IFC Films Picks Up Fantastic ‘Shining’ Doc ‘Room 237’
For film fans, one of the most enticing films coming out of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival wasRoom 237,an experimental documentarydirected byRodney Ascherwhich explores wild theories buried deep inStanley Kubrick’s masterpieceThe Shining. It mademy best of the festbut there were doubts fans would ever get to see it because of all the licensed footage in the film.
Apparently, that’s not an issue as IFC Films has acquired the awesome film and will release it theatrically and on VOD later this year. Read more after the jump.
Deadlinebroke the news of the deal and surmise that it’ll screen “this Spring in the New Directors/New Film series in New York and Cannes is a likely bet to debut the film across the Atlantic.”
That means you’ll likely see day and date in theaters and on VOD in the Summer or Fall.
Here’s how I described the film in my review:
Room 237is broken into nine sections, each of which do their best to convince you thatThe Shininghas some kind of alternative, hidden subtext. The most controversial and well-known theory is the Moon landing justification. The explanations for it range from laughable to interesting. Other ideas include The Shining being an anti-holocaust piece.
Several of the other chapters dissect the production design andmise en sceneof the film in excruciating detail. For example, one woman has made detailed maps of the Overlook and decided it couldn’t be a real structure. Another believes Kubrick was so obsessed with subliminal advertising at the time, he flooded the movie with sexual images. And yet another believes Kubrick composed the film to be a mirror unto itself and, to illustrate, we watch several scenes fromThe Shiningoverlapped from two different sources: One running the film forward, the other running it backward. The results are jaw-dropping.
Room 237is a must watch for any fan of film, especially Stanley Kubrick and particularly for those who loveThe Shining. It places itself among the elite documentaries made on the mysterious auteur. Hopefully any obstacles that need to be overcome in order to secure a release will be, and audiences will get a chance to see this phenomenal work.
