Stanley Kubrick and Me
Thirty Years at His Side
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- $26.99
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- $26.99
Publisher Description
This intimate portrait by his former personal assistant and confidante reveals the man behind the legendary filmmaker—for the first time.
Stanley Kubrick, the director of a string of timeless movies from Lolita and Dr. Strangelove to A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Full Metal Jacket, and others, has always been depicted by the media as the Howard Hughes of filmmakers, a weird artist obsessed with his work and privacy to the point of madness. But who was he really? Emilio D'Alessandro lets us see. A former Formula Ford driver who was a minicab chauffeur in London during the Swinging Sixties, he took a job driving a giant phallus through the city that became his introduction to the director. Honest, reliable, and ready to take on any task, Emilio found his way into Kubrick's neurotic, obsessive heart. He became his personal assistant, his right-hand man and confidant, working for him from A Clockwork Orange until Kubrick's death in 1999.
Emilio was the silent guy in the room when the script for The Shining was discussed. He still has the coat Jack Nicholson used in the movie. He was an extra on the set of Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick's last movie. He knew all the actors and producers Kubrick worked with; he observed firsthand Kubrick's working methods down to the smallest detail. Making no claim of expertise in cinematography but with plenty of anecdotes, he offers a completely fresh perspective on the artist and a warm, affecting portrait of a generous, kind, caring man who was a perfectionist in work and life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Stanley Kubrick, the renowned director of 2001: A Space Odyssey and many other films, is typically depicted as a cold, temperamental, and intensely private man. First-time author D'Alessandro complicates that portrayal with this informal and utterly charming account of what it was like to be employed by Kubrick for 30 years. D'Alessandro, a cabbie and aspiring race-car driver, was hired as Kubrick's chauffeur during the making of A Clockwork Orange. Soon afterward, he became the director's right-hand man. At first he was assigned to menial tasks such as shopping, cleaning, and feeding Kubrick's many cats, but soon the unassuming Italian family man found himself transporting props to the set of Barry Lyndon, attending the shooting of The Shining, and even acting in the director's last film, Eyes Wide Shut. The book includes a selection of D'Alessandro's personal photos, including those of the numerous props he owns from Kubrick's movies. This sweet and sentimental record of service to a creative genius may lack profundity, but the book's invitingly conversational tone and descriptions paint an all-too-human portrait of a cloistered artist and ardent workaholic who expected everything and more from his employees and returned their devotion in kind.
