News

Nearly 45 years later, The Shining remains a celebrated masterpiece of cinema and holds a place among the greatest movies of all time. Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of the Stephen King novel highlights the director's unique style and is full of bizarre visuals and disturbing moments. It has long been examined by film students and critics and is still re-watched by fans hoping to pick up new clues or find a new interpretation of the material. All of this attention has, understandably, led to the development of lots of theories regarding The Shining and its meaning. Some of these theories are intriguing and others are simply weird, but they're all fun to think about.

From secret messages hidden in the movie to larger themes that are being communicated, there's no shortage of ideas about The Shining and how it should be viewed. Some are supported by experts on film and some...

*full disclosure: a Blu-ray screener of this film was provided by IFC Films. Director/writer: Rodney Ascher. Cast: Bill Blakemore, Geoffrey Cocks, Juli Kearns, John Fell Ryan and Jay Weidner. There are elements that separate Stanley Kubrick's films from many others. They are often layered with meaning and those meanings can and do change with multiple viewings. His film works have been studied and analysed, extensively. But, opinions on Kubrick's works are vast. Rodney Ascher's new film, Room 237, offers five more opinions on Kubricks' 1980 horror film, The Shining. These five opinions are diverse and the evidence for their hypotheses are poorly evidenced and thus: unproven. Still, this film offers a great deal of background on Kubrick's directing style and approach to filmmaking. The motivation for Room 237 is simply to offer a discussion on The Shining. Five interviewees: Jay Weidner, John Fell Ryan, Juli Kearns, Bill Blakemore and Geoffrey Cocks,...

Since Stanley Kubrick’s “loose” adaptation of Stephen King’s novel debuted in 1980, many people have been unable to get it out of their heads. When the film came out, it wasn’t appreciated or lauded as it is today. Many deemed it a disappointment, a shell of Kubrick’s other master works, such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange or Dr. Strangelove. Obviously, viewpoints shift, as The Shining is, to many, the scariest movie ever made. I know it’s up there for me.

But Rodney Ascher’s mesmerizing documentary, Room 237, puts the spotlight on five different people who have vastly different ideas about what Stanley Kubrick’s most divisive film was really about. It wasn’t just a horror movie; there were hidden meanings littered all over the place. Stanley Kubrick’s brilliance has only gained in stature as time has passed, and everyone, from...

Director: Rodney Ascher

Featuring: Bill Blakemore, Juli Kearns, Jay Weidner, Geoffrey Cocks, John Fell Ryan

No other movie divides opinion quite like The Shining. Hailed alternately as a work of genius and a confused mess, people either love it or hate it. Haters include the author of the source material, Stephen King, who called it "a film by a man who thinks too much and feels too little." It left critics scratching their heads — Roger Ebert confessed himself disturbed by the "elusive open-endedness," while Pauline Kael declared "Kubrick mystifies us deliberately." Yet for every moviegoer who rejects The Shining as cold and impenetrable, there's one who embraces it as a masterpiece. There are even some people who believe its ambiguity holds the key to the great mysteries of modern civilization.

Room 237 takes us on a fascinating dive through the minds of this last group, the individuals who have scanned...

The Stanley Film Festival, which will host its debut fest at the iconic and legendary Stanley Hotel in Colorado from May 2-5, has announced its official feature film line-up, with the Eli Roth-starring earthquake thriller Aftershock taking center stage as the fest’s closing night film.

Roth will be on hand to accept the Inaugural Visionary Award and take part in a Q&A after the film.

“Since his debut on the film festival scene with Cabin Fever in 2002, Eli Roth has become a leading force in the horror genre. Whether acting, producing, directing or writing – his many talents are what made titles like Hostel and Inglourious Basterds shine,” says Festival Director Jenny Bloom. “His body of work will set the Stanley Film Festival Visionary Award precedent high for years to come.”

The Stanley Film Festival is curated by Programming Director Landon Zakheim and programmer Michael Lerman, who selected films from 13 different countries,...

Here's the kind of theory that the five interviewees in Rodney Ascher's Room 237 have come up with about Stanley Kubrick's The Shining: One believes that it's an allegory about the genocide of Native Americans. Another that it's instead about the Holocaust. Or that it's Kubrick's coded confession that he faked the moon landing. Ascher's subjects aren't garden-variety kooks: Native American–genocide-theorist Bill Blakemore is a veteran journalist, while Geoffrey Cocks, who sees the Holocaust in the Overlook Hotel, is a history professor. Director Ascher adopts a radically nonjudgmental approach, allowing the viewer to be seduced—or not—by his subjects' ideas. The theorists are heard but never seen; most of the images come from The Shining itself (t...

The documentary "Room 237" is not only a fascinating look at Stanley Kubrick's 1980 masterpiece "The Shining," but an examination of how we see and interpret movies and the often bizarre levels to which we obsess about them. The theories discussed in the film come from five people -- Bill Blakemore, Jay Weidner, Geoffrey Cocks, Juli Kearns, John Fell Ryan -- heavy thinkers and ordinary movie fans who try to prove that the movie is really about the massacre of Native Americans, the Holocaust, or a faked moon landing. Those all may sound ludicrous, but each "expert" has pored over the film for cryptic clues and coincidences that support their theories. After a while, they start to make some sense, especially when you hear that Kubrick had met with subliminal advertisers to learn their techniques before making the film. Moviefone sat down with the men behind "Room 237," director Rodney Ascher and producer Tim Kirk,...

The popular documentary “Room 237″ is going to be coming to New York theaters March 29 and will open in Los Angeles and Orange County April 5 (at the Sundance Sunset in West Hollywood, Laemmle’s Playhouse 7 in Pasadena and South Coast Village in Costa Mesa). The film, distributed by IFC Midnight, Following is the opening day info for Room 237 opening in Los Angeles and Orange County on Friday, April 5 (New York on March 29). The film, directed by Rodney Ascher, produced by Tim Kirk and composed by Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson, features interviews by Bill Blakemore, Geoffrey Cocks, Juli Kearns, John Fell Ryan, Jay Weidner about [ Read More ]

The post Room 237 Coming To New York March 29 appeared first on Shockya.com.

1. It’s Really About the Native American Genocide Theorist: Bill Blakemore, television correspondent, author. Theory: The film is about the horrible crimes perpetrated on Native Americans by whites. Evidence: In the movie (but not the Stephen King novel on which it was based), the Overlook Hotel is said to be built on a Native American graveyard. There are Native American artifacts and designs throughout the hotel (1); the hotel’s pantry, which figures in important scenes, is well stocked with Calumet baking powder (2), whose labels prominently feature an American Indian. (Calumet means “peace pipe,” and the cans symbolize the broken peace pipe, both between white men and natives and between Jack and his family.) Blakemore posits that The Shining suggests we can only escape this “nightmare of history” by retracing our steps—just as Danny Torrance does in the hedge maze. 2. It’s Really About the Nazi Holocaust Theorist: Geoffrey Cocks,...

Room 237 is a documentary that presents five people who have spent a great deal of time scrutinizing every frame of Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining for hidden meaning.

And oh what hidden meanings they’ve found. Bill Blakemore—who, based on his credentials as a foreign and domestic correspondent for ABC, might seem otherwise credible—thinks the film is an allegory about the genocide of the American Indians. The Overlook is, after all, built on an Indian burial ground. He believes that a can of Calumet baking powder with an Indian head on the label supports his theory and the way the can is turned in different scenes indicates the characters’ veracity.

Historian Geoffrey Cocks, who has published books about Nazi Germany, uses the proliferation of the number 42 and the fact that Jack’s typewriter is German as evidence that the movie is about the Holocaust, which...

Title: Room 237 IFC Midnight Director: Rodney Ascher Screenwriter: Rodney Ascher Cast: Bill Blakemore, Geoffrey Cocks, Juli Kearns, John Fell Ryan, Jay Weidner Screened at: SoHo House, NYC, 12/18/12 Opens: March 22, 2013 Maybe you’ve had this experience. You come out of a movie and begin to discuss your impressions with a friend only to hear your pal say, “Hey, relax, it’s only a movie!” This is the kind of outlook that had led to experts holding film’s role as a mere stepchild to great painting and literature. When you come out of Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” or his “2001: A Space Odyssey,” or his “Full Metal Jacket” or “Clockwork [ Read More ]

The post Room 237 Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Room 237

Review by LondonFilmFan

Stars: Bill Blakemore, Geoffrey Cocks, Juli Kearns, John Fell Ryan, Jay Weidner | Directed by Rodney Archer

“Many cult movies have their own radical interpretations but none as rich and far-ranging as Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. In Room 237, we hear from people who believed they have decoded the far-reaching theories, hidden symbols and messages buried in the late director’s film. Carefully examining The Shining forwards and backwards, Room 237 is equal parts captivating, provocative and pure pleasure.”

A documentary exploring the themes and conspiracy theories deriving from Stanley Kubrick’s classic take on The Shining sounds like a promising enterprise, but while Room 237 does entertain, it’s an unexpectedly poorly made piece of film-making. The contributors (some with truly thought-provoking takes on the film and others who likely own a fine selection of tin-foil hats) are never seen onscreen, as only their...

Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is the subject of Room 237, a documentary that seeks to present a number of theories surrounding the film and its maker. Laid out like a visual essay Room 237 uses audio recordings of theorists and mixes them with footage from The Shining and a number of other films to explore the idea that the film has a number of hidden, or not so hidden meanings.

These theories range from explorations of the geography of the Overlook Hotel right down the rabbit hole and into discussions of numerology and the theory that The Shining was a confession from Kubrick about his involvement in faking the moon landing.

I spoke to producer Tim Kirk and director Rodney Ascher about these theories and some of the difficult questions that Room 237 raised.

Why The Shining? Obviously Kubrick had an obsessive attention to detail, is that the main thing?...

The Shining has both terrified and puzzled fans since its release in 1980. Now a documentary explores the many mysteries of Stanley Kubrick's psycho-horror

Original viewers of The Shining sat down to watch a psychological horror movie about a man who holes up inside a snowbound hotel, loses his marbles and tries to kill his family. Three decades later, the joke's on them; they read the whole thing wrong. The Shining is actually a Holocaust movie in disguise. Scratch that: The Shining is, in fact, Stanley Kubrick's version of Theseus and the labyrinth. No, wait: it's his veiled apology for helping Nasa fake the moon-landings, or a vast history lesson in human evil, from the dawn of man to the end of time. If there were ever a film to send the viewer mad, The Shining fits the bill.

Director Rodney Ascher estimates that he used only 10% of the...

The American Film Institute (AFI) today announced its red carpet Centerpiece Galas and Special Screenings . comprised of award season contenders and the year.s most highly anticipated works from film masters, moving image icons and breakthrough talents . for AFI Fest 2012 presented by Audi. This year.s line up includes feature films of iconic figures such as President Abraham Lincoln, prolific filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock and Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac, as well as non-fiction and inspired-by stories about the Central Park Five and West of Memphis teenagers, Southeast Asia tsunami survivors and much more.

As previously announced, the World Premiere of Hitchcock (Dir Sacha Gervasi) is the Opening Night Gala and the World Premiere of Lincoln (Dir Steven Spielberg) is the Closing Night Gala.

The Centerpiece Galas are Life Of Pi in 3D (Dir Ang Lee); On The Road (Dir Walter Salles);Rise Of The Guardians in 3D (Dir Peter Ramsey...

Room 237

Directed by Rodney Ascher

With Bill Blakemore, Geoffrey Cocks, Juli Kearns

It’s inevitable really. Whenever you get a gaggle of film fanatics together soon the impenetrable argot of a celluloid subculture will come to the fore, with fiery debates on the merits of diagetic sound or Academy ratios, dolly zooms and chiaroscuro lighting dominating the discourse. Away from the technical components film fanatics also enjoy debating a films themes or structure, its submerged meanings expressed through the language of cinema, through framing and composition, mise-en-scene and acting techniques, a panoply of instruments in the filmmakers arsenal which is interpreted and absorbed by the cinema audience in many different ways. In Room 237, an alleged documentary on film obsession the subject is Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaption of Stephen King’s classic horror novel The Shining, a film now widely praised as one of the high benchmarks of the genre,...

Room 237

Directed by Rodney Ascher

USA, 2012

Room 237 is a potent, one-of-a-kind exploration into obsession and fanaticism that calls into question the underlying value of art and those who seek to unearth it. Whether or not you’re a fan of Kubrick and his films is moot. Rodney Ascher’s documentary serves up mind-boggling theory after another, absorbing the viewer into a bubble of references and theories surrounding Kubrick’s 1980 horror classic The Shining. Broken into nine sections, Room 237 is chalk-full of altered images, stock footage, and snippets from the rest of Kubrick’s oeuvre. Its structure and cohesiveness very much plays like a thrown together college assignment on the auteur, but with enough ideas to keep us entertained, and even enthralled throughout its duration.

The film follows a group of contributors (never actually seen in the film), each of whom believe they have a firm grasp on what Kubrick was really doing.

News.

Robert Koehler and Kent Jones are taking over Richard Peña's programming duties at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. As two of the hardest working and knowledgeable film critics working, this comes as exciting news. We here at Mubi offer them ecstatic congratulations. Tiff has run its course, and the awards have been divvied up accordingly. Those prolific cats over at Cinema Scope have a "Listomania" ripe for those keen on the less official accolades.

Finds.

The French Connection, Dir. William Friedkin (1971)

The Thomas Crown Affair, Dir. John McTiernan (1999)

Above: You may have already noticed a post about this amazing find on our Facebook page. It comes by way of Khoi Vinh, who brought this to our attention at his blog. The idea over at FILMography is simple but very cool: Christopher Moloney goes to the original shooting location of a film, armed with a still, and takes...