acoolsha
Stanley Kubrick
Retrospective and exhibition in the Deutsches Filmmuseum and the Deutsches Architektur Museum from 31 March to 4 July 2004, Frankfurt, Germany.
www.stanleykubrick.de
Lolita 25 April 04
Section: kubrick
Categories: Film / in-a-cinema
In Charlotte Haze’s house two small reproductions of paintings on back walls, Cézannes or imitations of Cézanne, one upstairs and one downstairs, are visually pivotal in most of the key scenes between her and Humbert. Maybe it’s just me and my feeling for Cézanne, but these images anchor the scenes into an even broader and more resonant emotional range than the one the two characters find themselves in.
While giving Humbert a tour of her bedroom, Charlotte Haze refers to her collection of reproductions of European art, mentioning and pointing to a Dufy and a Van Gogh, but a glare makes them hard to see. The Cézanne-like painting is visible and centrally placed on the wall beyond the bed.
It looked like House and Tree near the Road of the Hermitage, Pontoise. At first it reminded me of the The House of the Hanged man, in Auvers-sur-Oise, but they are two different houses. The bed in her bedroom is more or less enclosed in a triangular space formed by the Cézanne, the Van Gogh, and the mini-shrine Charlotte put up around her late husband’s ashes.
Downstairs in the dining area there is a small reproduction which reminded me of one of the Boy in a Red Waistcoat paintings. That painting of the adolescent boy is almost always visible during the scenes there with Charlotte and Humbert, such as her attempt to seduce him.
The most important painting in the film is a Gainsborough-like portrait of a young woman which is shot more explicitly in the foreground.
Speaking of the attempted-seduction scene: when Charlotte is backing Humbert up against the wall he is banging up noisily against what looked like an antique bed warmer.
I was curious about the bed warmer and found the one that approximated it the most was a Napoleon bed warmer, an interesting coincidence in light of Kubrick’s long-term interest in Napoleon and his plans to make a film on him; that in turn led me to this alleged screenplay fragment [note 14 Oct. 05: the link is currently dead], and this 1969 interview with Kubrick.
Some names from Lolita, besides Prof. Humbert Humbert and Charlotte Haze:
Clare Quilty (Peter Sellers), Dr. Cuddler, Mr. Swine, Dr. Love, Dr. Sempf (pronounced in the film like “Senf,” German for mustard), Miss Starch, Miss Fromkiss, Miss Lebone, and Camp Climax.
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
Screenplay by: Vladimir Nabokov (and Stanley Kubrick, uncredited)
Starring: James Mason, Shelley Winters, Sue Lyon, Peter Sellers, and many more
Cinematography: Oswald Morris
Music Composed by: Gerald Fried
Produced by: James B. Harris
Music by: Bob Harris, Nelson Riddle
Year: 1962
Cinema: Filmmuseum, Frankfurt
- Title: Lolita
Permalink :: kubrick/192/Lolita
Kubrick Trailers and "Making of" films 24 April 04
Section: kubrick
Categories: Film / in-a-cinema
The original trailers for all of Kubrick’s films were shown.
A video documentary made by his daughter Vivian during the making of The Shining was also shown… some time ago I was given a copy of that by a friend.
Of interest was a film on the making of Dr. Strangelove:
- The well-known German set designer Ken Adam drove a Jaguar which Kubrick liked, so Adam used to pick him up and drive him to the studio every morning in it: but Kubrick wouldn’t let him drive faster than 30 mph.
- The title designer Pablo Ferro did the titles for the film with Kubrick: the first try didn’t work well because the smaller titles did not hold up well against the… engaging… footage of the planes refueling in air. Kubrick asked Ferro to try something else, so he did a draft by hand of larger titles to be put on top of the footage. Kubrick liked the hand-written draft itself so much that he used it as it was, superimposed in white on the images. But there was one little error which remained in the final version.
- To do the aerial footage for the bomb squadrons the production company organized a plane and for flights over Greenland. On one of the flights they filmed from a bay window in the plane which couldn’t be heated: upon returning the film had frozen and turned to powder.
They once mistakenly flew over a secret U.S. military base: fighter jets pursued the plane and accompanied them out of the area. On the side of the plane was painted in full view of the fighter pilots: Dr. Strangelove.
- The premiere of the film was scheduled for 22 November 1963—the assassination of Kennedy changed that. They had to postpone the premiere for a few months. They also had to change a line in the film: when Slim Pickens’ character Maj. Kong says “a fella could have a good time in Vegas with that…” (referring to the survival kit with condoms, gum and nylons, etc.), if you watch his lips you can see that he in fact originally said ”...a good time in Dallas.”
- After Reagan became elected president and was about to move into the White House, he asked his chief of staff to check out the war room for him… to which his chief of staff said, but Mr President, there isn’t a war room in the White House, to which Reagan said that he had seen that there was in that film, referring to Dr. Strangelove.
- Title: Kubrick Trailers and "Making of" films
Permalink :: kubrick/191/Kubrick Trailers and "Making of" films