Blending Kubrick, Scorsese artfully

In music they call it sampling . It’s when one artist “borrows” from another’s work, incorporating it in what sometimes is a whole new context. This is, arguably, theft when the borrowing is done without credit, much less royalties, being paid to the original artist.

In cinema, the term is mashup . And in this era of YouTube excess, the borrowing of other’s work is different from, say, Vanilla Ice using a David Bowie bass line . It almost always involves taking images, sometimes whole scenes, of one film and re-editing them to make something wholly new. Take, for example, the mashup that makes Stanley Kubrick’s horror film “The Shining” into a mild family entertainment. That’s clever.l

There are times, though, when someone with real talent, not to mention perception, takes someone else’s work and creates a new work of art. In the case of Leandro Braga (aka Copperfield), that’s exactly what happened when he combined 34 Kubrick and Martin Scorsese films, finding similar themes, imagery and perhaps even meaning.

But don’t take my word for it. Click on the embed below and judge for yourself. Thanks to my friend Dan Fratini for passing it on.

Kubrick vs Scorsese from Leandro Copperfield on Vimeo .