KUBRICK at LACMA

As the stunning Kubrick exhibition prepares to depart Los Angeles, here is a quick tour (with some additional photos). Think of this as a prelude to a future perambulation through the Kubrickian maze….

SHINING maze

“Essentially the film is a mythological statement. Its meaning has to be found on a sort of visceral, psychological level, rather than in a specific, literal explanation.” — Stanley Kubrick.

The altering eye: Kubrick’s cameras and lenses

From Kubrick’s photos of New York life in the 1940s in Look magazine:

Cartoonist Peter Arno with model

Deep space and wide angles — Kubrick signatures

The Shining

The following shot — a Kubrick favorite

Full Metal Jacket

Sterling Hayden and Coleen Gray

Kubrick's chess set and "Paths of Glory"

The art of strategy — the strategist in art. On set and onscreen Kubrick always had a chess game in progress (here in Paths of Glory)

On location shooting Paths of Glory

Storyboards for "Spartacus" by Saul Bass

The patterns of war: storyboards for Spartacus by the legendary Saul Bass

Costume for Crassus (Laurence Olivier)

The Senate set

Matte painting for Spartacus by the legendary Peter Ellenshaw

Finished scene

Shooting Spartacus

Contemplating James Mason contemplating Lolita….

…. and Lolita contemplating us…..

Kubrick and Sue Lyon (Lolita) photographing the iconic scene

Promotional shot of Sue Lyon by Bert Stern

(More photos from Bert Stern’s legendary shoot can be found here).

Designing Armageddon: model of the War Room set from Dr. Strangelove

Copy of source material for Dr. Strangelove, with Kubrick’s notes for possible film titles

Riding the Bomb

Who says doomsday is the end of the world?

Peter Sellers filming Kubrick playing chess with George C. Scott on set of Dr. Strangelove

Polish poster for "2001: A Space Odyseey"

Polish poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey

2001 co-author Arthur C. Clarke with Kubrick on set

Stargazer….

Designing movement for the Dawn of Man

Intuitive thinking... ("2001: A Space Odyssey")

Grasping new concepts (2001: A Space Odyssey)

2001 in 1968

Model of the giant centrifuge set

The real thing

Filming inside the centrifuge set

Caution: Unattended Monolith

Early thoughts were to “fly” the monolith with wires. This idea was later abandoned.

Suspended model of the White Room ("2001")

The alien in the familiar: suspended model of the White Room where Man takes the next step in his evolution (2001: A Space Odyssey)

One possible future of Man —

or another —

Even mannequin Alex inspires unease (A Clockwork Orange)

Design sketch for Alex’s room

Fallout from the film led to Kubrick withdrawing it from circulation in the UK for 27 years. I had to travel to Paris to see it for the first time, dubbed into French

Set design sketches by John Barry

Got milk?

In which our Hero lies amidst the illusions of his invulnerability (Barry Lyndon)

Kubrick would use location photos to storyboard, as with this shot of a carriage

Capturing candlelight -- the camera for "Barry Lyndon", complete with high speed Zeiss lens

Customized camera and lens for capturing the impossible beauty of Barry Lyndon

“My candle burns at both ends

It will not last the night;

But oh, my foes, and ah, my friends —

It gives a lovely light.”

Early poster design by Saul Bass

Kubrick and Jack Nicholson on set

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” (The Shining)

“Helloooo, DANNY!”

What critic Michael Ciment calls “the return of the repressed”, a strand of behaviour that weaves throughout Kubrick’s work, becoming a murderous psychosis signalled by a telltale look: