Re: Rosemary's Baby, Eraserhead, The Shining

MODERATOR'S NOTE:  I apologize to Darryl and the list for failing to deal
with the subject line of Darryl's response to this interesting thread.   - k
*****
From: Jennifer Steele <[email protected]>

This useful link was just posted on Twitter by Prof. Nathan Abrams.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/polls-surveys/stanley-kubrick-cinephile
Jenni Steele
Bangor University

> From: Darryl Wiggers <[email protected]>

> Here's what we know for certain: according to Lynch himself (in the
> aforementioned Catching the Big Fish) while he was working on the
> Elephant Man at Shepperton Studios he met "some guys" who were
> working with George Lucas and they supposedly met Kubrick at
> Elstree Studios the previous day.  While chatting with him Kubrick
> reportedly said, "How would you fellas like to come to my house and
> see my favourite film," This, they claimed, was Eraserhead.
>
> Now compare this account with that of Albert Brooks, who got a call
> from Kubrick to tell him how much he loved Modern Romance. For
> the next five or so years they maintained a phone relationship. Then,
> one day, Brooks pointed out that he'd be touring England soon and
> maybe it'd be a good opportunity to finally meet in person. Kubrick
> said "No, no, no, no... not a good idea."
>
> Now, despite erroneous accounts that Kubrick was a recluse, he did
> indeed welcome many people into his home. But in every case I know
> of, they were always people with whom he had a working relationship --
> and limited to the time when they actually had one (like Malcolm
> McDowell during the filming of A Clockwork Orange), or could have
> one (like Steven Spielberg, who he did envision directing A.I. long
> before his death).
>
> So why would he share the experience of watching "his favourite film" --
> in his home -- with "some guys" he just met at a film studio?
> And if he loved Eraserhead so much, how come he never got in touch
> with Lynch himself? Over the years many filmmakers, actors and so forth >
have acknowledged getting such calls -- praising them for their work, or
> just to talk to them -- so why not Lynch? To my knowledge Lynch has
> never claimed to have been in contact with him.
>
> So how did Lynch's "story" evolve into a legend that the cast and crew
> of The Shining were forced to watch Eraserhead and Rosemary's Baby? > My
guess is, after Lynch's Kubrick story started circulating, people
> figured out it must have happened while Kubrick was making The
> Shining (it was shot at Shepperton Studios). Others saw what they
> perceived as similarities between the two films -- as well as Rosemary's
> Baby -- and a legend was born.
>
> It was then in a 2001 interview for Empire Magazine that the interviewer
> said to Lynch, "Stanley Kubrick screened Eraserhead for the cast and
> crew of The Shining,  because that was the mood he wanted to achieve. >
Are you a Kubrick fan?" Lynch replied to the question, and ignored the
> introductory part. Sort of a passive endorsement of this "fact."
>
> But what is especially suspect about this legend is that Kubrick never
> aspired to be an imitator. Many filmmakers are -- which makes it easy
> for some to believe -- but not Kubrick. Such a move would go against
> his work ethos. He never operated that way. There are enough interviews >
to prove that.
>
> Kubrick's daughter, after his death, once provided an interesting list of
> his films she claimed her father loved. It included titles such as White
> Men Can't Jump -- but not Eraserhead. And this is the thing most people
> have trouble believing -- Kubrick loved popular film. Partly because, he
> wanted his films to be popular too (remember, after the terrible previews
> of 2001 and The Shining, Kubrick hastily cut the films down in the hopes
> of making them more palpable to a wide audience). He admired fellow
> artists who achieved that goal. This might explain why he spent the last
> 20 years of life in almost constant contact with Spielberg, but never
once > called Lynch.
>
> Getting back to Eraserhead, his supposed "favourite film," if there's one
> thing that's consistent about the films Kubrick loved, and the way he
> talked about them, he was obsessed with narrative. Like his love of the
> Nescafe Gold Blend commercials. In that case he was amazed at how
> much story could be squeezed into 30-60 seconds. In short, he loved
> entertainment that told stories simply and concisely.
>
> Eraserhead is the antithesis of that. It's a stubbornly non-narrative film
> and the least likely of any to earn his stamp of "favourite film." Modern
> Romance, The Jerk, E.T. -- these are all films Kubrick has admitted
> publicly to admiring. He never mentioned Eraserhead, or any other
> Lynch film for that matter. Not on record anyway.
>
> I don't doubt that one day, while Lynch was working on The Elephant
> Man, he met "some guys" who said "we have a story for you."
>
> It was a story all right. And, whoever those "guys" are, their story is
> full of beans. But it got repeated and endorsed by Lynch -- many times --
> and spawned a legend that stubbornly sticks around.
>
> dw
>
>  --
>

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