Unfortunately, the book is inadequate as an introduction to Kubrick's films, and is too superficial for anyone with prior knowledge of the director's work. Kubrick's five years as a photojournalist are summarised in a single paragraph, while trivial details (a wine bottle in Lolita; numerology in The Shining) are given un-necessary prominence. Krohn's analysis - mostly Freudian - is limited, and, even ten years after Eyes Wide Shut's release, Krohn refuses to engage with it, concluding simply that "its mystery remains".
Most of the book's illustrations are overly familiar publicity stills; the cover and frontispiece images are awful. Considering that the book is barely 100 pages long, it has too many full-page photos, and its half-page profile of Peter Sellers is both incongruous and superfluous. The short bibliography omits some significant texts. Paul Duncan's book Stanley Kubrick, published by Taschen, is a far superior concise introduction to the director's career.
2 comment(s):
I read the Italian version and unfortunately it is a very poor essay. The text is filled with factual errors and Krohn's interpretations and ideas about Kubrick's films are quite superfluous. The more recent the film is, the worse: until Paths of Glory it is readable with some interest, then it becomes a bore and in some point just silly.
I agree. His book Hitchcock At Work was excellent, but this is very poor. Now that the book has actually arrived, I've expanded the blog entry above.
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