Kubrick polishes a turd

Kubrick's incredible personal work ethic often did little to endear him to his collaborators. He pushed himself and his actors and crew to—and often beyond—their limits. But he was a man, as well, of great good humor.

When he died in March of 1999, The New York Times published a collection of reminiscences by friends and enemies alike, compiled by film director and critic/historian Peter Bogdanovich.

Bogdanovich had interviewed Jerry Lewis, the American comedian-writer-director-producer-telethon host.

It seems Lewis was editing a film just down the hall from where Kubrick was sculpting 2001: A Space Odyssey. In recounting their meeting, Lewis went right to the heart of Kubrick's genius; as we like to say in the trade, he cut to the chase:

"He's in the cutting room and I'm watching this man investigate his work, and it was fascinating. He was intrigued with the fact that I did more than one thing. He was a very big fan of 'hyphenates.'

"I think he would have loved to have written 2001 without Arthur Clarke. But he did have a high regard for people who directed their own material.

"I was in my cutting room around 1 in the morning, and he strolls in smoking a cigarette and says, 'Can I watch?'
I said: 'Yeah, you can watch. You wanna see a Jew go down? Stand there.'

"That was the night I coined the expression, 'You cannot polish a turd.'

"And then Kubrick looked at me and said,

"'You can if you freeze it.'"

Thinking outside the box. An essential ingredient in the makeup of genius. And comedy.