Almost all of Stanley Kubrick’s films can be easily classified as good or bad. There are the masterpieces. “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “A Clockwork Orange.” There are the failures. “Full Metal Jacket”, which not only exposes the director’s slow working style (he started his Vietnam film before Oliver Stone’s “Platoon” and finished it too late, a year later). But also the convenience of the Englishman by choice. He recreated the jungle of Vietnam in the London industrial area. With “Eyes Wide Shut” you can’t help but see the streets of Manhattan as an artificial paradise, made in Pinewood Studios.
1980’s The Shining marked the end of his longest filming break to date, five years after Barry Lyndon. There is no Kubrick film that is more passionately discussed. First of all: Stephen King is right. It’s not a good movie. His third, autobiographical novel tells the story of a writer who beats his children because he is an alcoholic (or because alcoholism reinforces his tendencies). Jack Nicholson in the role of Jack Torrance (did he ever play anyone other than Jack “Here Comes Johnny” Torrance after that?) develops in what feels like fast motion into a psychopathic clown the houseand not the bottle seems to gain control too quickly.
But The Shining is a very nice looking film. Because he looks so real. Stylizing space, like in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” is not difficult. Space is unknown. You can do anything there. Just like the dystopia of A Clockwork Orange. The future could always look like someone portrays it.
A rug that has entered pop culture
That’s why “The Shining” and the costume film “Barry Lyndon” are Stanley Kubrick’s most beautiful films. They cover what we can really judge. It shows how beautiful, secretly beautiful “The Shining” is Illustrated book “The Shining” (bags). Many of the images have seeped into the so-called “collective consciousness.” The hedge maze (unfortunately without the hedge animals, like in the novel). The picture of the penthouse beauty above the hotel bed by Scatman Crothers. The wave of blood in the hotel hallway. But especially the carpet. A rug that has entered pop culture! A tricycle gliding across the carpet. The carpet is even available as a hat.
Even today, Kubrick apologists puzzle over the shapes and colors in the Overlook Hotel. There is a daring documentary (“Room 237”) that is dedicated to cutting theories as well as historical symbolism (the colonization of America). It seems as if every staircase, every typewriter key, every closet and every picture on the wall seems to convey a message. Is Danny Torrance wearing an Apollo mission astronaut sweater because Kubrick was the director of the 1969 Moon Hoax? Stuff like that.
The Taschen compendium, published by Lee Unkrich and edited by JW Rinzler, is devoted to the film production from 1979 in a pleasantly objective manner, with only an occasional romantic tinge. Because not everything went smoothly. There wasn’t just King vs. Kubrick, there was also Kubrick vs. Duvall, and unfortunately also Nicholson vs. Duvall. He didn’t take her seriously.
You also have to say: Stanley Kubrick didn’t get any better after that
But it’s also about context, about dealing with the terrible stress that Stanley Kubrick, who was eloquently described as a “control freak” and “perfectionist,” demanded of his team. The short clips circulating online of a charged Nicholson first brushing his teeth and then practicing ax blows, as well as the quarrels between the director and the leading actress because she can’t open a door covered in snow, only convey half the picture.
In “The Shining” illustrated book, many of those involved have their say in detail – albeit mainly in archive discussions. And many of the photos have never been seen before. This book is worth reading even if you don’t like the film. You also have to say: Stanley Kubrick didn’t get any better after that.
Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining
Ed. Lee Unkrich
Hardcover, 2 volumes in a slipcase, 20.0 x 22.0 cm, 3.71 kg, 1396 pages
€100
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