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Stanley Kubrick

Mighty_Emperor

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Seems a shame there isn't a thread on him.

IMDB:
www.imdb.com/name/nm0000040/

There is a boxset set out of his films (which seems like the perfect opportunity to kickstart the thread) - usually £99.99 but on offer at Amazon for £28.97. It contains his last 8 films (I suppose of all his famous ones it only leaves out Spartacus) and a documentary:


www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000 ... ntmagaz-21

Amazon.co.uk Review

This superb nine-disc Stanley Kubrick Box Set contains all the late director's work from 1962's Lolita to Kubrick's final film, the highly controversial Eyes Wide Shut (1999). There's also the excellent and highly informative two-hour documentary: Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, narrated (a little drably) by Tom Cruise. It isn't exactly a warts-and-all portrait of Stan the Man, which is not surprising, really, given that it's directed and produced by Kubrick's brother-in-law Jan Harlan, and that Kubrick's widow Christine was closely involved in the making of it. But it does give a detailed and revealing portrait of a brilliant, demanding and often infuriating man, airing rare footage that goes right back to his earliest years as a brash youngster in the Bronx, already playing to camera with a frightening degree of self-awareness.

Six of the eight movies (all but Dr Strangelove and Eyes Wide Shut) have been digitally restored and remastered, and almost all (barring Strangelove again and Lolita) now boast Dolby Digital 5.1 stereo sound remixes. For some bizarre reason, Kubrick insisted on mono sound for the 1999 set, which he approved shortly before his death. Visually the improvement over the often grainy, scratchy prints previously on offer--The Shining (1980) was notoriously messy--is immense. All the features are presented in their original ratios, which in the case of Strangelove means the changing ratios in which it was originally shot, and for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) the full glorious 2.21:1 expanse of the Cinerama screen.

So what don't you get? Essentially, the early Kubrick--the work of the young, hungry director before he moved to England and started to gather all the controlling strings into his own hand: most notably the tough, taut thriller The Killing (1956) and the icily furious war film Paths of Glory (1957). Too bad Warners couldn't have negotiated the rights for those too. But what we have here is the culminating phase of Kubrick's filmmaking career--the final 27 years of one of the great masters of cinema.

On the DVDs: Besides the visual and sonic improvements mentioned above, each of the eight features includes the original theatrical trailer and multiple-language subtitles. The DVD of Dr Strangelove also gives us filmographies of the principal players, plus theatrical posters and a photo gallery, while Eyes Wide Shut includes interviews (taped after Kubrick's death) with Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Steven Spielberg, plus a couple of 30-second TV spots. And with The Shining we get a fascinating 34-minute documentary made by Kubrick's then 17-year-old daughter Vivian, plus--just to add a further layer--Vivian's present-day voice-over commentary on her film. --Philip Kemp

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And for completeness

Spartacus (1960)

www.imdb.com/title/tt0054331/

-------------------
And my personal favourites?

Its tricky as an awful lot of his films are so heavily embedded in society they are iconic.

Strangelove is great. ACO is fantastic. I remember watching 2001 for the first time on TV one Xmas as a kid and it really blowing my mind.

However, there is a special little place in my heart for The Shining (although it was close with 2001) - it can be a bit slow but by jingo it delivers. I also remember someone at Uni had the classic poster on his wall and I spotted that he'd written on it in biro "This looks a bit like [The Emperor]*" so the little extra connections pos. helps win it for me ;)

* Or whatever I was called at the time - I think it was The Evil Doctor (you have to start somewhere).
 
Did I read that right? £28.97? That's cheap as a popular fried potato treat. I confess I've only seen 2001, The Shining and Full Metal Jacket all the way through, and dipped into Strangelove and Eyes Wide Shut (which I didn't really go much for), so this box looks a bargain.

Surely, though, Kubrick only made a dozen or so films altogether, so it seems a bit mean (though not at £28, I'll concede) not to include the earlier, rarer, stuff as well. For instance, didn't he make a film about a racetrack robbery, supposedly in real time?

Interesting(ish) fact about 2001: the book was written in parallel with the screenplay, rather than one being "of" the other (of course, they were both based on the short story The Sentinel, but you knew that!)

Talking of changing the subject, this is my first attempt at incorporating a signature into my posts, so if none appears, I'll be asking for help! Next stop, an avatar! Any handy hints?
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
* Or whatever I was called at the time - I think it was The Evil Doctor (you have to start somewhere).

Of course, you didn't spend 5 years at Evil medical school just to be called Mr Evil, did you?
 
Peripart said:
Mighty_Emperor said:
* Or whatever I was called at the time - I think it was The Evil Doctor (you have to start somewhere).

Of course, you didn't spend 5 years at Evil medical school just to be called Mr Evil, did you?

Well quite - amongst my people Emperor's are made not born. After the initial struggle from the spawning pits there was the whole round of Evil Science School (it encompasses the Department of Evil Medicine but you really need a solid grounding in a number of fields) and then years praticing Mad Science in some out-of-the-way (literal) hellhole and then the final business of killing off your rivals in bizarre and unlikely accidents.

Peripart said:
Did I read that right? £28.97? That's cheap as a popular fried potato treat. I confess I've only seen 2001, The Shining and Full Metal Jacket all the way through, and dipped into Strangelove and Eyes Wide Shut (which I didn't really go much for), so this box looks a bargain.

It is and it'll make a great Xmas present esp. when they find out that the price of the set if just this side of a hundred big ones!! I'm just trying to work out who I cn give a set to ;)

Its well worth getting - I don't really rate EWS too highly but ACO.....!!

Also worth noting that thi is going for over $100 on the US site:
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005A ... enantmc-20

and its not often we get things like this at such a saving over here ;)

Peripart said:
Surely, though, Kubrick only made a dozen or so films altogether, so it seems a bit mean (though not at £28, I'll concede) not to include the earlier, rarer, stuff as well.

Well I supose there might be issues of availability and licensing but ultimately I suspect its a marketing thing. People would be likely to cough up for 8 solid discs but they are unlikely to pay twice as much for the privelge of getting all his earlier films too.

It also leaves the door open for them to release a specialist set of his early films and possibly somewhere down the line a massive Ultimate set (possibly).

Its interetsing that an earlier collection Stanley Kubrick Collection only had 7 discs (missing EWS and the documentary):

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/63054 ... ntmagaz-21
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6305440 ... enantmc-20

So there must be some kind of careful planning behind it.

There are much swankier collectors edition releases of some of those films like:

2001:
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000 ... ntmagaz-21
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005B ... enantmc-20

ACO:
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000 ... ntmagaz-21
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005L ... enantmc-20

FMJ:
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000 ... ntmagaz-21
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005L ... enantmc-20

But at less than £3.50 a disc..... ;)

Peripart said:
Talking of changing the subject, this is my first attempt at incorporating a signature into my posts, so if none appears, I'll be asking for help! Next stop, an avatar! Any handy hints?

Sig seems fine - for avatar advice see:

www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3943
 
I sat through The Shiting again when it was broadcast very recently. A classic study of bad carpets and worse acting - Nicholson is utterly terrible, looking demented from square one.

I had my say on Kubrick ages ago on this thread and despite occasionally and accidentally treading in his oeuvre, I can't say it has grown on me since. :twisted:
 
Never was a great fan, to be honest, but then I've never seen the Shining.
 
Has any footage of the original end scene of Dr. Strangelove ever surfaced, the pie-fight in the war-room that was cut as Kubrick thought it was too comical? I'd like to see more than a still from it....
 
MrRING said:
Has any footage of the original end scene of Dr. Strangelove ever surfaced, the pie-fight in the war-room that was cut as Kubrick thought it was too comical? I'd like to see more than a still from it....

According to the account at this Italian Kubrick site:

http://www.archiviokubrick.it/english/m ... main=extra

... the footage survived, is in the possession of Kubrick's estate, and is unlikely to be released owing to the terms of Kubrick's will.
 
After the Metropolis footage was found...

17 Minutes of Lost ’2001: A Space Odyssey’ Footage Found

Almost like discovering a monolith buried underground, Warner Brothers recently found 17 minutes of lost footage from Stanley Kubrick‘s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey in a salt-mine vault in Kansas. But before you go and drop acid in anticipation of an extended cut of the film, consider the slippery slope this footage constitutes. One, just because the footage was found doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to make it into the public eye. Two, Kubrick himself reportedly cut the footage from the film because he felt it created pacing issues. And three, the film is just about perfect as is, do you really want to screw it up?

Details at -
http://www.slashfilm.com/17-minutes-los ... y-footage/
 
I think 2001 is fine as it is, it doesn't need to be any slower. This sounds like DVD supplement material to me.
 
Well I think it could be included where it was originally intended. I'm sure there are enough fanatics out there wiling to give it a look.

When it comes versions though I still prefer the original Blade Runner, so I might well be disappointed with extra material.
 
I like the Kubrick UL about The Shining being his coded confession to faking the Moon landings. :D
 
Wasn't sure whether to put this in the Kubrick thread or the Stephen King thread, but as it's about the film I suppose this one is more appropriate.

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/01/documentary-room-237-sundance/
Room 237 Explores Hidden Meanings in The Shining

The Shining is an allegory for the plight of Native Americans. No. Wait. It’s a prism through which Stanley Kubrick examines the Holocaust. Or maybe it’s his confession to helping the government fake the moon landing. It could be all of those things. Or none of them. And here you thought it was just a horror movie about a guy who goes nuts in a spooky old hotel.

Directed by Rodney Ascher, the documentary Room 237 interviews some of the film’s most passionate fans about what they think are The Shining‘s secret messages. And while that could just sound like a compelling romp through conspiracy-theory land, what the film really gets at is what it means to be a fan and why fandom often leads to a search for deeper meanings in the films we love.

[...]
Sounds interesting. I haven't seen the film in years but I don't remember any conscious symbolism in it, just a scary ambience and the usual horror stuff (blood, twins, spooky empty building etc.) but I'm always intrigued by what people read into films and books.
 
There used to be a detailed and exhaustive website which set out to demonstrate that little Stanley's picture shows were really the work of esoteric Freemasons.

It was never clear whether the author thought that was a good thing or not.

It's long gone, I think, or it has morphed into something less easy to find but I do recall that the "real" dimensions of spaces in The Shining were supposed to be decoded like those of an Egyptian pyramid. :spinning

edit: I'm not sure if this is from the same writer but Here is a similarly detailed esoteric account of Eyes Wide Shut
 
I was reading an interview with the director of the documentary and he says he invited many people off the internet to share their Shining theories in the film, but only those with some kind of substance. Makes you wonder what he rejected! (Actually, he did mention one guy seeing animal faces in the film - but only if you turned it sideways).
 
Talking of arcane Kubrickiana:

"The film's connections with Stanley Kubrick also make for an bizarre little sideshow: not only is there a 2001: A Space Odyssey reference in there, but Buxton is made to sound, in Thompson's voiceover, exactly like Malcolm McDowell in Clockwork Orange. Moreover, it appears that the film's title was used as the cover for whenever the Scala cinema in London illicitly screened A Clockwork Orange, before it was unbanned after Kubrick's death. Warner Bros sued the Scala and it was forced to close down as a result in 1993."


What film can he mean? 2008 Guardian Article on a Blue Movie :shock:

I have just watched it in a double bill with Jarman's Blue. I'm not sure which was the darker!
 
Funnily enough at the height of so-called porno-chic in the 1970s, Kubrick was supposed to be making a film of Terry Southern's satirical porn novel Blue Movie. I thought that was what your link referred to!

Dougal and the Blue Cat is now out on DVD, and well worth a look, if far too sad for a supposedly jolly bit of surrealism familiar to millions in the pre-evening news slot. I think the article's Kubrick connections are a bit of a stretch, though.
 
"The show begins like a hangdog episode of The Twilight Zone. A narrator tells us that the forest we see is at war, but not any particular war of the past or the future. The combatants do not exist unless we call them into being . . . "

Glenn Erickson on the first official home video release of Kubrick's first feature, Fear & Desire:

Fear & Desire
 
Room 237 is an interesting film - but maybe not for the reason the makers intended.The contributors point out that Kubrik had an IQ around 200 and considered and arranged every detail in the Shining. From there, it's a case of them shoehorning their own pet theories into the background elements. In one confusing section, we are asked to believe a poster of a skier on the wall represents a Minotaur.

There's a great example of this sort of thing here....

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/luna/ ... ions10.htm
 
Behind the Scenes Look at the Horror Classic "The Shining"

Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is a classic psychological horror film that left a huge impact on pop culture and continues to be recognized to this day. The cinematic masterpiece, whose influence on future media is undeniable, includes cult favorites from the creepy twin girls to memorable phrases like "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Now, over thirty years since its release, we take a look back at what the set of the film was like.

Browsing through numerous behind the scenes photos, the dark and eerie veil of the movie is lifted. What was once a nightmare shrouded in mystery is suddenly a very normal scene of people working together to create something worth checking out. Of course, the people, though in ordinary and relaxed demeanors, are megastars like Jack Nicholson, the legendary Stanley Kubrick, and cult favorites like Shelley Duvall.

Many more images can be found over on The Overlook Hotel, a blog run by director Lee Unkrich that's dedicated to the film.
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blo ... the-scenes
 
The Shining interpretation ~ Jack Torrance the abusive father - Up to 8 parts so far. Detailed and insightful.

Rob Ager finds the hidden threads in a lot of popular productions. I linked his website at the top of this page. His filmic studies are well worth the time.
 
So Vivian Kubrick - who the family lost to Scientology 15 years ago - turned up on Alex Jones' channel a few weeks back--

Daughter of Stanley Kubrick Speaks Out

Published on 29 Nov 2013

Vivian Kubrick, daughter of the iconic filmmaker and director Stanley Kubrick, talks to Alex Jones about the nature of power and the human awakening that is taking place as a vibrant form of resistance against the takeover.

A film director in her own right, Vivian explains why her father was decades ahead of his time in creating movies such as A Clockwork Orange and Doctor Strangelove, while also revealing what he would have thought of America today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSnHhZ-zO3A
 
Stanley Kubrick's Daughter Shares Cool Photos Of Herself Working On Dad's Old Sets

Vivian Kubrick, the reclusive daughter of film legend Stanley Kubrick, shared a treasure trove of priceless pictures of her while she hung around the sets of her father's most famous films. The rare photos were all posted on Twitter last night in a string of nostalgic moments that Kubrick shared with her father.

The pictures show many of Kubrick's iconic sets in a completely new light.
There's Vivian reclining in the Korova Milk Bar set from A Clockwork Orange; on location with her father during the filming of Full Metal Jacket, of which she composed the score; in the cutting room working on her documentary Making "The Shining"; even playing with baby chimps that were used in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
http://laist.com/2014/03/10/vivian_kubr ... ss_pho.php
 
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