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Kubrick At Large

THE STANLEY KUBRICK ARCHIVES

Alison Castle, editor
(Taschen)
(purchase this book)

Film books come in all shapes and sizes. There are ones small enough to get into a wallet. However, with the new Taschen book on the legendary film director Stanley Kubrick, one is asking for trouble, since it's a coffee table book, one that has to fit on a large coffee table. But it's not the size that's attractive (and it is huge--16.2 x 11.8 in. at 544 pages), it was editor Alison Castle's approach to its subject that was fascinating.

Boasting over 300 pages of pictures and text (many photos Kubrick took during his stint at Look Magazine and on several of his films' location), this volume comes complete with a 70mm strip from "2001 A Space Odyssey" as well as a CD interview with Kubrick, done in 1966 by Jeremy Bernstein, which documents Kubrick's love for cinema and chess. "The Kubrick Archives" will surely attract any Kubrick fan--even at a retail price of $200.

Special features include: A Part 1 with 800 film stills scanned directly from the original prints and interpositives. ?A Part 2 that presents about 800 items from the archives, most of which have never been published before.

There are essays by Kubrick scholars Gene D. Phillips, Michel Ciment, and Rodney Hill and selected articles and essays, including interviews with and essays by Kubrick himself. There is an illustrated Kubrick chronology and an audio CD featuring the 70-minute 1966 interview by Bernstein.

And as a bonus, the first print run includes a 12-frame film strip from a 70mm print of "2001: A Space Odyssey" owned by Stanley Kubrick (that block may have already sold out).

Interview with Alison Castle

In the following Q&A, Castle explains why she wanted to do a book that Santa would have a hard time bringing down the chimney.

Q: What a definitive book. When did you get the idea to do a book of this magnitude?

AC: Actually, the Kubrick family contacted Taschen because they wanted to make a book about Kubrick's unmade film, "Napoleon." Benedikt Taschen liked the idea, but suggested making a big book about Kubrick first. Happily, they agreed. Once I had taken stock of everything that was in the archives, it was clear that we needed to make a huge book to do them justice, and to honor Kubrick's legendary career. Now that the Archives book is published, I'm working on the Napoleon book.

The book is steeply priced; did you take into that consideration because this book would be very expensive to put together?

AC: The price of the book depends on lots of factors, especially the cost of production. It's very expensive to produce a book like this one, hence the price.

Q: Did you consider anyone else as the basis for this kind of book?

AC: We didn't set out to make a big book about a director--the project developed from our cooperation with the Kubrick family.

Q: Speaking of "Napoleon," has there been any other filmmaker that could bring Kubrick's idea to the screen?

AC: Not to my knowledge. I imagine it would take a lot of audacity to try to step into Kubrick's shoes, and suffer the inevitable comparisons.

Q: From your research was Kubrick everything you thought him to be before you began this book?

AC: Certainly I learned a lot about Kubrick the man, in addition to Kubrick the artist. After hearing countless stories about Stanley from his family and entourage, seeing the spaces where he lived and worked, and sifting through his archives, I was able to form a very rich and lively picture of what kind of person he was. I learned about things I hadn't imagined before, such as how he worked (his rigorous but not altogether orthodox approach), what kind of sense of humor he had (sharp and dry), or how much he loved animals. Piecing all the bits together I found that I admired him even more than I had before starting the project.

Q: How long did it take for you to put all of this together?

AC: From my first visit to the Kubrick estate until the book was sent off to the printers, about two and a half years. Most of that time I was traveling between the Kubrick estate near London, the publishing house in Cologne, and my home in Paris.

Q: Whose idea was it to put in the CD interview and the film strip?

AC: It was Kubrick's executive producer, Jan Harlan, who suggested that we could use Stanley's 70mm "2001" prints for the books, and Benedikt Taschen immediately loved the idea.

(purchase this book)

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