I've seen pictures of Kubrick on set holding a cigarette, but these were mostly for his older films, up until 2001. I can't remember if there are any of him smoking in later pics.
I just read the book about him written by his personal assistant, and his smoking is never mentioned, so I wondered if at some point whether he quit or not...and managed to stay quit from the habit, too?
Are you enjoying your genetically modified food?
This is something i'd like to know as well. It might explain why he died so (relatively) young.
There are also a lot of pictures of him smoking small cigars.
I'm just on my way up to Clavius.
Kubrick's widow, Christiane, interviewed in 2008:
Christiane recalls that during the weeks leading up to his death he was already contemplating what his next project would be following his collaboration with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. But she accepts that this heavy workload contributed to his end.
"All people who have enormous energy get themselves into enormous trouble. By sleeping only four hours a day he lived a longer life than he actually did live. But it killed him, that and the smoking. It was even worse when we were younger because he would sometimes not sleep at all."
More at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3555934/The-Stanley-Kubrick-files.html
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Photo database of Kubrick's puffing the cigs on assorted film sets - during filming of Paths of Glory, Spartacus, Lolita, Dr Strangelove, 2001:
http://kubricksmoking.tumblr.com/
Smoking back in those decades was (almost) as ubiquitous as today's mobile/cell/smart/dumb fúckín' phones, the latter even more addictive and disasterous for everyone's supposed health. I can put up with a smoker, but not some terminally conditioned zombie hysterically addicted to Twitter, Facebook, Texting, E-Mail, Youtube, Internet while jerking off on the latest daily 'outrage'. Today's motto, in a twisted variation of Microsoft's past tagline, everywhere: "What do you want to be outraged about today!?"
David Lynch: “I quit smoking in December. I’m really depressed about it. I love smoking, I love fire, I miss lighting cigarettes. I like the whole thing about it, to me it turns into the artist’s life, and now people like Bloomberg have made animals out of smokers, and they think that if they stop smoking everyone will live forever.”
But it killed him, that and the smoking.
Yes, that seems to confirm that he was still a smoker when his life ended.
Of course it's possible he might have quit the habit at some point and then resumed again later...after all, most people with any modicum of intellect know that they should quit, but managing to successfully accomplish that is rare indeed.
Just out of curiosity, I wonder what brand of cigs he preferred?
Are you enjoying your genetically modified food?
"But it killed him, that and the smoking."
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"Yes, that seems to confirm that he was still a smoker when his life ended."
I think he had quit the habit some years before his death. This is further confirmed by the fact that none of the numerous photos of him on the sets of Full Metal Jacket (and video footage on its sets) or Eyes Wide Shut, and I've seen hundreds of such photos, show him smoking anywhere. Though I could be mistaken, nevertheless. There might be other photos that I haven't yet seen, or don't remember seeing, with him having a smoke. I suppose if he were still around today, he's be vaping, using an e-cig, as many millions of people - especially older smokers - have managed to quit smoking in the last few years and move completely to vaping, with or without nicotine, and without all the toxic fumes and chemicals from cigarettes and smoke.
"After all, most people with any modicum of intellect know that they should quit, but managing to successfully accomplish that is rare indeed."
Yes, it's not about how much knowledge or supposed intelligence anyone has, but depends on identifications, libidinal desires, underlying beliefs, drives and social-symbolically conditioned habits and compulsions. So it is with all addictions of any kind, not just drugs, drink, smokes etc, but all compulsions, drives and obsessive compulsions, excessive fixations, repetitive behaviours: this is in fact a fundamental feature of all humans. Everyone has their symptom, their unconscious compulsions or drives or circular rituals or fetishes. Everyone is superstitious; especially those who pretend otherwise.
If it were all just a matter of 'knowing', of having all the information and knowledge, nobody would have any addictions of any kind; but no such being, no such human exists; we all have our habits, drives, compulsions, addictions, symptoms, even if we may not be aware of them or try to deny them, or hide them as hidden transgressions, or even rationalize or try to legitimize them, or even openly boast about them (like, say, stupid, self-deluding shopping-consumer addicts who endlessly boast about their shopping pathology, or sex addicts or chronic gamblers boasting about their idiotic hedonist illness without even being aware that it is a self-destructive misery-inducing addiction).
If it were just a matter of 'having all the facts', of being fully informed, of being given 'all the information', then information would be a magical entity with magical powers that automatically, instantly, robotically, transforms people as soon as they are supplied with it. But there are other - unconscious - forces and beliefs at work. Doctors, for instance, have for many decades been heavy smokers (despite having 'all the information'). Why? Because of STRESS, because of external pressures, etc, and smoking, among numerous other drugs, served to temporarily relieve such stresses and strains.
As if a chronic drug addict continues being a chronic drug addict simply because he doesn't 'know' that he's a drug addict! He does know, knows intensely and acutely, and may often have more knowledge about drugs, from their various effects, to their compositions etc, than anyone else, including the doctors. But he distances himself from such knowledge, disavows it in his actions, is unable to fully admit or acknowledge his true belief or behaviour; doing so is too traumatic, disturbing, horrific, excessive ... too REAL. So it simply isn't about conscious 'knowing', but about unconscious compulsions, beliefs, and identifications, truths that we believe in and conform to without really being fully aware that we are doing so, even when we are doing so. It's about symptoms and what they relate to, what they are a symptom of.
It does not confirm he was still smoking, actually. Smoking harms the body, you take that with you the rest of your life, even if you quit. Changes of getting lung cancer and heart disease etc. only go down significantly 20 years after you quit.
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