Kubrick's Total Cinema Philosophical Themes and Formal Qualities [Hardcover]

Whatever people think about Kubrick's work, most would agree that there is something distinctive, even unique, about the films he made: a coolness, an intellectual clarity, a critical edginess, and finally an intractable ambiguity. In an attempt to isolate the Kubrick difference, this book treats Kubrick's films to a conceptual and formal analysis rather than a biographical and chronological survey.

As Kubrick's cinema moves between the possibilities of human transcendence dramatized in 2001: A Space Odyssey and the dismal limitations of human nature exhibited in A Clockwork Orange, the filmmaker's style de-realizes cinematic realism while, paradoxically, achieving an unprecedented frankness of vision and documentary and technical richness. The result is a kind of vertigo: the audience is made aware of both the de-realized and the realized nature of cinema. As opposed to the usual studies providing a summary and commentary of individual films, this will be the first to provide an analysis of the elements of Kubrick's total cinema.

An original study of Kubrick's philosophical themes and cinematic qualities: time, light, speech, music, poiesis, corporeality, war, eros, technology, and transcendence.

Chapter One: ThinkingChapter Two: CorporealityChapter Three: TimeChapter Four: WarChapter Five: LightChapter Six: ErosChapter Seven: MusicChapter Eight: TechnologyChapter Nine: SpeechChapter Ten: PoiesisChapter Eleven: Transcendence