In Contention

Tag: Stanley Kubrick

  • Forget Timberline Lodge — try the Stanley

    Inside the Stanley Hotel/Film points us today to a Fantastic Fest tie-in at Timberline Lodge, the hotel where Stanley Kubrick filmed his Stephen King adaptation “The Shining.”  There will be a party, some dinner, and of course, an overnight stay at the creepy establishment.

    That’s all well and good, but forget the Timberline.  I say try your hand at a night in the Stanley Hotel out in Estes Park, Colorado.  That’s the place that gave King his inspiration for the book, a supposedly haunted hotel founded by Freelan O. Stanley (of Stanley Steamer fame).  The guy built this place way out west when his wife began to come down with health issues.  Doctors said the air and altitude of the setting would be good for her.

    King stayed there back in the 1970s in — you guessed it — room 237.  That room is said to be frequented by the spirit of an old maid who will set your clothes aside nice and neat while you’re out hiking or skiing or what have you.  You’ll come back to the room and your shoes will be put in the closet, your shirts stowed in dresser drawers, etc.

    Stars tend to frequent room 237.  Back in 1994, Jim Carrey stayed in the unit while filming “Dumb and Dumber” (Estes Park was used for the Aspen scenes).  He supposedly came down in the middle of the night and told the desk person, “I don’t care where you put me but you have to get me out of that room.”  I’ve heard he won’t really talk about what happened in there.

    Hey — this is what the tour guides tell you.  Don’t shoot the messenger.

    But seriously, the Stanley is a creepy place.  They even did a Ghost Hunters episode there.  Apparently the fourth floor has the most paranormal activity, and there are lots of kids’ spirits hanging around the place, tugging at shirt tales, playing jacks, etc.  The location is surreal as well, looking out over the Rockies with a vast open space out in front of the hotel.  The Rocky Mountain National Park entrance is maybe four miles away, so it’s a choice spot.

    If you can handle it.  Mwahahahahahaha.

  • Hitch reigns

    Well it seems Alfred Hitchcock won out in a squeaker against Stanely Kubrick in last week’s poll for the most deserving Oscarless director.  After a heated 16-way competition, it seemed obvious these two would stand out from the fray, and in the end we shouldn’t be too surprised that the master of suspense was the readers’ favorite.

    I’ll say only this, to echo the words of a colleague recently: Kubrick never made a meaningless movie, where as Hitcock made several.  Just to play devil’s advocate.

    As for the new poll, I’m learning of Stan Winston’s passing this morning from my own Web site of all places (that’s a first — thanks to Brian).  It’s completely surprising, I have to say, and has me thinking back to his greatest work over the years.  So I’ll put it to the readers: What film boasted Winston’s greatest work as an effects wizard?  Tell us in the poll.

  • Neck and neck

    After last week’s poll on Oscarless directors, it became clear pretty fast that two giants were way ahead of the pack: Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick.  The closest pretender to the throne of snubbed helmers was Robert Altman, but it was a VERY distant third.

    So this week it seemed only fair to suss out where everyone stands on these two alone, without the other 14 names in the mix.  So have at it in the new poll.

  • Why I will miss Sydney Pollack

    It has now been nearly four days since filmmaker Sydney Pollack passed away. The loss was not crippling for me, however, because of equal parts expectancy and, strangely, indifference.

    As fine a filmmaker as Pollack was, he was always something of an afterthought in my cinema-going experience.

    I want to be measured here, because the last thing I mean is disrespect. In fact, I’m aiming more toward appreciation of a sort of confident casualness that has been eradicated in this fresh new world of cock-sure filmmaking youths and the veterans who, at times, struggle to keep up, and at others, tap into their own former risk-taking ways to establish a new vision of the “old school.”

    Pollack was never about that. He seemed to make his way from film to film with grace and a willingness to take stock of the lessons that came. I never knew him — can’t offer any first hand accounts of exchange — but if anything about his May 26 death strikes a profound chord with me, it is to know that an ever agreeable constant has been removed from this business, this art form. Sometimes the disconnect of casual dependency can sting as much as the loss of the closest of comrades.

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