Page 16 - TheGoldBug1972-73

Books about film directors are something new. There are several reasons for this. First, publishers 'like books to have a ootenttal audience.' Until directors' roles in films. The mass public (and, evidently, many HollywoodPRmen) saw movies in terms of "stars," and the people who perceptively evaluated the contribution of directors were relatively few in number. Only recently, with the rest of the upsurge in interest in filmmaking, have directors come into the foreground as shapers of ~~~~;i1a:\~~~~I~~~~rOlr:~r~~:t~~~r~~~lt~6;~~: what one writer sourly dibbed the cult of "director as superstar." Somewhere in the middle, one feels, there should be a happy medium of cool, analytical criticism and analysis of various directors and their work. Some writers have begun to do this. The recent release of "Clockwork Orange" was apparently the last stimulus necessary to hasten the release of books about Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick, a native of New York, has been making films since he was twenty-one, when he quit a promising job at Look magazine to make a short phctojournalistic film about boxing. Since then, he WHEN consistently set his sights higher; his films include "Path of Glory" (957), "Spartacus" (960), "Dr. and "2001: A Space Odyssey" Strangelove" (963), YOU (}~~. books have come out within the last se~eral months, and they make an interesting contrast. KNOW Both purport to study Kubrick and his filmic methods. One is visually rather plain, relying on written while the other is smartly discussion, IT'S FOR designed and lavishly illustrated. the Film is a visual medium, but paradoxically, more pictorial book is the less informative of the two. Stanley Kubrick Directs, by Alexander Walker KEEPS. Glarcort Brace Jovanovich, Inc., $8.95) is labeled and visual it is. on the cover "a visual analysis," There is page after page of selected stills from most of Kubrick's films. Most of these are not the usual love. photos taken from a different viewpoint than the captured forever movie camera's and thus useless for analysis, but in the beautiful actual frames from the films. Aided by captions, brilliance of the reader can review each film as if seeing it summarized on a small screen. Unfortunately, the text by "one of the younger British film critics," is less informative. Largely, it is a rehash of what the pictures already tell us. There is analysis, but not the searching kind one StanleyK ubrick and (above) the expects, especially when the book's title suggests of his imaqination : Alex and his closeups of Kubrick in action on the set. "Clockwork Orange." Notice, too, that the facts about the photos in the detailed resumes of all of Kubrick's above paragraph are for "most'of them. The author first feature-length one ("Fear apparently dismisses Kubrick's first several films which only one print has . . as unworthy of complete photo treatments; thus, two films, both of them crime thrillers one cannot see for oneself the development of his Kiss" and "The Killing") are also given early style. There are no actual frames from treatment, There are only one or two "Clockwork Orange;" the book was apparently selected (Pft-type) stills for each film, rushed to press just before that film's release. The keeping with the evident purpose of the section on "2001" is a mishmash of familiar PR featuring: t;e Cinerama frames. approvingly over-analyze, be it admitted, onomatopoeic sound vestigation beyond the obvious, not repetition those that (including shots in Life appeared known. The stills serve as reference points magazine) copies of and out-of-focus, distorted they do not steal the show. , E.:a Kagan has the correct critical distance . The book's biggest 'fault, though, is the author's 1\ a minor predilection to rendering tendency ~~~l ... camera carried by for instance, is "an example wave follows· ! ! !! !!. .. !c.]" ("...br-illiantly conceived and executed ...perfect Strangelove": ...the screen whites out. The excessive ...") The spy proportions ...NothingTis Russian ambassador the BBRRROOOOOOOOOO in "Dr. Strangelove", OOOOOOOOMMMMMMM! Virginia. Eighteen O's, seven M's and of what he is examining. " ..."Show" magazine put it kindly: the ap- . -, of Kubrick's attentionfo detail and the mechanics clamation pcints.) to lack Walker seems "Mr. The most interesting feature of the Donuts,.Fanc y pastr.ies.. proprtate critical distance from his subject. There on a quote by Jean Renoir (son of Ice Cream Cones. . isatouchofthesycophantinth~prose." 1-' director himself): "A director Coffee . . ~ - By comparison, The Cinem-cr Stanley Kubrick, making one film." 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