Synopses & Reviews
Stanley Kubrick ranks among the most important American film makers of his generation, but his work is often misunderstood because it is widely diverse in subject matter and seems to lack thematic and tonal consistency. Thomas Nelson's perceptive and comprehensive study of Kubrick rescues him from the hostility of auteurist critics and discovers the roots of a Kubrickian aesthetic, which Nelson defines as the "aesthetics of contingency."
After analyzing how this aesthetic develops and manifests itself in the early works, Nelson devotes individual chapters to Lolita, Dr. Stangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, and The Shining.
For this expanded edition, Nelson has added chapters on Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut, and, in the wake of the director's death, reconsidered his body of work as a whole. By placing Kubrick in a historical and theoretical context, this study is a reliable guide into--and out of--Stanley Kubrick's cinematic maze.
Description
Includes filmography (p. [299]-306), bibliographical references (p. [307]-328), and index.
About the Author
Thomas Allen Nelson is Professor of English at San Diego State University and author of Shakespeare's Comic Theory.
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface to the Second Edition
1 Kubrick and the Aesthetics of Contingency: The Shaping of a Film Imagination
2 In The Beginning: From Fear and Desire to Paths of Glory
3 Lolita: Kubrick in Nabokovland
4 Dr. Strangelove: The Descent of Man
5 2001: A Space Odyssey: The Ultimate Cinematic Universe
6 A Clockwork Orange: The Performing Artist
7 Barry Lyndon: A Time Odyssey
8 The Shining: Remembrance of Things Forgotten
9 10 11 Postscript
Filmography
Selected Bibliography
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index