Stanley Kubrick was a U.S. film director, screenwriter, and producer. Kubrick is generally regarded as the most influential filmmaker in cinematic history. The Design Museum in London is hosting a career-spanning retrospective of the director’s work.
Running to mark the twentieth anniversary of Kubrick’s death, the exhibition features original props, costumes, set models, posters, scripts, research materials, correspondence between Kubrick and his collaborators.
Kubrick’s movies expand a range of genres, from sci-fi to historical; from war to satire. His movies are regarded for their realism, dark humor, unique cinematography, strong attention to detail, and evocative use of music.
Such was Kubrick’s attention to detail that gaps between his movies became increasingly long as he worked on every detail. The film-making process was similarly unhurried, with Kubrick often insisting on multiple takes with scenes filmed from different angles and perspectives.
One example of Kubrick’s focus on detail relates to his final film Eyes Wide Shut. There’s one scene where Tom Cruise’s character enters a New York building apartment through a red doorway, accompanied by a hooker. The movie was actually shot in London, and to get the door just right Kubrick walked around London looking at several hundred doors until he found the one he liked and then had the door replicated at Pinewood studios. The red door appears in the final movie for less than five seconds.
Kubrick, by all accounts, collected as many items as possible relating to his movies (those that were released and those which remained in the design concept stage). Kubrick rarely threw anything away, a habit that provides the exhibition with a rich array of items to display.
Kubrick was a fastidious editor, and followed the dictum that the true movie making process, and ultimately whether a movie had worth, was made in the editing suite.
The show charts Kubrick’s story with a number of themed rooms, each based around a different one of his films. For example, clothes worn during his production of Spartacus (1960):
And from Full Metal Jacket (1987):
Among Kubrick’s great movies is 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), based on the novel by Arthur C. Clarke. There are several large set pieces on display, including a futuristic Hilton hotel suite.
Another well-renowned movie is The Shining, Kubrick’s horror movie based on the Stephen King book. Included here is the typewriter that Jack Nicholson’s character uses, ostensibly writing a book but in reality being driven mad by sinister presence.
Some movies sparked controversy, such as Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), for its anti-war message.
And A Clockwork Orange (1971), starring (Malcolm McDowell, and which employs disturbing, violent images in a dystopian near-future society. Kubrick withdrew the movie from release during his lifetime due to some apparent copycat acts of violence.
There were sections devoted to films that Kubrick was working on but did not complete (most famously, A.I. Artifice Intelligence which was completed after Kubrick’s death by Steven Spielberg), and those concepts that remained captured in his notebooks. The movie that Kubrick worked on for the most time was a biographic of Napoleon, which he worked on for over thirty years. Apparently Spielberg is to develop a television series based on Kubrick’s notes, paying homage to Kubrick’s style.
The exhibition is superb, and provides plenty for Kubrick admirers, those interested in design, or the art of film making – or those who are curious to know what all the fuss is about and why Kubrick is generally acknowledged as the most innovative movie director of all time. ‘Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition’ runs at The Design Museum, London until the end of September 2019.
