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Newsletter No. 1, November 2003

Dear colleagues and friends,

This is the first issue of our monthly newsletter, which reports about our current work on the Stanley Kubrick estate and the exhibition starting in March 2004. We will inform you about coming events, present a variety of selected objects and publish statements by people who are associated with Stanley Kubrick's life and work.

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1. Work in Progress

Our archivist Bernd Eichhorn continues working at full stretch to survey a vast amount of photographs, costumes, props and technical equipment. He has been living at Kubrick's house in St. Albans for half a year now and systematically captures the estate in a database. In only a few weeks material from the estate will be shipped to Frankfurt where the exhibits will finally be selected. Only a small part of the immense stock can be presented to the public, even though the Deutsches Filmmuseum and the Deutsches Architektur Museum together provide an exhibition space of 1,200 square meters. Nevertheless, the exhibition will provide new insights for fans and researchers alike. It will shed light on Kubrick's technical approaches to film as well as on influences from architecture and design.

Work on the extensive exhibition catalogue is in progress. It will feature single films by Kubrick and present comprehensive essays on his work. Thomas Elssaesser writes about A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, Georg Seeßlen about FULL METAL JACKET. Wilhelm Roth examines the quarrels about censoring PATHS OF GLORY, Winfried Günther the ones about SPARTACUS. Alexandra von Stosch pays tribute to Kubrick's early photographs for Look, Ursula von Keitz scrutinizes the different script versions for THE SHINING and Marli Feldvoß looks at Kubrick's films from the gender-perspective. Bernd Schultheis (who also provides a concert event accompanying the exhibition) analyzes the Kubrick-soundtracks, Volker Fischer studies the future design for 2001 – A SPACE ODYSSEY and Daniel Kothenschulte gives insights into a pie fight sequence, which was eliminated from DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB. The catalogue also includes essays on the films that were never realized: Eva-Maria Magel reconstructs Kubrick's extensive work on Napoleon; Ronny Loewy researches the Holocaust-project Aryan Papers. Some of the authors contributing to the catalogue will lecture at a Symposium that is scheduled for Mai 2004.

2. This Month's Object

One of the ape-costumes from the opening sequence of 2001 – A SPACE ODYSSEY will be restored especially for the exhibition. The mime Dan Richter wore this costume as the moonwatcher in this sequence entitled "The Dawn of Man". Richter was engaged by Stanley Kubrick to choreograph the movement of the apes and to play the most important one of the animals himself. The then unknown artist, who later worked with celebrated artists such as John Lennon and Yoko Ono, became part of film history for throwing a bone: the scene applied the probably most quoted match cut of all times. An excerpt from the recently published "Moonwatcher's Memoirs" will be reprinted in the catalogue. Richter describes his preparations for "The Dawn of Man" that included intensive studies of primates in zoos. He developed the choreography in close collaboration with the make-up artist Stuart Freeborn whose work was equally outstanding: 2001 – A SPACE ODYSSEY only did not receive an Oscar, Arthur C. Clarke stated once, because the jury had not realized that there were not actually apes performing for the film.

3. Celebrity Statement

After greetings by ¬ Nicole Kidman and ¬ Tom Cruise, ¬ Sydney Pollack, ¬ Steven Spielberg and ¬ Warner Bros., the key holder of the copyrights, a letter by ¬ Sir Arthur C. Clarke has arrived. Clarke and Kubrick collaborated long and intensively on the script for 2001 – A SPACE ODYSSEY, for which they received the Academy Award. The script was based on a short story entitled The Sentinel that Clarke turned into a novel-length book while the film was being produced. Arthur C. Clarke ranks with the most successful science-fiction authors of the last decades. He wrote approximately 30 novels, a large number of short stories and numerous non-fiction books. When he was working as a radar specialist for the Royal Air Force, the studied mathematician and physicist submitted a study which made him the "father of satellite communication". The UNESCO awarded Clarke with the Kalinga-Price for his popular scientific work in 1962. The eighty-six year-old, who has been living in Sri Lanka over the last years, is still working and publishing in the areas of space research and oceanography which he has discovered to be the other one of his passions.

For more information on Arthur C. Clarke see:
¬ http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/aclarke.htm
¬ http://www.clarkeinstitute.com/
¬ http://www.arthur-c-clarke.de/

4. Miscellaneous

The documentary SCHATTEN UND LICHT – KEN ADAM, FILMARCHITEKT (Directors: Andreas Michael Velten und Jörg Plenio) was recently broadcasted on German television and can soon be seen again. The legendary production designer, who was already honored with an exhibition at the Deutsches Filmmuseum, has created the architecture characteristic for classical Bond films and many set designs for Kubrick, as for example the famous war Room in DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB. For the Kubrick exhibition the “War Room” will be reconstructed as a model in collaboration with Adam.

This Month’s Website: ¬ http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/
On the "Kubrick Site", you can find many essays and detailed discussion about issues and questions on Kubrick. It belongs to a general site that also features a special on 2001 – A SPACE ODYSSEY, answers FAQs on Kubrick and certainly provides standards such as biography and filmography.



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