- Paperback: 606 pages
- Publisher: Da Capo Press; New edition edition (April 16 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0306809060
- ISBN-13: 978-0306809064
- Product Dimensions: 2.3 x 1.5 x 0.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 866 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #279,732 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
In 1962, an MGM trailer teased its audience by asking "How Did They Ever Make a Movie Out of Lolita?" Readers of this book, which recounts the life of Lolita's director, might ask, "How Did They Ever Write a Biography of Stanley Kubrick?" Kubrick is the most reclusive of celebrities, a man who seems mysterious even to those who have known and worked with him. Vincent Lobrutto's engrossing and beautifully researched biography succeeds in tracing this meticulous and brilliant visionary from his childhood and early career as a photographer for Look magazine to his creation of masterpieces such as Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, and Full Metal Jacket. Lobrutto concludes his book by discussing projects that have not yet been realized: Eyes Wide Shut, a film about sexual obsession, the Holocaust drama Aryan Papers, and the most eagerly awaited of Kubrick's prospective movies, the science fiction film A. I.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Despite making only 12 feature films in 40 years, Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928) is arguably the greatest living American filmmaker, the principal creative force behind such movies as Paths of Glory, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange and The Shining. He is famous for his reclusiveness and eccentricity. Although this biography falls short of its stated purpose to be the first complete account of Kubrick's private life, it succeeds in presenting a convincing portrait of a man who is utterly devoted to every aspect of filmmaking, down to poster design. LoBrutto (Elia Kazan: Film Director), a film professor at the School of Visual Arts in N.Y.C., provides an exhaustively researched and detailed account of the making of Kubrick's films, including long interviews with many of the actors, writers and film craftsmen who have worked with the director over the years. Kubrick comes across as a soft-spoken tyrant in full command of every detail who somehow manages to win and keep the respect of those who work for him. For the true film buff, there's an astonishing amount of technical information, but there's also a good deal of illuminating backstage human interest?Kubrick cutting Kirk Douglas's final close-up in Spartacus as a joke, beating George C. Scott at chess between takes of Dr. Strangelove, asking Malcolm McDowell if he knew any songs he might sing during the rape scene in A Clockwork Orange. The tone of the book is a bit gee-whiz at times, but it's hard to fault LoBrutto for that: from the evidence here, Kubrick's boundless energy and passion for film are as breathtaking as the best of his movies. Photos and filmography.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
A few diamonds in lots of rough...,
By A Customer
This review is from: Stanley Kubrick: A Biography (Paperback)
LoBrutto conducts tons of interviews, does endless legwork, and thenspews the data almost completely unedited onto the page. While this can makefor frustrating, fragmented, and dull reading, I prefer this approach to the shoot-from-the-hip psychoanalysis that passes for biography these days (such as in Spoto's Hitchcock bio). Still, LoBrutto's writing style leaves a lot to be desired: when he compares a deli pickle angrily tossed by a young Kubrick to the spinning bone in "2001," he manages to ruin a funny observation with clunky prose. (Never mind my own clunky prose in that sentence!) The early parts of Kubrick's life suffer the most in this respect, but the book moves along nicely once Kubrick begins filmmaking. It's especially good once Arthur C. Clarke begins collaborating with him on "2001" -- the energy in their relationship is fascinating. I admire LoBrutto's restraint in discussing Kubrick's personal life. A lesser biographer would see his subject's reclusiveness as license to speculate wildly, yet LoBrutto leaves well enough alone. If you read this, you'll know little about Kubrick's failed marriages but a lot about how "Paths of Glory" managed to get made. So, this flawed bio is probably only worthwhile to die-hard Kubrickians...
2.0 out of 5 stars
Light & Smoke & Mirrors,
By The JuRK (Our Vast, Cultural Desert) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Stanley Kubrick: A Biography (Paperback)
This was the first full biography of Stanley Kubrick I read, buying it in hardback as soon as it was published. There had been very little biographical info on the director until his death in 1999 and I think I read most of the books about his films up to that point.I was disappointed with this bio. It got to the point where the last sentence in every third paragraph read, "And there was only one man for that job, and that man was Stanley Kubrick." I found John Baxter's bio, also called STANLEY KUBRICK, much more entertaining and enlightening.
5.0 out of 5 stars
How to write a book about a filmmaker,
By kathleen m condon "mikenyc" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Stanley Kubrick: A Biography (Paperback)
If you want to know about Stanley Kubrick, outside of viewing his films, this is THE book !This book fills in the blanks, about this enigmatic filmmaker, with a very concise, pre-history, to his notariety as director of such films as "Paths of Glory" and "Dr. Strangelove". It is from these "roots", that his story REALLY begins ! Be patient to get to those "famous" years, for it is this story, that explains, the "how" and "why" he is regarded so highly.
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