Stanley Kubrick
American Filmmaker
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
An engrossing biography of one of the most influential filmmakers in cinematic history
"A cool, cerebral book about a cool, cerebral talent. . . . A brisk study of [Kubrick's] films, with enough of the life tucked in to add context as well as brightness and bite.”—Dwight Garner, New York Times
"An engaging and well-researched primer to the work of a cinematic legend."—Library Journal
Kubrick grew up in the Bronx, a doctor’s son. From a young age he was consumed by photography, chess, and, above all else, movies. He was a self†‘taught filmmaker and self†‘proclaimed outsider, and his films exist in a unique world of their own outside the Hollywood mainstream. Kubrick’s Jewishness played a crucial role in his idea of himself as an outsider. Obsessed with rebellion against authority, war, and male violence, Kubrick was himself a calm, coolly masterful creator and a talkative, ever†‘curious polymath immersed in friends and family.
Drawing on interviews and new archival material, David Mikics for the first time explores the personal side of Kubrick’s films.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The life and work of movie director Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) are briefly glossed in this compact, informative work from literature scholar Mikics (Bellow's People). Drawing on Kubrick's archive, interviews with his friends and family, and previous studies of his work, the book skims the filmmaker's Bronx childhood and early photography career, and focuses on his films, from his first short, Day of the Fight, to the posthumously released Eyes Wide Shut. In Mikics's account, Kubrick was a perfectionist, demanding from his financial backers, in his own words, "complete total final annihilating artistic control." However, he could also harness the power of spontaneity; his film shoots resembled an "experiment on his actors, waiting to see where more and more takes might lead them." Off set, he was equally attentive and obsessive; a screenwriter on Full Metal Jacket, Kubrick's film about the Vietnam War, described their working relationship as "a single phone call lasting three years." There are welcome insights into Kubrick's career, from his unrealized desire to make a film about the Holocaust to his decision to leave the eroticism out of his 1962 adaptation of Lolita, because otherwise "the film could not have been made." Kubrick fans will enjoy this brisk but thorough biography of a consummate filmmaker.
