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Exhibition

Stanley Kubrick

The exhibition reviews the creative career of New York director Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999), from his formative years as a photographer at Look magazine, to his 12 feature films, closing with his projects that remained uncompleted or were taken on by other filmmakers.

«If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed.»

Stanley Kubrick

The show is a chronological look at the work of a genius of the cinema, the creator of masterworks in a wide variety of cinematographic genres. 

This in-depth exploration of the complete works of Kubrick presents more than 600 items, including moving images (some 40 audiovisuals); objects and material from the director’s personal archives (research and production documents, screenplays, stills, tools, costumes, models, cameras and lenses…), and his correspondence with the talent that surrounded him.

The director’s entire career is documented, beginning with his early short doumentaries and ending with his last film, Eyes Wide Shut(1999). All of Kubrick’s films are introduced, including masterpieces such as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975) and The Shining (1980). 


Iconic objects of a genius of detail


Kubrick fans will find key elements, props and original costumes in Kubrick’s films such as the star child and the man-ape costume from 2001: A Space Odyssey, the dresses of the twin sisters and Jack Torrance’s axe from The Shining, the „Born to Kill“ helmet from Full Metal Jacket (1986) and the masks from Eyes Wide Shut.

Research and production documents attest to the director’s meticulous approach to the planning and execution of his works and the degree of detail with which he oversaw his productions. Stanley Kubrick’s films are renowned for their special effects and innovative pictorial composition. In the exhibition are various pieces of film equipment with which Kubrick worked: hand and studio cameras, a Moviola editing table and a selection of camera lenses, including the ultra-fast Zeiss lens with which the candle-lit scenes in Barry Lyndonwere filmed. 

Stanley Kubrick’s unrealised projects "Napoleon“ and "Aryan Papers“ are also presented in detail. The materials from the estate document how far advanced research and pre-production work had been on his film about the French emperor and on the screen adaptation of Louis Begley’s novel Wartime Lies. Not least, the exhibition also deals with Kubrick’s early career as a photographer. As a young photographer employed by the prestigious magazine LOOK, Kubrick took thousands of photographs.

 

Inedit content for the exhibition in Barcelona

Curated by Hans-Peter Reichmann and Tim Heptner, of the Deutsches Filmmuseum in Frankfurt, the exhibition has visited various cities worldwide, including Mexico City, Los Angeles, Seoul and Paris. The film critic and writer Jordi Costa is responsible for its adaptation to the CCCB in Barcelona, incorporating previously undisplayed content. These includes new materials from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), this year celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, storyboards for Barry Lyndon, unseen interviews with actors and directors who collaborated with Stanley Kubrick, and an audiovisual biographical installation by Manuel Huerga.

“Stanley Kubrick” is an exhibition of the Deutsches Filmmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, Christiane Kubrick, Jan Harlan and the Stanley Kubrick Archive of the University of the Arts London, with the collaboration of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Sony-Columbia Pictures Industries Inc., Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios Inc., Universal Studios Inc., and SK Film Archives LLC.

 

Curators: Hans-Peter ReichmannTim Heptner, Deutsches Filminstitut (Fráncfort)
Curator in Barcelona: Jordi Costa i Vila
Space design: AV Diseño de Espacios Culturales

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"Stanley Kubrick" Exhibition Report

The exhibition reviews the creative career of New York director Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999), from his formative years as a photographer at Look magazine, to his 12 feature films, closing with his projects that remained uncompleted or were taken on by other filmmakers.

Watch the video

Jordi Costa: “Kubrick knew that his art was going to live on”

Interview with the cinema critic and curator

Jordi Costa underlines characteristic elements in Kubrick’s body of cinematic work: humour, desire, violence and humanism. Costa also comments on the links between Kubrick’s cinema and literature and the eminent importance of a work like 2001: A Space Odyssey in the history ...

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