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.”

  • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    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.

    • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      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.