Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives, Work Gallery

Here’s Johnny! Rediscover the iconic locations of the best films by Stanley Kubrick in this new exhibition of ephemera from The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Full Metal Jacket

The cult of Stanley Kubrick shows no sign of abating, and the great film master – notoriously picky, reclusive and worthy of the epithet 'genius' - now has a show in King’s Cross. 

It's a good place to have it. A shortish distance from the auteur's old house in Hertfordshire, the work is drawn from the nearby Stanley Kubrick Archive at the London College of Communication – part of the University of the Arts London. So ‘Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives’ explores ‘filmic spaces’ and shows work from three of Kubrick’s most celebrated films: the Discovery spaceship from his 1968 chef d’oeuvre 2001: A Space Odyssey ; the Overlook Hotel from The Shining (1980); and Huế City from 1987's Full Metal Jacket .

Technical mastery

So why is Kubrick so beloved of the visual arts fraternity? Much of it must be down to his visual perfectionism; and certainly, his exacting personality was vital in achieving such results. For example, rather than merely rely on photographs for 2001, Kubrick recruited real spacecraft consultants as technical advisors. Aiming for technical accuracy, he and production designer Anthony Masters followed through with a huge team of modelmakers – although everything had to be signed off by Kubrick himself. Everything you see is a thorough and accurate snapshot of the time. 

Location, location, location

Something the exhibition also shows is how Kubrick takes sets and compresses them into concentrated, disorientating and frightening film experiences. Sometimes people can't believe that Overlook Hotel in The Shining was real, but its exterior was filmed at the Timberline Lodge in Oregon because Kubrick wanted it to look ‘authentic rather than like a traditionally spooky movie hotel.’ Now the Stanley Hotel offers a 'ghost package' and a REDRUM mug (you’ll have to see the film to get the reference…)

It’s also interesting to locate Kubrick's choices of location in London, known extensively by film nerds of course. Huế City from his Vietnam film Full Metal Jacket was filmed in the Isle of Dogs and Beckton, pre-Canary Wharf; and A Clockwork Orange, Kubrick’s 1971 film of Antony Burgess’s dystopian tour de force, makes full use of London’s Brutalist environments at the Thamesmead estate in south-east London; the subway in Trinity Road, Wandsworth and Brunel University in Uxbridge. No wonder the intense director liked to retreat to Childwickbury Manor in rolling Hertfordshire.