BOOK OF THE WEEK
Kubrick by Robert P Kolker and Nathan Abrams review — lights, camera, inaction!
He was the genius who directed Spartacus, The Shining and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Stanley Kubrick was also paranoid and a chronic ditherer
Stanley Kubrick on the set of his 1975 film Barry Lyndon
SUNSET BOULEVARD/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES
The Sunday Times
In late 1961 the film director Stanley Kubrick grew so convinced of imminent nuclear war that he obtained visas for his family to relocate to Australia. “When are you going? Have you booked on the ship?” his wife, Christiane, asked him. “I haven’t done anything yet but next week we have to do something,” Kubrick replied.
The weeks went by. Still no tickets. It soon became a family joke, as everyone teased him about when they were going to Australia. “I’m ready to go. I’m so packed. I can leave everything else behind. Can you?” Christiane said. “My readiness drove him crazy.” But Kubrick was paranoid that an associate might empty one of his bank accounts, flee to a non-extradition country and live out the
