Daily Archives: January 26, 2014

Shot 249: fleck of white under bed. No light on refrigerator.

Near end of shot: 1 frame light on refrigerator — again, toggle back and forth between the 2 pictures if you wish to get the effect. This appears to be the last frame of the shot as well. I felt the need to note this even if it is a continuity error, since the red car in the bathroom window behind Jack is an important element in this and other posts of my blog. It is directly associated to the similar red trapezoid shape on the CH O KING posters we’ll be introduced to shortly in the boiler room. It’s very possible that the presence of the red car here  represents “choking” itself. A distinct possibility, perhaps even a probability. The window also acts as Danny’s escape hatch from axe-wielding Jack later, as he squirms through it and slides down a huge pyramid-shaped snow drift to temporary safety. But for now the way is “blocked” by the red car, perhaps. Also keep in mind here that Danny has only come up to the room and risked disturbance of his supposedly sleeping father to retrieve a red firetruck toy. The vehicle on the bathroom ledge doesn’t appear to be a firetruck, but certainly an association can be made.

Next up we have a 1 frame “glowing footprint” when Grady takes Jack back to the bathroom to clean off the advocaat (a rich and creamy liqueur made from eggs, sugar and brandy) he just spilt on him by accident.

Grady steps on the location of the future glow…

… then the glow or aftereffect occurs when he lifts his foot for the next step.

A perhaps even more pecuiliar effect takes place soon after Jack and Grady enter the bathroom. Just as Grady sets down his tray on the sink, a conspicuous discoloration or flaw appears on the entrance door reflected in a mirror to his right, a mirrored door we have just observed Grady and Jack open to enter the bathroom. I don’t see how this could be an accident — talking purposeful Kubrick film manipulation here again — and goes in line with other, similar one frame film flaws occurring at sounds we’ve noted elsewhere.

Next frame: discoloration gone. Once more, toggle back and forth between these 2 screen captures.

The next scene I wish to review for these kind of flaws is shot 109, where Jack and Wendy are shown their humble living quarters in the hotel by manager Ullman. As Kearns notes below, Wendy is obviously disappointed at staying in the staff wing of the hotel and not one of the guest rooms.

http://idyllopuspress.com/idyllopus/film/shining_closing_day.htm

STUART: This is the staff wing of the hotel.

As if in excuse for lodging the Torrances in the decidedly not-very-elegant staff portion of the lodge, he adds…

STUART: None of the other bedrooms are heated during the winter.

WENDY: Oh.

Wendy, who had been cheery up until now, realizing that this wing is where is their home for the winter, is quietly shattered, her face falling.

In reviewing this section, I noticed a more prominent film flaw to Wendy’s left as she scans the modest bedroom. I soon realized it points directly to the bathroom mirror that will soon be exposed from behind her as she continues to walk toward it.

And as soon as we get a good, square look at the mirror between Jack and Wendy here, another prominent discoloration, a large green splotch, appears on the wall beside the window. I’ve not seen a green discoloration before this, just as I’ve seen mention of only one yellow discoloration or seeming film flaw in The Shining — taking place on this very same mirror.

See here for details or a review:

https://bakerbloch.wordpress.com/2014/01/08/keys-01/

A white speck appears on the frame after this, and then, 1 or 2 frames later, 2 brown spots. Together, these closely timed aspects seem to form a triangle. I’ve created a composite photo of the effects below. While it may be nothing, I’m trying to be a completist here as much as I dare.

Jack and Wendy then walk into the bathroom to end shot 109. Two more dark specks appear to the right of the prioritized mirror in this particular frame.

Jack: Cozy.

We first see Wendy’s brown flower at the beginning of the “Closing Day” section, when they are driving through the mountains to the hotel.

Cut to the interior of the car, Jack driving, no one looking too cheery. Wendy, wearing a wilted brown flower decoration on her brown jacket, as if an expression of summer’s end, yawns sleepily.

WENDY: Boy, we must really be high up. The air feels so different.

Which is just fact, the higher you go the more rarefied the air, but reminds me of a switch in states of awareness or consciousness and of Danny’s lapsing into trance which he will tell Dick Hallorann is like sleep. Also brought to my mind is the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk, the boy who who was sent hungry to bed as he traded the family’s cow for magic beans rather than money, who had the next day climbed high into the cloud on the magic beanstalk which sprouted out of those beans, to the castle of the cannibal giant who possessed gold and a golden harp and the golden goose. And here we have the family moving from Boulder, high into the mountains, to this gigantic hotel where they expect to share in a small taste of a beautiful, luxurious, resort lifestyle.