Review by Booklist Review
The University Press of Mississippi's Conversations with Filmmakers series is noteworthy, and, as its general editor, Peter Brunette, continues to acquire titles, it grows closer to being comprehensive. In 2000, the press published Robert Altman and Bernardo Bertolucci interviews. As for the books' similarities, the subjects of the director interviews are, if not auteurs, filmmakers; also, each book's interviews are preceded by an introduction by its particular editor, followed by a chronology, and then a filmography. Huston, who died in 1987, led a very sociable life and, like Stone, made his mark in film initially as a screenwriter. The first piece in his collection is an article by Karel Reisz, which appeared in Sight and Sound in 1952. At that time, Huston had already directed The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Asphalt Jungle, and The African Queen. This narrative "interview" catches Huston at a time when his star is well on the rise. The last interview is by Lawrence Grobel in Playboy, when Huston was suffering from terminal emphysema and living in Las Carletas, Mexico, a remote place, then accessible only by boat, in 1985. Huston would direct one more film, The Dead, based on a story in James Joyce's Dubliners. Stone started his career in film as a screenwriter and has since then had major accomplishments as both director and producer. His work is known for being provocative, and many of the interviews concern the controversies surrounding such films as JFK. No matter his outlaw status, he has racked up two director Oscars, for Platoon (1987) and Born on the Fourth of July (1991) and one for his Midnight Express (1978) script. So much for so-called controversy. The interviews and articles here have appeared in such publications as Sight and Sound, American Cinematographer, Entertainment Weekly, Positif, and Film Comment. Kubrick, the American who made his home in London, England, to create films without influence from Hollywood, had expertise in cinematography unlike Stone and Huston. On many of his films, he operated the camera in some scenes. His concern with the visual aspects of filmmaking is apparent from such works as A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Barry Lyndon. But all three directors could operate in multiple filmmaking roles, hence the label auteur; and Kubrick personifies the label, though he never won an Oscar. Some of the interesting pieces include Colin Young's article in Film Quarterly in 1959, a piece from the book The Movie Makers (1973), and the last interview by Tim Cahill in Rolling Stone in 1987. --Bonnie Smothers
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Behind the Velvet Rope Few directors have been as zealously protective of their privacy as Stanley Kubrick, which makes the first comprehensive collection of his interviews a rare glimpse of his own views of his life and work. For Stanley Kubrick: Interviews, editor Gene D. Phillips has tracked down pieces from 1959 to 1987, yielding an overview of the arc of Kubrick's approach to filmmaking. Surprisingly affable, Kubrick discusses everything from religion to nuclear energy and money. "It's a lot of trouble making a picture," says Kubrick at one point. "It can be very boring." (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
