He was the greatest director of his generation. Jack Nicholson’s “Here’s Johnny!” Lolita’s heart-shaped sunglasses. The Dr Strangelove cowboy riding the nuclear bomb like it’s a bucking bronco. And on and on. So many images have implanted themselves into the public consciousness, surely because of the director’s ever-burgeoning attention to detail.
“Why don’t you just accept,” says Jan, “that this was how he worked?”
“But if he hadn’t allowed his tireless work ethic to take him to unproductive places, he’d have made more films,” I say. “For instance, the Space 1999 lawsuit seems, with the benefit of hindsight, a little trivial.”
—Jon Ronson
—Citizen Kubrick (Guardian Unlimited)
An excellent essay on the archives of director Stanley Kubrik. The story unfolds bit by bit… very clever.