out of their pocket change barely even qualifies, especially when compared with what Robert Rodriguez did to finance his films. But hey, it's Kubrick, so I suppose he makes the above-linked list based the quality of his oeuvre and the pull that the authors suspected including him would have on movie geeks, in terms of getting eyeballs directed towards their article. I guess their scam worked, seeing as they got my attention.
The American director had set up accounts, transferred funds, organised visas and investigated film projects in anticipation of his move.
However, he cancelled when he discovered he would have to share a bathroom on the ship that would take him to Australia.
“Famous for not flying, Stanley had bought tickets for the ocean liner. But when he found out he would have to share a bathroom the trip was off,” says Broderick.
“The idea of spending months at sea sharing toilet space with complete strangers was intolerable; he would much rather face thermonuclear war.”
You know what, folks? If you don't think this qualifies as classic, Strangelove-level comedy in a Kubrick vein all on its own, I don't know what to tell you.
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Speaking of interesting books, Robert Koller's The Extraordinary Image: Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and the Reimagining of Cinema explores the obsessions of Hitchcock, Kubrick, and Welles, based on the ways in which they expanded the use of sound in cinema. Based on this lengthy, academically rigorous review, it looks very much worth checking out.
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Apparently, people are saying The Weekend's latest video, for a song called "Secrets", was influenced or inspired by Kubrick in some way. I'm not so sure about that, but you can be the judge. Here's the vid:
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Illustrator Brian Sanders offers a rare glimpse into Stanley Kubrick's creative process. Here's an example of the kind of illustrations you'll find at this link.
Artist Murat Palta has created a fantastic series of works in which he juxtaposes a famous scene from a well-known film with the style of an “Ottoman miniature” painting. The results may alter a viewer’s perception of said films as Palta’s subjects wear expressionless faces in his paintings—despite (for the most part) being stuck in the midst of all kinds of fictional chaos and mayhem.
Hailing from Turkey, Palta’s first cinematic/Ottoman mashup from 2011 combined characters and scenes from Star Wars and received so much attention that he decided to take on a few other memorable movie scenes. Such as the bloodbath at the House of Blue Leaves in Kill Bill, Jack Nicholson’s door-smashing mental breakdown in The Shining and a scene from A Clockwork Orange where the Droogs and Alex DeLarge (played by Malcolm McDowell) put the boot in on a homeless man just for, ahem, kicks.
I think it’s a pretty safe bet that you’re going to dig Palta’s paintings as much as I did. You can also view them in more detail over at Palta’s “Classic Movies in Minature Style” page on Behance. That said, some might be considered slightly NSFW.
There are EIGHT DAYS LEFT to help Noodles Studio achieve their dream of bringing to market their beautifully animated adult-oriented space comedy series BLACK HOLES, which is the story of a Mars-bound astronaut teamed up with a sentient melon who drives him to the brink of insanity.
With a goal of $100,000, they're close to getting there, with nearly $80,000 already pledged! And with Kubrick references aplenty, I figure there should be at least a few fans of Stanley's work who would be willing to pony up a couple bucks to see this thing come to fruition (no pun intended)... and to score the nifty rewards!
Here's a 12 minute Proof of Concept video to whet the appetite, where the animators show off their substantial chops:
Tell you what... if I hadn't already exhausted my monthly Kickstarter budget, I'd be all over this one like stink on dookie. Some of the rewards are downright fantastic. And I'm not being paid to write this, nor do I know the people involved. I'm just impressed and delighted by the results of their obviously deep obsession with artistic perfection.
So come on, my fellow Kubrick nuts! Click on over to Kickstarter and check out this delightful little confection that I'm pretty sure would have put a big ol' smile on Stanley's face. And while you're there, if the spirit (or the promise of a beautiful 3D-printed character sculpt) should move you... help them reach their goal!
On September 11 of 2014, I wrote this blog post in appreciation of beloved London hairdresser Leonard Lewis, more fondly remembered by we Kubrick fans as the subject for that most memorable of movie title cards: "Hair by Leonard". Just this week, the legendary stylist who coiffed everyone from Twiggy to the Beatles has passed on. He was 78... and no doubt fabulous to the last.
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Here's a video of some bunnies re-creating Clockwork Orange in under a minute's time. They manage to get a surprising amount in there!
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In Eastern University's The Waltonian, Billy Faulkner has penned an essay on "Mental Illness and the Arts: The Case of Shelley Duvall". Being the work of a student, it is short on substance and packed with factual errors (check out how badly Faulkner messes up the context of the shooting schedule for The Shining), but hey... it's short, so why not read it?
Watch this Hollywood Reporter video to see Manchester by the Sea director Kenneth Lonergan talk about Kubrick's influence on his work. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/as-ways-make-a-film-as-are-films-says-manchester-by-sea-writer-director-kenneth-lonergan-writer
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Looks like the mega-budget science fiction wannabe epic Passengers is more Interstellar than Arrival when it comes to living up to the promise of 2001: A Space Odyssey. At least, that's what the critics seem to be saying. I'm still kind of curious about it.
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And let's finish off this edition of Kubrick News In Brief (the KNIBs!) with yet another gorgeous piece of Shining artwork... and what do you know! Once again, we're bringing you the work of Michael Whaite! This guy is a next level illustrator, an Omega Mutant artistic talent.
As they say in France, "les gouts ne se discutent pas" (which is a polite way of saying there's no accounting for people's taste), but this "mixed universe" painting by Clinton Neuhaus that combines tropes from Kubrick's The Shining with Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist is kind of incredible, and probably not in the ways that the artist intended. But hey... you can be the judge of that. Here it is, in all its ghastly glory.
A blurb from Kubrick (as well as one from Martin Scorsese) appears near the start of this absolutely stunning trailer for the digitally remastered version of Abel Gance's silent masterpiece, Napoleon. Now, I realize that Kubrick also famously declared the film to be "really terrible" and "a crude motion picture" as far as story goes, but I suspect that might have had more to do with his own pet obsession, still a distinct possibility at the time of his being quoted, of bringing the Great Corsican's life to the screen. I can't imagine any fan of cinema finding the above trailer anything less than astonishingly good. That bit when "La Marseillaise" begins to play... shivers.
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If a review of Kubrick's version of The Shining begins: "Everyone remembers their first Stephen King experience. Mine was hunkering down in a corner of the basement of an empty house, feverishly turning the pages of The Shining", you can be pretty sure that review is going to have a title not unlike "The Shining Has Lost Its Shine - Kubrick Was Slumming in a Genre He Despised". And you can also pretty much guarantee it's going to be utter shit, just like this Guardian retro review by Anne Billson.
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Our next offering is entitled 2001: A Hate Odyssey, but don't worry; unlike the previous entry, above, this one doesn't feature the blinkered opinions of a cinematic philistine cracking her swinish teeth upon the pearls cast before her (Anne Billson can fuck right off). Instead, this essay by author and computational biologist John C. Wathey - written in early September of this year - mixes up a heady cocktail of social observation, historical analysis, religious criticism, and cinematic appreciation. It begins:
On this fifteenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we remember the innocents murdered that day, the courage of police and firefighters, the deliberately shocking brutality of the act, and the wounded lives left in its wake. Osama bin Laden is dead, but Islamist terrorism lives on, the Middle East has descended into seemingly unending war and chaos, and a toxic mix of religion and tribalism fans the flames. We feel the heat even in America, where religious and racial xenophobia fuel the candidacy of an authoritarian demagogue.
We have plenty to mourn, but this eulogy is for something else that died on 9/11. It may seem trivial at first, especially against the backdrop of the lives lost on that day, but this is a different kind of loss. It was an alternate version of the year 2001, and a piece of our American spirit, of our genius and hope, died with it on 9/11. For me it lives on in a memory of another fifteenth anniversary.
I was fifteen years old when I first saw Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968...
I realize it's a lot to ask from some of you to read something that was published in The Huffington Post, but why not go ahead and make an exception this one time? It's a really good essay!
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The Cinematheque series entitled This is Going to Hurt - A Cinema of Cruelty has come and gone already, closing its doors at the end of September, but the commercial they put together for it is so beautiful, and features images from so many of my favorite movies - both Kubrick and non - that I wanted to share it here with all of y'all. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
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In an OuterPlaces.com article covering a recent Reddit "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) session by special effects legend Colin Cantwell, the following response is quoted:
I had great relationships with everyone. But Stanley kubrick and I became friends. I used to go to his house at midnight and discuss events related to the film over turkey sandwiches. This evolved into a discussion after he had fired his fourth composer. At that time I suggested that he use many of the pieces of music that became part of the movie 2001 Space Odyssey. This includes the now well known theme song.
Is Cantwell really taking credit for Kubrick's decision to abandon Alex North's completed score and go with the temporary tracks instead? If he really is the one who came up with this idea, this is the first I've heard of it.
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Australian psychedelic rock band Tame Impala's new video is visually stunning, thanks to an assist from our man Stan in the form of tons of footage from his most iconic film. Watch it here and see for yourself how it all works out.
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And finally for this update, this Kubrick mini-biography for the Daily Star Weekend website is pretty skimpy and slapdash, but it does have one thing to recommend it... this nifty sketch of our man Stan by artist Yafiz Siddiqui. It was new to me, and I'll wager it was new to you, too!
Julienne Davis, the actress who played doomed model and cult ritual participant Mandy Curran in Eyes Wide Shut, has penned an interesting essay about the perils and pitfalls of instant infamy for Heat Street. It begins:
At the height of my so-called “fame” I remember a conversation I had at a party I had with one of London’s top paparazzi photographers. He and others had taken many pictures of me which had featured in leading British publications and whatever foreign publication they could tout pictures to increase their cash flow via syndication.I said to him, “Thank you for not following me to my flat or camping outside my door – that scenario must be awful for some celebs.” His response? “Well you haven’t done anything bad yet…”
It's an interesting, somewhat eye-opening read, blessedly free of pathetic confessional or pity mongering emotional manipulation. Davis roped a whirlwind and enjoyed the ride. Bravo!
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To be honest, I have no idea who Kieran Leonard is, but this "neo-folk" musician apparently had a weird-ass couple of months writing, recording and producing his latest album... a couple of months that included him spending some time with Kubrick's grandson, Jack Hobbs, laying down some tracks with him at the Kubrick estate, Childwickbury Manor. So I guess he merits a mention here.
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Contemporary artists who claim Kubrick as an influence pretty much only seem to be interested in 2001, Clockwork Orange, and The Shining (and to a lesser extent Dr. Strangelove), so it's great to see Albuquerque artist Christian Michael Gallegos' recent canvas, which was inspired by Kubrick's early short documentary film, Day of the Fight.
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On the science fiction blog io9, these images by artist Orlando Arocena are meant to show what the posters for the upcoming Star Wars: Rogue One flick might look like "if the movie was directed by Stanley Kubrick." I disagree. To me, these images show what the posters for that movie would look like if they were created by frequent Kubrick collaborator Philip Castle. Nothing more, nothing less. If Kubrick had directed them, they would NOT have been parodies of Full Metal Jacket's poster. I mean, come on. These are pretty sweet, though.
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One of the great things about putting together this blog is the fact that, every once in a while, despite having read every book and article in existence on the topic, I still manage to learn something new about my favorite director. Things like the fact that Gerald Fried - Kubrick's Bronx high school classmate, and the talented composer who created terse, modernist scores for Day of the Fight, Fear and Desire, Killer's Kiss, The Killing, and Paths of Glory - may have earned his way into Kubrick's early collaborative circle by securing a spot for him on a local baseball team for which Fried played (that this team was called the Barracudas only adds to my delight). The rest of this wonderful interview with Fried, who is still kicking and making music at 88, is also worth reading.
With his unique "King Cuts" series, artist Mike Leavitt has created an entire menagerie of sculptures featuring some of Hollywood's most successful directors, most (but not all) represented by elements from a broad selection of their films (with the lone exception to the "multiple film" rule being Alfred Hitchcock). Each director's page features a painfully pun-filled explanation as to the nature of the imagery used. For instance, here's what his version of Stanley looks like, and beneath, the explanation:
The Shining transgenders Kubrick. His entire identity, even his humanity is relinquished. Hal's all seeing eye welds itself to his chest. He is a female robot. He's the ancient ape predating 2001. He grips to reality with an AK-47 and jelly donut stolen from a Full Metal Jacket. Clockwork Orange costuming veils him from the world in vain. Nothing can stop Stanley from drifting off into the surreal void.
Roughly six years ago, a European video editor by the name of Leandro Copperfield created a seven-and-a-half minute mash-up montage featuring iconic images and moments from the films of Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese, and uploaded it to Vimeo. In 2015 he cleaned up the video and re-rendered it in lush 1080 dpi. Here is that beautiful, "remastered" version, now...
Six years after Copperfield's initial upload, and very shortly after its upgrade, Copperfield's video was watched by none other than Martin Scorsese, himself, who appears genuinely chuffed to have his work juxtaposed with that of the man he at one point calls "the Master". So chuffed was Marty, in fact, that he graciously shot a video reaction of himself experiencing the video, first-hand! You'd better watch out, Marty! Those Fine Brothers just might decide to sue you for infringing on their copyright!
You can watch Scorsese's reaction video right here, if you so fancy...
Seeing as the image link below is broken, and seeing as the people who were selling it as both a print and a t-shirt no longer have it up for sale at their site, and seeing as I can't even find a link anywhere online for it, I'm going to go ahead and assume that Warner Bros sent them a cease and desist, and they complied, post-haste. I'm going to leave this broken link up here as a kind of tribute to the fragile impermanence of digital culture. If I ever find out what went down, I'll obviously be filling you guys in. - Yer Old Pal Jerky
The only change I would have made is to have the nipples bleeding milk instead of blood. Otherwise, this is gorgeous. You can purchase this beautiful piece of art (and a variant) at Cult Classic Prints.
The fine folks over at The Overlook Hotel website have scanned and made available this 1980 comic parody of The Shining, which ran in MAD Magazine's ugly, red-headed, Peeping Tom kleptomaniac neighbor kid, CRAZY! In fact, it was that issue's cover feature, and you know what? It wasn't half bad!
Jeff Delgado's awesome illustrations are a deft blend of realism with stylized cartoons. The results are a distinctive style, which he employed to create a series of pieces based on The Shining. Check them out at the link above, and find out more on the artist’s DeviantArt and Facebook.
The Ian Visits Blog has a very interesting article on what happened to the original, rejected version of the monolith from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. He writes:
It may not look like it, but this 11 foot wide sculpture is the original model for the iconic Monolith used in the film, 2001 and it is on permanent display in St Katherine Docks, next to Tower Bridge. When Stanley Kubrick wanted a monolith for the making of 2001, he commissioned a local plastics firm, Stanley Plastics to cast the monolith out of a solid lump of transparent plastic. However Kubrick was disappointed with screen tests and the sparkling clear polymer block was eventually rejected as a prop in favour of the dense, black basalt that was imported from Scandinavia and is now such an icon of film history. ... That unwanted, and quite massive lump of perspex then sat in the Boreham Wood film studios until the Bratislavan born, London resident, sculptor Arthur Fleischmann acquired it. ... The block was kept in storage by Talbot Designs until Fleischmann received the commission to make a crystal crown for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Celebrations in 1977. It was now that the transparent Monolith had the crown carved into its face and gained the perspective that we can see today. A dedicated open-air rotunda, known as the “Coronarium Chapel” was constructed, and the perspex block displayed within after being unveiled by The Queen.
To see more, better shots of the Crystal Crown, read the dedication plaque that describes the object's Kubrickean origins, and to find out where you can currently see it on public display, surf on over to Ian's blog. He's got you covered.
Yes, I know, I'm a day late... but why not join me in celebrating the 87th anniversry of Stanley Kubrick's birth by spending some time oggling this amazing collection of Kubrick-related artwork being showcased at the Birth/Movies/Death website, regardless?
Here's one of my favorites, but rest assured, there are literally dozens more images at the link, so I'm not really stealing their thunder too badly.
And another! Can you figure out what the image represents? It took me a couple seconds before I "got" it...
Hopefully, in the very near future, I'll have some Kubrick-related artwork of my own to post in this space. Until then...
