English
An interview with Stanley Kubrick
By Vicente Molina Foix
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
There are quite a few changes in the film with respect to the novel. Several characters have been, in a good way, simplified, the supernatural and pseudo-psychological sides have been almost eliminated and even the basic horror element is reduced. All this is to me a great improvement to the novel. Were you trying to escape from the more conventional norms of the genre in order to build something different, although, of course, the film can still be seen by many as a pure horror movie?
You say that a lot of the horror was cut out of the book and I don't agree on that. As a matter of fact, other than the scene where the child sees the blood splashed all over the walls and when he hears the little noise in the big drainpipe when he's playing in the snow, I think there's more horror in the film than there is in the book. People have said that. In the book, for instance, nobody gets killed.
Yes, but you have eliminated all the comings and goings of the animal figures cut in the topiary garden....
That's all. When Halloran, the black cook, comes at the end, these topiary animals try to stop him, but that is the only thing lost from the book.
And you have also emphasized the relationship between the main characters and their sense of isolation in the hotel, Jack's frustration as a writer.... All these things certainly become crucial in the film and not so much in the book.
I think in the novel, King tries to put in too much of what I would call pseudo-character and pseudo-psychological clues, but certainly the essence of the character such as it is, that he puts in the novel, was retained. The only change is we made Wendy perhaps more believable as a mother and a wife. I would say the psychological dynamics of the story, even in the novel, are not really changed. When you said the characters are simplified, well, obviously, they become more clear, less cluttered; that's it, less cluttered better than simplified.
When I said simplified, I meant exactly that: clarified. From Jack's character, for instance, all the rather cumbersome references to his family life have disappeared in the film, and that's for the better. I don't think the audience is likely to miss the many and self-consciously "heavy" pages King devotes to things like Jack's father's drinking problem or Wendy's mother. To me, all that is quite irrelevant.
There's the case of putting in too many psychological clues of trying to explain why Jack is the way he is, which is not really important.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
There are quite a few changes in the film with respect to the novel. Several characters have been, in a good way, simplified, the supernatural and pseudo-psychological sides have been almost eliminated and even the basic horror element is reduced. All this is to me a great improvement to the novel. Were you trying to escape from the more conventional norms of the genre in order to build something different, although, of course, the film can still be seen by many as a pure horror movie?
You say that a lot of the horror was cut out of the book and I don't agree on that. As a matter of fact, other than the scene where the child sees the blood splashed all over the walls and when he hears the little noise in the big drainpipe when he's playing in the snow, I think there's more horror in the film than there is in the book. People have said that. In the book, for instance, nobody gets killed.
Yes, but you have eliminated all the comings and goings of the animal figures cut in the topiary garden....
That's all. When Halloran, the black cook, comes at the end, these topiary animals try to stop him, but that is the only thing lost from the book.
And you have also emphasized the relationship between the main characters and their sense of isolation in the hotel, Jack's frustration as a writer.... All these things certainly become crucial in the film and not so much in the book.
I think in the novel, King tries to put in too much of what I would call pseudo-character and pseudo-psychological clues, but certainly the essence of the character such as it is, that he puts in the novel, was retained. The only change is we made Wendy perhaps more believable as a mother and a wife. I would say the psychological dynamics of the story, even in the novel, are not really changed. When you said the characters are simplified, well, obviously, they become more clear, less cluttered; that's it, less cluttered better than simplified.
When I said simplified, I meant exactly that: clarified. From Jack's character, for instance, all the rather cumbersome references to his family life have disappeared in the film, and that's for the better. I don't think the audience is likely to miss the many and self-consciously "heavy" pages King devotes to things like Jack's father's drinking problem or Wendy's mother. To me, all that is quite irrelevant.
There's the case of putting in too many psychological clues of trying to explain why Jack is the way he is, which is not really important.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
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The Stanley Kubrick Archives
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Kubrick's universe: the most comprehensive study of the filmmaker to date
The replica hotel suite in 2001: A Space Odyssey
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