Author and Cinema Retro columnist Raymond Benson takes a look at two new books about a master filmmaker:
The Kubrick
Façade—Faces and Voices in the Films of Stanley
Kubrick by Jason Sperb (Scarecrow
Press, Inc.)
The Philosophy of
Stanley Kubrick edited by Jerold J. Abrams (The University Press of
Kentucky)
Stanley Kubrick has always been one
of those film directors who is often the subject of serious, scholarly
study. The reasons are simple enough—the
late artist’s work belongs in that rare category of Hollywood-produced popular “art
films,†made outside of the Hollywood system, that attracted spirited debates
among critics and audiences alike. No
one Kubrick film ever received unanimously positive (or negative) reviews; no
Kubrick film could be called a true financial “blockbuster†(but none were
considered “bombs†either); and no Kubrick film elicits the same reactions from
collective audience members. More books
have been written about the work of Stanley Kubrick than any other filmmaker
except, perhaps, Alfred Hitchcock. Two
more tomes hit the shelves this year and both are again serious, scholarly
studies published by non-mainstream, academic presses.Â