The Playlist

M. Night Shyamalan Loves 'The Last Picture Show,' Says His Film Taste Is More Antonioni & Kubrick Than You Might Expect

By Kevin Jagernauth
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April 11, 2013 12:41 PM
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5 Comments

News

M. Night Shyamalan has had one of the more -- interesting? controversial? -- trajectories of any filmmaker in recent memory. While no one remembers his first two movies ("Wide Awake," "Praying With Anger"), it was 1999's "The Sixth Sense" that made him a sensation, with many calling him the next Alfred Hitchcock or Steven Spielberg. While that hasn't held up, Shyamalan continued to mine the supernatural twist genre to increasingly diminishing returns, wearing out his audience's taste for third act reveals by the time "The Happening" and its sinister trees arrived. Lately, he's dove into full blown tentpole land with the nearly unwatchable "The Last Airbender" and this summer's "After Earth," but is Shyamalan secretly an arthouse filmmaker lost in the blockbuster world?

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Watch: Already Visited 'Room 237'? Dive Deep Into The Apollo 11 Theory With Doc 'The Shining Code 2.0'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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March 29, 2013 11:42 AM
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3 Comments

News

Today, Rodney Ascher's "Room 237" arrives in theaters (review here), and it deliver an outrageous serving of theories around Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" that position the masterpiece as anything but a horror film. With the Holocaust, the treatment of Native Americans and sexual abuse among the many topics discussed as the "real" meaning behind the movie, one other popular interpretation is that the "The Shining" is Kubrick's confession of sorts that he was involved with faking the moon landing. It's far fetched to say the least, but if you really want to dig deep into that notion, well, you certainly can.

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Stanley Kubrick Pal Dismisses 'Room 237' Theories, Armond White Says Film Is "End Of Cinephilia"

By Charlie Schmidlin
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March 28, 2013 9:03 AM
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9 Comments

News

Some details from within a film production serve to heighten the project's legend overall: the genius of “Jaws” only increased when the film's original gameplan -- a fully functional shark -- failed to manifest itself for Steven Spielberg and co. But the opposite has been true with Stanley Kubrick's “The Shining,” as now another crewmember has come to debunk the myriad theories and meanings behind the director's film -- starting with those featured in Rodney Ascher's upcoming documentary “Room 237.”

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23.7 Facts About Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining'

By Kieran McMahon
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March 26, 2013 12:55 PM
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16 Comments

Features

You know that a film is a lasting classic when it can sustain another entire film being made about it. Be it "Citizen Kane," "Psycho" or "Apocalypse Now," many of the great movies have themselves been the subject of films (sometimes successfully, sometimes less so), and the latest to get the treatment is Stanley Kubrick's classic horror "The Shining," with the release this Friday of documentary "Room 237."

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Listen: 11-Minute Interview With Stanley Kubrick Discussing 'Barry Lyndon,' 'The Shining' & 'Full Metal Jacket'

By Joe Cunningham
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March 13, 2013 10:39 AM
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5 Comments

News

He’s one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, so if there’s ever a chance to hear more from Stanley Kubrick about the art of filmmaking then it would be crazy not to listen. An 11-minute interview with Kubrick has surfaced from a conversation he had with French film critic Michel Ciment, in which he specifically discusses “Barry Lyndon,” “The Shining” and “Full Metal Jacket.”

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'The Doomsday Machine'? Take A Look Stanley Kubrick’s Diary Page Of Alternate 'Dr. Strangelove' Titles

By Tess Hofmann
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March 8, 2013 11:04 AM
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0 Comments

News

It’s hard to imagine that the iconic “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” could have come wrapped in a different title, but here is hard evidence that a few other possibilities crossed Stanley Kubrick’s mind.

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The Lost & Unmade Projects Of Stanley Kubrick

By Kevin Jagernauth
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March 4, 2013 11:59 AM
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15 Comments

Features

Cinephiles woke up on Sunday to some exciting and unexpected news about a project from a filmmaker who continues to inspire debate and discussion more than a decade after this death. Steven Spielberg announced he would be taking Stanley Kubrick’s unmade, long-in-development “Napoleon” and bringing it to television as a miniseries. This is nothing short of monumental news, but as devotees of Kubrick know, it’s just one of a handful of projects that he either decided not to make or never got the chance to.

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Steven Spielberg Developing Stanley Kubrick's Dream Project 'Napoleon' As TV Miniseries

By Kevin Jagernauth
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March 3, 2013 12:13 PM
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18 Comments

Television

Even though he put "Robopocalypse" on hold to figure out the script, 2013 is still shaping up to be a very busy and exciting year for Steven Spielberg. He was recently named as the jury president for the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, he's producing "Jurassic Park IV," which stomps back into theaters next year, he's working with Tom Hanks on another "Band Of Brothers"-esque series for HBO, and now he's making an unrealized dream project from one of the greatest filmmakers of all time come back to life.

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Watch: Compelling Trailer For Book 'Stanley Kubrick & Me'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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February 27, 2013 12:18 PM
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0 Comments

News

Believe it or not, we actually do find time to read books here at The Playlist. Of course, given our interests, many of those books tend to be about movies and here's one we'd really like to get a hold of.

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Stanley Kubrick's Favorite Films Included 'The Jerk,' 'White Men Can't Jump' & 'Modern Romance'

By Ken Guidry
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February 13, 2013 9:18 AM
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20 Comments

News

Anyone who is fan of Stanley Kubrick is aware of the fact that he was a very private man. He rarely did interviews, and his process is as discussed as it remained elusive. He was painstakingly meticulous, a perfectionist, and many would assume that Mr. Kubrick was a serious man both on and off the set. There are many indications, however, that suggest otherwise. Over at Criterion, Joshua Warren has compiled a list of Stanley Kubrick’s favorite films, a list he gathered from interviews with friends, family, and colleagues as well as from an interview Kubrick did about fifty years ago. While there are certainly a fair amount of high-brow titles on the list, you may be surprised to learn just how… diverse it is.

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