Devoted to one of the undisputed masters of international cinema, the ‘Stanley Kubrick’ exhibition presents the American director’s work with the help of preparatory and technical material – unpublished documents, screenplays, director’s notes, photographs, behind-the-scenes testimonials and clips, models, costumes and reconstructions of the most evocative sets – from the archives of the Stanley Kubrick Estate, which has been made available for the first time.
The idea of this exhibition, conceived and produced by the Deutsches Filmmuseum in Frankfurt, in collaboration with Christiane Kubrick and Jan Harlan (The Stanley Kubrick Estate), is to put visitors ‘behind the camera’ by revealing the director’s highly individual way of working and his constant interest in architecture, design, art and literature; and divulging the secrets of the various technical devices he used to create some of the most celebrated sequences in his films.
Starting with a biographical introductory section, in which his reportages for Look magazine and his early films (Day of the Fight, Flying Padre, Mr. Lincoln, The Seafarers, Fear and Desire) are presented, the exhibition spans his entire filmography: from black and white features, such as Killer’s Kiss, The Killing and Lolita, to war films (Paths of Glory, Dr. Strangelove and Full Metal Jacket), historical epics (Spartacus and Barry Lyndon) and psychological thrillers like The Shining and A Clockwork Orange, culminating in Eyes Wide Shut. Space is also devoted to ambitious projects that Kubrick worked on at length but never realized, such as Napoleon, Aryan Papers and A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) – later made by Steven Spielberg.
A whole section is devoted to 2001: A Space Odyssey. It features costumes and models (such as the spaceship Discovery’s famous centrifuge and the computer Hal), and a reconstruction of the set used for the prologue. Kubrick filmed the prologue using the front-projection technique, which will be demonstrated at the exhibition, thus permitting visitors to ‘enter’ the set and play in the scene.
The equipment used for special effects will be prominently featured, including the Zeiss lens, built by NASA, which enabled the director to shoot the candlelit scenes in Barry Lyndon.
An audioguide covering the entire itinerary and synchronized with each of the film clips will be available to visitors, and a documentary will illustrate Kubrick’s choices regarding the various scores for the films. A volume containing an introduction by Martin Scorsese and many critical essays will accompany the exhibition, and an Italian version is envisaged.
The first edition of the exhibition was presented at the Deutsches Filmmuseum in Frankfurt, with the collaboration of the Deutsches Architektur Museum.
The Rome exhibition will be paired with a film retrospective, which will be held in the Cinema at Palazzo delle Esposizioni.