![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() He even sort of handled the wardrobe - for all his dressing low-key, Stanley actually loved clothes. On his films, he did everything: fix the sound machine, operate the camera. Once a symbol of civility and domestic uniformity, they’re worn to chilling effect in the film, and well…the rest is history. The documentary shows photographs of his gang of droogs trying on every hat going in an effort for Kubrick to pick the ‘most sinister’ for 1971’s A Clockwork Orange, before settling on the infamous bowler that would become synonymous with sociopathic Alex DeLarge. ![]() All his films after and including 2001…followed a similar vein, with Kubrick getting involved in everything that went on. His location photographer Manuel Harlan (also his nephew Kubrick liked to keep a tight ship) estimates there were 30,000 photographs at one point “the whole of London.” A year of documentation, Kubrick purveyed them all “with tremendous excitement.” His obituaries liberally spotted with words like perfectionist and recluse, Kubrick didn’t need to go out because the whole world came to him – literally – in a box. The documentary, filmed at the Kubrick household in St Albans, England – one half of the house taken up by these boxes, relics – explores among other things the photographic research for 1999’s Eyes Wide Shut, everything from doorways to mortuaries and “every costume shop in the South East of England”. Those who have also seen author Jon Ronson’s 2008 documentary Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes, will however be familiar with the extreme obsessions of the master director himself. I am reminded of a Kubrick quote from his famous 1968 Playboy interview about 2001: A Space Odyssey, “The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning.” Its true meaning is tied in with the genocide of Native Americans, because of the imagery throughout associated with the American West – for instance, cans of Calumet Baking Powder noticeable in the background of two central scenes – because a calumet is a ceremonial pipe, and the cans featured the image of a Native American, therefore American imperialism is the subtext of the film, duh. By now any conspiracy weirdo worth his salt – I’m looking at you – has seen Room 237 – the Rodney Ascher documentary about interpretations of Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 stone cold classic The Shining. ![]()
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