afro woman

I'll be perfectly honest and say I'm still vaguely confused by Eyes Wide Shut. This is Kubrick's last, final work, and although I do get a sense of Kubrick throughout the film, it doesn't feel like something that should represent his oeuvre as a whole. Especially since at times it felt like a Woody Allen film, with love triangles, famous actors, Jewish themes, and a classic score. Maybe I'm just insane for seeing such parallels. Like Barry Lyndon, Eyes Wide Shut carries an emphasis on the idea of infidelity, marriage, what it means to be respected and successful. There were also many essences of A Clockwork Orange and The Shining due to a grotesque, uncanny atmosphere.

I'm wondering what the connection is between a nude woman with an afro is in A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Eyes Wide Shut. This figure has appeared in these instance, growing more prominent in Eyes Wide Shut, because she goes take the form of a real woman rather than being trapped as a picture. Yet she is killed.

The Shining

By now, I've read approximately over 50 different conspiracy theories of The Shining that have ranked from plausible to downright insane.  On Netflix, a documentary called Room 237 depicts these theories including Holocaust theories, Native American theories, and a fake moonlanding theory. All of which are eerie and obsessive in their own way. But the fact is, The Shining does seem to have many continuity errors that a perfectionist like Kubrick would hardly not notice; over the semester, we've seen all of his films, and they definitely are works of art. Kubrick is deliberate, careful, a visionary who knows what he wants.

As I was researching for my final paper, I came across numerous theories, but one of the most chilling (for whatever reason) was that the number of chairs or furniture pieces disjointed correlated to the number of people in the room, as if the hotel was inviting people in, already aware of the events about to take place before they happen. This creates an intense haunting atmosphere of the house.

Another I read was focused on Danny, making Danny the center of the entire narrative, for perhaps the entire movie was Danny experiencing vivid dreams, repressing sexual and physical abuse from his father - resorting to intense storytelling, hallucinations, and paranoia.

However, theories aside, it is important to not speculate a meaning of the film for the purposes of filling the gapped void Kubrick presents, but rather to marvel in its utter bewilderment, meant to not provide a clear, universalizing meaning. Hello, this guy was a Modernist, after all, preoccupied with dismantling Enlightenment ideals of a Truth (with a capital T). His frequent Freudian side reveals this, for Freud's Interpretation of Dreams is just that: dreams inherently have multiple meanings. Interpretation takes new twists and turns with such revelation.

Candlelit Scenes

Barry Lyndon is a remarkably beautiful film.  This being my first time seeing it, I was struck by its picturesque quality in comparison to the disgusting moral attributes of the characters.  I saw many similarities to Citizen Kane in the basic thematics of the film.  We have two promising, hopeful male protagonists whose character is marked by greed, envy, power as they attain wealth.

Of all the qualities, I was most impressed by the use of candlelight in this film. It adds a level of finesse and grandeur that adds authentic historicity to the film.

Visual Assignment II

Limited Space

Deep Space

Visual Assignment

1-Point Perspective

2-Point Perspective

Flat Space

Ambiguous Space

2001: Homer's Odyssey

I don't know about any of you, but I grew up on The Simpsons.  Of all the most influential, fictional characters in my life, the Simpson family ranks in the top ten.  Stanley Kubrick is a highly used motif in the show, parodied constantly, from 2001 to A Clockwork Orange.

Here are a few Simpson moments of 2001 -

(Sorry for the poor quality, YouTube is awful)

I'll be sure to put up more references as the semester goes on!

Happy Wednesday ya'll

Dr. Strangelove's Boardroom

I found this neat video on the designer of the boardroom of Dr. Strangelove. His name is Ken Adam and he studied architecture and was a war veteran. He notes that he steered away from reality to create a sense of reality, even tricking Regan into believing such a room existed.

Ken Adam, designer - Cold War Modern from Victoria and Albert Museum on Vimeo.