From the Author:
Not a biography but an accurate, balanced survey/portrait
I began this book at the beginning of 1998 as Stanley Kubrick was coming to the end of filming 'Eyes Wide Shut'. At that time of course I had no idea that he would not be here to see the book's publication - or that he would even be interested in it. The book is not a biography, but is a review of his entire, lengthy career - the first all-new book to do so. Along the way, however, it presents a picture of Stanley Kubrick (a man too often misrepresented by both the media and even his biographers) as a sensible, dedicated family man and film-maker whose passions were directed in those directions rather than in self promotion or appearing on vacuous tv talk shows. Those who have seen the book prior to publication, and who knew Kubrick, have told me that it is 'fair, well balanced and accurate' which is as much as I could have hoped for. The summaries and analysis of the films too, has been described as 'multi-layered and incisive.' Better than all this, though, is the story - recounted in the book - of Stanley Kubrick's awareness that I was working on this book, that he discussed it with his assistant and that he fully intended to contact me once his work was completed on 'Eyes Wide Shut,' although fate was to intervene. Stanley Kubrick is rightly considered one of the few real masters of the cinema, and this well illustrated book offers him the appraisal that his work deserved, while at the same time dispelling those myths and nonsense stories which surrounded him and which he felt unable to refute himself.
Synopsis:
This text covers all of Kubrick's films, including his final one "Eyes Wide Shut", looking at classics such as "Lolita", "Dr. Strangelove", "A Clockwork Orange" and "The Shining". It also considers the director's idiosyncratic style of film-making and his distrust of the major film studios.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.