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Stanley Kubrick's Influence on the 2005 film "Capote"

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TOoP/Bruce:
Director Bennett Miller is by his own admission a fan of director Stanley Kubrick.

http://www.movingimagesource.us/files/dialogues/2/97798_programs_trans cript_pdf_265.pdf

"The Shining" and "Capote" are thematically both films about self-destructive alcoholic writers who are both consumed by the process of writing. Additionally, both films share related themes of truth and honesty, and withholding truth.  They are both films about delusion and a kind of madness.  Although they remain very different films, there are several points of comparison.

The branches on the trees in "Capote" serve a very similar function to the maze in The Shining - the dead trees and the maze are both representations of their stories' protagonists psychological states.

The scene with Capote meeting the boy in the supermarket who points a toy pistol is based on a Diane Arbus photograph (the photo "Boy with a Grenade" is identified by Bennett in the audio commentary track on the "Capote" DVD), just as the twin girls in "The Shining" is known to be based on the Arbus series of photographs of "The Wade Sisters".

In The Shining, Jack Torrence has a sexual interlude with the apparition of the woman in Room 237. In the film "Capote", Truman (In the phonebooth and talking to his lover Jack) eyes up a man for an implied sexual interlude as he is waiting outside the bar under the numbers 237.  (Room 237 is a particularly interesting reference because the Hitchcock movie "Torn Curtain" begins in Room 237.  Perhaps Kubrick was giving a wink and a nod to Hitchcock here.)  There is also a deleted scene in "The Shining" where what appears to be a man wearing a bear costume is discovered in a sexual encounter with another man in the same room.

Both "Capote" and "The Shining" employ a muted color structure for much of both films that is designed to give a greater visceral impact to the blood reds when they appear in the film.

Bennett Miller also manages to work in his own take on the Kubrick "dead-eyed stare" toward the end with Capote lying inert in bed, half his face covered by his blanket and the phone framing the other half of his face.  It is similar to the wide-eyed stare of Jack Torrence, dead in the maze at the end of "The Shining."  The "Kubrick gaze" of madness recurs in several of his films.
 
"Capote" is a not in any way a remake of "The Shining," but these moments might be considered homages to Kubrick's influence on Bennett Miller. Bennett Miller makes extensive use of long slow camera shots in a methodical observational style that is reminiscent of Kubrick. He also shares Kubrick's delight in composing extreme wide angle compositions with little movement. There are several instances in both films of using long shots with very little movement.  What little movement there is (whether it is something moving in the frame, or the camera slowly pushing in or pulling away) becomes visually very important due to the otherwise static nature of the shot.

Mandy21:
Bruce, I just had a double-feature afternoon of "The Shining" and "Capote", including watching with interest all of the special features and "Making Of" featurettes.  I had never thought of putting these two movies together in comparison until I read your thread/post a few weeks ago.  In addition to the items you noted, I also saw similarities in the typewriters, with ashtray to the left.  Also, in terms of the desk setup, in some scenes, there is a lamp on the left in both films, and in other scenes, the lamp is missing altogether from the respective writing desks.  Considering the genius of these directors, I don't think that was a props mistake.  In addition, we are constantly reminded of the coldness and remote desolation of the Overlook Hotel, and the farmhouse and prisons in Kansas.  Both protagonists enjoyed their strong cocktails, rather than wine or beer or liquers.  And I'm sure Kansas is filled with more than its share of buried Indians.  Those are just off the top of my head.  Can you think of others, Bruce?

Also, could you expand on this thought of yours?  I'm not grasping the connection between Capote's mind and a dead tree?


--- Quote from: TOoP/Bruce on March 22, 2012, 03:34:25 pm ---The branches on the trees in "Capote" serve a very similar function to the maze in The Shining - the dead trees and the maze are both representations of their stories' protagonists psychological states.
 
--- End quote ---

Two interesting notes from "The Shining" special features:  1)  Apparently, Shelley Duvall was quite a handful to work with, and was "angry" at Nicholson's numerous fans visiting the set.  2) In terms of the large differences between Stephen King's novel and Kubrick's adaptation, one of the things he wanted to make clear was that his story would be about a man who walked into that hotel with a death wish in hand, and the ghosts of the Overlook had little effect on either accelerating or quelling his plan.  Hmm...

TOoP/Bruce:
The association of the penitentiary shots with the Overbrook is not one that I had considered, but its a great observation, and I think it is spot on.  

The season in both films is almost a character in and of itself.  In "The Shining," the season is winter.  In "Capote," the season is late fall.  In both films, the season plays a large part in setting the tone of the films.

TOoP/Bruce:
 In "The Shining," the maze represents Jack Torrence's convoluted state of mind, thematically doubled once again by the Overbrook hotel, the interiors of which are also presented as a kind of maze.  It becomes a metaphor for having lost one's way, a kind of madness.

On the commentary track of "Capote," Bennett Miller actually refers to the shots of the branches as representing Capote's "state of mind."  (The shot starts in the branches, and moves down to Capote).  The branches of the trees represent a kind of barrenness and a loss of the life force, as well as visually representing a kind of tangled foliage "maze of madness" for Capote, that links the one film to the other.

It was this Bennett Miller quote on the commentary track of Capote, along with his acknowledgement of the use of a Diane Arbus photo as inspiration for the scene of Capote in the supermarket (as well as the "237" reference)  that set me to thinking about other connections between "Capote" and "The Shining."  In reading further about Bennett Miller, his admiration for Kubrick came up several times.

TOoP/Bruce:
Both "The Shining" and "Capote" use party scenes to elicit character development from the main character.  The party scenes in "Capote" are meant to be real world encounters, but would seem like another world to the people who live in Kansas, whereas the party scenes in "The Shining" are meant to supernatural and otherworldly.  Both provide social contrast for the main characters and the real worlds they find themselves living in.

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