The Visual Poet
Prelude of the book 'Stanley Kubrick. Visual Poet 1928-1999', by Paul Duncan
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Many reviewers have failed to understand that Kubrick's approach to film was non-verbal and often reprimanded him for it. Interestingly, the books about his films that Kubrick collaborated on (by Alexander Walker and Michel Ciment) were primarily interested in the visual storytelling and symbolism of his work. It is my belief that Kubrick was a visual poet whose work was not fully appreciated at the time it was released because many film reviewers did not review it as a visual art form.
Although the visual arts can elicit immediate emotional responses from the viewer, it is only after some contemplation that a fuller and more reasoned understanding can be achieved. Gene D. Phillips observed in his introduction to Stanley Kubrick Interviews: 'Early notices, written for newspapers and weekly magazines with immediate deadlines to meet, tended to judge 2001 more harshly than the reviews composed by critics for monthly magazines, who had more time to reflect on the picture.' Kubrick explained further to Time magazine in 1975: "The essence of dramatic form is to let an idea come over people without it being plainly stated. When you say something directly, it is simply not as potent as it is when you allow people to discover it for themselves."
Page [1] [2] [3] [4]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4]
Many reviewers have failed to understand that Kubrick's approach to film was non-verbal and often reprimanded him for it. Interestingly, the books about his films that Kubrick collaborated on (by Alexander Walker and Michel Ciment) were primarily interested in the visual storytelling and symbolism of his work. It is my belief that Kubrick was a visual poet whose work was not fully appreciated at the time it was released because many film reviewers did not review it as a visual art form.
Although the visual arts can elicit immediate emotional responses from the viewer, it is only after some contemplation that a fuller and more reasoned understanding can be achieved. Gene D. Phillips observed in his introduction to Stanley Kubrick Interviews: 'Early notices, written for newspapers and weekly magazines with immediate deadlines to meet, tended to judge 2001 more harshly than the reviews composed by critics for monthly magazines, who had more time to reflect on the picture.' Kubrick explained further to Time magazine in 1975: "The essence of dramatic form is to let an idea come over people without it being plainly stated. When you say something directly, it is simply not as potent as it is when you allow people to discover it for themselves."
Page [1] [2] [3] [4]
Stanley Kubrick
Flexicover, 19.6 x 24.5 cm (7.7 x 9.6 in.), 192 pages
$ 19.99
$ 19.99
"I don't think that writers or painters or filmmakers function because they have something they particularly want to say. They have something that they feel." -Stanley Kubrick
On the set of 'Spartacus' (1960).