Editor: Sukka Curator: Adimin
If you haven't seen Kubrick's The Shining, you're an unqualified horror moviegoer.
Today's horror movies are always synonymous with low-cost, small-scale productions, and even synonymous with bad films.
This film, born in 1980, is definitely a landmark work in the history of human cinema.
Adapted from Stephen King's novel The Shining, the story itself is not complicated.
It seems even a bit old-fashioned today: Jack, a mediocre middle-aged writer, accepted the position of winter caretaker of the "Overlook" Hotel in Colorado, originally wanted to concentrate on the long and quiet snow season, but eventually gradually collapsed in the pressure, claustrophobia and loneliness, under the influence of the "Shining", was seduced by fantasy, chased his wife and children, and finally froze to death in the snow labyrinth.
But just like other classics, until today, many years later, countless fans and critics can still make a variety of interpretations of this film from various angles.
Even if you're reluctant to explore the deep thrust behind the story, director Kubrick can give you a powerful shock with a genius-like lens language.
The plasma spray in the elevator room is thin enough to be loaded into the movie textbook.
The low-angle moving heel camera turns the long, winding corridor into a great prop to create a terrifying atmosphere, and with the echo of Danny's bicycle alternately sliding across the floor and carpet, the fear almost overflows from the screen.
Jack Nicholson and Shelly Duvall also contributed Oscar-caliber acting skills to the film.
Jack Nicholson's face became a nightmare for many.
It's also hard to find an actor better suited to show the heroine's fragile and slightly neurotic image than Shelly Duval.
But you may not think that there is a real horror story behind such a horror film that has been repeatedly homaged by many movies in later generations:
Actress Shelly Duval has gradually gone wrong after making this film, and now she has gone crazy.
The same red washroom from the American drama "Hannibal".
Shelly Duval is not a typical beauty, but she has a unique temperament.
Through her big eyes, you can faintly see an inexplicable fragility, shelly image, extremely like the victim of the serial killer's knife.
The old-eyed Kubrick naturally did not "let go" of this girl.
Stephen King, the author of The Shining, originally loved Jessica Langer, but Kubrick, who had always been tough, did not buy it, insisting on an actor who looked "timid and afraid of things, weak and windy".
Actress Jessica Lange, who is the same age as Shelly.
Ever since she hit Kubrick's set, Shelly's nightmare began.
Kubrick was a notorious perfectionist, and in order to capture a picture that satisfied him, it was common to shoot a scene dozens or even hundreds of times. What's more, Kubrick never explained why the remake was remade, and the actors could only hear two words from him — "yes" or "do it again."
In just one scene of waving a baseball bat on the stairs, Shelly filmed it 127 times, her hands grinding blood bubbles.
But any normal person must be crushed by this way of filming
If the unnatural NG is only technically harsh, then his mental "torture" of Shelly is less humane.
The shooting scenes of "The Shining" are quite limited, just a luxury hotel at the foot of the mountain, and the relationship between the characters is not complicated.
In order to let the heroine better appreciate the tension in the claustrophobic environment, Kubrick asked all the crew to isolate Shelly and show no sympathy for her no matter what happened.
Even after Shelly fell ill in the crew, the director still warned everyone not to care about her, and said to Shelly in front of everyone: "Compassion can't help you." ”
Before joining the crew, Shelly had just experienced a failed relationship, and the high-pressure environment of the following months made her smokey, and her mental state deteriorated, and even began to lose her hair.
Shelly said in a later interview: "I cried for 12 hours a day during the nine months of filming, five or six days a week. She even said heartbroken: "For the first time, I felt like I might need a lawyer because in The Shining I lost a piece of innocence in my life." ”
She sent a drop of her head to Kubrick, and maybe that was the innocence she had lost for The Shining.
And it is such a movie that almost let Shelly take a half-life, but at the beginning of the release, it was full of bad reviews. The unlucky Shelly was also given the title of the worst actress by the Golden Plum Award that year.
The Shining is a great horror movie, but Shelly isn't as popular as you might think.
Later, Shelly collaborated with Robin Williams on the critically acclaimed film Popeye.
After Kubrick's "tuning", Shelly's acting skills in "Popeye" have changed
But in the 36 years since, apart from briefly playing inconspicuous roles on children's television shows and doing some behind-the-scenes work, Shelly has rarely had big-screen productions.
It wasn't until 2016 that she reappeared on Dr. Phil.' At this time, Shelly was abnormally old and mentally problematic, and in a conversation with Philip, a doctor of psychology, she even thought that Robin Williams was not dead, but had "transformed" into other forms.
Although the poor woman appeared mentally disturbed and delirious during the show, she was clearly aware that she was sick and needed help.
And the glorious female star of the year is already a sentence of two people
While it's hard to blame Shelly's madness entirely on the filming of The Shining, we have to admit that working with Kubrick was definitely a torture.
Kubrick was an uncompromising perfectionist, perfect to the point of horror.
Almost everyone who has worked with him has a surprisingly consistent assessment of the talented artist: he is arguably one of the best directors in the world, and the most desperate collaborator in the world.
Stephen King once commented: "He's the kind of guy you're happy to have a few drinks with, but don't spend the whole night with him or you'll have an endless drink." ”
Coming from a wealthy background, young and famous, intelligent and bold, Kubrick has all the qualities of a genius artist, but his almost perverted pursuit of film art is also engraved in his bones.
Kubrick was one of the first directors to make films using the Steadicam stabilization system
As early as the 1957 film "The Glorious Road", this trait of his has been revealed.
In post-editing, Kubrick listened carefully to every gunshot in the 88-minute war feature film more than once.
In preparation for The Shining, Kubrick asked his assistant to buy a mountain of horror novels and locked himself in his home, watching the classic horror film "The Exorcist" over and over again for weeks.
Even the stones in front of the hotel "looking out" in the film are examined by Kubrick one by one.
And such examples are numerous in the career of Ku Director.
Kubrick on set was extremely controlling, from the adaptation of the script to the choice of actors, from the choice of shooting equipment to the production of props, he controlled everything like a monarch, and did not allow anyone to question his authority. For this he also earned the nickname "Governor".
But it is undeniable that everyone who cooperates with him praises him. Even Shelly, who was physically and mentally exhausted after filming The Shining, had to admit that she loved and hated Kubrick, and although Kubrick made her suffer, it did push her to an unprecedented level.
If Kubrick hadn't directed, he could have become a general.
The librarian in the revised draft is like an emotionless machine
Kubrick could have the actors repeat the same scene a hundred times at any cost until he made enough of a film to be remembered.
But when the "Kubricks" bring this style into the lives of ordinary people, it is likely to be a disaster for ordinary people.
Like Shelly, there are still some photos updated on her Ins from time to time today, but they were rarely born after The Shining.
Because her once glorious life has been forever frozen in the era of "The Shining" by Kubrick's film.
Cinema is the art of dreaming, but when we are immersed in artificial dreams, we often forget that cinema has always been industry.
Factory owners manipulate buttons to make roaring machines produce massive amounts of products, but in the special industry of cinema, people are always the most important factor of production.
Kubrick, who wants to produce top -- "products," may have learned the truth long ago: everyone is a tool for the factory, and the director is just a special manager in the guise of art.
Selecting the right actors and repeatedly tempering them is a process of maximizing the rationality of the instrument.
And at this point, even in China, Ku Dao can find his fellow practitioners.
For example, in "A Generation of Grandmasters", Wong Kar-wai let Uncle Zhao Benshan drink the soup a hundred times.
In "Fanghua", Feng Xiaogang asked the whole crew to isolate her in order to let Miao Miao quickly enter the role of "He Xiaoping".
So, even though Scatman, who plays the chef, was nearly seventy years old at the time, he still had to be slashed dozens of times with an axe for the final film effect, because in the film factory, he was a tool.
Compared to letting Nicole Kidman make love to people in 50 positions in "Eye Opener", being chopped by an axe may not be a big deal.
If it weren't for the strict legal restrictions on the working hours of child actors at that time, I think Kubrick would probably have let Danny's children in "The Shining" experience the feeling of 996 in advance.
In order to ensure that the plan is perfectly executed, Kubrick can even turn himself into a sophisticated machine, a machine for the film industry, precisely calculated, carefully planned, and executed resolutely, just for 24 frames per second on the screen.
So, this is by no means a gossip story between a paranoid genius director and a mediocre actor, but an extreme aspect of the entire film industry.
Behind Kubrick's spectacle lenses, there was always a cold, indifferent expression.
Kubrick is also far from a madman immersed in the world of personal art, he also values the box office.
As early as a year before the release of "The Shining", he had already made a detailed and thoughtful release plan, and the promotional poster alone allowed the designer to draw more than 300 versions.
Michael Hull, the author of All Metal Shell, in his book, relentlessly comments that Kudo is an "exploitative capitalist" who "exploits other people's time and makes others rack their brains and contribute their talents to him, but he rarely gives anything other than intellectual pleasure." In terms of remuneration, Kubrick cuts the door more than the average capitalist."
Being called a capitalist in a capitalist society really doesn't know how Ku Dao feels.
Kubrick, who used himself as a tool, could say things like "it's incredible to leave work at 6 o'clock, and there's still half a day to work."
On Christmas Eve in 1980, you could call the front desk of an entire city hotel just to find a staff member who would make props overnight.
In order to pursue a classic shot of "elevator blood rushing", the crew can shoot for a whole year.
These, for him, seemed like a stimulating game, sweating and bleeding were all part of the pleasure.
But for the "Shelly", it is like an axe wielded by Jack in his hand, and there is no escape.
Kubrick was a master of pessimism, and his work repeatedly expressed the same theme, that is, the boredom of man's endless desires.
When Jack in The Shining typeser typed "only work, don't play, smart kids get silly" over and over again on the typewriter, he was clearly caught up in his own desires and couldn't help himself.
And Kubrick's mastery of each film strives for the ultimate, is this another form of endless desire?
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