Thompson on Hollywood

'Room 237' Review: Why I Hated, Then Admired 'Shining' Doc

Reviews

A funny thing happened on the way to reviewing “Room 237.” When I first watched Rodney Ascher’s documentary about fanatical theories on Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” I found it so patience-testing and angering that I had to turn it off at the halfway point. When I watched it a second time, obligated for reviewing purposes to watch it through its conclusion, I was slowly yet surely drawn into its heady, dreamlike and often absurd layers. What gives?

By Beth Hanna
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March 28, 2013 6:54 AM
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LACMA Kubrick Sidebar Goes 'Beyond the Infinite' with Director's Cut of Mike Hodges' 'The Terminal Man'

News

As a footnote to its ongoing Stanley Kubrick exhibit, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is currently hosting a series entitled "Beyond the Infinite: Science Fiction After Stanley Kubrick." The program gathers ten films that followed the seminal work of the genre, Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968).

By Ryan Lattanzio
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March 26, 2013 7:02 AM
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Kubrick's Unmade 'Dr. Jazz,' Portrait of Swing-Loving Nazi Officer

News

With news of Steven Spielberg taking over Stanley Kubrick's unmade dream project "Napoleon" as a TV mini-series, a fascinating article over at The Atlantic looks at another Kubrick project that never saw the light. "Swing Under the Nazis," written by Mike Zwerin and published in 1985, caught the director's eye due to a photo therein of a Luftwaffe officer posing with Jewish, black and Gypsy musicians outside a Paris jazz club. Kubrick thought the provocative image had a "Dr. Strangelove" feel, and gave the budding project a similar title: "Dr. Jazz."

By Beth Hanna
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March 25, 2013 2:22 PM
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Spielberg Developing Kubrick's Abandoned 'Napoleon' as Miniseries

Television

This year's Cannes jury president Steven Spielberg has begun developing Stanley Kubrick's "Napoleon" screenplay as a miniseries. Spielberg, who collaborated with Kubrick on 2001's "A.I.," is working with Kubrick's family to bring the abandoned 1970s project to TV.

By Anne Thompson and Beth Hanna
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March 4, 2013 12:39 PM
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LACMA Presents Far-Out Film Series 'Beyond the Infinite: Science Fiction After Kubrick' [Vintage Trailers]

News

LACMA's highly successful engagement with the Stanley Kubrick exhibition is now in its second half, and the museum's always creative film programmer Bernardo Rondeau has put together the coinciding screening series "Beyond the Infinite: Science Fiction After Kubrick." It runs March 22 - April 6, and includes Andrei Tarkovksy's "Solaris," Nicolas Roeg's "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (starring David Bowie) and Saul Bass' "Phase IV," including the lost alternate ending recently unveiled at Austin's Alamo Drafthouse. Vintage trailers for all films in the series below.

By Beth Hanna
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February 27, 2013 2:36 PM
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Watch: Top Ten Charlie Rose Director Interviews, Kubrick on '2001: A Space Odyssey' (VIDEO)

Interviews

The Cinephile Archive has posted a round-up of the top ten Charlie Rose interviews on film directors - beginning with George Lucas, then Alfred Hitchcock, James Cameron, Steve Jobs and John Lasseter, Quentin Tarantino, Stanley Kubrick, Roman Polanski, Oliver Stone, Tim Burton, and Werner Herzog.

By Maggie Lange
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January 28, 2013 2:21 PM
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Saul Bass' Original Sketches for 'The Shining' Poster, with Kubrick's Handwritten Notes

News

Check out these haunting, fine-point Saul Bass sketches for Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining." Reportedly Bass showed Kubrick 300 different versions before the director settled on the original poster design...

By Beth Hanna
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December 12, 2012 1:38 PM
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Things I Learned at the Kubrick LACMA Exhibit, from Weegee to NASA Technology

Reviews

Give yourself plenty of time to check out the Stanley Kubrick exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It's huge. And it rewards drilling into the details. There's a room devoted to each film, and they wouldn't let me take pictures (although @BrettRatner managed to sneak a few on Twitter). My appointment for the exhibit was set for 5:30 PM, with the museum set to close at 7 PM. I had barely started "2001: A Space Odyssey" with its giant gimble and 38-ton centrifuge created by space engineers when they announced the museum was about to close.

By Anne Thompson
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November 18, 2012 7:51 PM
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Kubrick's Early Odyssey: 'Fear and Desire' and 'Killer's Kiss'

Features

As the much-anticipated Stanley Kubrick exhibition opened at LACMA on November 1, the museum hosts a parallel film retrospective of the director's 13 feature films, screening in chronological order. This puts Kubrick's two least-seen yet remarkable works, "Fear and Desire" and "Killer's Kiss," as the inaugural double-header for the film series on November 9.

By Beth Hanna
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November 9, 2012 3:13 PM
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Trailers from Hell: Adam Rifkin on One of Kubrick's Best, 'The Shining'

Video

Pre-Halloween Horrors! week concludes at Trailers from Hell with writer-director Adam Rifkin introducing Stanley Kubrick's tour-de-force in domestic horror, "The Shining."