Stanley Kubrick's Boxes

Last updated

Stanley Kubrick's Boxes
Stanley Kubrick's Boxes film Theatrical release poster (2008-2).jpg
Written by Jon Ronson
Directed byJon Ronson
StarringAnthony Frewin
Anya Kubrick
Christiane Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Jon Ronson
Vincent Tilsley
Leon Vitali
Music by Simon Fisher Turner
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
Production
ProducerJess Ludgrove
CinematographyDavid Barker
David Kempner
Brian O'Carroll
EditorKieran Smyth
Running time48 minutes
Production companiesWorld of Wonder
Channel 4
Original release
Release15 July 2008 (2008-07-15)

Stanley Kubrick's Boxes is a 2008 British TV documentary film directed and written by Jon Ronson about the film director Stanley Kubrick. [1] It was produced by World of Wonder for Channel 4.

Contents

Synopsis

Jon Ronson visits Stanley Kubrick's estate over a five-year period, and explores the contents of some of the thousands of custom-made cardboard boxes containing Kubrick's film-making memorabilia. The documentary comprises interviews with Kubrick's family and colleagues, and features examples of the boxes' contents, which include research materials and notes for Kubrick's released films and unrealised projects as well as meticulously archived and indexed fan letters.

Cast

In order of appearance:

Reception

Derek Elley wrote in Variety : "Packed with some new, and some familiar, insights into Kubrick’s meticulous, obsessive mind, and revealing a very human side of the reclusive helmer, pic deserves extensive fest play as well as cable airings. ... Technically, docu is basic stuff, though copious clips are well integrated and Kieran Smyth’s photo montages pack in a lot of archival detail. Simon Fisher Turner’s atmospheric score builds an air of mystery and discovery." [2]

In Empire , Ian Nathan wrote: "In Jon Ronson's marvellous TV documentary, Stanley Kubrick's Boxes, the journalist was given rare access to the director's archive still stored at his Childwickbury Manor after his death in 1999.  ... Ronson wryly notes that his (mostly unfair) reputation as a mad recluse might have been fuelled by weekly visits to Harpenden's Ryman to purchase any new lines of stationery they might have had delivered. In amongst the archive was what amounted to a Ryman museum, made up of pristine pads, notebooks and sheaves of paper. And yet Ronson's conclusion was inspiring. In material form, here were the inner-workings of Kubrick's creativity, the clockwork his genius." [3]

The Times wrote: "A cineaste’s treasure trove indeed, and for Ronson an excuse to meet Kubrick confidantes to hear personal experiences of the director’s film-making foibles and pursuit of artistic perfection. A curious insight into cinema’s great enigma." [4]

In Sight and Sound Georgina Orgill, Head of the Kubrick Archive, wrote: "Kubrick was very interested in archiving. Before his collection came to us it was kept at the Kubrick estate. There was a bit of damp, but it was very well looked after – he had ordered boxes to house it, it wasn't just dumped on a shelf. The documentary Stanley Kubrick's Boxes (2008) shows this well." [5]

The Glasgow Herald wrote: "The insight ... offered into Stanley Kubrick's mind by way of boxes, more boxes and then some more boxes of, well, stuff, was utterly compelling." [6]

In Sight and Sound, Linda Ruth Williams called the film a "hilarious, access-all-areas documentary." [7]

References

  1. ↑ "Stanley Kubrick's Boxes". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 19 November 2025.
  2. ↑ Elley, Derek (5 August 2008). "Stanley Kubrick's Boxes". Variety . Retrieved 19 November 2025.
  3. ↑ Nathan, Ian (January 2010). "Unmade Kubrick". Empire . Retrieved 19 November 2025.
  4. ↑ "True Stories: Stanley Kubrick's Boxes" . The Times . 15 July 2008. Retrieved 20 November 2025.
  5. ↑ Orgill, Grorgina (December 2019). "People find it amazing that they can look at something so iconic in real life". Sight and Sound . 29 (12): 32. ProQuest   2318674707.
  6. ↑ "Perfectionist who boxed clever". The Herald . 16 July 2008. Retrieved 20 November 2025.
  7. ↑ "Mister Strangelove". Sight and Sound . 19 (3): 18. March 2009. ProQuest   237125538.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.