The axe wielded by Jack Nicholson as he delivered his chillingly manic line “Here’s Johnny!” in the 1980 horror movie The Shining is to go on sale.
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Johnny → wield → sale
Nicholson’s character, Jack Torrance, uses the axe to hack out an opening in a locked door protecting his terrified wife Wendy, played by Shelley Duvall.
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character → use → Duvall
It is one of hundreds of items in the first auction of the personal archive of The Shining’s influential director, Stanley Kubrick, who died in 1999.
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who → die → 1999
The sale includes several other lots from the film, including two sky-blue dresses worn by the twin sisters Alexa and Alexie Grady.
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sale → include → sisters
They appear in the frocks in a memorable scene when they invite Torrance’s son, Danny, to “come play with us” as he pedals on his tricycle through the corridors of the Overlook Hotel.
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he → appear → Hotel
The boy’s trike is not part of the sale, but a clapperboard used in the film is one of four from Kubrick’s movies to go under the hammer.
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clapperboard → use → hammer
The auction will take place at Bonhams in London on 3 February, after public exhibitions that start next week at Bonhams in New York, before going on to Los Angeles, Paris and then London on 18 January.
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that → take → January
The lot expected to fetch the highest price is the model of a cosmic foetus that appears in the final scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
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that → expect → 2001
Also known as the “star child prop” it is predicted to fetch as much as £800,000.
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it → know → 800,000
Justifying the list price, Claire Tole-Moir, the head of popular culture at Bonhams, said: “It is the final, enigmatic image of one of cinema’s most influential science fiction films.
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It → justify → films
It represents evolution, new beginnings, naivety and ambiguity.
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It → represent → evolution
2001: A Space Odyssey is not just one of Kubrick’s most finest films, it is a cinematic masterpiece, and so to be able to offer this iconic prop from the final scene of the film is incredibly exciting.”
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be → offer → film
She said the auction gave “fans, collectors and historians the chance to own a piece of this remarkable collection” and that the exhibitions were “a landmark moment to get closer to some of the most iconic films ever made”.
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exhibitions → say → films
She said: “His scripts are incredibly special … providing us with an exciting insight into Stanley’s creative journey whilst making some of his most famous films such as The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Lolita among others.”
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scripts → say → others
The Guardian’s obituary of Kubrick describes him as enigmatic, obsessive and dictatorial, and his movies as deeply pessimistic.
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obituary → describe → him
The auction includes his director’s chair, valued at up to £12,000.
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auction → include → 12,000
Tole-Moir said: “Few people had as much of an overwhelming impact on visual culture as Kubrick.”
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people → say → Kubrick
She pointed out that his work was so influential that it spawned the adjective Kubrickian, meaning marked by “meticulous attention to detail, technical mastery, precision and a distinctive visual or creative style”.
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it → point → detail
Tole-Moir said the lot that best illustrated Kubrick’s personality was his chess set.
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that → say → personality
“He valued chess for its combination of strategy, patience, discipline and intellectual precision - qualities that would become hallmarks of his film-making,” she said.
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she → value → making
“Later on, during breaks in filming, he would play games with members of the cast and crew, and has often been photographed alongside a chess board.
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he → play → board
“Other directors’ collections have appeared at auction over the years, but Stanley Kubrick’s archive is truly distinctive in its depth, quality and intellect.
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archive → appear → depth
It encompasses not only the extraordinary objects themselves, but decades of scholarship, research, documentation and deliberate preservation.
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It → encompass → scholarship
“It is hard to think of another collection of this calibre, nor a director who has inspired so many.”
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who → think → many
The Aporia
