Stanley Kubrick, the relentless perfectionist who directed some of cinema’s greatest classics, was so sensitive to criticism that, in 1970, he threatened legal action to block publication of a book which dared to discuss flaws in his films.
The director of Spartacus and 2001: A Space Odyssey, warned the book’s author and publisher that he would fight “tooth and nail” and “use every legal means at his disposal” to prevent its publication – and he did.
Now, 25 years after his death, the book Kubrick did not want anyone to read is being published, more than half a century late.
The Magic Eye: The Cinema of Stanley Kubrick by Neil Hornick now has three prefaces reflecting its subject’s ruthlessness in trying to block publication and control his image.
Hornick, now 84, from London, said Kubrick’s legal threats had come as a shock: “I regard it as a painful episode.”
Stanley Kubrick is my favorite director of all time. I consider Barry Lyndon such high art that if you could frame it, it would belong in the Louvre. But he was entirely about managing everything about his films and his life to precise detail, so it doesn’t surprise me that he canceled a book that had criticisms he didn’t care for.
Really, most unvarnished truths about Kubrick were only ever going to come out after his death when his correspondence could be studied and people could be interviewed with proper hindsight.
I liked his stuff until I actually read the Shining and realized what a heartless shit he is. He turned a (believe it or not) heartfelt story into Hollywood murder porn and abused Shelly Duvall in the process. I get why Stephen King couldn’t stand the guy.
There are so many absolutely horrible movie directors that make amazing movies that you’d probably never see half the greatest films of all time if you avoided them all. Hitchcock was a rapist. Polanski raped a child. John Landis killed an adult and two children to get a good shot. We won’t even go into Woody Allen. Fucking John Lasseter was a sexual harasser. And that’s just a small sampling.
Yet I still quit listening to Lizzo because she turned out to be a piece of shit. Plenty of other great artists that don’t treat their staff like shit.
I feel the same about aerosmith. When I actually read the lyrics to most of Aerosmiths songs, it became a question of how the fuck is Steven Tyler not in prison. Half their songs are about how much they want to have sex with minors.
Blues Traveler answered your question with a whole song back in the 90s:
It doesn’t matter what I say
So long as I sing with inflection
That makes you feel I’ll convey
Some inner truth or vast reflection
But I’ve said nothing so far
And I can keep it up for as long as it takes
And it don’t matter who you are
If I’m doing my job, it’s your resolve that breaks
Because the hook brings you back
I ain’t tellin’ you no lie
The hook brings you back
On that you can rely
There is something amiss
I am being insincere
In fact I don’t mean any of this
Still my confession draws you near
To confuse the issue I refer
To familiar heroes from long ago
No matter how much Peter loved her
What made the Pan refuse to grow
Was that hook brings you back
I ain’t tellin’ you no lie
The hook brings you back
On that you can rely
Suck it in, suck it in, suck it in, if you’re Rin Tin Tin or Anne Boleyn
Make a desperate move or else you’ll win and then begin to see
What you’re doing to me, this MTV is not for free
It’s so PC it’s killing me, so desperately I sing to thee of love
Sure, but also of rage and hate and pain and fear of self
And I can’t keep these feelings on the shelf
I’ve tried, well, no, in fact I lied
Could be financial suicide, but I’ve got too much pride inside
To hide or slide, I’ll do as I’ll decide and let it ride until I’ve died
And only then shall I abide this tide
Of catchy little tunes of hip three minute diddys
I wanna bust all your balloons
I wanna burn all your cities to the ground
I’ve found I will not mess around unless I play then hey
I will go on all day, hear what I say
I have a prayer to pray that’s really all this was
And when I’m feeling stuck and need a buck
I don’t rely on luck because
The hook brings you back
I ain’t tellin’ you no lie
The hook
On that you can rely
TL:DR dude went on a 3.5 minute rant about how no one listens to the lyrics, hit the top 10 in the US with said song, and was totally correct that no one would know what the song was even about.
I contend the only reason that song hit top 10 was because that Rin Tin Tin line. Everyone is a sucker for a good dog story.
I don’t know that Lizzo is comparable to Alfred Hitchcock.
They both turned out to be creeps. I don’t need to know much more about their art. Art comes from the heart so if your heart is creepy I don’t really give a shit about your art right
Multiple children. A number of other now adult women have later accused Polanski of raping them when they were teenagers. Right now he’s back in legal trouble right now for another, earlier victim that has now come forward. Not sure what it will accomplish as it’s a civil trial, he doesn’t have to come back for it, but at least this accuser will get her day in court, and if she wins she can garnish/levy any US assets he may hold or generate.
And Woody Allen . . . DELETED because I will not give pedophile apologists a springboard for defense of his sick shit.
EDITED TO ADD: The asshole who defended him on this thread just downvoted like thirty of my posts in the last hour, apparently thinking downvotes are private in his vast personal command of technology. Seriously. I just attached screenshots. This is hilarious! I want you to know I will go to bed tonight laughing because I pissed off a pedophile apologist enough for him to hunt me down and girly bitchslap as many of my comments with downvotes as he could reach, lol. Go git the rest of 'em, lil buddy. There’s only like 1200+ more to go, and I know you’ve been working up that hand strength, so give it a shot. Wear yourself out, seriously. And then follow me like a sad puppy for the rest of your online days because hiding in the shadows is what the people you defend love the most.
SECOND EDIT to add Imgur link: https://imgur.com/a/I6QUrtx
I can’t agree there. He directed some masterpieces. But I can’t bring myself to watch them anymore. Maybe after he’s dead…
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Annie Hall for one.
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“In 1978, Mia Farrow and her then husband, André Previn, adopted Soon-Yi and took her to the United States.”
“Previn has said that Allen “was never any kind of father figure [to her]” and that she “never had any dealings with him” during her childhood.[16] The findings of the judicial investigation carried out during the custody trial between Farrow and Allen determined that before 1990, Previn and Allen had rarely spoken to each other”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soon-Yi_Previn
I get that many people think their relationship is icky but making stuff up isn’t helpful.
I don’t have to make anything up, and I note that you did not post a single word of what Mia Farrow or Ronan Farrow had to say about it either.
Posting one side of a very heated and ongoing family squabble does not an adequate rebuttal make.
EDITED TO ADD that I have deleted my original comment because I will not knowingly give pedophile apologists a springboard to launch their twisted defense of him.
But you did. She wasn’t Woody Allen’s adoptive daughter.
“In 1992, Previn said that Farrow had physically abused her.[16] In 2018, Previn’s brother Moses Farrow has said that he too was physically abused by Farrow.”
I have no dog in this fight but I don’t buy the narrative that Mia Farrow is an angel and Woody Allen is the devil.
From https://lemmy.world/u/ChunkMcHorkle
I should note that all I did was quote from Soon-Yi’s wikipedia page. This asshole got caught spreading lies and is now acting out instead of taking responsibility.
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John Ford …
Maybe it’s Johns…