This was the first exhibition in the world about the life and work of film director Stanley Kubrick.

Stanley Kubrick (1928‒99): American film director, screenwriter and producer, one of the greatest artists of world cinema. His artistic interests began with photography; subsequently, he made documentary films. He made his feature film debut with a low-budget war thriller, Fear and Desire (1953), then, for the crime picture Killer’s Kiss (1955), he founded his own production company, thus establishing his independence. During this first period he made The Killing (1956), followed by the controversially received Paths of Glory (1957), a bitter pacifist war drama. He was hired by Kirk Douglas to direct Spartacus (1960, four Oscars), an ambitious superproduction about the leaders of a slave rebellion. Following the film, Kubrick left the United States and settled in the UK, but continued to make movies for the Hollywood studios. Thus emerged Lolita (1962), an adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s scandalous novel, and a black comedy about the Cold War, Dr Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). The triumph of the latter film enabled Kubrick to carry out one of his most courageous projects, the spectacular philosophical science-fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

The director gained renown with his next films, the brutal Clockwork Orange (1971) and the visually stunning costume drama Barry Lyndon (1975). In all of his films, Kubrick turned the conventions of the genre upside down, creating his own vision of humankind and the world. So it was in his adaptation of Stephen King’s horror story, The Shining (1980), the war film Full Metal Jacket (1987) and the erotic thriller Eyes Wide Shut (1999). Other projects Kubrick intended to carry out included the science-fiction film AI ‒ Artificial Intelligence, a fresco of the wars of Napoleon (with Jack Nicholson in the title role) and the story of the Holocaust, as played out in Poland, in Aryan Papers.

The show included about 1,000 exhibits, including numerous audio-visual materials. Kubrick's work methods was demonstrated through documentation of production related materials: scripts, production sketches, documents, photographs, costumes and props. Most of this materials originate from the director´s personal estate were presented in this exhibition for the first time! Spatial installations reflect the atmosphere of a given film with the use of appropriate lighting, images and sounds, as well as the projection of film clips. Among the objects displayed in the exhibition was special lenses and cameras used by Kubrick, thanks to which his cinematography has gone down in cinematic history for its innovations. In addition, Kubrick’s photographic work for Look magazine from the early years of his career, reconstructions of sets, models, along with a rich multimedia collection, all complete the concept of the exhibition, created for both lovers and connoisseurs of cinema, as well as to viewers who simply want to get a taste of the work of one of the icons of world film history, Stanley Kubrick.

The uniqueness of the exhibition at the National Museum in Krakow was also affirmed by its innovative (in terms of content and presentation) concept, based, among other things, on the opportunity for each viewer to choose his own path through the exhibition. For this purpose, several routes was prepared for wandering through Kubrick’s oeuvre, describing, inter alia, the themes of war, technology and madness. With its numerous film and still image projections, musical presentations and various displays for special effects, costumes and set design, the exhibition take on a unique, dynamic character, and becomes an attraction for a broad audience.

Krakow was the only city in this part of Europe, where the exhibition could bee seen. So far, it has been visited by more than 800,000 people around the world, in (among others) Berlin, Amsterdam, Zurich, Rome, Paris, Los Angeles, Melbourne and São Paolo.

An extensive programme of accompanying events and a full film retrospective was complement the exhibition.

The project wasco-financed by (among others) the Municipality of Krakow, U.S. Consulate General in Krakow and produced in cooperation with the Krakow Festival Office.


Curator of the exhibition: Rafał Syska
Design of the exhibition: Tomasz Wójcik, Maja Gralak
Visual identification: Matylda Sałajewska
Coordinator of the exhibition: Barbara Woźniak
Original Exhibition Concept, Curatorship and Tour Management: Hans –Peter Reichmann, Tim Heptner (Deutsches Filmmuseum, Frankfurt am Main)
Initiators of the Exhibition in Poland: Exhibition Ambassador Lech Majewski and Małgorzata Domin
Objects Used in Exhibition Set Design: Artur Bujak
Film Materials and Mapping: Wojciech Kapela, Bogusław Sławiński
Exhibition Team from the National Museum in Krakow: Elżbieta Cyganik, Robert Flur, Natalia Haligowska, Elżbieta Kłosowska, Paweł Martosz, Katarzyna Mrugała, Joanna Popielska-Michalczyk, Andrzej Sęp
Exhibition Supervision: Olga Jaros
Coordinators from Domino Film: Małgorzata Domin, Beata Jędrzejczak, Maciej Długaj
Promotion of the Exhibition: Kawałek Świata-Media – Krzysztof Ślusarz, Renata Dworak, Monika Marszycka, Justyna Ożóg, Martyna Fatel


Exhibition club-café Forum Przestrzenie (in the former hotel Forum), inspired by the works of Stanley Kubrick, where we could share our impressions of visiting the exhibition, as well as participate in many social events. Club-café was open daily from 12.00.

An exhibition by the Deutsches Filmmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, Christiane Kubrick and The Stanley Kubrick Archive at University of the Arts London, with the support of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Sony-Columbia Pictures Industries Inc., Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios Inc., Universal Studios Inc., and SK Film Archives LLC.