the shining

David Cronenberg Totally Dissed Stanley Kubrick

NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 16: Director David Cronenberg visits the Apple Store Soho on August 16, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
Photo: Jamie McCarthy/2012 Getty Images

Interviewed by the Toronto Star at the opening of an exhibition based around his work, David Cronenberg, said some not-very-nice things about Stanley Kubrick — who is getting his very own exhibit at the same location next year:

I think I’m a more intimate and personal filmmaker than Kubrick ever was, that’s why I find The Shining not to be a great film. I don’t think he understood the (horror) genre. I don’t think he understood what he was doing. There were some striking images in the book and he got that, but I don’t think he really felt it. In a weird way, although he’s revered as a high-level cinematic artist, I think he was much more commercial-minded and was looking for stuff that would click and that he could get financed. I think he was very obsessed with that, to an extent that I’m not. Or that Bergman or Fellini were.

David Cronenberg Totally Dissed Stanley Kubrick