A Cinema of Loneliness: Penn, Stone, Kubrick, Scorsese, Spielberg, Altman

by Robert P. Kolker

Book Overview

In this twentieth-anniversary millennial edition, Kolker continues and expands his inquiry into the cinematic representation of culture by updating and revising the chapters on the directors discussed in the first edition-- Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, and Steven Spielberg-- to include their most important works since 1988, analyzing those films which have made important advances in the directors' careers and which have given cause...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195123506
• ISBN13: 9780195123500
• Release Date: July 2000
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 504 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 9.1" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

One of the best books of film criticism I've ever read

A paradigm of intelligent film criticism. Kolker's astute and subtle formal analysis of the films puts many other so-called critics to shame, and his discussions of the political implications of cinematic form and style are excellent. It is a serious book about movies, and his arguments and insights need to be thought about and struggled with- they are not a meant to be easily digested.

A film book of rare insight and intelligence........

Worth reading for the Kubrick chapter alone, this book considers the work of our finest directors and contrasts them with the conservatism and anti-intellectualism of 1980s cinema. Moreover, the author discusses community, alienation, dehumanization, and loneliness, all from a fresh, unpretentious standpoint.