Cuaron’s presence in Cannes was notable. His
film “Roma” was set to premiere at the French
festival last year. But when Netflix and the
festival couldn’t agree on distribution terms for
the streaming giant’s films, Netflix pulled out
of Cannes and “Roma” headed instead to the
Venice Film Festival, where it won the Golden
Lion prize.
Cuaron didn’t oversee “The Shining” restoration.
That role went to Steven Spielberg, whose
2018 sci-fi thriller “Ready Player One” included
a lengthy homage to “The Shining.” But Cuaron
lavished praise on “The Shining” while playfully
prodding conspiracy theorists that dig into the
film for hidden meanings.
“Actually, tonight, we’re going to watch it
backwards, because backwards, we’ll see it with
the message Kubrick (intended),” joked Cuaron.
The 2012 documentary “Room 237” chronicled
some of those theories, including that “The
Shining” is really about the moon landing or
about the treatment of Native Americans.
Katharina Kubrick used an expletive to describe
the guessing games around “The Shining.”
“This is a seriously cool ghost movie. Don’t
believe any of the conspiracy theories because
it’s all s---,” she said. “I only said that because I’ve
had some champagne.”
Cuaron agreed. “Kubrick would have really gotten
a laugh out of all of these conspiracy theories,”
said the director. “By all reports, he believed in
films not to be explained but to be experienced. A
little bit like music, he used to say.”
“The Shining” restoration will be released on
home video Oct. 1.