Tag Archives: stanley kubrick

Muldoon On Kubrick

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“They work with Stanley and go through hells that nothing in their careers could have prepared them for, they think they must have been mad to get involved, they think that they'd die before they would ever work with him again, that fixated maniac; and when it's all behind them and the profound fatigue of so much intensity has worn off, they'd do anything in the world to work for him again. For the rest of their professional lives they long to work with someone who cared the way Stanley did, someone they could learn from. They look for someone to respect the way they’d come to respect him, but they can never find anybody … I've heard this story so many times.” - Michael Herr, screenwriter of Full Metal Jacket

There's something extra fascinating about having an actor as a guest on the show, as it's very easy to infer that their choice of filmmaker is someone they would love to have worked with. Despite the stories of endless takes and production schedules that stretch into years, would Rhys Muldoon have still wanted to work with cinema's acknowledged master? You'll have to listen to find out.

Stanley Kubrick is the Hell Is For Hyphenates white whale (we have about seventy white whales, btw) and it was exciting to finally cover his groundbreaking, influential works. And only a month after we talked Hitchcock, it's making 2016 a concentration of cinema's great architects.

But before Rhys joins us, we look at a selection of the past month's new releases, including the superpowered kids of Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, the 1930s Hollywood of Café Society and the strangely communicative aliens of Arrival.

If that doesn't satisfy you, please enjoy this further reading:

  • The goofy Full Metal Jacket audition tape made by actor Brian Atene as mentioned in this month's episode can be viewed in its toe-curling glory here.
  • The Kubrick Site is a non-profit and comprehensive archive devoted to the works of Stanley Kubrick.
  • There were not many interviews with Kubrick, but this from 1987 conducted by Rolling Stone is worth a read.
  • Few filmmakers have been as heavily-mythologised as Kubrick, and this fantastic article from Taste of Cinema examines the ten greatest in seductive detail.
  • This must-read piece from the BFI and Sight and Sound looks at Stanley Kubrick as cinephile, and includes the only known list Kubrick ever made of his ten favourite films. The list was written back in 1963, and there's some informed guesswork as to how it may have changed in the following decades. Feel free to speculate, as we have been, which filmmaker Stanley might have chosen to talk about had we ever enticed him to appear on Hyphenates.
  • Sophie made the journey to the actual Overlook Hotel from The Shining, and says it’s one fo the coolest places she’s ever been to. Check out this article from Fact Mag about the upcoming horror-themed Overlook Film Festival.
  • Finally, if you've never seen Lee's TV show The Bazura Project, then congratulations on missing his questionable impressions of James Mason in Lolita, Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange, Jack Nicholson in The Shining, and Vincent D'Onofrio in Full Metal Jacket.

Outro music: “We’ll Meet Again”, written by Ross Parker and Hugh Charles, and performed by Vera Lynn, from Dr Strangelove, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

The latest episode of Hell Is For Hyphenates, featuring Rhys Muldoon talking Stanley Kubrick, can be subscribed to on iTunes, listened to on Stitcher Smart Radio, or downloaded/streamed directly from our website.

Hell Is For Hyphenates – October 2016

Actor, author and musician Rhys Muldoon is our guest this month, as we look back at some of the key films of October 2016, including Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, Woody Allen’s Café Society, and Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival. Then Rhys takes us through the films, career and influence of cinema’s most enigmatic and revered figure, Stanley Kubrick.

The Stanley Kubrick Cheat Sheet

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Want to become an instant expert in our filmmaker of the month without committing yourself to an entire filmography? Then you need the Hell Is For Hyphenates Cheat Sheet: we program you a double that will not only make for a great evening's viewing, but bring you suitably up-to-speed before our next episode lands…

stanley-kubrick-cheat-sheet

DR STRANGELOVE (1964) and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)

Which two films sum up Stanley Kubrick's career? Can two films possibly do such a thing? They cannot, which speaks to the eclectic genius that Kubrick embodied. But with these two choices, we're confident you'll get a good idea of the different shades of Stanley: his humour and his control, his insight and his imagination. Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is the ultimate cold war satire, an achingly funny film about the USA and Russia on the brink of nuclear war. Peter Sellers stars as US President Merkin Muffley, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, and the titular Dr Strangelove, in this profoundly quotable and keenly rewatchable comedy. Once you've watched that, you'll need to go and find a rep cinema. An actual rep cinema that's playing 2001: A Space Odyssey in 70mm, or maybe 35mm, or in a stretch 4K digital. If there was ever a film that should only ever under any circumstance be seen big, it's this one. (Okay, maybe Lawrence of Arabia.) But - grudgingly - perhaps in the era of high-definition television and Blu-ray players and surround sound, we can just about countenance the idea of you watching arguably the most profound cinematic experiences of all time in the comfort of your own home. But only if you turn the lights off and put your phone in the other room, because you're in church.

Substitutions: If you can't get or have already seen Dr Strangelove, seek out 1962's Lolita. It's not exactly a clean substitute, but it's an equally great insight into human psychology (albeit from an entirely different angle), and hey, Peter Sellers. If you can't get or have already seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, seek out 1980's The Shining. Look, there's obviously no corroboration here. What, are we going to point you to Kubrick's other science fiction film that forever redefined cinema? But, like every possible combination of Kubrick films, you can't really fault this double.

The Hidden Gem: Kubrick's earlier films aren't as widely discussed as his later work, which means his debut feature Fear and Desire (1953) rarely gets a look-in. And that's a shame, because his film about four soldiers trapped behind enemy lines is an intense and complex work. It's rawer than his more controlled movies, but you can see the seeds of his style being sown in this tight 62 minute introduction.

The next episode of Hell Is For Hyphenates, featuring Rhys Muldoon talking Stanley Kubrick, will be released on 31 October 2016.

Our Next Hyphenate: Rhys Muldoon

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Actor, author and October 2016 Hyphenate Rhys Muldoon

Rhys Muldoon is the very definition of a multi-hyphenate.

As an actor, he's appeared in films such as Danny Deckchair (2003), The Crop (2004), The Extra (2005), Valentine's Day (2007) and Bitter & Twisted (2008), in television shows such as Bastard Boys, House Husbands, Blackjack, Grass Roots and Play School, and on stage in Don's Party, Amadeus, Romeo + Juliet, Stuff Happens, and Steven Soderbergh's production of Tot Mom.

He has released two albums of children's music, both of which were nominated for ARIA Awards: I'm Not Singing (2012) and Perfect is the Enemy of Good (2015). He also co-wrote the children's book Jasper & Abby and the Great Australia Day Kerfuffle with then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Now, one line on the CV is about to eclipse all the others: Hell Is For Hyphenates guest host!

We are delighted Rhys will be joining us in this month's episode, and very excited at his choice of filmmaker…

Stanley Kubrick!
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Kubrick, the filmmaker still spoken of in hushed, reverent tones by cinephiles and filmmakers alike, hardly needs an introduction. Which is usually the thing you say before you introduce them anyway.

The obsessive and detailed Kubrick only made 13 films, but few would argue against the idea that his works changed cinema forever: Fear and Desire (1953), Killer's Kiss (1955), The Killing (1956), Paths of Glory (1957), Spartacus (1960), Lolita (1962), Dr Strangelove or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987), Eyes Wide Shut (1999).

We're just gonna leave that list there. Not much else needs to be said. Although we will be saying a lot more, so make sure you come back on the morning of October 31 as we chat Stanley Kubrick with Rhys Muldoon!

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Our next filmmaker of the month, Stanley Kubrick

Hi4H’s 2014 Year In Review

Hi4H 2014 Montage

2014 was a pretty great year for Hell Is For Hyphenates. We reached our 50th episode, we had our first ever live show at the Sydney Film Festival, we landed guests such as Lynn Shelton and Joe Swanberg, and, most importantly, we started this blog.

We thought this would be a good opportunity to take stock, and make some lists that isn't the traditional “Best Of” (those will come later). Please feel free to chime in with your own answers in the comments.

Top five Hi4H film discoveries (that you hadn't seen before)?

Paul: The Long Goodbye (1973, Altman - I'm restricting myself to one film per filmmaker, so just know I could've easily filled this list with Altmans: California Split and HealtH chief among them), M. Hulot's Holiday (1953, Tati), An Unmarried Woman (1978, Mazursky), Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974, Hough), Subway (1985, Besson).

Lee: I'm also gonna limit it to one per filmmaker to keep things slightly easier. Images (1972, Altman), Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969, Mazursky), Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974, Hough), Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary (2002, Maddin), Beau Travail (1999, Denis).

Which new filmmakers to emerge in 2014 are you most excited about?

Paul: Can't I just say “Xavier Dolan” five times? No? Okay. But Xavier Dolan is my clear #1 here. While he's been making films since 2009, I saw four of his five features - two of which were premieres - in 2014. A preternatural wunderkind who brings a unique blend of social realism, melodrama and bold cinematic style to bear, with uncommon power and moxie. Ana Lily Amirpour (just for being supercool and singular of vision), Jennifer Kent (for bringing a dramatic, thematic approach back to horror), Damien Chazelle (while Whiplash blew others away more than me, there was an uncommon command of craft - and an interesting voice - I'm keen to see more of), Joe & Anthony Russo: with one film, these frequent sitcom directors managed to single-handedly restore my faith in the Marvel Studios model.

Lee: So, so many. Gillian Rospierre (Obvious Child), Desiree Akhavan (Appropriate Behavior), Damien Chazelle (Whiplash), Jennifer Kent (The Babadook), Charlie McDowell (The One I Love), Lake Bell (In a World…), Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night), Sophie Hyde (52 Tuesdays). I'm excited about what everyone in this group will make next.

Five filmmakers you'd like to see us cover on the show?

Paul: Because they're Masters: Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Howard Hawks, Mario Bava. Because I want to examine their career in context: John Carpenter.

Lee: I'm gonna eschew the obvious names (Hitchcock, Scorsese, Kubrick), because they are givens, and go with Kenji Mizoguchi, Agnès Varda, Michelangelo Antonioni, Alexandr Sokurov, Douglas Sirk. Is that a bit of a pretentious list? If so, replace one of those names with, I don't know, Brett Ratner. Or, better yet, don't.

Given we're an Australian show, what were your favourite Australian films of the year?

Paul: 1) Cut Snake; 2) Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films; 3) The Rover; 4) The Babadook; 5) The Infinite Man.

Lee: 1) The Babadook; 2) Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films; 3) The Rover; 4) Charlie’s Country; 5) Canopy. The fact that this list was so difficult to curate speaks to what a great year it was for Australian cinema.

Most Anticipated Films of 2015?

Paul: 1) The Hateful Eight (was there ever any doubt??); 2) Inherent Vice; 3) Tomorrowland; 4) Foxcatcher; 5) Serial Season 2… oh, it has to be films? Okay… Mad Max: Fury Road.

Lee: 1) Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice; 2) Joss Whedon's Avengers: Age of Ultron; 3) Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight; 4) Todd Haynes' Carol; 5) Martin Scorsese's Silence.


Thank you all for listening this year. We hope you enjoyed it, and we hope you enjoy everything to come in 2015. We have some big plans we can't wait to tell you about.

Big thanks to everyone who helped us out over the year, from our guests to the good people at the Sydney Film Festival, and everyone who loaned us the DVDs and autobiographies we needed for research. Huge thanks to our loyal artist Caroline McCurdy, who did all of our amazing artwork and design.

In the meantime, 2014 isn't done yet! We have our final show for 2014 coming out on the morning of December 31, featuring Richard Watts talking about the films of Gregg Araki, so make sure you kick off your New Year's Eve plans with our latest show!

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