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Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker
Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker
By David Mikics
Published August 18, 2020
248 pages
“A joy to read” —Molly Haskell, author of Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films
An engrossing biography of one of the most influential filmmakers in cinematic history
Kubrick grew up in the Bronx, a doctor’s son. From a young age he was consumed by photography, chess, and, above all else, movies. He was a self-taught filmmaker and self-proclaimed outsider, and his films exist in a unique world of their own outside the Hollywood mainstream. Kubrick’s Jewishness played a crucial role in his idea of himself as an outsider. Obsessed with rebellion against authority, war, and male violence, Kubrick was himself a calm, coolly masterful creator and a talkative, ever-curious polymath immersed in friends and family.
Drawing on interviews and new archival material, Mikics for the first time explores the personal side of Kubrick’s films.
About the Author
David Mikics is Moores Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Houston, as well as a columnist for Tablet magazine. His most recent books are Bellow’s People and Slow Reading in a Hurried Age.
Author photograph © Judah S. Harris
Reviews
"A cool, cerebral book about a cool, cerebral talent…A brisk study of his films, with enough of the life tucked in to add context as well as brightness and bite." —The New York Times
"Sharp and sensitive. . .Mikics gives us this Kubrick in entertaining detail.” —The New York Review of Books
“A joy to read…elegant and penetrating as both biography and film criticism. Mikics offers such persuasive arguments for the individual movies that I found myself continually rethinking them.” —Molly Haskell, author of Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films
"Kubrick fans will enjoy this brisk but thorough biography of a consummate filmmaker." —Publishers Weekly
"An engaging and well-researched primer to the work of a cinematic legend." —Library Journal
