‘A String of Masterpieces’

Tuesday, 26 January 2010

On my flight to San Francisco yesterday, I finished reading Stanley Kubrick Interviews, an excellent collection edited by Gene D. Phillips. I was struck by this passage by Richard Schickel from Time magazine in 1975, a few weeks prior to the release of Barry Lyndon:

About his work Kubrick is the most self-conscious and rational of men. His eccentricities — secretiveness, a great need for privacy — are caused by his intense awareness of time’s relentless passage. He wants to use time to “create a string of masterpieces”, as an acquaintance puts it. Social status means nothing to him, money is simply a tool of his trade.

Reminds me of someone else.