Strange Love : KUBRICK + LACMA = ♥

Matthew Modine, Gold Wire Rimmed P3 eyeglasses, Full Metal Jacket (1987)

The Stanley Kubrick Retrospective at LACMA covers the breadth of his practice, beginning with his early photographs for Look magazine, taken in the 1940s, and continuing with his groundbreaking directorial achievements of the 1950s through the 1990s.

Costume and props from A Clockwork Orange at the Stanley Kubrick Retrospective at LACMA (Photo from GALLIVANT)

His films are represented through a selection of annotated scripts, production photography, lenses and cameras, set models, costumes, and props. In addition, the exhibition explores Napoleon and The Aryan Papers, two projects that Kubrick never completed, as well as the technological advances developed and utilized by Kubrick and his team.

Sue Lyon bespectacled and bowtied in Lolita (1962)

By featuring this legendary film auteur and his oeuvre as the focus of his first retrospective in the context of an art museum, the exhibition reevaluates how we define the artist in the 21st century, and simultaneously expands upon LACMA’s commitment to exploring the intersection of art and film.

Sue Lyon photographed by Bert Stern in Lolita glasses (1960)

Ghost twins costume from The Shining (1980) at Los Angeles County Museum of Art

The exhibition highlights scenes in his movies that were directly influenced by works of art — the spectral twins in "The Shining" that were inspired by the photographs of Diane Arbus, and numerous shots in "Barry Lyndon" that were based directly on 18th century paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, William Hogarth, George Stubbs and others. - L.A. Times

Star Baby embryo from 2001 Space Odyssey (1968)

Strangelove's War Room also is re-created as one of several highly detailed, miniature models in the exhibit, many of them from the innovative production of 2001, including the Discovery spaceship and the museumlike Baroque Room of the finale, with its unnerving light emanating from the floor. 

Seeing the physical models allows the viewer to move back and forth and study these movie spaces in three shifting dimensions. The most fascinating is a model of 2001's spacecraft centrifuge, a rotating stage with trap doors that allowed Kubrick to film from strategic vantage points.  - L.A. Weekly

 STANLEY KUBRICK + LACMA is open through June 30, 2013

Venetian Mask from Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Jean Shrimpton through the eyes of David Bailey : NYC 1962

Orbital Maneuvers : Wives of NASA's Project Gemini Space Program

Five days after the Soviet Spacewalk, several astronaut’s wives watch in tremendous anticipation as the first Gemini lifts off with its two man crew. Love this, a broad brushstroke of expression and emotion, much more than just one moment captured here, these faces beam back all the pride, thrill, terror and raw astonishment the Space Program can present.

Or maybe it’s a just a summer snapshot with the greatest collection of 60′s sunglasses ever captured by camera. (From Sci-Fi-O-Rama)

Project Gemini was conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, with ten manned flights occurring in 1965 and 1966. Its objective was to develop space travel techniques in support of Apollo, which had the goal of landing men on the Moon.

Century 21 Calling : Seattle 1962

Seattle World's Fair, Century 21 Exposition, 1962

Futuristic Gyroscope in the Centerhouse Pavilion

Panorama of the midway at night, future home of the Fun Forest

Blinded By The Light

Hear the voice of the Bard!
Who present, past, and future sees;
Whose ears have heard
The Holy Word,
That walked among the ancient trees,

Calling the lapsed soul,
And weeping in the evening dew;
That might control
The starry pole,
And fallen, fallen, light renew!

"O Earth, O Earth, return!
Arise from out the dewy grass;
Night is worn,
And the morn
Rises from the slumberous mass.

"Turn away no more;
Why wilt thou turn away?
The starry floor,
The watery shore,
Is given thee till the break of day."

-William Blake

Two by Arthur Lipsett

Canadian Experimental Film Artist Arthur Lipsett

Free Fall by Arthur Lipsett, 1964

Very Nice, Very Nice (1962)

More Lipsett here

Me and Mr. Jones 1962

Mr. Dave Jones at the observatory, September 1962.

Structures Sonores | 1962

Yes, I know it looks weird, but it's still a love song!

How to Own the Room | Gene Chandler 1962

Behold the Dukedom! Gene Chandler (plus monocle) is Duke of Earl, 1962.

Hit and Run | Jolanta Meets Her Lover 1962

Knife in the Water, Roman Polanski, 1962

Sad Screwballs | David and Lisa 1962

A Bunch of Screwballs Spoiling the Town! Short Clip from David and Lisa, 1962.

Famous Feuds: Bette Davis vs. Joan Crawford

Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it's because I'm not a bitch. Maybe that's why Miss Crawford always plays ladies. - Bette Davis

The origin of the Davis-Crawford dispute was over a man – actor Franchot Tone. While Bette Davis was filming “Dangerous” (1935) opposite Tone, she fell in love with him, unaware that he was involved with Joan Crawford at the time. When she found out, animosity sparked. Davis was later quoted as saying about Crawford, “...She’s slept with every male star in MGM except Lassie.” Crawford attempted to become friends with Davis, but unfortunately, the damage was done.


It was not until both were older and lost their star power that the studios invested in “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” (1962). Working so closely together on a project gave both actresses the chance to wreak havoc on one another for years of animosity. In one scene, Davis apparently kicked Crawford so hard that Joan ended up in the hospital with bruises and a concussion. When asked about working with Joan Crawford on the film, Bette Davis has commented: “The best time I ever had with Joan was when I pushed her down the stairs.”

Bowling Green | 1962

Dedicated Bowtie Devotee Arthur Schlesinger 1968 + 1999

Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. was a Pulitzer Prize recipient and American historian who served as special assistant and "court historian" to President Kennedy from 1961 to 1963. He wrote a detailed account of the Kennedy Administration, from the transition period to the president's state funeral, titled A Thousand Days. In 1968, he actively supported the presidential campaign of Senator Robert F. Kennedy until Kennedy's assassination in the Ambassador Hotel on June 5, 1968, and wrote the biography Robert Kennedy and His Times several years later.

If we are to survive, we must have ideas, vision, and courage. These things are rarely produced by committees. Everything that matters in our intellectual and moral life begins with an individual confronting his own mind and conscience in a room by himself.

-Arthur Schlesinger

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold | David Cornwell, 1962

John le Carré (A.K.A. David John Moore Cornwell) worked forMI5 and MI6 in the 1950s and 1960s, before leaving the secret service to devote himself to writing after the success of The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. Cornwell wrote under his pseudonym of John le Carré because it was not acceptable for members of the Foreign Office to publish under their own names. John is Le Carré's second forename, whilst the words "le carré" mean "the square" in French.

In 1950 le Carré joined the British Army's Intelligence Corps in Austria, where his German proved useful in interrogating people who had fled westward across the Iron Curtain. In 1952 he returned to England to study at Lincoln College, Oxford where he carried out secret assignments for MI5, which included joining far-left groups in order to collect information about possible Soviet agents.

His work was affected by Kim Philby, a British double agent (one of the Cambridge Five), who blew the cover of dozens of British agents to the KGB, David Cornwell among them. Years later, le Carré carefully depicted and analysed Philby's weakness and deceit in the guise of "Gerald" the mole, who is hunted by George Smiley in the central novel of le Carré's work, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Coin-Op and Cocktails | Jack Benny at L.A. Laundry Party

Mrs. Sammy Cahn (L), comedian George Jessel (C) and comedian Jack Benny (R) at a star-studded opening of a new coin-operated dry cleaners in Los Angeles, California. HDV pays the greatest respect to this party; a beautiful blend of cocktails, burlesque, live music, and washing machines.

William Burroughs on Promotional Pamphlet for NAKED LUNCH (1962)