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Shining Revisited
I can't embed this Channel 4 promotional ad for a series of Stanley Kubrick films they'll be showing, but it's ingenious -- a carefully choreographed, superbly designed and exquisitely cast tribute to The Shining. The sets, the haircuts, the mood of it...perfect! Except I can't find the actor playing Kubrick or Jack Nicholson. I guess I need to watch it a few more times. (If it's embedded somewhere, please send along the code.)
"Channel 4 has painstakingly recreated the set of Stanley Kubrick horror film The Shining," the story reads, "complete with look-a-likes of the crew and cast members including Shelley Duvall, for a TV ad to promote a More 4 season of the director's films.
"The 65-second promotional spot has been filmed as a one-take tracking shot through the recreation of The Shining.
"Viewers get Kubrick's point of view as he walks through the set, ending up in his director's chair as the crew prepare to shoot the famous scene of Danny Torrance, the son of Duvall and Jack Nicholson's characters, riding round and round the deserted corridors of the Overlook Hotel.
"The promo, filmed as a single tracking shot with a cast of 55 actors, was meticulously researched to 'remain as faithful as possible to the period in which it was shot and the culture of the British studio in the late 1970s".
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 3, 2008 at 4:23 PM
comment #1
Mgmax
says ...
I think there is no actor playing Nicholson (too recognizable and he wouldn't have been on set for 100 takes of a kid riding a trike anyway) and the camera is the actor playing Kubrick.
Posted by Mgmax
at July 3, 2008 4:40 PM
comment #2
mutinyco
says ...
Kubrick would've hated that they made his POV a 2.40 aspect ratio...
Posted by mutinyco
at July 3, 2008 4:42 PM
comment #3
joncro
says ...
there's a doc about the making of the Shining on the DVD shot by his daughter and it shows the set and the crew just like this......
it also shows Stanley yelling at Shelley Duvall over and over again......
Posted by joncro
at July 3, 2008 4:46 PM
comment #4
Ponderer
says ...
I don't think the original video's in 2.40 - it looks like the aspect ratio is screwed up in the video. Everyone seems too squashed.
Posted by Ponderer
at July 3, 2008 5:29 PM
comment #5
mutinyco
says ...
I sent them an e-mail about the aspect ratio. Will report if they respond.
Posted by mutinyco
at July 3, 2008 5:40 PM
comment #6
corey3rd
says ...
Is the lady with the script at the end supposed to be Diane Johnson and not merely the script girl?
Posted by corey3rd
at July 3, 2008 5:53 PM
comment #7
hiviper
says ...
British commercial TV > American commercial TV
better movies/documentaries, uncut, fewer commercials, etc.
This Kubrick series is a case in point
Posted by hiviper
at July 3, 2008 8:05 PM
comment #8
Balthazar
says ...
Hands-down one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Bravo.
Posted by Balthazar
at July 3, 2008 9:53 PM
comment #9
Arizona Joe
says ...
The still photograph that Wells has posted looks like something Ansel Adams would do with a movie camera.
I thought The Shining was a classic, thoroughly entertaining, both artistic and fun. I remember my girlfriend got so scared during the showing that she drew blood digging her fingernails into my arm.
I'd love to see the Channel 4 tribute.
Posted by Arizona Joe
at July 4, 2008 1:30 AM
comment #10
markj
says ...
The aspect ratio is closer to 1.85:1, the online version has been squashed. Jon Ronson has made an accompanying documentary called Stanley Kubrick's Boxes, in which he investigates Kubrick's archives.
Posted by markj
at July 4, 2008 1:44 AM
comment #11
Bob Violence
says ...
British commercial TV > American commercial TV
better movies/documentaries, uncut, fewer commercials, etc.
True enough, but the UK version of TCM is crap compared to the American one.
Posted by Bob Violence
at July 4, 2008 3:04 AM
comment #12
joncro
says ...
'British commercial TV > American commercial TV'
I would have to say that all British TV > American TV.
The BBC is almost the only thing that prevents us from becoming the 51st state........
Posted by joncro
at July 4, 2008 3:21 AM
comment #13
Rain
says ...
I'd like to share it with the hotties who also like sports I met at R I C H L O V I N G.C O M,where the hot affluent singles and sexy girls and models to hook up for Hot Love, Flirt and Sexy Dating!
Posted by Rain
at July 4, 2008 4:27 AM
comment #14
corey3rd
says ...
British TV has the advantage of only needing 6 episodes of a show to call it a season. A producer/writer doesn't have to worry about stretching it out to 100 episodes for syndication.
For all the greatness of Brit TV, why does BBC America stink? Enough with the marathons of Cash in the Attic and Garden Makeover. And why Mickey Blue Eyes as the movie this weekend? It was bad enough when they started rerunning the American version of Dancing with the Stars.
All the Brits do now is send their bitchy queens like Simon Cowell, that Nigel, Piers and that flamer on the circus show. The Brits are bringing our TV down.
Posted by corey3rd
at July 4, 2008 6:44 AM
comment #15
Mgmax
says ...
Terry Gilliam once said something like, "When the British do what they do, they do it much better than America, and when they do what Americans do, they do it much worse." I think that sums up both the best and the worst of what's on BBC America.
Now back to my fookin' kitchen where I can't fookin' believe what the fook is going on in there. It's fookin' madness.
Posted by Mgmax
at July 4, 2008 6:54 AM
comment #16
nemo
says ...
Back in 1980 I saw Kubrick's The Shining with Jack Nicholson only a week before I saw Herzog's Woyzeck with Klaus Kinski. They would make a terrific (and terrifically disturbing) double bill.
Seeing them back to back was particularly disturbing because I was entertaining thoughts of getting married at the time. I couldn't shake the feeling that if I got married to that particular insanity-inducing gal I was running a distinct risk of ending up like The Shining's Nicholson or Woyzeck's Kinski.
I avoided that fate and got married to someone a lot better many years later. Now we live a happy life like William Powell and Myrna Loy in The Thin Man. When it comes to wedded bliss, that's more like it!
Posted by nemo
at July 4, 2008 8:03 AM
comment #17
DavidF
says ...
Kubrick wouldn't be upset it's 2.40.
He'd be upset you're watching it on your computer in 2.40:1 however.
I just talked to his ghost and he says this is very accurately rendered but to get the optimal effect it should be watched at:
4:3 on an ipod
1.85:1 on a widescreen TV or computer monitor
1.66:1 on a CRT tv between 21" and 27", diagonally measured
2.35:1 in a movie theatre (make sure your projectionist mattes correctly!)
It's the only way to preserve his directorial vision accurately.
Posted by DavidF
at July 4, 2008 8:56 AM
comment #18
westegg
says ...
I still haven't spotted the Duvall double. However, it's in incredibly eerie re-creation. How great it'd be to next see BARRY LYNDON given the same Channel 4 treatment!
;D
Posted by westegg
at July 4, 2008 9:51 AM
comment #19
Caustic712
says ...
DavidF, we salute you.
Posted by Caustic712
at July 4, 2008 10:57 AM
comment #20
Edward
says ...
The Brits and BBC don't do everything right. Several years ago Public Broadcasting presented BBC's complete Shakespeare. Hamlet with Derek Jacobi was awful. There were others in the series that weren't very good as well, but Hamlet stood out.
Posted by Edward
at July 4, 2008 12:33 PM
comment #21
Bob Violence
says ...
Those BBC Shakespeare productions (which more or less average out IMO -- there are some clunkers, yes, but some are very well done, particularly the more obscure plays) are 25-30 years old. God knows the latter-day BBC doesn't do everything right -- hell, they probably don't do most things right -- but you may as well bring up The Black and White Minstrel Show or something.
Posted by Bob Violence
at July 5, 2008 8:29 AM
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