{"id":2658,"date":"2019-04-26T13:47:22","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T13:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/simonings.com\/?p=2658"},"modified":"2019-10-29T20:29:04","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T20:29:04","slug":"stanley-kubrick-at-the-design-museum-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/?p=2658","title":{"rendered":"Stanley Kubrick at the Design Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Visiting\u00a0<\/span>Stanley Kubrick: The exhibition at The\u00a0Design Museum, London, 26 April 2019<\/a><\/p>\n

The celebrated film director Stanley Kubrick never took the future for granted. In films as diverse as\u00a0Dr. Strangelove: or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb<\/em>\u00a0(1964) and\u00a0A Clockwork Orange<\/em>\u00a0(1971), Kubrick\u2019s focus was always savagely humane, unpicking the way the places we inhabit make us think and feel. At the opening of a new exhibition at the London Design Museum in Holland Park,\u00a0David Stock and I\u00a0spoke to co-curator Adri\u00ebnne Groen\u00a0about Kubrick\u2019s most scientifically inflected film,\u00a02001: A Space Odyssey<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(1968), and how Kubrick masterminded a global effort to imagine one possible future: part technological utopia, part sterile limbo, and, more than 50 years since its release, as gripping as hell.<\/p>\n

You can see the interview here.<\/a><\/p>\n

How\u00a0Stanley Kubrick<\/a>\u2018s collaboration with science fiction writer\u00a0Arthur C. Clarke<\/a>\u00a0led to 2001 is well known. \u201cThe \u2018really good\u2019 science-fiction movie is a great many years overdue,\u201d Clarke enthused, as the men began their work on a project with the working title\u00a0Journey Beyond the Stars<\/i>.<\/p>\n

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2001<\/em>\u00a0acquired several other nicknames before its release (\u201cHow the Solar System was Won\u201d was a favourite),\u00a0and as a vision of the future it stands the test of time: a tribute to a writer who dreamed up communications satellites long before a satellite was launched, and a director who, even as\u00a0Sputnik<\/a>circled the Earth, was working through reels of Japanese sci-fi to find the effects he would need to imagine his way into space.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

For those who want a broader understanding of how Kubrick gathered, enthused and\u00a0sometimes (let\u2019s be brutally frank, here) exploited the visionary talent available to him, The Design Museum\u2019s current exhibition is essential viewing. There are prototypes of the pornographic furniture from the opening dolly shot of\u00a0A Clockwork Orange<\/em>, inspired by the work of artist Allen Jones but fashioned by assistant production designer Liz Moore when Jones decided not to hitch his cart \u2013 and reputation \u2013 to Kubrick\u2019s controversial vision.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s the names that recur again and again, from film to film, over decades of creative endeavour, that draw one in. The costume designer Milena Canonero was a Kubrick regular and, far from being swamped, immeasurably enriched Kubrick\u2019s vision. (There\u2019s a wonderful production photograph here of actor Malcolm McDowell trying on some of her differently styled droog hats.)<\/p>\n

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Kubrick was fascinated by the way people respond to being regimented \u2013 by the architectural brutalism of the Thamesmead estate in\u00a0A Clockwork Orange<\/em>, or by a savage gunnery sergeant in\u00a0Full Metal Jacket<\/em>, or by their own fetishism in\u00a0Eyes Wide Shut.\u00a0<\/em>Kubrick\u2019s fascination with how people think and behave is well served by this show, which will give anyone of a psychological bent much food for thought.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Visiting\u00a0Stanley Kubrick: The exhibition at The\u00a0Design Museum, London, 26 April 2019 The celebrated film director Stanley Kubrick never took the future for granted. In films as diverse as\u00a0Dr. Strangelove: or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb\u00a0(1964) … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[618,619,78,620],"tags":[164,165,333,180,184,232,86],"class_list":["post-2658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design","category-museums","category-reviews-and-opinion","category-screen","tag-design","tag-design-fiction","tag-design-museum","tag-film","tag-futurology","tag-new-scientist","tag-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2658"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2949,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2658\/revisions\/2949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}