Rewatching The Shining for the first time in many years, i feel confirmed that i only like the parts without Nicholson in it. While his is a bravura performance, a little of it goes a long way; & the trope of The Chase is for me irredeemably trite, even when framed in the most unequal terms & filmed ravishingly (Night of the Hunter). What Kubrick does so well, here, (as in 2001 & others, e.g. Eyes Wide Shut ) is Liminality. His camerawork & editing render what would otherwise be quite an enticing environment, both uncanny & laden with secrets. And he underscores it with the most frenzied Goblinesque imaginable. In fact, he seems to describe a dialectic between the two: whenever there is Liminality, there is also the threat of violence erupting (which movies have conditioned us to expect). --It is also interesting, that at more or less the same time, Liminality was bring reimagined as sunny (Chinatown), & political (All the President's Men), though it had existed since silent movie days (Murnau the supreme invoker of liminal states & places). So Goblincore & Liminalcore are each incomplete without the other. Question: is there another way to complement one or both of them?
“Lacking sun, know how to ripen in ice.”
~ Henri Michaux via @holdengraber
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