stanley kubrick retrospective. lacma.

if you are an avid reader of this blog (thank you if you actually exist!) then you know that i have spent the last couple of months checking out as many kubrick films as i could in preparation of this exhibit.  prior to this exhibit, i was a huge fan of "a clockwork orange" (i loved the book as a teen) and "full metal jacket", but after watching his catalogue, i became a fan of his work.  i did not see all of his films but luckily i did see the ones that were featured in this retrospective.

the retrospective covers his early career as a photographer, his films: the killing, paths of glory, spartacus, lolita, dr. strangelove, 2001: space odyssey, a clockwork orange, barry lyndon, the shining, full metal jacket, eyes wide shut, and the never made, aryan papers.  there was also a portion dedicated to the film A.I. which i skipped because i didn't see the film nor have a desire too.

as i watched and researched about kubrick's films, i learned that they were based on literary works.  as a result, there were so many amazing bookish pieces in the retrospective.

letters between vladimir nabokov, author of "lolita" and kubrick about the screenplay.

bookcase filled with books for research for "barry lyndon".  he really wanted it to be true to the era and did an extensive amount of research for it.

kubrick's copy of "the shining" filled with his notes.  these pages demonstrated kubrick's attention to detail, he had notes for the set based on the setting from the book.

the books that "full metal jacket" were based on.

i loved kubrick a little bit more based on his bookwormness.

here are some of my other favorite parts of the exhibit:

mitchell mbc camera.

i was so excited to see this camera.  i had read about it on wikipedia after watching "barry lyndon".  this camera was engineered by kubrick and his team, i am not sure how it works (they had some lenses from NASA) but i do know it resulted in a beautiful film.  all of those beautiful scenes lit by candlelight or daylight, all thanks to this camera.

continuing with the "barry lyndon" room:

a letter from audrey hepburn.  kubrick had asked her to be in "barry lyndon" but sadly she was unable to act in it.  marisa berenson ended up with role and was beautiful as lady lyndon.  my friend shawn pointed out the letter to me and we both decided that the film was better off without a big name like hepburn in it.

"a clockwork orange" was the first kubrick film i saw.  so was excited about all of the props from that film:

love the eyeball cuffs!!!!!

in the clockwork orange room, i attempted to give my friends, shawn and chrissie, a quick tidbit about kubrick's adaption of the novel but forgot how it went.  i googled to refresh my memory.  so here it goes:  kubrick's film omits the ending of the novel.  burgess had this whole theory about cycles and numbers and wrote the novel as three cycles of seven chapters.  however, american publishers did not think americans would buy the ending in which alex reforms of his own will, so they omitted it. the version that kubrick read was the american was so his adaption does not have the compete ending.

"the shining" room was seriously creepy with all of its props.  though i have to admit that i was disappointed that the big wheel was not in there.

if you read my shining post, you know i loved the fashion in it.  so was excited to see this:

dr. strangelove:

this picture is from a pie fight scene that was cut.  even though this photo is amazing, i do agree that the pie fight would have caused the film to lose some of its edge.

full metal jacket:

and last but not least, "eyes wide shut":

i also made some instavideoes which i will post later.

but as you can see the exhibit was amazing and i hope you were able to see it (if you live in la).

2001: space odyssey

what does it all mean?!?!? this was my initial thought i had at the end of stanley kubrick's "2001:  a space odyssey".  my second thought was what was with the weird baby in the sphere?  that was creepy.  i of course googled and it turns out (according to my favorite, wikipedia) kubrick didn't want there to be a meaning.  he wanted it to be open to interpretation.  so here is mine:

god is not like the judeo christain god.  also heaven is not some spirit realm but simply jupiter.  on jupiter, time faster than on earth, an earth year the same as like a 15 jupiter minutes.  this is why bowman ages so quickly after he lands on jupiter.  the home that looks like a persian home (if you have persian friends you know what i mean) that bowman enters is god's home.  god collects souls from earth and puts them on jupiter and then sends them back to earth as spirits as creepy babies. a little part hinduism and a whole lot of sci-fi.  also those black monoliths.  god throws them down whenever he needs life to accelerate aka creatures are lagging, so life can advance within a time frame he deems appropriate.   

so that is my explanation of "2001 space odyssey", please share yours in the comments!

continuing with my interpretation, the first monolith appeared because the prehistoric primates were not working at the pace god need them to.  at the rate they were going, we would have never became humans.  but what i really enjoyed that portion because it demonstrated what was needed in order for man to progress.  and that is meat. i read at the natural history museum of los angeles that the introduction of meat into prehistoric man's diet caused for their brains to grow.  and of course brain growth is important in the development of any species.  so meat actually is very important.  all vegans and vegetarians you should reconsider your current diets.  and of course this was seen in the film, first they discovered tools to help with hunting.  then with meat being their primary source of food, they became stronger and then ruled that little area!

ps one of my teachers had us watch the above clip.  it may have been mr. myovich.  i remember being like what, are we watching?  but now it makes sense.

and yes that cut from the bone floating in the air to the spaceship floating in space was spectacular.

sadly, kubrick's vision of 2001 was a lot better than actual 2001 did not include commercial space trips to the moon, or even spaceships that looked cool like his sets.  but there were some things that we now have in 2013, so we aren't that pathetic in terms of our technology.  though we didn't have any of this stuff in 2001.  first of all, skype/facetime!  seeing people facetime today is amazing, i can only imagine how amazed audiences were back in '68 when dr. floyd had a video phone chat with his daughter.  another thing is navigation, though not in spaceships but in cars.  i mean honestly imagine having to get directions from a map?  how tedious and confusing, navigation has seriously changed the world and how we drive.  last but not least on board the spaceship, i noticed that astronauts watched the news on tablets.  and i mean we kinda beat 2001 in terms of this, their astronauts had them but today our average joe has one, well if he can afford it.  the last thing i noticed, though it wasn't too technological was the food service for the flight to the moon.  it was juice. and oddly, enough juice is quite a trendy thing right now. with the diet crowd, juicing is the way of the future.  i think of all of the juiceries in la right now.  it might only be a fad but when you are drinking it, ti's kinda like the future.

this film was great because its a psychological thriller.  i mean HAL is scarier than that any villain, monster or killer.  it's a machine and when it kills, it has absolutely no remorse, cos it's a machine.  the scene where it kills the astronauts that were hibernating was simple yet brilliant.  all we watched were their vital signs diminishing but it scared me.  imagine being murdered while hibernating, you have no knowledge of your death.  you have no idea you are dying, how scary is that.  it's a lot when you think about it.  or when it killed the other astronaut that went to fix that battery thingy.  i mean i think that is the scariest death, floating out in space for all eternity.  can you imagine that?  it's endless, you just have to float.  i would hate to end up like that.  again too much to think about.  this is what i enjoyed most about HAL and his evil, was that on the surface it was weird but when you think about it, it's seriously frightening.

i am often told that this movie is boring but i thought it was brilliant.  and that is just the content.  visually and musically, this movie was amazing.  all of the scenes in space soundtracked by waltz are perfection.  i mean even with it being referenced so many time in pop culture, i still got chills when i listened to the music and watched the spaceships float through space.  it was just beautiful.

all in all, an extremely enjoyable film. and i look forward to seeing the "2001: space odyssey" portion of the lacma exhibit.