Showing posts with label Eyes Wide Shut. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eyes Wide Shut. Show all posts

Saturday, January 05, 2019

Movie Award Shows and Cryptokubrology




The movie awards season begins on January 6, 2019, with the Golden Globes. I wonder how Stanley Kubrick will be involved. At the British Academy Film Awards on February 10, 2019, the link is quite clear: The Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film is bestowed.

Do you recall the Overlook Hotel ad during the 90th Academy Awards, in 2018?



"Creepy scenes play off plot points from [The Shining], including a hotel manager inspecting a door that’s been shattered to smithereens (from an axe by the looks of it). The faux spot faux-wraps with the number (833) 888-0237....The true advertiser [was] the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, a new museum dedicated to the art and science of movies that will be opened in Los Angeles in 2019 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (which runs the Oscars)." Source.

Will Stanley Kubrick be remembered overtly or covertly at the movie award shows, such as the Golden Globes, British Academy Film Awards, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the Academy Awards?

This is the 20th anniversary year of the release of Eyes Wide Shut and the death of Kubrick (1999).


#Cryptokubrology is alive and well, and people are thinking about the "twilight language" that Kubrick left behind for us to ponder...all the time.

If you haven't seen the following YouTube selection, take a moment to watch it (with the sound on, as the music is beautiful):





Will Cryptokubrology haunt the memorials?

The Golden Globes usually do a memorial reel to recall those who died during the last 12 months. Will R. Lee Ermey be included?


The first major cast member of Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987) who died was R. Lee Ermey. He was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actor for his role in that movie. Born March 24, 1944, Ermey passed away on April 15, 2018.


Will you be watching? With your eyes wide open?

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Sunday, June 17, 2018

Cryptokubrulogy Meets Trump

Cryptokubrulogy shows that Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut of 1999 collides with Donald Trump's reality television presence in 2005.

Eyes Wide Shut is a 1999 erotic drama film directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick. Based on Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 novella Traumnovelle (Dream Story), the story is transferred from early 20th century Vienna to 1990s New York City. 

Principal photography for Eyes Wide Shut began in November 1996. Filming finally wrapped in June 1998. The Guinness World Records recognized Eyes Wide Shut as the longest constant movie shoot, "for over 15 months, a period that included an unbroken shoot of 46 weeks"

Kubrick died six days after showing his final edited cut to Warner Bros.


The framing of Donald Trump in the Hollywood Access tape with the blonde woman who wears almost the same style and color of the dress nearly matches the above scene from Eyes Wide Shut



The Hollywood Access video was recorded in September 2005 in the NBC Studios parking lot while Trump was preparing to appear in an episode of the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives.

Upon arriving at the lot, the camera crew was let off the bus so they could record Trump and Billy Bush disembarking and meeting with Arianne Zucker, who portrayed Nicole Walker on the soap opera and appeared alongside Trump in the episode in which he guest starred.

On October 7, 2016, during the 2016 United States presidential election, The Washington Post published a video and accompanying article about then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and television host Billy Bush having "an extremely lewd conversation about women" in 2005.

William Hall Bush was born in Manhattan, New York, to Josephine Colwell (Bradley) and Jonathan Bush, a banker. William Bush's uncle (his father's older brother) is George H. W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States. George W. Bush, the 43rd President, and former Florida governor Jeb Bush are William Bush's first cousins.



Monday, December 25, 2017

Merry Cryptokubrology Christmas


Did Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) make a Christmas film?

Students of Kubrick clearly agree that he did. The one movie generally considered to be his "Christmas masterpiece" is Eyes Wide Shut


Film critic Roger Ebert wrote on July 19, 1999, that the Eyes Wide Shut was shoot "in a grainy high-contrast style, using lots of back-lighting, underlighting and strong primary colors, setting the film at Christmas to take advantage of the holiday lights, he makes it all a little garish, like an urban sideshow."

On March 7, 1999, six days after screening a final cut of Eyes Wide Shut for his family and the stars, Kubrick died in his sleep at the age of 70, after suffering a massive heart attack.

If Eyes Wide Shut is about the Illuminati, it makes sense that Kubrick would utilize Christmas lights to "illuminate" his film.


Mainstream analysts have tried to wrestle with the Christmas setting of Eyes Wide Shut.
In addition to relocating the story from Vienna in the 1900s to New York City in the 1990s, Kubrick changed the time-frame of Schnitzler's story from Mardi Gras to Christmas. One critic believed Kubrick did this because of the rejuvenating symbolism of Christmas. Others have noted that Christmas lights allow Kubrick to employ some of his distinct methods of shooting including using source location lighting, as he did in Barry Lyndon. The New York Times noted that the film "gives an otherworldly radiance and personality to Christmas lights", and critic Randy Rasmussen noted that "colorful Christmas lights ... illuminate almost every location in the film." Harper's film critic, Lee Siegel, believes the film's recurring motif is the Christmas tree, because it symbolizes the way that "Compared with the everyday reality of sex and emotion, our fantasies of gratification are, yes, pompous and solemn in the extreme ... For desire is like Christmas: it always promises more than it delivers." Author Tim Kreider noted that the "Satanic" mansion-party at Somerton is the only set in the film without a Christmas tree, stating "Almost every set is suffused with the dreamlike, hazy glow of colored lights and tinsel ... Eyes Wide Shut, though it was released in summer, was the Christmas movie of 1999." Noting that Kubrick has shown viewers the dark side of Christmas consumerism, Louise Kaplan stated that the film illustrates ways that the "material reality of money" is shown replacing the spiritual values of Christmas, charity and compassion. While virtually every scene has a Christmas tree, there is "no Christmas music or cheery Christmas spirit." Critic Alonso Duralde, in his book Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, categorized the film as a "Christmas movie for grownups" (as he also did with Bergman's Fanny and Alexander and The Lion in Winter), arguing that "Christmas weaves its way through the film from start to finish". Source.

But, wait, there may be more...

In 2012, Tony Sokol ("Den of Geek) reviewed Kubrick's The Shining (1980), and began by frankly stating "Yes, it's a Christmas movie."

Sokol re-imagined The Shining as a Christmas parable. It makes sense in various examples he gave, such as, "The head cook at the hotel, Dick Hallorann, notices that Danny shines like the Star of Bethlehem."

And, "Dick Hallorran, representative of the Zoroastrian Magi, who became extinct after the rise of Christianity, sees the call of Danny’s shining star and cuts his holiday vacation short just in time to be dispatched by Jack, who hobbles off to spread his cheer with his son in the massive property’s hedge maze. The Scroogey father dawdles too long in the snow and becomes a Jack Frost lawn ornament."

Someone reads the synchromystic musings here. 

"Just call me Roob" penned her thoughts in "Riding Stanley Kubrick."





She wrote (3/20/2017): 
Feeling a little poorly on Saturday evening, I went to bed and watched the movie, Passengers....One thing, though, that I did find interesting was the inclusion of The Shining’s Gold Room.
I supposed it was done on purpose, as an homage to Stanley Kubrick, a fact that was confirmed yesterday when I happened across a post on the subject at Twilight Language. The post also brings up the odd coincidence that Michael Sheen’s (Arthur, the android bartender on the Avalon) father earns a living as a looky-likey for Jack Nicholson.
The blog writer quoted me from a TL passage:
Via Twitter, I bemoaned to Alex Fulton at Crypto-Kubrology Twitter that "modern Cryptokubrology is frustrating when Shining scenes are in new films w/out sync-reasoning."
To which Fulton replied that "modern films w/ 237s inserted… hard not to assume the filmmakers just being clever. Pre-Shining 237s are where it gets weird."
You can see this post-Kubrick/Shining mentioning in Stand By Me, a 1986 film based on a Stephen King story, as was The Shining (1980).  In Stand By Me there is a scene when the boys' total change adds up to $2.37.

"Just call me Roob" mentions one older Christmas movie which includes a "237," namely The Shop Around the Corner (1940). ("Roob" made some other synchrocinematic connections, and you can read her stream of consciousness links here.)

Many of us have seen this Cryptokubrology sync to The Shining, coming before The Shining, previously.

I was reminded of The Shop Around the Corner on Christmas Eve 2017, when TCM broadcast In the Good Old Summertime, which, believe it or not, is a Christmas movie.



Definitely a Christmas movie.

The Shop Around the Corner is a 1940 American romantic comedy film produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart and Frank Morgan. The screenplay was written by Samson Raphaelson based on the 1937 Hungarian play Parfumerie by Miklós László. Eschewing regional politics in the years leading up to World War II, the film is about two employees at a leathergoods shop in Budapest who can barely stand each other, not realizing they're falling in love as anonymous correspondents through their letters, as noted in Wikipedia.



Fans of Cryptokubrology realize what postal mailbox number is the focus of The Shop Around the Corner.  Of course, it is P. O. Box 237.


Now, as to the film that played on cable on December 24th...



In the Good Old Summertime is a 1949 Technicolor musical film directed by Robert Z. Leonard. It stars Judy Garland, Van Johnson and S.Z. Sakall. The film is a musical adaptation of the 1940 film, The Shop Around the Corner.

Veronica Fisher (Judy Garland) enters Oberkugen's music shop, looking for work. Although Otto Oberkugen (S. Z. Sakall) is reluctant to take on more staff, she wins a job by persuading a wealthy matron, through her singing and musical expertise, to buy a harp at almost $25 over Oberkugen's list price. Neither she nor Andrew Larkin (Van Johnson), the shop's senior salesman, suspects that they are each other's anonymous pen pal. They bicker constantly at work although becoming increasingly attracted to each other.

And what P.O. Box is mentioned in In the Good Old Summertime? Box 237!

Andrew Delby Larkin (Van Johnson): Oh, Veronica, I love you so! Won't you open box 237 and take me out of my envelope? 
Veronica Fisher (Judy Garland): Box 23- Box 237! You mean... You?
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These two movies - The Shop Around the Corner and In the Good Old Summertime - have another sync that ties to Eyes Wide Shut. In Max Malone's analysis (noted above), Eyes Wide Shut is seen as having many ties to The Wizard of Oz and Through The Looking Glass. This is evidenced by the many mirrors and the Rainbow shop in Eyes Wide Shut.

Here's where it begins to get synchrocinematically intriguing.





Frank Morgan played Professor Marvel, The Wizard, Doorman, Cabbie and Guard in The Wizard of Oz (1940), and then showed up as Mr. Hugo Matuschek in The Shop Around the Corner (1949).

Judy Garland played Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939) and then as Veronica Fisher ten years later in In the Good Old Summertime (1949).



Are we over the rainbow?






A scene from Eyes Wide Shut
So what is the Rainbow? And how does it relate to The Shining? For one the Rainbow's proprietor Milich resembles Jack Nicholson, with a similar hairline and expressive acting style. He’s even wearing a bathrobe and plaid flannel shirt. Perhaps Milich is an analog to Jack after 20 years or so as entertainment director of the Overlook Hotel. Like the Overlook, the Rainbow teleports in and out of reality, seems to grow in size once entered, and offers impossible vistas. The Rainbow is also a site of sexual depravity, with Milich’s daughter being the pedophiles’ target much like Danny. The Rainbow, like a hotel, is also a rental business. For a price, one can temporarily access realities greater than afforded one’s basic financial situation. For Cruise, the Rainbow’s costume rental allows him, if only for a moment, into the secret lair of the elite, just like Jack’s five-month tenure at the Overlook allows him to act like king of the mountain in a grand, fantastical palace. At the end of the night, Milich absolves Cruise of his debt by tearing up his receipt, but what has been seen cannot be unseen, as his missing mask will surely remind him when uncovered. Source.


Other Cryptokubrology Essays

















Saturday, July 22, 2017

Scaramuccia Keeps Our Eyes Wide Shut

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth." ~ Oscar Wilde



"Virtue has a veil, vice a mask." ~ Victor Hugo


Scaramuccia is linked to one specific mask, which is similar to to the Plague Doctor mask.


In terms of Cryptokubrology insights, masks are significant in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut.











Scaramuccia (literally "little skirmisher"), also known as Scaramouche or Scaramouch, is a stock clown character of the Italian commedia dell'arte. The role combined characteristics of the zanni (servant) and the Capitano (masked henchman). Usually attired in black Spanish dress and burlesquing a don, he was often beaten by Harlequin for his boasting and cowardice.

Although Tiberio Fiorillo (1608–1694) was not the first to play the role, he greatly developed and popularized it. He removed the mask, used white powder on his face, and employed grimaces. He had a small beard, long mustache, and wore a predominantly black costume with a white ruff. In France he became known as Scaramouche.

In the 19th century the English actor Joseph Grimaldi and his son J. S. Grimaldi made numerous appearances as Scaramouche.

Scaramouche entertains the audience by his "grimaces and affected language". Salvator Rosa says that Coviello (like Scaramouche) is "sly, adroit, supple, and conceited". In Molière's The Bourgeois Gentleman, Coviello disguises his master as a Turk and pretends to speak Turkish. Both Scaramouche and Coviello can be clever or stupid—as the actor sees fit to portray him.

One strange aspect of the character Scaramuccia is that at the end of his act, he "loses his head," by it being hit and coming off his shoulders or being beheaded.

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Anthony Scaramucci (born January 6, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, financier, political figure, and author.

In 2008, Scaramucci served as a fundraiser for President Barack Obama. In September 2010, Scaramucci asked Obama at a CNBC Town Hall meeting when he was going to "stop whacking Wall Street like a piñata."

Scaramucci was a member of the New York City Financial Services Advisory Committee from 2007 to 2012. He is a registered Republican and served as a National Finance Co-Chair for Mitt Romney for President in 2012.

During the 2016 presidential election, Scaramucci first endorsed Scott Walker and later Jeb Bush. In May 2016, after both Walker and Bush had withdrawn from the race, he signed on to Donald Trump's political campaign by joining the Trump Finance Committee.

On July 21, 2017, President Donald Trump appointed him the White House Communications Director.


Anthony Scaramucci


Scaramucci was soon gone from the White House.



On July 28, 2017, Reince Priebus' resignation as chief of staff was announced; Priebus said that he had resigned on July 27. Also on July 28, Trump announced that he had named retired general John F. Kelly as his new chief of staff.

On July 31, 2017, Trump dismissed Scaramucci from his role as communications director on the recommendation of Kelly, who wanted him removed because he did not think Scaramucci was disciplined and believed Scaramucci had burned his credibility.


h/t Robert Schneck

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, The Shining, and Corn Flakes

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is experiencing renewed interest because of the FX miniseries, Feud, about the making of the 1962 movie.

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is an American psychological thriller film produced and directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, about an aging actress who holds her paraplegic sister captive in an old Hollywood mansion. The screenplay by Lukas Heller is based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Henry Farrell. Upon the film's release, it was met with widespread critical and box office acclaim.

The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one for Best Costume Design:
Academy Award for Best Actress (Bette Davis, nominee);
Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Black and White (Norma Koch, winner);
Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Black and White (Ernest Haller, nominee);
Academy Award for Best Sound (Joseph D. Kelly, nominee); and
Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Victor Buono, nominee).

The Baby Jane film introduced Victor Buono (as Edwin Flagg) to film audiences. He was previously known as an acclaimed actor on Broadway. He would go on to be most famed as the villain King Tut on the television series Batman (1966-1968).

The surname Buono was created from the personal name Bona, which is derived from the Latin name Bonus, which means "good."

Openly gay at the time, a rarity, Buono died of a heart attack on New Year's Day 1982, at the age 43. 

The movie's director, Robert Aldrich, was born in Cranston, Rhode Island, the son of Lora Lawson and newspaper publisher Edward Burgess Aldrich. He was a grandson of U.S. Senator Nelson W. Aldrich (who was the grandfather of Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller and  great-grandfather of John Davison Rockefeller). Senator Aldrich’s great-grandson, John D. Rockefeller IV, is the senior US senator from West Virginia. Robert Aldrich was a cousin to Nelson Rockefeller. Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States under President Gerald Ford from 1974 to 1977. Nelson A. Rockefeller's middle name was Aldrich. The Aldrich and Rockefeller families were often intermarried. One name game in all this is "rock-a-fella" = a mason.

The name Aldrich is an English name, with the meaning being, "aged and wise ruler."

Robert Aldrich died at age 65, of kidney failure, in 1983.

In What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Aldrich set up a scene with Victor Buono and his character's mother, Dehila (played by Majorie Bennett), that has literally a field of Kellogg's Corn Flakes in it.



For more on the twilight language behind corn and corn fields, see here and here.





Intriguingly, in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film The Shining, there are several scenes with Kellogg's Frosted Flakes purposely placed in prominent positions. Kellogg's Frosted Flakes are sweetened corn flakes, and are symbolized by "Tony the Tiger."

Kubrick hid lots of things in his films.

Eyes Wide Shut

A 1963 magazine ad.






On March 7, 1999, six days after screening a final cut of Eyes Wide Shut for his family and the stars, Kubrick died in his sleep at the age of 70, after suffering a massive heart attack.

Overt conspiracy theories about Kubrick's death being related to his exposure of secret societies in Eyes Wide Shut link to "the obvious symbolism in the orgy scene" being "of the occult, meant to point you subtly to the film's ties to the Illuminati, or something." Source.





Stanley Kubrick took his time to create the theater of his frame in the pantry of The Shining.





In the documentary, Room 217, various theories behind The Shining are laid out. Others have tackled other parts of the film, including one short video on YouTube about the Frosted Flakes.












Tony the Tiger first appeared in conjunction with Kellogg's Frosted Flakes in 1952.







For more on corn, see here and here.


(h/t to Jenny for the What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? screen capture.)