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.

Lolita

Lolita, Lolita, Lo-lee-ta

I don't know if it was just me or my intense love for Nabokov's Lolita, but this film was brilliant.  Also, I was quite pleased to hear that Nabokov himself wrote the screenplay - although reedited by Kubrick. As Mr. Cohen mentioned before the film screening, it is just impossible to approach the film through the preconceived notions of the novel.  Obviously, there are radical differences between the two but each are a distinct, separate piece of art.

That being said, Kubrick was able to capture Humbert Humbert's radical obsession with Lolita, in a cinematic way that would have otherwise been unfathomable to me.  Although the film was two and a half hours long, I thoroughly was engrossed enough to dismiss the time.  I loved this trailer for Lolita and the question "How could they make a movie on Lolita" is a reiterating notion and seems to be a common theme for Kubrick, a problem solver who makes films on subject matter that can at times be taboo.

Peter Sellers playing multiple roles as a prelude to his multiple roles in Dr. Strangelove creates a sense of auteur consistency.  Kubrick plays with Peter Sellers in exploring his possibilities as an actor, all the while disorienting the audience in a comic frenzy.  It is worthwhile to mention that in Lolita, Sellers was actually just one person disguising himself but in Dr. Strangelove, Sellers is three separate characters, even the infamous character who has taken the title of the film, Dr. Strangelove.

On Dr. Strangelove

I know we haven't seen Dr. Strangelove together as a class, but it is one of my favorite Kubrick films.

I came across an article recently on Stanley Kubrick's diary and brainstorming for the title of the movie, Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.  It's a mouth-full but that's the genius and irony of it.  I love the various titles Kubrick came up with, such as The Bomb and Dr. Strangelove or: How to be Afraid 24 hrs a Day.

Of all the titles listed, I'm glad he chose the one we all know and love today.  The title in itself is as sarcastic as the film.  Anyway, below is the journal entry in which he scribbled away tons of titles.

Source: http://blog.paperblanks.com/2013/02/famous-diary-entries-kubrick/

So, I'm sitting in my first discussion of my Film 100: Film Theory class, when my GSI asks the "What's your favorite movie?" question which is quite typical of film classes.  Personally, I never have an answer, because my favorite film changes day by day as I get introduced to a multitude of new, new, new films.  However, what I found was interesting, is that in a small class of about 15 students, all film majors, two people answered with a Kubrick film.  One picked The Shining while another picked Dr. Strangelove.  What an amazing thing, to see Kubrick films as timeless and loved so much, that they are chosen beyond any other film.

I love Kubrick, I absolutely love his work, and so far, seeing his earlier stuff (which I have never gotten around to), I'm enjoying seeing the threads that make a film Kubrickian.