BEHIND
THE SCENES
STANLEY KUBRICKAfter touring for 15 years, the Deutsches
Filmmuseum’s Stanley Kubrick: The
Exhibition comes to the UK for the first time
on the 20th anniversary of the American
filmmaker’s death. Held at London’s Design
Museum it shows how Kubrick meticulously
crafted his standout movies, and how he
used the language of design to tell stories.
Sophie Tolhurst reports
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THE DESIGN MUSEUM is a fitting host for this
expansive exhibition on Stanley Kubrick; its
raison d’etre is the presentation of key design
objects, contextualising them and explaining
the impact they have had on the world.
Kubrick’s films are worlds of their own,
with their own histories of design we can read.
Though fictional, historical or an imagined
future, they were designed into existence –
whether plotting the background and
movements of characters, or designing and
realising objects and settings in meticulous
detail. The height of his world-building can be
seen in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), where
his work in conjunction with Arthur C. Clarke’s
sci-fi story envisaged new ways of moving,
communicating, eating and clothing. A plaque
in the exhibition quotes lead production
designer Tony Masters: ‘We designed 2001 as
a period. We designed a way to live, right down
to the last knife and fork.’ The props, costumes,
sets, scripts and filmmaking tools on display
show the workings behind the magic.WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.