Introduction: “How Do You Like It?” (Forty Years On) – The Shining in the Age of Global Quarantine Jeremi Szaniawski July 2020 The Shining at 40 “Forever and ever (and ever)” since its release, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) has generated an uncanny amount of literature, by critics and fans alike. The critical response, following initially lukewar...
“Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are”: The Legacy of The Shining in Contemporary Cinema Jeremi Szaniawski July 2020 The Shining at 40 Much like Alfred Hitchcock with Psycho (1960), Stanley Kubrick sought, with The Shining (1980), to conduct an experiment in cinematic fear. While neither of the films can be reduced to it, this experimental dim...
Reflections on The Shining Pip Chodorov July 2020 The Shining at 40 Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) is a film about isolation and the threat of an invisible evil. It relates to our current situation insofar as now, in spring 2020, with the world locked down due to a microscopic en...
Jack’s Smart Home Marta Figlerowicz July 2020 The Shining at 40 In Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Fredric Jameson famously takes the Westin Bonaventure Hotel as an emblem of postmodern impersonality. “The Bonaventure,” he argues, “aspires to being...
King vs. Kubrick: The Origins of Evil Filippo Ulivieri July 2020 The Shining at 40 It is a common trope that authors rarely like films based on their novels. Stephen King, who at the time of this writing has seen 48 feature films and 26 television series adapted from his works, is no exceptio...
The Manly Veil Alexander Nemerov July 2020 The Shining at 40 The end of The Shining will always be enigmatic. In the movie’s final scene we see a photograph taken at the Overlook Hotel on July 4, 1921. It shows Jack Torrance front and center as the Gatsby-like maestro of...
The Shining and Us – Participants to the Dossier Reflect on Their First Encounter with Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining Marta Figlerowicz, Alexander Nemerov, Joy McEntee, Christine Lee Gengaro, Geoffrey Cocks, Ian Christopher, Mick Broderick, Jessica Balanzategui, Nathan Abrams, Valerio Sbravatti, Ilaria Franciotti, Rick Warner, Jeremi Szaniawski, Pip Chodorov, Daniel Fairfax and Filippo Ulivieri July 2020 The Shining at 40
Kubrick and the Paranoid Style: Antisemitism, Conspiracy Theories, and The Shining Nathan Abrams July 2020 The Shining at 40 If, as I have argued elsewhere, Stanley Kubrick is an intellectual, Jewish, and “Talmudic” filmmaker, his text most susceptible to Jewish or Talmudic readings or, at least which has attracted the most scholarsh...
The Shining’s Uncanny Children and the Conflicted Nostalgia of Doctor Sleep Jessica Balanzategui July 2020 The Shining at 40 Through the character of Danny Torrance, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining influenced a new model of uncanny child character that has become a key trope of the horror genre since the film’s release in 1980. This ty...
Overlooking the Stairs: Precarious Balance in Kubrick’s Mise-en-Scène Mick Broderick July 2020 The Shining at 40 A number of recurring motifs, themes and ‘signature’ styles have been attributed to Stanley Kubrick over the years, mostly from an auteurist perspective. These include, for example, the use of mirrors, facial c...
The Shining’s Disjunctive Spaces Craig Buckley July 2020 The Shining at 40 Note Few buildings in the history of cinema are as essential to the plot of a film as the Overlook hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. The film recounts the experience of the Torrance family who come to ...
The Puzzles in the Scrapbook: An Inside Look at One of The Shining’s Most Enigmatic Props Ian Christopher July 2020 The Shining at 40 In The Shining no attention is drawn to it and it appears open, such that the page layouts are recognisable, only three times. This is perhaps why up to now, despite its essential role in King’s novel, the Scra...
Cinema and Me: Family and History Through Film References in Kubrick’s The Shining Geoffrey Cocks July 2020 The Shining at 40 Much has been written about the intertextual richness of Stanley Kubrick’s cinema both in and of itself and in terms of its influence on other filmmakers. In this regard The Shining (1980) has itself been the s...
Forever and Ever and Ever: Reappraising the Score of The Shining Christine Lee Gengaro July 2020 The Shining at 40 Four decades is a short time in the grand scheme of all history, but in the realm of film music, it is a significant span. It is time enough to see overall trends and important shifts, and it provides an excell...
Hijacking The Shining: Doctor Sleep Joy McEntee July 2020 The Shining at 40 The Shining is a resource that keeps on giving. It has generated a whole “universe” of creative, critical and fan activity. Stanley Kubrick adapted The Shining once in 1980 and never looked back, un like Stephe...
The Shining: An Afterlife in Memes Rod Munday July 2020 The Shining at 40 For a film about the afterlife, The Shining has had an unusual afterlife of its own. Forty years after its initial release, the imagery of Kubrick’s only horror film pervades popular culture, not least as a vis...
A Stranger in the Hotel: Jean-Pierre Oudart and The Shining Daniel Fairfax July 2020 The Shining at 40 Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) has gained notoriety not only for the sheer quantity of critical analysis it has produced, a voluminous outpouring of exegesis from scholars, critics and fans alike that sho...
A Dramaturgical Analysis of The Shining Ilaria Franciotti and Valerio Sbravatti July 2020 The Shining at 40 The Shining is a glaring example of a film that has led to countless interpretations, favoured by its complex and enigmatic nature, sometimes leading to interpretive deliriums – as confirmed by the documentary ...
Feeling on Edge: Kubrick’s The Shining Between Horror and Comedy Rick Warner July 2020 The Shining at 40 Since its theatrical release in 1980, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining has fit uneasily into the horror genre and has met with a discordant range of responses. A common grievance among reviewers at the time was th...
Video Essays Around The Shining: A Selection Miguel Marías July 2020 The Shining at 40 Featuring a brand new, original video essay by Miguel Mira and Olena Pikho, made especially for this dossier, this is the opportunity to look at a series of brilliant and often jubilant videos engaging with The...