Stanley Kubrick's Boxes

Did you see the documentary Stanley Kubrick's Boxes on the TV recently?

I believe this doco is going to be repeated this afternoon on ABC1. I found it fascinating for two reasons - it gives an insight into the mind of this great movie director by looking at the details of his life and the stories that his possessions tell, (Kubrick evidently loved to look at things at the level of detail as much as I do), and I also enjoyed counting the many eccentricities that Kubrick had in common with some people who I know. We found this most amusing (we actually do have a sense of humour).

Stanley Kubrick is one of the famous people included in my list of famous people who have been identified as autistic or possibly autistic. Professor Michael Fitzgerald has written about Kubrick more than once, identifying Kubrick as an example of Asperger syndrome and creativity, and Fitzgerald also asserted that Kubrick showed features of ADHD as a school student. While I don't agree with everything that Professor Fitzgerald has written about Kubrick or AS, I think there must be no room for doubt that Kubrick had AS.

In case you don't know, Kubrick was an American Academy Award winning film director and producer who was highly influential and innovative. He was considered one of the greatest movie directors of the 20th century. His works include Dr Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining, which the kids and I regard as one of the best ever horror movies. Kubrick was a truly unusual, but not completely unique individual. He was known to collect obsolete personal computers and carry on telephone conversations lasting a number of hours. Sounds like some people who I know!


Link to ABC TV guide:

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/guide/netw/200905/programs/ZY9870A001D24052009T150000.htm


Links about the documentary:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Kubrick's_Boxes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JwAnMUavzA

http://www.channel4.com/more4/documentaries/doc-feature.jsp?id=215

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1263704/


Published documents that discuss Kubrick and the autistic spectrum:

Fitzgerald, Michael (2006) Autism, Asperger’s syndrome and creativity. Autism2006: AWARES Conference Centre. October 4th 2006.
http://212.74.184.44:8083/BM_DIRECTORY/E/BM000001662/7679/FIT1.PDF

http://awares.nemisys.uk.com/conferences/show_paper.asp?section=000100010001&conferenceCode=000200020002&id=42

Lyons, Viktoria and Fitzgerald, Michael (2005) Asperger Syndrome - A Gift or a Curse? Nova Science Publishers Inc.


A referenced list of 138 famous or important people diagnosed with an autism spectrum condition or subject of published speculation about whether they are or were on the autistic spectrum
http://incorrectpleasures.blogspot.com/2006/09/referenced-list-of-famous-or-important.html