Yes, he is a shining light of cinema, but he fits Listening Post like a virtual glove. He would have celebrated his 80th birthday on Sunday, if he had lived to witness the musical evolution of the form he fast-forwarded. His films irrevocably changed the relationship between film and music, from the juxtaposition of spaceship ballets and "The Blue Danube" to the destabilizing pairing of rape and "Singin' in the Rain." Sometimes it hurt to watch, but it was often impossible to turn your eyes, and ears, away from anything Stanley Kubrick made.
One exception was his final film Eyes Wide Shut, which featured a solitary piano note pounded into submission until expiration. A bold sonic metaphor for the film's bizarro exploration of sex and conspiracy, it nevertheless felt like a rail spike to the brain. But Kubrick was a perfectionist to the core, so it's hard to imagine he didn't plan for it to grate on your nerves. And it did: Eyes Wide Shut is down the totem pole in the Kubrick canon, which includes classics like A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Killing, The Shining, Paths of Glory and more.
The medium of his message was usually music. He brutalized Anthony Burgess' dystopia A Clockwork Orange, mainlining Beethoven and ultraviolence into one hell of a hangover. He swiped "Singin' in the Rain" from an iconic musical of the same name, and repurposed it so shockingly that the copy nearly overwrote the original.
this audio or video is no longer available**this audio or video is no longer availableThat's one film among many. Dr. Strangelove set the wartime standard "We'll Meet Again" against the backdrop of multiple nuclear explosions, and has since induced paranoia in bands as different as Rush and The Strokes. 2001: A Space Odyssey sequenced the genes for sci-fi cinema, using everything from the lush orchestration of Johann Strauss to the eerie micropolyphony of Gyorgy Ligeti. The latter remains a kick-ass soundtrack for plunging through the depths and time and space.
Meanwhile, Full Metal Jacket dropped The Trashmen, Nancy Sinatra and more into Vietnam, and watched their cultural capital explode. The list goes on. And on, if you've got something cool that I missed. Please add it below. We Kubrick nuts should stick together.
Photo: Wikipedia/LOOK Magazine
- Happy Birthday, Erik Satie!
- Happy Birthday, Woody Guthrie!
- Amon Tobin's Homer is a Serious Head Trip
- Does M. Night Shyamalan Have a Thing for Pixies?
- Soundtracking Everyday Life: An Interview with The Abbasi Brothers
- Arthur C. Clarke: Artists Eulogize an Icon
- Iron Man's Heavy Metal Rise
- We Are Not Cinematic: An Interview With Film School
