Optical illusion sets in THE SHINING (film analysis)
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- An outline of how optical illusion patterns are used in The Shining's set designs to create a sense of unease for the audience. By Rob Ager. More film analysis at:
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A little early Xmas present folks. Have a great holiday :)
Collative Learning do you have any videos on the false enlightenment theme from the shining? Also, what about the idea that the end of the movie was just jack’s manuscript and it wasn’t real
Thanks Rob. Merry Christmas!
@@jason41482 Not yet, there is a chapter on that theme in the full Shining article on my website so check that out. It's a free article so no need to order or download.
Love your analyses.
So insightful as per usual.
Have a great holiday!🌎✌
Collative Learning yes I read it. It’s very interesting. Great work
We've been at this for like 10 years and you're still finding stuff. Amazing.
cz ❤
Stanley died in 1999 and this movie was realised in 1980 and 40 years later we are still talking about it
That man was a genius
It's amazing what you can impose on a film if you really try.
Worlds collide
ßkrätschink se $ürFätz v v
kubrick also has germisms due to his double audio Fishiönce vv
rest well listen to the mässterr ^ ^
09 i stärtät with 18-20 i göt the mövie completelly ör knöt Fig. 0vT .P i0v gött a syrpreiss kamin ^ ^ V ^^
A thing I noticed about the dominant colors in Room 237- green, purple, and black. The colors of decay. Fitting for the old hag that seems to be in a state of decay.
that could be the logic yes
And, the purple penis-shaped pattern pointing right towards and into the bathroom.
Hag had carpet burns
The orifice is way too big for the phallus.
@@DVincentW Sometimes it is.
To me, Room 237’s design looks like a dream. It’s what a room would look like in your dreams. Say you were having a dream that took place in a room in your house. It looks distorted and unnatural. Even the way the camera seems to float through room 237 in an unnatural and unusual fashion, would suggest a dream-like state.
A _Decorator's nightmare_ ...
Yes, i consider room 237 and the outside hall to be dream sequence scenes relating to Danny's traumatic abuse by his Father.
Danny's dream is floating through the same layout as the Torrance's living quarters, as Rob pointed out in another video.
I was just about to say this! The decor is absolutely bizarre. If it was any stranger, it would be right out of "Twin Peaks." The inside of 237 manages to be so unnerving on a psychological level because something about the decor just feels "wrong."
Did you notice too that the colours and lights in the Gold Room bathroom are like the colours in the landing bay on the moon in 2001?
I love that there are so many sections of the hotel that don't connect aesthetically with the others. This makes them seem locked in contrasting eras, psyches, or as though they are the paranormal mirages of different spirits or events. It's like being in a place where the past bulges into the present seamlessly. You start to think that maybe it doesn't look this way simply because living people have not renovated or changed things in a long time, but more because the current reality of the hotel is simultaneous attached to every other moment it has been through. The whole structure is a celebration of disorientation, so it makes perfect sense that the decor also would not have been benign choices on Kubrick's part. Everything supports the feeling of being stuck where time is already eternal. You may not be dead yet, in the linear/timeline/reality sense, but you are, and have been, here forever. Every decade's trend is imprinted on the very walls; from Art Deco, to Victorian/english cottage, to minimalist/moderne, and on and on. The hotel is everyone, everywhere, all the time. A black hole for souls. The lobby to hell itself.
beautiful perspective. thank you for sharing
Only Jesus can offer a different route
@@nomask4me352 but is it faster than Google maps?
The sheer brilliancy of this film is you can still, 40 years later, find something new about it.
The nightmarish, uneasy look of Room 237 is something that I’ve always been very affected by, so it’s really validating to hear someone else speak of it.
I went to the actual hotel and stayed IN room 327 and i swear i saw the lady in the tub!!! My uncle did it too with his partner.
I feel these attributes are more present when you view the film in an actual theater. Television's dont work well with this, because its easy to look away. When your vision is fixed on the picture in a dark, quiet, cold room everything pops. I remember seeing The Shinning for the first time in a theater, having seen it on television beforehand; the elements are far more creepy in theater. The music and the broad shots and swaying steady cam is just brilliant, and definitely reached in a part of my brain I had not witnessed on television. Truly a film meant for the theater. I recommend anyone that hasnt seen it that way, should do so.
Agreed. HD helped a lot with this vid too.
That would be amazing!! Definitely on my wish list🙏
I hate room 237 so much. It feels like a depersonalized fever dream. The slow creeping point of view shots and fucked up furniture and colours freak me out. The lighting feels bizarre too. The slightly ajar bathroom door. Everything about it feels wrong.
I also noticed that the bedroom doors open out from the bedroom over the two or three steps that go up to the room. Very weird placement of the doors...
@EramSemperRecta I meant the literal room from the movie but I dont like the documentary either lol
You "hate" it?? OTT, muchly? For a Couchpotato, you need more chill, dude.
Much of the irritation is due to the "Black Peacock" carpet. Floor patterns are a recurring theme in the movie.
This may be the most layered movie I’ve ever seen. Thank you for the breakdown and analysis time
I actually love the purple/green carpet pattern, it looks like peacock feathers...but it's obviously a pattern meant for a much larger space than a hotel room--something more like a ballroom or large foyer--so that plays up the unsettling nature of it here.
The color scheme in 237 makes perfect sense to me. Peacock colors meant to represent the surface glamour/beauty of 'all the best people' but when we enter the bathroom and see the 'nature' of 'all the best people' it is ugly--represented by the hag. The geometry of the the bedspread is funny is to me, in that, the arrows go back-and-forth, representing indulgence/sex. Happy Holidays everyone.
the old in-out. i like this take. hotels are weird liminal spaces where you live for a while but you don't really live there. there is something strange about sleeping in a bed where maybe hundreds of people have slept and had secks, maybe someone died, and so on
Happy C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S to you too. (Stop being afraid to use the word. Or Hanukkah, Solstice etc)
@@anonb4632 At the risk of protracting a decidely inane conversation: If you actually exercised your brain you would know Happy Holidays is an INCLUSION of all holidays regardless of which one a person celebrates negating the need to list them specifically.
@@jack_k2136 There is a holiday every single day of the year. Don't be scared to say Christmas. Or Hanukkah. Or Yule. Or Solstice. Anything but "Holidays". That's exclusion not inclusion.
Something vaguely unsettling I've always noticed, which may support the patterns-on-the-bedspread theory, is the fact that in at least two key scenes (Wendy's conversation with the doctor, and Danny's REDRUM chant while writing on the door), bookcases are visible in the background. In both scenes, the books are tilted dramatically to one side of the shelf, in alternating directions on each shelf, creating a zigzag pattern very similar to what we see on the bedspread in 237. Plus, in the earlier scene, those bookshelves are centered pretty prominently in the wide shot of Wendy and the doctor. I doubt it's coincidental.
Sidebar: I like how Danny didn't come to a full stop until the camera caught a full view of the twins.
I remember from a documentary it was said that Stanley Kubric started researching subliminal messaging and patterns of illusion for the film . I started knowing why I always felt uneasy the whole movie. He's giving subliminal daunting feelings of despair and uneasiness the whole movie. The orange carpet is from a Hotel in Yosemite National Park that he saw. I went there when I went camping one year and it makes the shining feel real lol .. makes it even more terrifying.
That's absolutely brilliant! We employed a similar tactic in a scene of a haunted house we created and built. It was an infected laboratory scene not the Shining. However we incorporated many elements here seen in your video, psychedelic gemometery, impossible spaces, endless hallways, loops plus our actors in the scene too. This made for an over whelming and unique experience. Great video, well done.
How did your customers react??
One of the most horrifying aspects of this film involves the seventies decor. If wasn't called the decade taste forgot for nothing.
The carpets and bedspreads etc look more like 20's Art Deco to me. Which sort of makes sense, since the heyday of the Overlook Hotel seems to have been in that period. At least there was no fluorescent shag carpeting and wood paneling on the walls...
The hotel bedroom in 2001 got a lot of discussion at the time because nobody could quite place the time of the French furniture. That is, people thought they knew, but everyone disagreed. I read somewhere the pieces were from different eras, but don't know if that is true. I agree, the Overlook hall carpet is pretty typical of the ugly "earth tones" of the 70s. Burnt red, mustard yellow, the colors even had ugly names. And I agree with the other person that Room 237 has a thirties, maybe twenties look, more than 70s.
@@watermelonlalala The colours are a bit bright for twenties and thirties IMHO. Except perhaps for the curtains and bed clothes.
@@anonb4632 page from a paint catalog patrickbaty.co.uk/2011/04/25/parsons-decorative-finishes-1/
@@HeyMykee tbf Art Deco had a bit of a revival in the late 60s early 70s.
The rugs are almost reminiscent of the psychedelic part of 2001 A Space Odyssey...that's what I think of...especially when riding on his tryke!
Definitely. I kept it short in this vid, but yes, cross over with the trippy geometry of the stargate sequence in 2001.
Thank you so much, Rob. The first thing I'm going to do after finishing grad school and getting a decent job is become a supporter (along with a couple other youtubers producing content of a similarly masterful caliber. I've been dying to delve into your work on the site, but I just can't financially right now, so these uploads are so appreciated. They've kept me company through so many sleepless nights in studio for architecture school. And they've even made me consider the professional possibilities of applying my archi degree to cinematic field. Thank you again for all your hard work.
The carpet inside Room 237 is a design that was popular in the early twenties, when French designers were breaking away from the Art Nouveau movement and beginning to develop the principles of the early Art Deco scene. Similar patterns have been common in east Asian textiles for centuries-but it seems like the specific garrish Flapper Era style used in 237 is meant to recall the film's themes of wealth and greed in relation to the Great Depression, more directly shown in the Gold Ballroom and the July 1927 photo at the very end of the movie.
The floral wallpaper in the yellow hallway across from the Caretakers' Apartment (where Danny sees the Murdered Twins caked in blood) is also weirdly cluttered and dense, making the relatively wide corridor seem tight and claustrophobic.
The lighting in room 237 from the table lamps is also very, very cold. There is no warmth from them. Almost like old fluorescent tubes. I think this coldness also adds to the uneasy feeling in the room.
These patterns are classic Art Deco. Purple and green is a "preppy" color combination that has been around for a long time. The carpet is a classic David Hicks design - very popular of the time when this film was made and still widely used today. I love this film and most designers I know think the rooms are very stylish and are familiar with these patterns. I think like "Midnight, the stars and You" used at the end of the film and the popular textile designs are unsettling because the beauty of these things are in juxtaposition of the "space" held in the mind of a horror movie viewing.
Midnight, the stars and you? Lol. I've decided that the film partly symbolizes Nazi Germany. Eva Braun wore a black sequined dress on her wedding/suicide day.
Seeing it in HD Is even more creepy like it was shot yesterday not 40 years ago the overlook is so creepy. Stanley really did a great job.
The thing that disturbs me about the hag hotel room is the purple furniture. It's sort of a distorted flesh color. It makes the furniture look like dead bodies lying around.
Flesh coloured wall paper too
Specifically bloated, drowned dead bodies.
The red bathroom and elevator doors represented blood too... it's so creepy despite being colourful.
Bruised flesh.
Here's a small though, when Danny is playing with his toys on the carpet and you mention it seems like you can see way more around him than should be possible. One idea is that this could be him in his "own world" as he plays which is then broken when the ball is rolled towards him. Not sure if that could be a way to look at other things in the movie where the character is in a way in an "isolated" state until brought back into the movies reality. It could possibly work for Jack when he goes into room 237 or the golden room bar.
Merry Christmas Rob! Your video essays have enriched my life and I am grateful.
What Ravix said
I'm only watching this just to hear you say hag again.
I could have said worse ;)
Honestly, it's the greatest horror film of all time. The amount of symbolism, hidden meanings, etc is all so overwhelming.
I'm not a fan of horror films, per se. So the one that happens to be one of my favorite films is kind of like a jackpot in the genre. In terms of the horror, I just love the approach of avoiding all clichés and proving you can make a scary, disturbing and unsettling film without relying on clichés.
I am actually thinking of the first Resident Evil game on PlayStation. The Spencer Mansion actually seems pretty similar to the depiction of the Overlook in Kubrick's version. Some rooms are oddly colored and bizarre out of place designs all over. But of course with zombies.
No, it's the same story as any other movie if you know what you're looking at.
Definitely one of greatest films of all time regardless of genre .
The carpet pattern in the room with the hag reminds me of scales or maybe peacock feathers. No clue if that might mean anything.
Fish scales, I like that. It's an unsettling thought.
00Boogie
It also reminded me a little of peacock feathers.. interesting.
Reads video title. clicks immediately
Same. Rob's videos are always among my favorites.
I have never imagined watching someone bring my subconsciousness up to consciousness over The Shining of all things... Such an eye opener
The colors of the hallway carpet match the colors of the bears that are associated with Danny in the film, such as the bear pillow he lays on in his room while the doctor examines him, the bear costume seen in Wendy's run through the hotel, and the various pictures of bears in Danny's room at the Overlook. These are interesting details when considered in the context of the possible abuse themes in The Shining; the colors associated with bears - the symbol of Danny's abuse - are used in the hallway that leads him to room 237, where both he and Jack psychologically and physically confront their roles as abused and abuser. *Side note: Why did Kubrick choose to get Danny's attention in this scene by rolling a ball at him? A possible allusion to and perversion of the traditional father/son game of catch, esp. since it's a baseball, a symbol of "America's favorite past time"?* I think Kubrick's omission of Danny's experience in room 237 nods to this abuse theme again; in reality, we often hear out the stories of abusers, but do not listen to victims as carefully. The victims' experiences are unwitnessed, and their testimonies are silent, just like Danny's silent walk into the Colorado Lounge after Jack's dream, and the fact that that the audience - the "witnesses" - are engrossed in Jack's visit to room 237, but never see Danny's experience there. I'm sure there's more to be explored here, so I'll think on it. Thanks for a great video!
The backward in forward pattern of the carpet points to the trick, by which Danny finally escapes Jack in the icemaze.
The overhead shot of the maze looks like a circuitboard.
CIRCUITBOARD OF DOOM!!!
Christopher Nolan's Syncopy emblem looks like that
@@starwarsroo2448 I don't know it, but will look it up.
I see Penisis
The geometric patterns in the carpets are called "seizure patterns ".
They are common in casinos in Vegas to disorient you and keep you going in circles.
The movie was shot in the late 1970s. That was a very weird time in terms of superficial things, like clothing styles and home decor. (The 2020s are MUCH weirder where things matter, but it is not always superficially evident.)
When you couple this observation with all the mirrors it gets even more interesting.
Nice
A subtle, subconscious synesthetic effect may be another perceptual phenomenon worth considering, particularly in room 237. The colors green and purple historically are associated with death for a reason; they strongly indicate decomposition, especially when paired. Both colors are present during the process and in some cases manifest simultaneously. And anyone who has experienced the odor of decomposition, as I have, may strongly recall it while viewing this room, as I do. The death colors also presage the arrival of the rotting hag. I can't positively say if Kubrick intended this, but I'd bet on it.
Rob I find these videos absolutely fascinating
I watched the shining again yesterday as your videos are just so darn fascinating on this movie. This viewing i had some random thoughts:
1) room 237’s layout is very cozy and *should* be inviting. And i like purple and green together. But i was almost immediately ill when the camera switches to first person on this viewing. Based on your analysis of the colors and patterns it’s all the clashing patterns and colors that make me sick (i rarely have patterns in clothing or decor in my house). And i always stare at that darn carpet pattern. also the green bathroom shade reminds me of a sickly hospital gown.
2) i can appreciate the mirroring themes now that i am seeing them thanks to your videos.
3) my mother (in her 70s) laughed at Jack Nicholson the entire runtime. As the performance was getting crazier she found him funnier and funnier. I had a blast as I dont know anyone else who would react like that. 😂
4) as i. Come from a family that historically struggles with bipolar mental illness among others, shelly duvalls character is spot on as a family member who has to cope with dysfunction and she performed so well. I feel bad for all the flack she took for her role.
4) i just realized Wendy had a bit of a character arc. She starts out very meek, but she physically harms Jack twice. When she accidentally hit him with the baseball bat, she hit him a second time on purpose and he falls down the stairs. Also she cut Jack with that knife when he actually was about to get in the room. She only put down the knife when she sees her son is okay and she immediately leaves with him. I think she’d have been willing to kill Jack to protect Danny at that point.
5) the scene with mr. halloran and danny in the kitchen with all those knives pointed at danny: there is a similar but very brief shot when halloran is showing danny and wendy around. I think i spotted it when they were about to go to the pantry. Another set of knives in the background points straight down at danny while he’s holding his mothers hand. Never seen that before.
So I'm near 6 minutes into the video and I can already see that what he is trying to portray with Danny and the furniture is man in his environment.
The moving shapes show how the environment shapes and changes the man- as Danny's parents and their relationship to each other do.
I am thankful you have pointed these facts out, or I might have seen it years from now.
As always, your channel is full of surprises and unexpected journeys. Thank you.
One thing I picked up on are the inconsistencies* which pop up throughout the film, but they're so subtle because they're
usually in the background or shot in angles in the foreground.
1: *Ullman's Desk.* When Jack is being interviewed with Mr. Ullman, pay close attention to his desk - or rather, the pen on the left of
his desk. I watched the video of the interview, and counted exactly 13 times the camera cuts back to Ullman sitting at his desk,
where the pen is sitting there, but in 7 of those shots, the pen is tipped slightly upward. Also, in shots 4 and 5, the camera changes
positions, dropped downward just a touch. But in shot 6, the camera is raised slightly upward, then slightly moved to the left in
shot 7, then back to the right in 8, brought back down at 9, raised again in 11, where it stays until the scene ends.
2: *Jack's Outburst.* When Jack snaps at Wendy for 'distracting him,' there's a chair and small table against the wall behind Jack.
Three times we cut back to this wall, and in the 2nd shot the chair and tiny table are gone. Not only that, but the pages of the
book on Jack's table also move. The first and third shots have a chair, small table, and pages down, but in shot 2, the chair
and table are gone, and the pages are moved upward.
3: *The Typewriter.* It's white for the first half, but it suddenly turns blue from Jack's nightmare onward.
What do you make of these?
7:27 I can see a sliver of the red elevator door in the top right corner. the shot may be intended to give a wider sense of the carpet than from another view, but it is the same set.
Yes I actually spotted that too when watching the video back after rendering the edit. Danny's is still too far out from it and the pot is missing completely
@@collativelearning I would argue that, though Danny is indeed in a slightly different location on that second angle, slightly further away from the wall, that the arrangement of that shot is more to due to do with the composition of the image. Granted, there is an almost imperceptible strangeness to his slight move away from that wall, and that the pot should be seen yet it isn't. However I think that the shot was framed in this way to create a pleasing effect visually, as Kubrick used a lot of one point perspective in this film. Though this shot isn't exactly 1pp, it does have a similar composition in that the object of the shot is central in the frame with a very balanced area of negative space all around it.
If this angle had maintained continuity with the previous one, then the symmetrical aesthetic would have been upset by the pot sitting in the right side of the shot. I would be willing to guess that Kubrick and his cinematographer arranged this shot for it's compositional qualities. Though Kubrick, I imagine, was probably aware that this slight rearranging of the actor and set would create a subtle sense discomfort as the subconscious mind sees that something is not in the right place compared to where it had previously placed it. But also it could be argued that it was such a subtle difference visually that it would go unnoticed in the same way that continuity errors are often made in film to provide a sense of seamlessness from shot to shot, rather than objectively portraying reality.
If anything, though, given just how many things move around in the background of this film, and how the viewer's spatial awareness of the hotel is consistently befuddled, tiny little things like this all add up to quite a dream-like quality to me. The way things are nebulous, shift and change, and create an uneasy sense of being unable to keep track of pur suroundings, it's nightmarish in that sense that I'm sure we've all experienced: where you're stuck in a space that seems real but clearly something is off about it, and whichever way you turn, it's not the right way out.
What's great is people had to sit and type out all that writing with no copy and paste.
Yea watching it now. I never knew typewriters so I didn’t understand why she was horrified reading that. On an emotional level(maybe) I thought he could of copy pasted it.
But thinking about it now. It IS freaky. He would had have to say down for at least a day to write down all those pages.
There are probably more pages not shown. Adding to the time
@@mookfaru835 what's really freaky is that someone literally had to sit down and type all of that for the movie too lol.
Have a great Christmas Rob!
Holy shit. I was literally watching your video on the Shining's spatial anomalies earlier today, and now you upload this. This is truly the best Christmas gift ever! Thanks so much for your amazing analysis!
im an honest fan of your shining videos, glad you keep making them
The carpet in the bedroom looks kind of sexual, and the phallic (and/or vulvic?) pattern points to the bathroom. I haven't noticed that before, so I don't have any ideas what these connotations might mean. But maybe I am freuding away...
I agree, considering the nudity of the hag scene I'd say it was intentional. And the decaying sores might explain the awful color as well now that I think about it
blue waffle granny symbolism 🤔
Rob has a video on his site called something like Jack The Absuive father that goes into the themes and implications of sexual abuse by Jack to Danny. There's so much evidence beyond just this carpet. That's what all the bear stuff is about too.
His videos on Lolita, Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut, and AI artificial intelligence go into this stuff too and I think some videos about these are still on his youtube channels.
The movie is a hundred times more heartbreaking than most people realize.
I was just about to say myself, it seems very phallic to me. Wasn't sure if I was just being immature though XD
I remember thinking the carpet design was phallic the first time I saw the movie.
phew, glad I wasn't the only weirdo! haha. To me, the orange pattern is pretty heavily suggesting a feminine symbology, and the purple carpet a male (I mean it looks like a dick, that one is undeniable IMO)
At 2:55 - My grandmother had those bed covers on her guest bed. And the curtains were "black-out" curtains, which grant privacy from the outside, and darkness in case you wanted a day-time nap. While this might offend your 2020 sensibilities, it was perfectly fine in the 1970s.
This wasn't Stanley Kubrick using special, creepy patterns. This was using standard 1970s fare. Some of the tricks he will play with the carpeting later is a whole other ballgame.
Thanks man, love your videos. 1. Decor in the 70s could be really bizarre and trippy at times, I can believe that Kubrick selected the carpets and such, but not as much thought went into them other than they looked surreal for the situation. 2. If you look at the top down of the maze, you can see the sun shine in from the right section of the center park, showing there is an entrance there.
I think the carpets were all designed for the film. Vivian Kubrick stated that the Gold Room carpet was. Very well spotted about that sun shining through part of the maze centre - can totally see that. So when the shot cut to in the maze there should have been an exit behind them but there wasn't. Lol
Another great video! One thing I noticed is on the top-down shot at 9:09 you can see they actually are walking towards an opening at the end of that middle section. You can see the light and shadows coming from the opening. The light is not coming from the other end though, so that is indeed a dead end. Still, a mind trip with how much the maze varies from the model, map and location outside the Hotel.
I've always found it interesting that I have never heard anyone talk about the 'Twin corridor', to the left of Danny is, what looks like, a straight corridor. To Dannys right is a couple of closets that seem to be on a slanted corridor.
Once you see it, you won't be able to not see it. Then the scene is ruined... You're welcome! lol.
Also, the tuxedo man and bear person scene looks to be next to the living quarters, yet there is no door to the apartment anymore. It could be on a different floor, but I would imagine a hotel would be built to be in a 'uniform style'. Watch the introduction to the apartment with the manager and then that scene.
Also... That room looks like a hotel suite bedroom, not an apartment bedroom.
I must have watched about 90% of every video on the Shining, but have never seen these things brought up. If they have, sorry, they slipped me by.
Happy New Year Rob, heres to many more years of providing us great stellar content. i tip my hat off to you
I just wanted to say I absolutely adore you and your channel. Your videos are clever and insightful and I appreciate all the time and effort you put in to them. Have a happy and healthy new year ;-)
I think that they are very "art deco" of the 1920's, which ties into the picture at the end of the movie. There were many types of art in the 1920's, but the main ones were Impressionism, Art Deco, Cubism, Abstract Art, and Realism. Room 237 is a time portal to the 20s.
The film is a psychological fairy-tale/parable of man/humankind/America surmounting its inner traumas/dark side/past and abandoning a cycle of evil rebirths. And Kubrick and Diane Johnson saturated the film with motifs from Freud's The Uncanny (mirrors, doubles and repetitions) and also with Bruno Bethlehem's The Uses of Enchantment (fairy-tales interpretations). These two works hold the meaning of the film.
I won't rob you the pleasure of fitting the pieces of this puzzle together. All the elements in the film fit.
Suffice to say that all the motifs in the film that let so many interpretations proliferate (even go crazy) all these years are held together beautifully by Freud's The Uncanny essay. And Kubrick himself pointed the direction in one Michel Ciment's interview. Though some people gave a little attention to it, I don't think it received the close reading it deserves. The film's own structure is based on this.
Freud saw in fiction a perfect medium to evoke the uncanny effect in the reader/viewer. The uncanny being the eerie effect one feels when confronted with a familiar situation that for some reason makes him uneasy about it. This is due to repressed events the life of humans/characters or by the structure/format in fiction. That is the key, for example, the effect we feel by the recurrence of red and blue in the film, the two-ness (doubling) in the film...these are all repetition motifs that catch the viewer attention and makes him unease. The uncanny has an effect in the viewer but also in the characters: Jack says he finds the hotel "homey", "cosy" and like "I've been here before" and he loves it; the same is not for Wendy and Danny, who find it "scary" (they are reliving the trauma). The former is in a homely place, at ease (Jack knows the ghosts or treat them as real); the latter are in a unhomely/ haunted-house, and are frightened. So Kubrick made the uncanny be felt inside and outside the story...for our delight.
Orson Welles comments on Kafka's parable "Before The Law Stands a Guard" that the logic of the story is the logic of a dream... a nightmare. Kubrick's The Shining is no different. At first we are led to believe that the ghosts are inside the mind of the characters, later that the ghosts are real and finally we conclude that nothing inside is real. It is a meta-fiction work of art. The final scene is its perfect denouement.
Merry Christmas!
Ah God damn it. Gotta watch this movie again! Thanks Rob, I think Kubrick would've really enjoyed how much you've analyzed this film. Would give my right nut to see watch a discussion between Kubrick and yourself. 👍🏻
Would give my right nut to have that discussion!
Thx for this interesting present, Rob!
Maybe I´ m late noticing this, but in the center of the maze, there are to Christian crosses. The one below is in the right position an the other above is inverted. I didn't see any other cross as perfect as those two.
First I've heard of that, but yes I can see it now
well spotted
To put it more simply, what is being said is that Danny and Wendy are trapped,lost, in s labyrinthine maze, while Jack is cruelly above snd not subject to that lostness. He overlooks their plight and smirks.
9:11 I think there is an exit on the right end of that central area, you can see by the way the shadow casts on the ground. Thats the same place the camera pulls out in the earlier shot and how Danny enters at the end so it is all consistent.
Recently I revisited The Shining film, with the intention of establishing a timeline of the whole story. I realized that the title slides change from identifying events, like “The Interview”, to instead identifying days, “Wednesday”. I believe Kubrick did this to keep us off balance. Like everything else in the film.
I have wondered if the is some special meaning on the ball rolling on the carpet. Jack supposedly throws the same ball on the wall on other part of the film. The hotel has a huge "ball room" and on the final scene there is a picture of a 4th of July "ball". Kubrick even wrote and alternate ending in which Ullman brings the ball to Danny at the hospital.
That lavender couch is strange. Enjoyed your perspectives! If Kubrick really tweaked all this minutia, I am well-impressed.
One thing your analysis' of The Shining have hammered home to me is that it doesn't actually matter whether or not any of it is intentional (and obviously some of it is). Regardless of intent, you can still make a strong argument that it has an impact on the viewer. I'm skeptical whether or not Kubrick intended the radiator to look like an extension of the wallpaper - but I can totally buy that it adds to the sense of unease I feel when viewing the scene.
My favourite Kubrick thing is in 2001 when a blue sweater disappears between shots and it looks like such a basic continuity error. But then later on in the film there's an announcement that a blue sweater was found in the lost and found box. He intentionally obfuscates everythung enough where we can never be 100% sure of intent or coincidences. It's amazing.
I think the majority of things like this _are_ intentional just due to the absolutely incredible meticulous detail he paid to every single scene and shot in the film.
Even things like the extras walking in the background at the start turn out to be people walking out of impossible hallways.
I honestly think he considered every single tiny detail when assembling his shoots.
@@SerMattzio Yeah I agree.
couchpotato Kubrick’s films are filled with continuity errors, I believe, so as to draw our attention subliminally to the artificial, often unreliable nature of what we are seeing on screen. Kubrick’s style is actually very similar to Wes Anderson’s in terms of framing and blocking and the artistic purpose of making it all feel artificial, though I’d argue that Kubrick does it with more depth.
The 2001 continuity errors play into the subtext that the whole alien discovery is a manufactured farce and is about a man (Bowman) discovering he’s actually inside a movie, while ACWO is filled with continuity errors to make Alex seem even more unreliable and a liar post-Ludovico treatment. The Shining’s continuity errors play into the whole was-it-real-or-a-dream cliche but also draw our attention to the possibility that the whole second half of the film is in fact part of the novel being written by Jack. I’m not sure about the abundance of continuity errors in EWS or what they imply.
@@esyphillis101 I think EWS's continuity errors are playing into the was it real or was it a dream trope too because the movie was based on a book about dreams. Also the stripper corpse who has her eyes open and shut as a continuity error was to call back to eyes wide shuts name.
Awesome video Rob! One of the best film critics on UA-cam!
@1:37 onward...
It never dawned on me until I watched this video that the geometric shapes in the carpet leading towards the bathroom are phallic in nature. if you look at them you will see a cylindrical or phallic shaped object with a bulbous end that protrudes into a womb-like circular receptacle, all the while pointing and leading the way into the bathroom which, as we know awaits a very attractive nude woman who attempts to seduce Jack. The phallus is also purple in color which also suggests sexuality.
Interestingly there is also a picture of a Fox next to the doorway leading into the bathroom located right above the radiator you’ve mentioned. As we know, there are almost NO extraneous elements in Stanley Kubrick films. This leads me to wonder if the fox is yet again more symbolism of a sexual nature? It’s silky and beautiful; a feminine psychological attraction in what is certainly a drab and dull, scary environment... and again drawing its viewer (Jack) towards the bathroom. 🤷🏻♂️🤔
The maze central area ends are open, just arched, unlike the other 6 openings which have no arches over them, you can see this in the background when mother and danny walk towards the camera.
as well the layout of the maze hints at this, as you can see two dead ends on either side of the ends of the central area, which would serve no purpose if they didnt allow enterance to the central area through them.
*@**10:01**:* "Now to a very different... *type* of clue."
*I see what you did there! ;)*
would also like to give my additional meaning to the carpet of room 237 :)
i think the colors of the carpet being purple and green are in line with danny's bruises inflicted by jack in the sense that bruises sometimes turn purple and yellowish-green and that his dream of his experience in room 237 is about his realisation and guilt of the abuse he's inflicted on danny both physically (the colors and the bruises from the strangling) and sexually (the sort of phallic shape evident in the carpet as well)
basically i like to perceive the whole of room 237 as a visualisation of the abusive relationship between jack and danny; for both of them
Great vid! Rob’s film analysis skills are legendary. I am friggin glued to this channel lol
Your doing a great job man.... keep it up. Your also only really playing to a higher level of consciousness. I appreciate it
Having an addiction to Art Deco I can’t help but find the carpet a marvel. Yet they are not typical colours from the period. Seeing as Art Deco was infamous in the 1920s it coincides with the distorted unusual history
7:29 You can see the edge of the elevator door in the top right corner.
where on earth do you get a carpet like that?
It always seemed to me that the carpet patterns were male (hallway) and female (rm. 237). They also seem to suggest the patterns in the giant native painting over the fireplace in the main hall (the one Jack throws the tennis ball at). That painting is of male and female fertility gods. It's all very ritualized... sex and death and the cycle of rebirth.
Good theory
You are so close Rob, definitely on the right path with the geometric patterns.
The hexagonal carpet represents the six pointed star, in geometry that is the "seed of life" and "The Cube".Notice it has pathways into one and out of another with each hexagon being proportionally bigger than the previous. When the white ball rolls into the hexagon that's a clue as to it's real incarnation.
The psychedelic patterns are created by changes in vibrations, and the thing which causes a vibrational change is also the much vaunted number 237. When Danny walks into the room he is allegorizing the passage of our solar system into the influence of our binary star Sirius (237). In order to get to that point the seed of life (chosen) must ascend into the new cube (Moon) while the apocalypse occurs, returning afterwards to a new world with two suns (the twins).
He's telling us that because of the extra vibrations we shall need a bigger moon to reflect them, or we turn back into our cousins from the beginning of 2001 A Space Odyssey. In sacred geometry it is understood that the cube represents the Moon, having 2160 degrees of angle to the Moon's 2160 miles diameter. Other names for the Moon are Jericho, Sinai, Messiah, New Jerusalem, The Wall and The Ark.. When Trumps say's "Build the Wall" you now know he is really meaning the Moon.
Sacred Geometry has all the answers to these questions Rob, they hid them literally right under our noses the whole time. Kubrick was revealing them to us and offering us the chance to find out what lay behind. Genius.
Merry Christmas Rob
These videos must have the most intricate and rambling comment sections . As they should
The pattern of the carpet in room 237 reminds me of the phallic corporate emblem used by William Hurt's AI producing firm in AI. You pointed it out in a recent video.
Teddy and the bears in the shining is another huge connection but I think that was in the AI video too. A stuffed Pooh shows up in Eyes Wide Shut too though and theres one in the Shining. And Tony the Tiger, and Tony could have been why there are stuffed tigers in Eyes wide shut
@@couchpotato3197 I pointed this out a recent comment on EWS. Right at the end, unmissable cuddly tony the tigers. Every Stan film echoes the last. Before I knew how deep his films were, I loved that he referenced his own movies.
♥️ your Shining vids...thanks for the holiday viewing
Love your in-depth analysis!
To put it in a few words: This hotel has some serious case of bad Feng Shui
Obvious phallic symbolism in the room 237 carpets (outlined in black) pointing to the bathroom w/ old hag
Elron Hubbard 8=D
I like to pretend Stanley Kubrick is filming me while I smoke my cigars.
6:44 - Another interesting thing about this Overlook maze pattern: This same pattern (and color) is embroidered into Jack Torrance's necktie during the initial 'job interview' scene with Ullman. You have to freeze-frame and zoom-in close to see it, but it's there.
Love these vids , they're so good i can't get enough of them.
Awesome video!
Thank you Rob!
The pattern of 237 carpet mirrors the eyes of the teddy bear, poster and elevator. Within the design, a phallic symbol, mirroring the Apollo rocket on Danny's sweater after his ordeal.
I'm sure you already know this, but Eraserhead was a film that Kubrick loved and that's where he probably saw how patterns inside rooms (especially carpets) create that sense of unease in the viewer. Another place where he might've borrowed that from is Cocteau's Orpheus (check the mirror scene when he enters into the underworld).
Jean Cocteau also used some strange geometrical carpet, wall & curtain patterns in his films for roughly the same effect. It's well known that Lynch is a great admirer of Cocteau's surreal cinema and that Kubrick loved Cocteau's Beauty & the Beast. So there's another connection for ya.
I heard Kubrick made the cast of The Shining watch Eraserhead to get in the mood for the film. The Radiator in room 237 reminds me of the one in Eraserhead too. Past the radiator in both films is a bizarre woman.
@@couchpotato3197 Yes, that's in either the Lobrutto or Baxter biography on Kubrick about him showing Eraserhead to the crew.
I just remembered black and white chevrons, like Twin Peak's red room and a floor in erasehead, appear on a prostitutes fur coat in Eyes Wide Shut
Striking that Eraserhead was released three years before The Shining. Goes to show how far out David Lynch is.
Orange carpet with keyholes in hexagram(as above, so below/normal world), purple/green carpet with keyhole and domes(firmament), so is "below." Maze contains crosses(north and south/as above, so below), step pyramids, with large S's east/west(Saturn). A lot of Saturn imagery.
I think the geometry also indirectly references those patterns found in traditional indigenous art. Traditional Australian indigenous art tends to display this highly repetitive and starkly coloured geometry, which is an art I'm more familiar with in trying to illustrate my point. I'm guessing, from my limited immersion in American Indigenous art that these same artistic elements and pattern choices similarly exist. Is this another of Kubrick's subtle references to the defeat of Indigenous civilisation by white, European, imperial tradition and that the very ground the Overlook sits atop is rising up through the floor to reclaim sacred ground? The pattern in the bed covers, and curtains, in that infamous room, 237, seems to mimic the arrangement of feathers on an arrow. In any case, Rob's analysis of The Shining is a Christmas present that seems to keep on giving.
Yes, that's an expansion topic for the larger video. The geometry of Native American art used in some of the sets.
From Enterthestars, the carpet pattern is a paperclip, as in Project Paperclip, the fracturing of a child's mind through torture, it is the same as in Toy Story.
I always took the overhead shot of the maze as a metaphor for you will not leave this place, there is no way out.
Maze: there are 8 openings inside. Look at the sun coming inside the right end.
Happy holidays!
Happy C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S to you too.
The carpet in Room 237 always reminded me of lavender plants against the greenery. Don't know if that was intended. Though Christiane having done paintings of gardens and so on including bluebells might have influenced Stanley's choice of colours and patterns. If it was intended to be reminiscent of lavender, then it gives weight to the idea of Room 237 being a sleepy dream.
The overhead view of the maze looks like a relief carving of an Aztec god; the central area looks like its mouth.
One thing I found unusual was that the hallway where 237 was, looked completely different from the hallway outside the Torrance's room. Why do people think the two hallways had completely different decor?
The carpet in 237....the colors....in our society, often, when we try to portray the Occult, magic witchcraft, warlocks wizards witches etc....we tend to put those colors, emerald green and that eggplant purple, together....the Wizard of Oz---everything around the Wizard is green with lavender/purple smoke....
wicked witch of the west---green
Esmeralda on Bewitched for instance....these exact colors
this color combo shows up often when dealing with spirit/occult in media....
Room 237 is TOTALLY Different than the rest of the Overlook....this room has wildlife drawings on the walls....(the picture by the door to the bathroom is of a FOX....in the 70s a hot girl could be called a "fox"....intentional?)
the rest of the hotel is drenched in Native iconography....why none here....hard core deco carpet and bathroom (which is mostly green)....
the wall paper doesn't match the carpet or bedspread or curtains AT ALL....
half the furniture Does match the carpeting, being lavender, but the rest of the furniture doesn't match much except maybe the wall paper....
The carpet Overwhelms Everything in that room....why? is it supposed to do that??
a message? about the nature of the room or what goes on there.