Sunday, December 28, 2014

MY TOUR OF TORONTO EDITION OF THE KUBRICK EXHIBIT!

Well, I finally made it! The Toronto edition of the world-renowned Kubrick Exhibit, which can be visited until the end of January at the beautiful TIFF Bell/Lightbox building in the heart of Toronto's bustling entertainment district. 

I'm no photographer, unfortunately, so you'll have to excuse the roughness of the photographs below. They frankly fail to capture the magnificent splendor on display at this massive collection of unparalleled cinematic delights. Even so, I'm going to keep my comments to a minimum, letting the props and artifacts from Stanley Kubrick's movies do most of the talking for themselves.

I hope you enjoy my report at least a fraction as much as I enjoyed assembling it for your perusal, and I urge any of you reading this, if at all possible, to make your way down to the Kubrick Exhibit and take it in for yourselves. 
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Here I am at the threshold, kissing a giant Star Child poster, waiting for the doors to open with my buddy Spider-Man, who accompanied me on this journey and took this photo...

SMOOCH!
And here's my ticket...
A BARGAIN AT TWICE THE PRICE
The TIFF gift-shop was nicely stocked with Kubrick-related knick-knacks, from which I selected Taschen's legendary Stanley Kubrick Archives. I'll have an in-depth review of this incredible book in the near future. Keep watching this space!

AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES
Stan the Man's chair, which every Kubrick fan has surely seen in photographs before. And there it was, in the flesh... or splinters, so to speak.

NICE!
Before checking out the exhibit proper, Spidey and I snuck into the back section ans spied this selection of Kubrick's clapboards. 

  

The first official item on the exhibit schedule? Kubrick's Oscar for 2001's special effects and his Career Gold Lion from the Venice Film Festival for his full body of work.

NOT REPLICAS - THE REAL DEAL



Next, fittingly, is his favorite chess set, which he carried with him from film to film, playing everyone from Scatman Crothers to George C. Scott.

IF THESE PAWNS COULD ONLY TALK
And now, we get into the films.

THE EARLY YEARS

Sorry for how blurry these are. We see here a script from Fear and Desire, as well as reviews, ads and other press clippings from Fear and Desire, Killer's Kiss and Paths of Glory. I hereby apologize for failing to get any usable images from their section on The Killing.

FEAR AND DESIRE EPHEMERA 
INCORPORATING MINOTAUR PRODUCTIONS
MORE AD COPY
INVENTIVE USE OF SANDBAGS FOR THE PATHS OF GLORY EXHIBIT
SCRIPTS WITH HAND-WRITTEN REVISIONS
THE ORIGINAL POSTER
METICULOUS PLANNING
A CLOSER DETAIL
SPARTACUS

Even though Kubrick thought of his work on Spartacus as a that of a hired gun, it still stands out as the very best of the sword and sandal epics of the day. It gave new meaning to the term "costume drama", setting a standard for that particular genre that wouldn't be beat until... perhaps Barry Lyndon?

ROMAN SPLENDOR AND THE STYLISH SENATE
 
BEAUTIFUL COLORFUL STORYBOARDS
ORGANIZING THE CORPSES OF AFTERMATH
LOLITA

NELSON RIDDLE'S SCORE PLAYS ON
WHITE VINYL AND PINK PAPER
EVEN THE WORKING SCRIPTS WERE PINK
DR. STRANGELOVE 
OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING 
AND LOVE THE BOMB

The centerpiece of the Strangelove Room was this beautiful scale model reproduction of Ken Adams' fantastic War Room set. And that light above it sure looks familiar, too, don't it?

SPIDEY GOES IN FOR A CLOSE-UP
"RED ALERT" BY PETER GEORGE
INSIDE THE WAR ROOM MODEL
THE INFAMOUS SURVIVAL KIT
Even though it was filmed, Kubrick eventually decided to scrap the custard pie fight between the various leadership factions of the American military due to a number of factors. I think he made the right decision - obviously, seeing as Strangelove comes as close to perfection as any film before or since. Anyway, if nothing else, we at least got a very cute photo of Stanley's wife, Christiane, out of it.

THE LOVELY CHRISTIANE K. COCKS A CREAM PIE
Here's an artifact that really stuck with me. It's an invitation and program for a special preview screening of Dr. Strangelove that was to be held on November 22nd, 1963. Try to guess why this event had to be cancelled (and certain sections of the film, altered).

NO PEEKING!
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

By far the most space - two full rooms! - was allotted to Kubrick's 1968 magnum opus, 2001: A Space Odyssey. I'm really annoyed at myself for failing to get a good shot of the scale model replica of the Monolith, and I decided not to be a dick by trying to sneak a forbidden shot of some crazy camera lens that was on loan to the exhibit with strict instructions that a guard be on hand at all times to stop people snapping pics. some of this material was new to me, including the first shot...
AN INSPIRATIONAL ART INSTALLATION
MOONWATCHER FROM THE DAWN OF MAN SEQUENCE
THE ACTUAL EMEREFIN' STARCHILD
FULL BODY COSTUME
SPIDEY GIVES EVOLUTION A TRY
HAL 9000
SPIDEY SPIES A SCALE MODEL OF THE DISCOVERY
SCALE MODEL OF THE CENTRIFUGE SET
THINK IT'D FIT ME?
GORGEOUS BESPOKE FUTURE UTENSILS
UNUSED STARGATE CONCEPT ART

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

The most controversial entry in Kubrick's entire oeuvre - except in France, where Paths of Glory was banned until the late 1970's over its portrayal of the officer class - A Clockwork Orange is also quite possibly his most popular at this moment in history (with The Shining running a very close second). 

"PARDON ME, LUCE"
FULL DROOG REGALIA
DEFINITELY NOT A PITIFUL PORTABLE PICNIC PLAYER
AN AL HIRSCHFELD ORIGINAL
FUTURE FURNISHINGS AND TRES CHIC OBJETS D'ART
AIRBRUSH ART FOR PROMO PURPOSES
DITTO
BARRY LYNDON

  


THE SHINING

What with the documentary film Room 237 being so popular, and Kubrick continuing to be a popular subject of paracultural conspiracy theorizing, The Shining has enjoyed a renaissance the likes of which has rarely been seen in the world of cinema. The Shining Room was therefore particularly well trafficked.

CHECK OUT THAT CARPET
THE SWEATER THAT LAUNCHED 1000 CONSPIRACY THEORIES
THE TYPEWRITER AND ONE SHEET OF "ALL WORK AND NO PLAY..."
THE PROP AXE EMBEDDED IN HALLORAN'S CHEST
THE CREEPIEST DOOR IN HORROR MOVIE HISTORY?
THE ACTUAL EMEREFIN' HEDGE MAZE

FULL METAL JACKET

Platoon got all the glory, awards and box office at the time, but these days, it's Full Metal Jacket that stands out as the best of Hollywood's late-80's wave of films exploring the war in Vietnam.

THE "BORN TO KILL" HELMET
MILITARY ISSUE BUNK BED SET
MORE UNUSED AIRBRUSH PROMO ART

EYES WIDE SHUT

Second only to Clockwork Orange in terms of controversy, Eyes Wide Shut is also probably the biggest tragedy in the Kubrick oeuvre. That's because, apologists be damned, the film was UNFINISHED at the time of Kubrick's demise. We'll have time to explore my theories about that - as well as other people's theories - in future articles for this blog. For now, here a few snapshots...

CREEPY SEXY GORGEOUS DANGER
THOSE LEGENDARY CEREMONIAL MASKS
THE INFINITE COATROOM

In this, the final room of the main section of the Kubrick Exhibit, you could sit and listen to a rotating sample of music and audio samples while a sequence of wall-sized images scrolled across the walls both facing and behind you.
STERLING HAYDEN
MORE PATENTED KUBRICK CRAZY STARE SHOTS

THE FOURTH FLOOR: 
UNFINISHED PROJECTS AND EQUIPMENT

Too big to be contained on a single floor, the Kubrick Exhibit actually spilled over into the TIFF Bell/Lightbox building's fourth floor library, with special sections relating to Kubrick's early years as a staff photographer for LOOK Magazine, his early documentary work, his unfinished projects and abandoned marketing campaigns.
A SELECTION OF KUBRICK'S LENSES
KUBRICK'S OLD PHOTO EQUIPMENT
See this recent post for a potential reason why these posters for Eyes Wide Shut were scrapped in favor of the "purple mirror" motif that they eventually rolled with.

WITH THEIR DEAD EYES
THE ABANDONED "IT SUCKS" TAG LINE
For Kubrick, research was key. This hutch contained only a sampling of the hundreds of books he read in preparation for his abandoned Napoleon film project. Directly beneath is a photo of the card catalog system which Kubrick used to keep track of where Napoleon was and what he was doing on literally every day of his life.
READING DOES A BODY GOOD
A LIFE IN DAYS
And that's it! Unfortunately, the pics I took of the exhibits on The Aryan Papers and early production sketches for A.I. didn't turn out very well at all, so I haven't included them here. Considering how crappy some of the pics I did use are, you can imagine how bad those were for me to decide not to run them. If I go back again - a distinct possibility - I might try again. In the meantime, I urge you to visit the Kubrick Exhibit and see for yourselves what all the fuss is about.

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