Happy almost birthday to me! I just picked up a 1st edition copy of The Stanley Kubrick Archives, an incredible book by Taschen. It is the definitive study of the director, compiled by Alison Castle and his wife Christiane. The notable feature of the first printing is an actual strip of 12 frames from a 70mm print of 2001: A Space Odyssey from Kubrick's personal archives. What you see to the right is my 1/2 a second of 2001 — part of the Jupiter and beyond the infinite sequence — 2:05:33 into the movie. Below are some photos I took after I did some (literally) heavy reading about The Shining...


The Cover. This book weighs 13 pounds and is 11x17 inches in size.


Part 1 is wonderful enlargements of his films, sourced from archival prints. The quality is incredible, and some frames fill an entire page. There is no text at all through this entire section - the films speak for themselves.


Another shot from Part 1.


Colour-coded tabs so you can easily navigate the book.


Part 2 goes in depth into each film with production notes, storyboards, behind the scenes photos and reviews.


Part 2 detail for 2001: A Space Odyssey.

This book will take me a long time to dig through. Worth every penny of the purchase price, especially with the little 1/2 second piece of one of my all-time favourite films.

And now a song from one of my all-time favourite soundtracks...

Theme from A Clockwork Orange (Beethoviana) by Wendy Carlos