The Stanley Kubrick Archives

Book Description

Stanley Kubrick The first book to explore Stanley Kubrick's archives is also the most comprehensive study of the filmmaker to date

Part 1: The films
In 1968, when Stanley Kubrick was asked to comment on the metaphysical significance of 2001: A Space Odyssey, he replied: "It's not a message I ever intended to convey in words. 2001 is a nonverbal experience…. I tried to create a visual experience, one that bypasses verbalized pigeonholing and directly penetrates the subconscious with an emotional and philosophic content." The philosophy behind Part I borrows from this line of thinking: from the opening sequence of Killer's Kiss to the final frames of Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick's complete films will be presented chronologically and wordlessly via frame enlargements. A completely nonverbal experience.

Part 2: The Creative Process
Divided into chapters chronologically by film, Part 2 brings to life the creative process of Kubrick's filmmaking by presenting a remarkable collection of material from his archives, including photographs, props, posters, artwork, set designs, sketches, correspondence, documents, screenplays, drafts, notes, and shooting schedules. Accompanying the visual material are essays by noted Kubrick scholars, articles written by and about Kubrick, and a selection of Kubrick's best interviews.

Customer Reviews:

Whoa!.......2007-09-16

Lucky me! I scored a copy of this and I have to say it is the best book on an artist I've ever seen. The previous reviewers weren't kidding--this thing is huge! Too large and heavy to be read anywhere but on a large flat surface, but that's not a complaint, unless you're lugging it across an airport like I did.

A spectacular book that you'll refer to repeatedly. I pored over it for hours. The first half is devoted to an incredible array of pristine stills from each film. The second half is focused on every film with a plethora of on-set photos and interviews with cast & crew. The book is helpfully tabbed by film.

A stunning look into one of the greatest of all filmmakers. So well designed that my friends were awed by its beauty. And that 70MM film strip--holy cow! IMHO, it's worth the price for just for that.

Do you like perfection???.......2007-08-12

One of the most beautifully produced books I have ever seen!!! Worth every cent. This is the kind of book you set aside in a special place, so you can revisit it and continually discover something new. Five stars is not enough. An essential addtion for anyone who is interested in the work of Stanley Kubrick!!!
PERFECT!!!

Genius.......2007-06-01

The book is definetely a work of art. Congrats, Taschen, for such a well done job. You will find photos, storyboards, interviews, texts, articles and sorts of wonders from the Stanley Kubrick universe. The strip from a 90mm copy of 2001: A Space Odyssey is a delightful gift for appreciators of his masterpiece.

Absolutely worth-having.

Beautiful luxury item.........2007-05-17

As others have mentioned, this is a tremendously well put together book, with the tab system making it easy to get to the sections on the particular film you've just seen or are interested in. The essays, for the most part, are well written and engaging, and do a good job of enhancing the movies and giving you a context for the circumstances under which the movies are made. I've been using the book while watching each of one of Kubrick's movies, and it's a great way to get more out of each.

The size of the book is impressive from a collector's perspective but frustrating from an reader's - you do really have to read the book in a particular position, otherwise you may damage it. That said, the size of the book does enhance the tome's first half, featuring shots from the movies themselves. This might seem a bit dull, but for Kubrick, who actually grew up a photographer, it's well worth the time to flip through and marvel at the compositions.

Finally, I had wondered before buying the book if it was still in its first run with the filmstrip - as of May 2007, it is. I recommend sending a question to Amazon to ask - they quickly got back to me to let me know that the book I was buying did have the film strip.

Of course, the book is a bit pricey, so you certainly do need to be a devoted Kubrick follower to make it worth it. There are a number of other quality books with similar essays to the ones you'll find here, but the whole package - filmstrip, largeness of the book, screen shots, and the essays - combine to make the overall item something very special, and well worth it for those who can't get enough of Stanley.

The Kubrick Experience.......2007-03-28

The other reviews of this remarkable book have more or less summed up what I would say so I've approached it from another angle: I've uploaded eight photos to give you an idea of what this highly visual (and costly) book looks like. Amazon doesn't display images numerically so you'll have to see them at random. Click 'customer images' under the cover.

If you are buying a used first-run copy do check with the seller that Mr Kubrick's film strip is in its sleeve and the CD is also included, photo one shows them in position. Some reviewers have rightly said that owning a bit of '2001' from Kubrick's personal collection gives the book extra kudos.

Photo two will give you an idea of how the book is organised. There are two sections, each with a series of colored tabs. His twelve movies have a tab each and in the first section there are eight hundred stills, black and white and color depending on the film. Photos three, four and five are some of the spreads from Dr Strangelove. The second part of the book covers each movie in detail with an amazing collection of visual material to back up the text. Photos six, seven and eight show some pages about the background and production of Dr Strangelove.

The back of the book has a fifty page Appendix A, B and C. A covers three unmade movies: Napoleon, AI and Aryan Papers. B has three essays. C is a chronology of Kubrick's life.

This is a BIG book, opening to thirty-three inches wide and at over fourteen pounds in weight it really can only be read on a table. Needless to say being a Taschen book it is beautifully designed and printed and if you do buy a copy the Kubrick experience will be quite overwhelming and long lasting.

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Phenomenal compilation of regrettably forgotten works...
Sheds some light on Kubrick but does not stand alone as photography
Great photographs

Stanley Kubrick: Drama & Shadows
Rainer Crone
Manufacturer: Phaidon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0714844381

Book Description

Born in New York City in 1928, Stanley Kubrick began taking photographs when in high school. At sixteen, he sent a photograph he took of a newsstand after President Roosevelt's death to Look Magazine. The publication of the photograph marked the beginning of Kubrick's work for the magazine, which lasted until 1950, when Kubrick made his first 16mm documentary film. During those five years Kubrick completed dozens of photographic reportage assignments in New York City as well as abroad. The resulting thousands of negatives have remained in the archives of Look Magazine ever since. Kubrick's photographs vary in subject, but people are the central focus of attention, as is his commitment to narration. Whether capturing the meditative state of passengers in a series of portraits made in the New York subway, following famous boxer Rocky Graziano on the ring and in intimate moments, portraying the coming of age of socialite Betsy Von F++rstenberg, or narrating the tale of a shoe-shine boy in the streets of New York City, Kubrick draws psychological portraits that combine drama, irony, and often mystery, anticipating his trademark cinematic style.If Kubrick's photographs are fascinating accounts of life in the late 1940s, they are also a major contribution to American photography of that era. At nineteen, Kubrick already had an immense talent in constructing complex compositions in which camera positioning and lighting played a crucial role. The book is introduced by an essay by Rainer Crone, who also edited the selection of photographs for this book. Crone is an expert on Kubrick's photographic work, and has already published a catalogue on this subject (see Related Titles below). An art historian, he gives context and examines Kubrick's photographs in relation to not only his later films but also the history of twentieth-century art and photography. Crone also wrote short introductions to most stories in the book.An invaluable contribution to the history of photography, this book explores how one of the most influential and successful film directors of our time used photography to master visual techniques and cultivate his signature style.

Customer Reviews:

Phenomenal compilation of regrettably forgotten works..........2006-04-05

These are masterpieces of insightful timing & guerrila portraiture. Avedon said photography was mostly lies - photographs only captured an instant in time & usually the wrong instant. Kubrick almost always managed to get the right instant. That's great photography!

Sheds some light on Kubrick but does not stand alone as photography.......2006-04-01

The editors of this book were wise in prominently placing the photo that you see here on the cover. It is the most distinct and mysterious image in a book of otherwise indistinct work. Most of the photos are commercial and are interesting in so far as they reveal little hints of Kubrick's budding genius for mis-en-scene. But as photos the work doesn't stand alone very well, nor was it intended to.

Great photographs.......2006-03-01

The photographs in this book are worth the price of it. If you're a Kubrick fan, you can't do without it. The photographs teach more about film than a dozen histories.

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Like the movie, great production values
Do You Like The Future?
A behind the scenes once removed
A must -have book for 2001 fans
Highly recommended!

2001: Filming the Future
Piers Bizony
Manufacturer: Aurum Press, Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1854107062

Customer Reviews:

Like the movie, great production values.......2006-08-10

Its large format, crisp color reproduction, and amazing depth of detail make this one of the best 2001 books available. In fact, I had to own just one, this would be it.

In this age of computer generated imagery, it's fascinating to read in detail how 2001 pulled off its brilliant and never-dated space visuals with entirely manual processes. Seeing the incredibly huge and complex film sets, the detailed models and animations, and innovative camera techniques used give me a new appreciation for the magnitude of the film's greatness.

What is largely missing from this book is insight into Kubrick's source ideas and meaning for 2001. It's probably too much to ask for that in addition to the books fantastic production story.

Do You Like The Future?.......2005-10-09

This brilliant book's visuals alone make it worth adding to your collection of film books. Of course, Kubrick fans need it the most.

But what the book also speaks to, beyond Kubrick's compulsive fascination with technical accuracy in film, is how the effort in making this movie addressed our ambitions and fascinations in the 1960s. In a time where old social conventions were breaking down, right and left, 2001 spoke to a new optimism created by space exploration and its seemingly limitless potential.

"Capturing the imagination." Good movies achieve that goal, don't they? In this case, a fanatical dedication to research, and to placing on film the most accurate and, in a weird way, understated views of a human future in space, creating something really new in moviegoing experience.

In its time, that effort became quickly subsumed by two divergent audiences: people who wanted to enhance their drug experiences with visuals, and people who wanted to be in space. Of course, these audiences made the movie very, very successful.

Today, we have left this movie's technical accomplishments in the dust. We can depict space travel and its related phenomena (like weightlessness) in a relatively effortless way. Film special effects pour out, today, in ways not imagined in 1967. You could read this book as a quaint history tract in movemaking technics.

I read it beyond that, though. It spoke to the excitement and optimism with which many of us viewed our future. We ate this stuff up; we could sit through two reels of a spacecraft docking and think the time just flew by...

How do we feel about the future today? It is now highly unfashiomable to label yourself a "futurist" any more. It seems our future is all behind us now.

Thank God these things run in predictable cycles. Collective optimism about our future in space is just around the corner. I hope I live long enough to see and enjoy it...

A behind the scenes once removed.......2005-09-01

I found Piers Bizony's book fascinating and I'm continually amazed at the work this film achieved for its day (and today in many respects). It defined the genre. It's filled with great stills, diagrams, and behind-the-scenes photography of the filmmaking process.

However, if you're looking for a book that gives you an inside peek on the filmmaker and his decision making process for the story (or authentic insight on the story itself), you'll be disappointed. 2001 is a complex storyline with metaphore upon metaphore and the Bizony never seems to achieve a 'true' account by Kubrick on the film's meaning. It's more guessing, speculation, and hypothesis that add to the voices weighing in regarding this important film. I suppose in some respects, it adds the mystery and weight of story... and will remain that way with the passing of Kubrick in 2000.

A must -have book for 2001 fans.......2005-08-02

A terrific book, full of spectacular photos and diagrams,
and including an entertaining and informative text. First class!

Highly recommended! .......2005-07-13

Very few movies of the late twentieth century stand up to the test of time in the way of 2001: A Space Odyssey. This book tells the inside story of how this ground breaking film was made, and how it changed the outlook of a generation.

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Spartacus: Film and History

Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1405131810

Book Description

Stanley Kubrick 's epic film Spartacus has enjoyed iconic status in cinema history and strongly influenced modern perspectives on ancient Rome. This book examines the film from different historical, political, and cinematic perspectives. The chief ancient sources on the slave revolt led by Spartacus are included in translation. Contributors explore the film 's representation of history, the political climate at the time of its making, the history of its production, censorship, and restoration, its place in film history, and its enduring appeal. For the first time, the book offers suggestions for a new version of the film that comes even closer to the filmmakers ' original intent than the restoration currently available.

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Enigma
A Suetonian Biography!
Enjoyable read for non-expert movie lovers.
A look at the man, not the movies
Readable, enjoyable--not terribly deep

Stanley Kubrick: A Biography
John Baxter
Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0786704853

Customer Reviews:

Enigma.......2004-06-28

Stanley Kubrick was an enigma of a man. Because of the secrecy that shrouded his life, there is much that fans of his work may never know. John Baxter's work is gives insight mostly into Kubrick's films and their creation.

Baxter's first two chapters seem irrelevant and tedious in the scope of the book. They only serve to allow Baxter to praise Kubrick's work. After these chapters, we are introduced to Stanley's growth and development in films. Kubrick's early films which he thought were bad in hindsight, show his growth and experimentation. Going through his other films, I found the chapters which discussed "A Clockwork Orange" and "2001" to be the best presented. This is adventageous because these are his best loved films.

I believe that it was merciful for "Eyes Wide Shut" to be given so little coverage since Kubrick never truly was able to put his final stamp on the film. He tinkered with work often up until days before its release. Aside from his horrid choice of actors, his death left this work unfinished.

Kubrick's idiosincrisies, including his fear of cars, flying, and distrust for machines, are discussed in the book. While they may seem irrevelant, these discussions help us to know who Kubrick was. The discussions are no more irrelevant than some sections of the book which talk about events regarding his movies that have little to do with the overall picture. Also, I felt it was unnecessary to go into discussion of every script he rejected. Some ideas he rejected to quickly to be important enough to mention.

I was grateful that Baxter mentioned "Artificial Intelligence", being developed by Kubrick. Fans are curious as to how his final script may have looked. I am certain that it would have been better than Speilberg's.

A Suetonian Biography!.......2002-09-22

Uncompromising to Stanley Kubrick, STANLEY KUBRICK: A BIOGRAPHY (c.1997) by John Baxter, is a first order inquiry which took the Suetonian view towards biography and depicted its subject as a gelid autuer director motivated by an obsessive/compulsive need to control his environment in order to materialize his artistic vision on film. John Baxter focused on the opinions, observations, and views of those who worked for Stanley Kubrick; and also those who claimed to have been alienated by him.

Apparently following the advice of former British prime minister Lloyd George when that prime minister stated: "All biographies should be written by an acute enemy", John Baxter picked up on every error, mistake, and indecision of Stanley Kubrick in the course of his career. This gave Stanley Kubrick a historical perspective which included a somewhat realistic account of the man behind some of America's most influential motion pictures ever produced.

Yet biography is not history and John Baxter's work contained some obvious logical and historic errors as when he included a photograph indicating actress Ms. Suzanne Christiane as Kubrick's future second wife; or in his bibliography giving Vincent LoBrutto's book of Kubrick a copyright of 1996 - yet in Lobrutto's work, the T.P. verso indicated 1997 as the copyright.

Kubrick's intelligence, or motive, was also brought into question by John Baxter as he included in his book an explanation of Kubrick's compulsive notetaking by erudite British actress Ms. Adrienne Corri that "All this notetaking is just a way of accumulating what other people know" and also, "He (Kubrick) was not an intelligent or a curious man". But one need only to have seen in 1968 the premeire of '2001: A Space Odyssey' in 'Cinerama' (with the wrap-around screen) to be convinced that there was a brilliance behind its direction. But Baxter alluded to brilliance only in the sense of a Bobby Fischer or of a Thomas Edison - that is, brilliant in a limited and focused capacity.

While John Baxter's bibliography on Stanley Kubrick included some obvious short-comings to the careful reader, it also contained some undeniable eyewitness observations of the subject's character.

A good book to read in accompany with John Baxter's view is: 'STANLEY KUBRICK: A Biography'(c.1997) by Vincent LoBrutto, which gives a kinder Plutarchian view of its subject. It would be advantageous to also read: 'STANLEY KUBRICK: A Life In Pictures' (c. 2002) by Mrs. Suzanne Kubrick, with her objective collection of mostly black & white Kubrick photographs, mostly shot in his studios.

With new information appearing all the time, the definitive biography on Stanley Kubrick has yet to be written (there are 400 biographies on Mahatma Ghandi) and both John Baxter and Vincent LoBrutto's account are good starting points on the life of Stanley Kubrick.

Enjoyable read for non-expert movie lovers........2001-09-05

Helps you realize why you love Kubrick, if you can read between the lines and if you don't get fixated on the tales of Kubrickophobism. While entertaining, they are not all that the book is about. The author does not present Kubricks work in 5-syllable Aestheto-socio-philosophical terms, nor does he fuss about the geometrical aspects of panning and scanning, yet he encourages you to re-visit Kubrick, and multiply your viewing experince!

Not a text book, for sure!

A look at the man, not the movies.......2001-07-27

Not being a Kubrick fundi and not knowing all that much about the man behind the (enormous) myth, I found this book readable and interesting. I have to agree that it does not contain much in the way of analysis of Kubrick's movies, but that is probably not what the author had set out to do. It would have been a colossal and much less accessible work had he dealt at length with each of the movies.

What I cannot understand is the reaction of some of the reviewers, saying that the author was intent on crucifying Kubrick. That was certainly not my impression when I read the book, but then I do not regard Kubrick as per se a wonderful person becasue he made acclaimed movies. He comes across as a much warmer and more human person than I expected, give his reclusive lifestyle, but also as someone who had some flaws, like an inability to start and finish projects. And that is also what was said about him after his death, so I think Baxter is maybe not that far off the mark in his portrayal.

Readable, enjoyable--not terribly deep.......1999-07-30

I found Baxter's book an enjoyable read, lively and somewhat informative, though apparently not the work of awesome scholarship that Lubrutto's book is. I haven't read that tome yet, but will soon, fascinated as I am by all things Kubrick. I didn't have the reaction that others have had concerning Baxter's feelings toward Kubrick. As far as I could tell, he seemed to have an appropriate level of respect. Baxter is obviously not a film scholar or someone too well versed in the technical side of filmmaking, but he keeps the book moving along briskly. This certainly a good start-up for someone new to Kubrick's films.

Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (ScreenPress Film Screenplays)

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Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (ScreenPress Film Screenplays)
Stanley Kubrick , and Anthony Burgess
Manufacturer: ScreenPress Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1901680479

Book Description

The screenplay for Stanley Kubrick’s disturbing and exhilarating masterpiece, featuring 800 film stills chosen by the director.

This unique illustrated screenplay features 800 still images from “A Clockwork Orange,” selected by Stanley Kubrick when the film was first released in 1971. As Kubrick comments in his introduction: “I have always wondered if there might be a more meaningful way to present a book about a film. To make, as it were, a complete graphic representation of the film, cut by cut, with the dialogue printed in the proper place in relation to the cuts, so that within the limits of still photos and words, an accurate (and I hope interesting) record of a film might be available… This book represents that attempt.”

Customer Reviews:

Nice piece of Information!.......2004-01-01

This book is not a very orthodox look at kubrick's work,but you will have a nice read about his career early stage as a photographer.
The author talks about how Kubrick made it all the way up to be one of the greatest (or the gratest?)filmakers ever,and also talks about each of his films with some interesting details and stories of the director,so give it a shot...you'll enjoy it!

Kubrick's career, in pictures.......2003-12-14

This is a book-length essay on the films of Stanley Kubrick, accompanied by an enormous number of beautiful photographs. Most of the photos are stills from the films (as you might expect), but there are also quite a few shots of Kubrick at work. The examples of his work for Look magazine and stills from his first two movies are a nice touch.

The essay covers familiar ground for those who know his career: Growing up in New York playing chess and composing photographic essays, the early noir films, and then the classics: Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, 2001, The Shining, etc. The entire body of work is covered, including Eyes Wide Shut. The final pages feature promotional posters for half of the films and an extensive bibliography of books and articles for further reading.

Amazon.com

Hurriedly published to coincide with the July 1999 release of Stanley Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut, this slim, rather obviously titled volume by the film's distinguished screenwriter offers considerably less than its cover copy leads you to expect. But for avid followers of Kubrick's career, even a cursory glimpse of the late director's lifestyle and creative methods will prove to be fascinating. And while Frederic Raphael instantly drew criticism and controversy from Kubrick's family and friends for describing Kubrick as "the sedentary wandering Jew, rootlessly rooted within his own defenses," this and other remarks must be considered in context. Eyes Wide Open must ultimately be seen to reflect Raphael's conflicting emotions about a filmmaker he clearly admires and respects, even if their collaboration resulted in equal parts elation, exasperation, and hard-won rewards.

Using notebook entries, vivid recollection, and re-created scenes in screenplay format, Raphael paints a portrait as revealing of himself (if not more so) than of Kubrick, and neither man comes across without blemish. Simultaneously self-indulgent, frustrating, and fascinating in its attempt to probe Kubrick's closely guarded psyche (a mission Raphael ultimately fails to accomplish), the book finally reveals--in fragments of sensitive insight--that Kubrick's reputation as a reclusive genius did in fact hide a very complex, intensely intelligent, and surprisingly human being. In one passage Raphael observes that "Stanley was so determined to be aloof and unfeeling that my heart went out to him. Somewhere along the line he was still the kid in the playground who had been no one's first choice to play with." Whether such observations are an accurate representation of Kubrick's personality is beside the point; that Raphael made the observation speaks volumes of both men, and this book is filled with similar revelations.

In addition to offering a privileged look at Kubrick's collaborative process, the book also reveals elusive details about Kubrick the man--pet lover, intellectual challenger, gracious host--and the result is a warmer image of him than that afforded by decades of distant speculation by journalists too willing to perpetuate the "myth" of Kubrick as omnipotent genius. If Raphael's book invites criticism and charges of blatant opportunism (with Kubrick unable to defend himself), it also provides a rare and often fascinating look at an artist who constantly eluded the gaze of outsiders. Raphael takes us inside Kubrick's gated domain, and we're grateful for the visit. If the truth resides somewhere between the protest of Kubrick's family and the insights presented here, we can at least use this book as a guide through previously uncharted territory. --Jeff Shannon

Book Description

We've all heard the rumors.

He was a hermit. He refused to fly and wouldn't be driven at more than thirty miles an hour. He avoided having his picture taken and was terrified of being assassinated. As a filmmaker, he was obsessed with perfection. He insisted on total control of every facet of the process. Simple scenes required one hundred takes. No wonder he made only six movies in the past thirty-five years.

But what was he really like?

For more than two years, Frederic Raphael collaborated closely with Stanley Kubrick on the screenplay of what was to be the director's final movie, Eyes Wide Shut. Over time, as his professional caution was replaced by a certain affection, Kubrick lowered his guard for Raphael as he never had with journalists or biographers, to reveal much about his early life in the cinema and of the reverses and humiliations he had to endure. They spoke for hours about a variety of subjects, from Julius Caesar to the Holocaust, from Kubrick's views about other directors to reminiscences of the many stars with whom both men had worked (or nearly worked)--Kirk Douglas, Audrey Hepburn, James Mason, Peter Sellers, Marisa Berenson, Sterling Hayden, Marlon Brando, and Gregory Peck.

Here, with his own distinctly cinematic style, Raphael chronicles their often fiery exchanges, capturing Kubrick's voice as no one else could. Disdaining false veneration, he opens our eyes to the mind and art of a truly complex and hitherto elusive twentieth-century genius.

Customer Reviews:

The sad face of envy and the sick power of projection........2007-02-15

While it purports to be a memoir of Stanley Kubrick, this book is most effective in revealing the degree to which a person can grow older without ever growing up. Raphael's neuroses are myriad and are made all the more pathetic by his own willful projection of them onto Mr. Kubrick. Having seen Eyes Wide Shut again, now years after the hype has died away, I have come to believe that Raphael was picked to write the script because of his own old-boy dumbass ideas of the way things are and always shall be. If the film is about that peculiarly American aversion to and obsession with sex, that senseless jealousy that can ruin lives, then Raphael was absolutely the right person to write the script. He judges Kubrick harshly for not appreciating every little passive-aggressive gift he offers all the while referring to prostitutes as "whores" and whinging about the amount of work that's required of him. Raphael hopes that Kubrick will just open his eyes and recognize what a genius he is. He feels continually misunderstood, ironically because it seems to me that Kubrick understood him perfectly. The book remains interesting mostly as a chronicle of someone who just doesn't get the great joke being played on him. It would be sad for the same reason of Kubrick were still alive, but in that case it wouldn't have been published. Raphael is a ghoul who offered up his story because he knew it would be rushed into print because its subject was dead and no more "memoirs" would be forthcoming. Bah.

Gratifying to read the negativity of most of these reviews........2005-12-14

I just happened to wander onto this site for Raphael's book. It is very gratifying to learn that the majority of your reviewers concur with the Kubrick family's response to this pretentious tome. Raphael never misses an opportunity to claim his intellectual superiority to Kubrick, in a way that he would not have dared had Kubrick lived to see his last film released. He is a grave - robber in short and roundly despised for his action in writing and publishing this book which greatly shocked and dissapointed Kubrick's family. Happily there have been many better books written about Kubrick in the intervening years. Except as a revealing but turgid study of an artist's ego, [ guess who I am talking about] this book has nothing that is interesting to say, nothing that is true at least. Jonathan Finney [family member, so not utterly disinterersted]

A rare but shameless look into the great director.......2003-10-09

Despite that Frederic Raphael wrote this to cash in on the opening of Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick's final (and some believe unfinished) film, it's still a guilty pleasure since it affords a point of view absent from the legion of Kubrick books that appeared before and after the director's death.

Maybe it's a sign of respect for the working relationship that some of Kubrick's other collaborators had that they never went ahead and told all, but in the end this book will attract the Kubrick fan who isn't always willing to accept the man as omnipotent myth maker. Eyes Wide Open does become as much about Raphael as Kubrick (if not more) but it still works to paint Kubrick as human, something that reams of analysis, criticism and speculation consistently fail to highlight.

Rather than fawning on Kubrick over the slim length of the book, Raphael continually reminds all that HE himself is an intellectual, blah blah blah, and the tone becomes hard to bear. It's not particularly cohesive or earth shattering, and the conversations that appear in transcript-like form work to put words in the director's mouth. However, it's still valuable in that it offers a rare glimpse into working with the elusive Kubrick. I would take this with a grain of salt, and Kubrick's family did not appreciate this effort in the least, denouncing it on their website.

It may still be of interest to people who want an inside view (albeit skewed) that the many tomes dedicated to breaking down Kubrick's small but mighty canon of films don't bring to the table.

But be warned: with Kubrick gone, it's Raphael who tries to get in the last word...

Is Frederic Raphael always this high and mighty?.......2003-08-08

Eyes Wide Open was a suprisingly quick read. There is not much to speak of in these memoirs since Frederic Raphael mostly talked on the phone with Stanley Kubrick and communicated with faxes. I would have expected perhaps some stories from the set of Eyes Wide Shut, but I was very, very wrong.

The book is mostly about how Raphael had to put up with odd requests and deadlines from Kubrick whilst writing the screenplay for Eyes Wide Shut. The most eventful part of the book is when he meets the famed director for the first time at his secluded England home. Aside from that, Raphael talks about all of the faxing they did back and forth.

But the thing that bugs me the most is Raphael's tone. He never wants the reader to forget that he is the intellectual giant in this creative duo and that we can all go and read his other stuff if we ever doubted such a thing.

For instance, I recall a passage in which the topic of Full Metal Jacket, Kubrick's 1987 picture about Vietnam, came up in a phone conversation between the two men. 'You've seen the movie, right Freddie?' Kubrick would ask him. 'Yes', Raphael replied. He also managed to inject a comment to Kubrick that because the movie unfolded in an unlinear fashion, that Aristotle would have hated watching it.

Who cares what Aristotle would have thought of Full Metal Jacket?

Well worth reading. Critics did too!.......2003-06-08

Frederic Raphael's "memoir [emphasis here]" of the final years of Stanley Kubrick's life while making `Eyes Wide Shut' either flies bluntly as a work of half-lies or is the single most important book ever written on Stanley Kubrick. If you have read anything about Kubrick then you have probably learned that he lived the life of a film-making hermit in one of England's largest estates where he barricading himself off from the rest of the world. Apparently, Stanley liked to use the phone a lot when talking to people and remained much to himself and family except for when it came to shoot, and that is another story entirely and what seems to be another different person described in many other limited biographies of the man himself.

If you trust Frederic Raphael then you can be rest assured that this book will reveal more to you about the mind of Kubrick than any other piece of literature that you can find on the topic. I have read endless books on this highly overrated director and each one of them does a good biography job but leaves the reader none the less wiser as to Kubrick's motivations and intentions. The director rarely, if ever, did interviews that lasted over a minute. He once worked for the press as a photographer but since then closed himself off entirely to that side of the universe. As one of the world's most celebrated film makers he certainly is an oddity... but that is something he seems to semi-enjoy.

Frederic's coverage is not as illusive as some may have you think. It does have its many moments and there are many indicators as to what makes Kubrick tick. Kubrick appears to be one of the most avid researchers you can find with a lot of time and patients on his hands. A man who likes to think about how other people think. A man who appears to like to study other people and their motives. There is something about his interest in the writer, Raphael, who while penning Eyes Wide Shut seemed to notice that Stanley had more of an interest in him than the material itself and this is why the book sheds more light on Kubrick than anything else you will probably find out there.

Raphael's conversations with Kubrick are done in film screenplay style and this will bolster approval from most readers of film making material for its inventiveness. There is much more to this book than first meets the eye and it certainly does merit a second reading. However Raphael sometimes interjects little moments of tabloid technique which only seem to reduce the overall integrity of the book. One example is where Raphael so easily states that he should be present on set when Kidman gets her kit off. It comes out of nowhere and seems a little dab exploitive of the director given the fact that he seems to resent talking about other people's private matters or his own life. Maybe he said it for a laugh but then again it is hard to imagine that this guy would giggle at such a thing while at the same time demanding straight-faced for material on Roman orgies.

Another thing which makes this book worthwhile is that most writers and crew members who worked on Eyes Wide Shut had to sign a contract which included a section on non-disclosure. This was omitted from Raphael's contract so he was set loose to scribe as he pleased while Warner Brother execs probably tore their hair out and fired a whole staff of legal employees for their mistake. Read it while you can. Stuff like this is a rare opportunity indeed!

By the way, Raphael never did get to go on set and this is not a biography about Kubrick. Raphael has been knuckle-wrapped for exploiting the man, in a manner which seems to make him out to know more than Kubrick. There is some truth to that. There is also truth in the matter that he released this just after Kubrick's death to make a buck. However there is something in this book which makes it more truthful than most would care to admit. There is plenty of material here which you can cross-reference with Arthur C. Clarke's revelations about his collaboration with the man on 2001 and much of Kubrick's methodology seems to fit there as it does here. And for die hard Kubrick fans who think that the director was such a lovely person who didn`t deserve this - one need only to refer to the way he treated people on set, not to mention his highly overrated rape of Steven King's The Shining, while at the same time pulling the mickey out of American`s with Dr. Strangelove. If the man could give a little then surely he could also take a little!

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Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey: New Essays

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Kubrick's "2001"

ASIN: 0195174534

Book Description

Almost all students have seen 2001, but virtually none understand its inheritance, its complexities, and certainly not its ironies. The essays in this collection, commissioned from a wide variety of scholars, examine in detail various possible readings of the film and its historical context. They also examine the film as a genre piece--as the summa of science fiction that simultaneously looks back on the science fiction conventions of the past (Kubrick began thinking of making a science fiction film during the genre's heyday in the fifties), rethinks the convention in light of the time of the film's creation, and in turn changes the look and meaning of the genre that it revived--which now remains as prominent as it was almost four decades ago. Constructed out of its director's particular intellectual curiosity, his visual style, and his particular notions of the place of human agency in the world and, in this case, the universe, 2001 is, like all of his films, more than it appears, and it keeps revealing more the more it is seen. Though their backgrounds and disciplines differ, the authors of this essay collection are united by a talent for vigorous yet incisive writing that cleaves closely to the text--to the film itself, with its contextual and intrinsic complexities--granting readers privileged access to Kubrick's formidable, intricate classic work of science fiction.

The Kubrick Facade: Faces and Voices in the Films of Stanley Kubrick

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The Kubrick Facade: Faces and Voices in the Films of Stanley Kubrick
Jason- Sperb
Manufacturer: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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