Stanley Kubrick Directs - Softcover

Walker, Alexander

3.73

237 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0156848929 ISBN 13: 9780156848923

Publisher: Harcourt, 1972

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Prime Source of 1st handed information about Stanley Kubrik and his work. Stanley Kubrik directs uses over 350 black and white stills to produce a biography of Kubrik through his work which is, in a way a projection of his life. It includes interviews with Kubrik and people he has worked with,a commentary on his films, the origins of his ideas and assessment of the impact of his films on his reputation. It covers work such as Lolita, Dr Strangelove, 2001 : A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange as well as his most recent film, Eyes Wide Shut, a psychological thriller which is to star Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.

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About the Author:

Alexander Walker is the author of over twenty books about the cinema and its stars, including bestselling biographies of Elizabeth Taylor, Vivien Leigh, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Peter Sellers and Audrey Hepburn. He has also written standard works on the coming of the Talkies, a monograph on Stanley Kubrick, and the fullest account to date of the British film industry from 1960 to 1985. He has been the London "Evening Standard's" influential film critic since 1960 and has been named "Critic of the Year" three times in the British Press Awards. A prolific broadcaster on television and radio, he wrote and narrated four series of "Film Star" for the BBC. Alexander Walker was born in Ireland, and educated there, on the Continent and in the United States. He lives in London.

From Publishers Weekly:

A longtime friend of Kubrick's who remembers the days when the great director was mysteriously collecting Japanese science fiction movies in what turned out to be preparation for 2001, Walker rankled Warner Bros. and the Kubrick estate when he printed a rave review of Eyes Wide Shut weeks before the movie was released. In this book, he offers a similarly enthusiastic tour through the Kubrick oeuvre, from the first film (Fear and Desire, 1953) to the last (Eyes Wide Shut, 1999). Walker describes Kubrick as a guarded, suspicious, obsessive, controlling, paranoid workaholic, and makes us feel that he's bestowing a compliment. Each movie is given a thorough analysis, reinforced by the extensive use of stills in each case. He explains what that black obelisk in 2001 is and elaborates the various parallels between Kubrick and the character Jack Torrance in the filming of The Shining. Perhaps unavoidably, however, the section on Eyes Wide Shut seems merely to be a synopsis and lacks the detachment and detail that characterize the other chapters. One can only wish that Walker had waited for some critical perspective on his friend's final work. Nevertheless, its eulogistic tone aside, Kubrick fans everywhere will relish this as the definitive book on the director. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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