The Screengrab : jon ronson

Reconstructing Stanley Kubrick’s “Aryan Papers”

Scott Von Doviak — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:00:00 GMT

Last summer we told you about Kubrick’s Boxes, the documentary Jon Ronson made about digging through the extensive Stanley Kubrick archives. (Sadly, the YouTube link to Ronson’s film is no longer functional.) As it turns out, Ronson was not the only one given the keys to the legendary filmmaker’s attic. Turner-prize nominated artists (and twins) Jane and Louise Wilson “were invited to delve into the Stanley Kubrick archives at the University of the Arts in London and come up with a piece of work to coincide with a major Kubrick season on the South Bank this year. What they alighted on was the fascinating story of Aryan Papers, a film that he was adapting from Louis Begley's 1991 novel, Wartime Lies,” according to The Guardian.

The Wilsons will tell the story of the unmade film through an installation at the BFI in London. “Kubrick, a secretive obsessional perfectionist by any standards, spent months on preproduction for Aryan Papers, even casting the Dutch actor Johanna ter Steege in the lead role. The Wilsons came across intriguing stills of Ter Steege in different costumes, shot at different angles and in different lights and, taking these as a starting point, then approached the actor herself. The resulting film will cut between the stills and their interview with Ter Steege.”

Kubrick abandoned the project once Steven Spielberg began work on his Holocaust film, Schindler’s List. (Given how many movies on the subject have been made since – and how long it took the director to complete his later films – he probably could have proceeded without worrying about any conflict of interest.) Or, as Louise Wilson notes, he may have had a different reason for moving on to other things: “Having spoken to Johanna, it sounds like he got very depressed. He was so immersed in this research I think he found the process quite disturbing and upsetting.”

If you happen to be in London in the next few months, you can check out the installation at the BFI beginning February 13th.

Related:
The Kubrick Rarities
Kubrick's Marketing Man Speaks

The Top 50 Movies of 2009

Scott Von Doviak — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:00:00 GMT

It’s getting harder and harder for us poor drones of the blogosphere to stay current. We haven’t even begun to compile our final thoughts on the films of 2008, and already the Times Online has published their list of the top 50 movies of 2009.

Granted, it’s purely speculative nonsense. “Which hot franchises will step up to fill the spaces left by Batman, Bond and Indy? We’ve taken a look through the studio schedules and picked out the most promising prospects for the coming year.” Some of their choices look pretty safe. The number one pick is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and others finishing in the top ten include Star Trek (#3), the Da Vinci Code follow-up Angels & Demons (#6) and Monsters vs. Aliens (#8). Going out a little further on a limb, they’ve selected the Dillinger biopic Public Enemies to finish behind only Harry Potter. Sure, it’s got Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, but it’s also got a whiff of the brat pack bomb Mobsters about it, no?

Of course, the real fun is to be found further down the list. I’m glad someone is optimistic enough to believe Fanboys will finally be released in theaters; on the other hand, I’m somewhat skeptical that “curiosity value alone guarantees S. Darko a strong opening weekend.” Perhaps most intriguing is #42: “Them, a recently announced feature to be directed by Sean of the Dead and Hot Fuzz’s Edgar Wright, is not, as far as we can tell, an update of the hoary old giant ant chiller but a fictionalised adaptation of Jon Ronson’s investigative book about the shadowy conspiracies that operate behind our notional governments. Unless it turns out that the Illuminati and the Bilderberg Group actually are all enormous ants.”

Check out the full list starting here.

Related:
Sequel to "Donnie Darko" Is on the Way, Much to the Dismay of the Creator of "Donnie Darko"
Your First Look at Star Trek 90210

Boxes of Kubrick

Scott Von Doviak — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:30:00 GMT

A few weeks ago our birthday boy Leonard Pierce told you about a special program of Stanley Kubrick films running on England’s Channel 4 and gave you a look at this Shining-styled promo for the series. As it happens, that’s not the only new content developed for the series. There is a also an hour-long documentary called True Stories: Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes, in which Jon Ronson (author of Them: Adventures with Extremists and The Men Who Stare at Goats) digs through the Kubrick archives in hopes of gaining some insight into the most mystery-shrouded of filmmakers, as well as a series of 3-minute shorts dubbed “Stanley Kubrick’s Small Boxes.” And we’ve got them all for you after the jump:

Think Kubrick is a montage of fans recounting their memories of the man’s work:

Call Sheet reconstructs a production meeting based on a call sheet from Dr. Strangelove:

SKA-63 is an animated collage of indelible images from the Kubrick collection:

Overlook is a creepy trip through the haunted hotel from The Shining:

And here’s the full-length Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes documentary:

Related:
The Kubrick Rarities
Kubrick's Marketing Man Speaks