Kubrick Interview 1

JY: I see. Could I ask you the same question about The Shining? The last scene of The Shining, you show the picture…

SK: Did you have — I told Julian to ask you, Did you have any difficulty recognizing Jack Nicholson?

JY: No not me.

SK: No.

JY: We could find Jack Nicholson but, you know…

SK: You weren’t sure what it was supposed to mean.

JY: Right.

SK: Well it was supposed to suggest a kind of evil reincarnation cycle, where he is part of the hotel’s history, just as in the men’s room when he’s talking to the former caretaker — ghost of the former caretaker — who says to him, you know, “You are the caretaker. You’ve always been the caretaker. I should know. I’ve always been here.” One is merely suggesting some kind of, you know, endless cycle of this evil reincarnation. And also — well, that’s it. Again it’s the sort of thing that I think is better left unexplained but since you asked me, I’m trying to explain.

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The Shining - unseen interviews with Stanley Kubrick & Vivian Kubrick, 1980 (Jun'ichi Yaoi)