Stanley Kubrick: Taming Light

Started by MacGuffin, October 02, 2009, 01:25:49 PM

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MacGuffin




Artists Celebrate Stanley Kubrick in Dublin
by Monika Bartyzel; Cinematical

I adore movies because they encompass the whole world and allow you to titillate a myriad of interests without having to hone in on just one. (Same with writing -- why pick one slice of life when you can write about them all!?) But there's a side-love -- the art that comes out of cinema. Whether it's seeing a director's vision narrowed down to one particular image (David Lynch's photography!), or seeing what a filmmaker inspires in others. It's like having a fan conversation through the eyes. It could invite you to see a film in a new way, or simply pull you back into the filmmaker's world.

Or, to end all of the lead-up: Film-inspired art can inspire some pretty freakin' awesome imagery! The above photo is part of a new exhibit called Stanley Kubrick: Taming Light. Running all this month at the Light House Cinema in Dublin, the show features paintings, photography, and illustrations inspired by the filmmaker behind classics like A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket. And of course, you've got to realize where the above picture comes from -- it's the Grady Twin Daughters from The Shining. "Thirty Years Later" from photographer Annie Atkins, and it not only runs with Kubrick inspiration, but also succeeds in replicating the creepy simplicity from the film -- the vacant look, the dingy lighting.

http://kubricktaminglight.com/






"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Pubrick

checked out the rest of the gallery (suggest you view it full screen at the actual site), and i gotta say those ones shown above are sort of representative of the collection but not at all the best -- apart from the xmas 2004 one. i think it's pretty interesting to see these images as a reflection of ppl's understanding of kubrick. the best images i believe have come from ppl who have a really great insight about the man's work or at least about a particular film.

my reaction to the gallery ranges from a good laugh at an inside joke, to the kind of boredom i feel when someone says that Clork is their favourite film, to acknowledgement of another person's focus on what i also thought was the most important aspect of a certain film..

in no particular order, the following were noteworthy..


"Untitled" by Mike Ahern
this is the only good one of the Clockwork ones. i like its economical summary of the film's opening sequence. the tracking shot is shown by the parallel lines leading to the focus point of the milk. the circular spot in the top right corner, i think is like the asymmetricality of Alex's face, the way his make up highlights his right eye, and the way his actual being offsets the order of the world around him.


"The Money Shot" by Ciara Maguire
what the fuck is this? it's the complete opposite of the previous pic in that the title is essential to making any sense of it. the money shot that interests me are the two most imporant money shots in kubrick's work: the assassination of the sniper by the coward private joker, and the entire film EWS. both films could be screened as a pair under the title "The Money Shot". i've said elsewhere (and many others have too) that the climax of FMJ could be seen as a pornographic event, the ambush of the sniper is the final gangbang which legitimizes the Lusthog's quest for flesh, and the focus point of the entire event being the cumshot we only see reflected on joker's face. the entirety of EWS is the antithesis, but somehow exact follow up to this moment and this climax: we don't actually come. the entire film is like being born into and dying in the middle of an epic orgasm, we don't see the beginning or the end of the event, we are withheld arousal and we are denied true satisfaction in the form of narrative release. we don't know anything, we don't see anything, we are being fucked -- that is the one certainty. this piece reminded me of that with only a hint of FMJ-green, so for this i give it mad props.

isn't this fun? some of them are just too literal, and others too easy to figure out..


"Untitled" by Evan Doherty
this one is obviously what it would look like from outside the Harford apartment when Alice is confessing her fantasy. it's commendable but the kind of thing you'd write for an essay if you had no interest in the subject and just wanted to show you have some understanding of the basic points: we're outside, she's inside.. seeing/not-seeing.. bah. the only thing of interest here is the pattern of the brick above the window, it warps perspective just a little, suggesting more dimensions than the flat wall reveals, and the same basic point (still interesting but not that insightful) that there is more to things than meets the eye.

this is probably my favourite:

"Christmas Morning 2004" by David Cleary
is this for the christmas? 2004 makes me think this guy had a few pics lying around from some other exhibit that rejected him and he had a chance to make them relevant here. well it works. i think the idea of 2004 goes perfectly with the ending of EWS. if the film is set in the late 90s, and little helena is around 6-8 years old, then 2004 may well be the last time the child sees christmas with any kind of innocence. the backdrop of christmas is held up throughout the film with a certain awareness of its cheap sentiment and commercial usefulness. the time of year when consumers are under the illusion of SALES and FREE GIFTS but the ones really benefiting from the mass splurging of wealth are the ones on top -- check out the puppet master dangling some toys in front of the crowd as they enter the toy store in the final scene, keeping them amused and disoriented while they experience the gruen transfer and begin to walk along the aisles like some kind of robot procession . 2004 may well be the year helena begins to wake up.

the rest are either just literal (eg. all the ones posted by mac -- except for xmas2004), boring, or downright embarrassing.
under the paving stones.