Shortly after the release of Dr. Strangelove in January 1964, Stanley Kubrick found himself back in New York City, where he began working with science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke on what would eventually become 2001: A Space Odyssey. Meanwhile, an associate professor in the art-history department at Cornell named LeGrace Benson had recently started to incorporate cinema into her research and had become determined to learn everything she could about the art form. After seeing Strangelove three times and finding its blend of technical intricacy and scathing satire unshakable, Benson wrote a letter to Kubrick in which she expressed her admiration for the film and shared her theory of how it’s formally structured as “a kind of duplication of sexual intercourse.” A few weeks later, she received a response from Kubrick himself, who confirmed her theory by writing, “Seriously, you are the first person who seems to have noticed the sexual framework from intromission to last spasm.” (He also incorrectly assumed she was a man, addressing his letter to a “Mr. Benson.”) His short letter ends with an open invitation for Benson to give him a call if she found herself in New York City at any point over the next few months and wanted to have a drink together.
