The Shining photo mystery finally solved
Who is the man behind Jack Nicholson's face in the 1921 Overlook Hotel ball photo, which ends Stanley Kubrick's The Shining? With a year-long investigation, Alasdair Spark brought back to the foreground Santos Casani, a dancer active in London in the 1920s, tracing the origin of the period photograph that Kubrick used in the mystifying ending of his film. Spark's discovery shed light on one of the many theories surrounding The Shining, by now the ultimate example of hermeneutical ecstasy in cinema.
0:00 From Jack Nicholson to Santos Casani
3:05 Looking for a time and place
5:09 Found it!
5:50 The airbrushing job in detail
6:44 The Baphomet pose and Kubrick
7:42 A lingering mystery
In my latest book, "Cracking the Kube: Solving the mysteries of Stanley Kubrick through archival research," there's an entire section exploring why Kubrick's films fascinate us endlessly and why they're so mysterious. Available here: https://a.co/d/7ONQldY