KUBRICK NOTES IN BRIEF ~ JULY 25, 2016

Let's run through a few of the most recent Kubrick-related news items to hit the wire over the last week or so, shall we?

First, and most amusingly, it seems that Stanley has joined Twitter. Check him out, if you're into this sort of stunt.

Next up, it was kind of great to see Vivian Kubrick come out of semi-hiding to diss all those goofy moon-hoax idiots. Not quite so amusing was main Kubrick Moon Theory Nutter Jay Weidner's vile, butt-hurt, low-blow of a "rebuttal", titled How Vivian Kubrick Broke Stanley's Heart.

Two interesting think pieces on Kubrick have popped up on the web recently.

The best is Alexander Patrick Langer's 2014 essay Dr No and Dr Strangelove - Anxiety in the Cold War Film. It's a touch dry and academic, but if you like that sort of thing, it's pure manna from heaven. Personally, as a Kubrick nut and a lifelong Bond fan, of course I dug it. And it doesn't hurt that Langer throws in a bit on Frankenheimer's Manchurian Candidate into the mix.

Not quite as good but still interesting is Sean Hutchinson's think-piece How Dr Strangelove Predicted the Emptiness of Twitter and Facebook, which is exactly what it sounds like.

Getting down to the dregs (comparatively speaking of course), we have "a non-Kubrick fan" explaining what it is that she finds compelling about The Shining. It's eloquent and insightful, if short and to the point.

And, finally, we have an extended whine from Simon Booker writing in The Guardian, who claims that "Stanley Kubrick Ruined My Childhood". Turns out that title is almost pure clickbait, however, as Kubrick is mentioned exactly three times, including the title. Turns out his mum worked as a film publicist on 2001: A Space Odyssey during that film's 3-year shoot. the Marianne Faithful stories are a titch juicier, of course.

Tune in next time for more Kubrick Notes In Brief!

VIDEO ESSAY CONTRASTING KUBRICK WITH TARKOVSKY

THE SHINING... THE BOARD GAME!

BARRY LYNDON GETS A SEXY NEW TRAILER FOR ITS THEATRICAL RE-RELEASE

KUBRICK NOTES IN BRIEF ~ JULY 11, 2016

I have never in my life so badly wanted to be able to visit England as I was when I started reading about the Daydreaming with Stanley Kubrick exhibit, at Somerset House, featuring works, both old and new, by a great many fantastic artistic talents, all either inspired by or directly referencing Stanley the man and/or his works. If you're able to attend, and don't, you're mad.

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Well, THIS sucks.

"A YouTube user who creates video essays has been hit with a punishing lawsuit after selecting Stanley Kubrick as a subject matter and uploading his work to YouTube. UK-based Lewis Bond from Channel Criswell is being targeted by the music publishers behind the 1971 classic A Clockwork Orange who want huge damages for willful infringement."

Here's some more information on the sad hypocrisy of this bullshit lawsuit. Check out Bond's Twitter to keep track of this ongoing travesty.

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It's really cool to see special effects guru Douglas Trumball still out there mixing it up with his inimitably gorgeous (and soon to be lost to history) practical methods of bringing screen magic to life before our very eyes. And it's doubly cool to see him doing so for a bunch of young'uns on a low budget indie film like Approaching the Unknown. Check out the mini-doc by The Creators Project at the bottom of the linked page to find out more (I originally had it embedded here, but it started up automatically, really loud, whether you wanted it to or not, so I removed it).

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Adam K. Johnson's new book, 2001: The Lost Science, is about all the work that scientific consultant Frederick Ordway did on Stanley Kubrick's film. It's actually the second in a series of limited run, prestige format books, with the subtitle: "The Scientists, Influences, and Designs from the Frederick I. Ordway Estate". For a heavily illustrated book of this quality, the price is actually quite reasonable. And if you purchase it via the link above, you will be tossing a couple shekels into yours truly's rusty old beggin' cup.

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I dunno about you guys, but the images in this computer-created "Kubrick goes Picasso" video don't look very much like the work of Picasso to me. You be the judge, I suppose...

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The San Francisco Chronicle invites you to read all about five times that Stanley Kubrick courted controversy. Think you can guess them all ahead of time? Go ahead and test your Kubrick IQ!

A 3-D EXPLORATION OF THE OVERLOOK HOTEL

Well, this one is kind of odd. "YouTube user Claire Sophie brings us a bizarre 360-degree look at The Shining that pans through a distorted vision of the Overlook hotel and its grounds, including the famous maze." 

According to this CNet article, the effect was achieved thusly: "Using photogrammetry, 3D elements are extracted and extruded from the original film stills, and the subsequent fragments are stitched together and viewed along the original camera path."

Personally, I find the effect kind of off-putting. Your mileage may vary. Don't forget to drag the scenes around for maximum effect!

2001: CLUBBING THE LOWER ANIMAL

If you're up for some heavy-duty hypothesizing regarding Kubrick's most alchemical/head-trippy/psychedelic/archetype-riddle film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, then you could do a lot worse than Mike Daringer's extended essay, 2001: Clubbing the Lower Animal. It begins:

Stanley Kubrick’s classic sci-fi epic, 2001: A Space Odyssey, is a fictional transcendence of classic Greek mythos through the ubiquity of the motion picture camera. As the film’s title suggests, this is Greek philosopher Homer’s The Odyssey told on the grandest of scales and sparing no expense that 20th Century cinema had to offer. According to philosopher Carl Jung, myths are the “culturally elaborated representations of the contents of the deepest recess of the human psyche: the world of the archetypes.” 

As such, 2001 makes tremendous leaps forward in longstanding narrative traditions that have been passed down from the epitome of Western culture. This was Kubrick, after all, and he wasn’t going to give the viewer an easy time or spoon feed answers to the cryptic symbolism. The film is ostensibly draped in ambiguity, and it leads down a path that rejects materialism in favor of spiritual enlightenment. The final act is overly concerned with the impact that light has on the body; how illumination can take a lifetime to understand and transform decaying flesh into the Übermensch.

Having heard people say that there isn’t much going on in 2001 or simply not “getting it,” what follows is a small breakdown of the big thematic material that makes up the masterpiece.

This essay is well worth your time. And you just might learn a few things along the way!

MICHAEL HERR (1940 - 2016)

Michael Herr, the author of Dispatches and co-writer of Full Metal Jacket, is dead at 76.

KUBRICK IN BRIEF(S)

Remember around the time of Full Metal Jacket, when Stanley started giving interviews, and he went around telling people like Gene Siskel how much he enjoyed the storytelling finesse on display in a series of Michelob commercials? He told the New York Times, in 1987:

"They’re just boy-girl, night-fun,” Kubrick praised, “leading up to pouring the beer, all in 30 seconds, beautifully edited and photographed. Economy of statement is not something that films are noted for.”

Well, according to this lengthy SlashFilm oral history: "That piece published on a Sunday. The following day—after interested parties tracked down who was responsible for these spots—the phone of fashion photographer turned commercial director Jeremiah Chechik started rining off the hook."

Thanks to Kubrick's comments, Chechik would go on to direct such successful feature films as Christmas Vacation and Benny and Joon before being handed the great gift of directing the can't miss, sure-fire, $60 million budget, star-studded family action smash hit: 1998's The Avengers, starring Ralph Feines and Uma Thurman! The rest, as they say, is his story.

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Nerdist reports on the existence of the perfect, purchasable tchotchke to transform your work station from drab and dreary to flashy and fashy: Clockwise Alex, the unofficial Droog 1/6 size figurine with interchangeable hands, face and other parts! Currently available for pre-order from the fine folks at Craftone, so you know it's ultra-quality!

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We've all heard about how not too many people "got" The Shining when it first came out, but to actually experience the true depths of the critics's collective derangement and willful blindness at that time, one need look no further than Ernest Leogrande's review for the New York Daily News, which originally ran in late May 1987.  Yeesh!

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#kubrick - The Simpsons - Candice Drouet from Really Dim on Vimeo.

This is a fun little video, to be sure, but its creator missed the absolute best Simpsons/Kubrick reference! Remember when Lisa experiments on Bart with electrified cupcakes, leading to a scene that is a perfect re-creation of the post-Ludovico technique staged sequence where Alex can't bring himself to reach up to the model's bare naked tits? Doubly entertaining because it's so damn naughty!

THE WEIRDEST KUBRICK HONOR YET?

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.

KUBRICK "VERSUS" SCORSESE (BUT NOT REALLY)

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...

Kubrick vs Scorsese from Leandro Copperfield on Vimeo.

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...

Message from Martin Scorsese from Leandro Copperfield on Vimeo.

KUBRICK IN THE NEWS

There has been a flurry of reports either about or referencing Stanley Kubrick and/or his films in recent weeks. Among them are included:

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Not-so-hot on the heels of the dubious but intriguing "experimental artistic installation" The Shining Backwards and Forwards comes Jason Shulman's series Photographs of Film, in which, WiReD declares: "the narrative fades away" and the movie "is, instead, one scratchy, hazy frame." The results for the single frame version of 2001: A Space Odyssey are described thusly: "It's mostly black and gray, but you can make out the three screens of the council room, the tiled floor of the Louis XVI bedroom, and HAL 9000’s camera eye, glowing like an ember." See it above, and go to Shulman's page to ogle all the other frames, including The Shining's. My personal favorite is Voyage de la Lune, which takes on the aspect of an H.R. Giger hellscape.

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VICE.com was one of the many media to run a story about Emilio D'Alessandro's 30 year career as Stanley Kubrick's trusted driver, assistant, and family friend. At one point in, VICE points out that

D'Alessandro worked with Kubrick from then until the director's death in 1999, serving as his personal driver, on-set assistant, and lifelong right-hand man on films from A Clockwork Orange to Eyes Wide Shut. Gradually, their relationship shifted from the merely professional to the personal. "I would always call him Mr. Kubrick," D'Alessandro recalls, "and one day he said, 'Emilio, pack that in, and just call me Stanley.'

Endearing as that story is, even better is the photo that accompanies the article, which is definitely one for the Kubrick-o-phile's archives. We've been seeing a lot of Kubrick and Emilio stories in the news lately - including this Movie Pilot article about how Emilio tried to convince Stanley not to hire Jack Nicholson for The Shining - because Emilio's book, Stanley Kubrick and Me: Thirty Years at His Side, has been translated into English and is currently on sale. BUY IT NOW! And use this link so I get a coupe sheckles in my begin' cup.

And then, of course, there's this Guardian article covering Kubrick's long-serving personal assistant Emilio's revelation that in 1999, while wrapping up Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick was beginning to plan work on not one but two films: a World War II film about the bloody Axis/Allied conflict in Monte Cassino, and a kids-friendly version of the oft-filmed classic, Pinocchio. And no, Emilio is adamant that this would have been a separate project from A.I., which has frequently been described as having much in common with that classic tale.

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Over at STV.tv, an autistic gentleman by the name of Mark McDonald watches The Shining for the first time in his life as part of that website's Classic Film Club, where "each week we invite a famous face to watch a classic film they have never seen and tell us if it lived up to the hype or left them throwing their popcorn away in disgust." Click through to read Mark's post-viewing interview/review. You won't be disappointed.

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Another Kubrick story to generate lots of column inches recently, like this story at The Hollywood Reporter, was the revelation that "True Detective Emmy winner" Cary Fukunaga "is in talks to direct" an HBO miniseries based on Kubrick's unfinished Napoleon project. The miniseries, "based on Stanley Kubrick's research for a film dubbed his 'greatest never-made film' — a planned story on French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's 19th century struggle to bring Europe under his total control."

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And, finally for today, here's a review of the dark period comedy Moonwalkers, in which the Stanley Kubrick plays a role not unlike that played by Jesus Christ in those mid-century sword-and-sandal epics like Ben-Hur and The Robe, and which begins:

When I read the premise of this film, I expected a light-hearted conspiracy romp around swinging 60s London. What I did not expect was an exploitation schlock-fest of drugs, tits, and exploding heads. I’m not saying this is a bad thing necessarily, I’m just saying that maybe the press release could do with a tweak.

GREAT QUOTE ABOUT KUBRICK

Hidden away in the comments section of a Guardian article about Emilio D’Alessandro's recent revelation about how Kubrick "was planning his first children’s film and his first second world war movie shortly before his death in 1999" is a comment so perfect that I just had to share it here with all my fellow Kubrick fanatics, so that it is preserved somewhere in perpetuity, or at least for as long as this blog shall last. So thanks, Guardian reader Toner4Ever (you with your Captain Picard profile pic), for sharing your insight with us all:

"Kubrick wasn't a director who was a genius, he was a genius who happened to be a director."

THE SHINING AND THE UNCANNY (GREAT SHORT VIDEO)

From the video's description on Youtube: "In this video essay we'll be looking at how Stanley Kubrick using Sigmund Freud's theory of the uncanny to great effect in his 1980 film, The Shining, based on the novel by Stephen King."

KUBRICK AND SOUND DESIGN

NoFilmSchool.com has published a couple of short, interesting articles that should be of interest to all Kubrick fans. The first one covers How Kubrick Built Atmosphere with Diegetic Sound, proclaiming our Stanley as having provided us with "one of the finest examples of diegetic sound that we have to date". It continues:

With so many other revolutionary filmmaking techniques in his repertoire, it's not often we find ourselves focused on Stanley Kubrick's audio strategies. His favoritism of diegetic over non-diegetic sounds, however, was essential in building the atmosphere for nearly every one of his films. Candice Drouet's 1.000.000 Frames series chronicles just that:

The article continues after the above video, going on to describe what diegetic sound is, exactly (it isn't that difficult a concept to grasp), and pulls out a few more examples of what they proclaim to be some of Kubrick's best work using the technique.

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The second NoFilmSchool.com article asks What is Contrapuntal Music, and How did Kubrick and Tarantino Use it in Their Most Famous Scenes? It goes into great detail in an effort to describe what is, in essence, simply the use of music that not only doesn't tell the viewer how to feel, but is actually expressive of the opposite emotion that the onscreen events would likely inspire. Think Kubrick's use of "We'll Meet Again" at the end of Strangelove, when the fact of the matter is that (SPOILER) with every human being on the face of the Earth killed by the Soviet Doomsday retaliation, we actually will NOT be meeting again, ever.