John Brownlee

Plumbing Stanley Kubrick

I have just spent the last forty minutes reading ‘Plumbing Stanley Kubrick’ by sci-fi writer Ian Watson, who was briefly hired in the 80’s to work with Kubrick on what would eventually become, under Spielberg, A.I.. And, you know, after 40,000 words, I just remain stupefied how to present it to you. It’s a charming, […]
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Kubrickmadman

I have just spent the last forty minutes reading 'Plumbing Stanley Kubrick' by sci-fi writer Ian Watson, who was briefly hired in the 80's to work with Kubrick on what would eventually become, under Spielberg, A.I..

And, you know, after 40,000 words, I just remain stupefied how to present it to you. It's a charming, rambling, anecdotal account of working on a day-by-day basis with a funky, hairy, strangely scatter-brained mad genius and the strange constabulary of loyal, talented weirdos he surrounded himself with.

Instead of choosing just one anecdote to give you the tone of the piece, I think I'll settle on this brilliant quote from Kubrick:

Eventually, at the end of the year, Stanley told me to write the whole story up in ninety pages, omitting, on his orders, some of what I thought were the best bits. "I hope there's some emotion in it, Ian," he confided. "Put some vaginal jelly on the words..."

Dear reader, we try to do that for your edification every day.

Plumbing Stanley Kubrick [Visual Memory]