The Kubrick Konspiracy

I recently recorded an interview with research-journalist Kent Daniel Bentkowski for Studio Voice magazine about his pretty astonishing interpretation of Stanley Kubrick’s EYES WIDE SHUT.

Bascially, Kubrick was a member of a secret society who was killed for revealing too much in his final film.

Unbeknownst to me, Kent also taped the interview, transcribed it, and recently put it up on his blog! None of my scribbling for Studio Voice has been available in English until now, so anyone interested in my growing patch of non-overtly otaku work might want to check it out. The actual article will run in the April issue of SV.

Link to the interview is here.

Kent's original essay, EYES WIDE SHUT: OCCULT SYMBOLISM, is here.

Comments

[magnumzine]

you write the articles in english right? why don't you put them online? studio voice wont know or care!

[Carl Horn]

He doesn't see the occult symbolism in Clerks? DANTE Hicks and Randall GRAVES?

[dave merrill]

Wow, that essay is all over the map. I quit reading halfway through because I just know he's going to start talking about being ritually sexually abused by Tommy Lasorda and Ronald Reagan. It seems like the kooks these days are replacing "Satanism" with "The Illuminati". I guess it's easier to blame all your troubles on groups that don't actually exist.

[J.L. Carrozza]

It is kind of queer that Stanley died exactly 666 days before January 1st, 2001.

[Steve Harrison]

I don't see it. I just don't. Oh, sure, I could see such a thing recruiting him post-Lolita and Dr. Strangelove, but what little I know of Kubrick's private life is, he was a near Hughes-ish recluse, almost afraid to even leave his house...it was filmmaking that was his excuse to actually interact with the outside world, and he strove to control THAT with almost nazi-like fanaticism.

So I don't think I can buy him doing the secret society thing. One would have to believe him *capable* of enduring the whole rigamaroll of such things. Blood oaths, secret black masses, blah blah blah.

heck, even the prospect of lovely lovely young birds and free sex and drugs probably couldn't motivate him.

I understand him.

[dave merrill]

What I like is how sex magick gives you awesome power. This is why Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson rule the world as our overlords. Also that this mysterious cabal that rules the whole world couldn't cap Kubrick DURING his interminable, record-breaking-longest-film-shoot-in-history, but had to wait until after it was released and the amazing truth of the Illuminati was revealed to us all through a tedious failure of a picture. Way to rule the world there guys.

[Carl Horn]

I do think that if you're going to be in a secret, world-controlling society, you should go the whole hog and dress in robes and masks for your meetings. So, just as real gangsters have imitated the style of movies sich as THE GODFATHER and SCARFACE, your assorted Bilderbergers and Trilaterals could do worse than to watch EYES WIDE SHUT a few times. This "casual billionaire" stuff where magnates hang around in T-shirts and shorts appalls me.

[byron winston]

Interesting interview Patrick... I was just wondering - are you really into this sort occult and majick stuff seriously, or do you just dig it cause you like 'crazy fucked up shit'? I got into Illuminati conspiracies around when I was 14 after reading some Robert Anton Wilson books (much like a bunch of others I would imagine), but it was more or less a short paranoid teenage phase... it appears to have grown into a real movement (if looking at some of the links off his essay are anything to go by). Is it a post 9/11 thing? And is it purely limited to people in the US or do they get into this sort of thing in japan too? ...enjoy your writing and podcasts... breaks the monotony of my working life...

[Kentroversy]

Greetings, Mr. Merrill:

Stanley Kubrick was killed AFTER he turned in the final print of the film to Warner Brothers, but BEFORE it was released into theatres.

Kubrick died in March 1999 -- and the film wasn't released until July 1999.

Warmest Regards,

Kent Daniel Bentkowski
Buffalo, New York USA

Editor and Publisher:
The Kentroversy Papers

[TheBigGSN5]

I'd have to agree with Mr. Carl GUSTAV Horn. The best these organizations manage to do along these lines is have future presidents lie inside coffins and talk about their sex life for Skull & Bones.

[dave merrill]

Greetings, Mr. Bentkowski;

Give me $20 and I'll tell you who controls you.

Warmest regards,
Dave Merrill.

Seriously, here in the T.O. we get Buffalo TV. Why is something in Tonawanda always on fire?

[Steve Harrison]

I still can't buy it. I wonder how much the gentleman understands about the actual production of a movie. There is NO WAY Kubrick was able to do this in secret. The 'con' HAD to have had 'handlers' on the set. Gaffers. Grips. Electricians. Best Boys. Lighting. Loaders. Clappers. Focus pullers.HUNDERDS of ways to have observers watching his every move. No matter HOW closed a set is, you've got those people in the rafters and in the background.

Unless he was being *allowed* to do it, reveal these secrets. By a cabal within the 'con' that wanted to expose the old guard, to shift attention away from their actions.

Kubrick wasn't killed for revealing secret things. He was collateral damage in a war between factions. I suspect it's when the MJ12 group gained the upper hand. It's because Pinewood Studios straddles one of the key Ley Lines in England, right about the 19.5 line.

[Kristin Bentkowski]

my brother was a joke how can u people follow him. god if you only knew this crap he did to us you'd hate him too

[Mike Snyderman]

Well, Kristin, Kubrick was like a bowl of pudding. You can't have any pudding if you don't eat your toasted roast beef and cheese sandwich. Or vegetables.