The Shining

1980, Stanley Kubrick, USA, 146 min.

Introduced by Dorothea Lasky of the Astro Poets

Zodiac sign: Gemini (Can you guess why? “Come with us,” beckon the twins in the corridor”¦)

Writers say their worst nightmare is being crippled by writer’s block. Stephen King’s The Shining as reinvisioned by Stanley Kubrick takes that nightmare all the way to hell and back. This is a tale of strange happenings and malevolent psychic entities at a sinister hotel in Colorado. Lesson: clairvoyance is only helpful when you know who is sending the messages.

“The Shining is very deliberately paced, at times almost meditative. This isn’t a fun, schlocky slasher movie, but rather the kind of movie that keeps you awake for days.”

—New York Times

About Cabaret Cinema: Dreams & Prophecy

Inspired by the Astro Poets, the whimsical astrologers beloved by the Twitterverse, Cabaret Cinema looks beyond the stars of Hollywood to the stars in the sky this summer. Twelve films aligned with the signs of the zodiac ensure there’s something for everyone. Whether you were born under a Black Moon or Sans Soleil, come see what the cinema of the past portends for the future.

About the Introducer

Dorothea Lasky is a poet and the author of five full-length collections of poetry. Her newest book is Milk (Wave Books). She is also the author of Rome (Liveright/W.W. Norton) and Thunderbird, Black Life, and Awe, all from Wave Books. She has also written several chapbooks, including Snakes (Tungsten Press, 2017) and Poetry Is Not a Project (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010). Her writing has appeared in Poetry, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, and Boston Review, among other places. She is a co-editor of Open the Door: How to Excite Young People About Poetry (McSweeney’s, 2013).

Currently, she is an Associate Professor of Poetry at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, where she co-directs Columbia Artist/Teachers (CA/T) and organizes the summer writing program.