Cinema: Art Was His Fragile Fortress: STANLEY KUBRICK, 1928-1999

One thing we ought to clear up right away: Stanley Kubrick was not, as careless journalism always insisted, reclusive. Elusive was a better word for him; seclusive the best one, implying, one hopes, that his refusal of fame's odious and stupefying obligations was a conscious, clarifying choice he had embraced, not a neurotic compulsion to which he had surrendered.

For the truth about this alleged anchorite was that he was a constant presence in dozens of lives, in touch via phone, fax and Internet--and, indeed, in person, if you happened near the admittedly narrow British realm where he had sequestered...