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

Robert Kolker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 27, 2000

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 for rethinking the films that preceded them. Included is a profile of Arthur Penn's career followed by a new comparative study of Oliver Stone, who mirrors Penn's practice of drawing his films out of historical and ideological currents. Placing the films of Penn, Stone, Kubrick, Scorsese, Spielberg, and Altman in an ideological perspective, Kolker both illuminates their relationship to one another and to larger currents in our culture, and emphasizes the statements their films make about American society and culture. This edition includes a new preface, a requiem for Stanley Kubrick, updated filmography, and 48 images from various films discussed through the text.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The American film directors featured here have created significant bodies of work. Notes Kolker (film studies, Univ. of Maryland), for all the challenge and adventure, their films speak to a continual impotence in the world, an inability to change and to create change. A fount of cinematic knowledge, the author provides the context for his subjects, persuasively arguing that Citizen Kane and Psycho hold pride of place as influences. He draws parallels between Leni Riefenstahl!s Triumph of the Will (1935) and Steven Spielberg!s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1978), Alfred Hitchcock!s Marnie (1964) and Stanley Kubrick!s Eyes Wide Shut (1999), and John Wayne!s Ethan Edwards in John Ford!s The Searchers (1956) and Robert DeNiro!s Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese!s Taxi Driver (1976). Evidently, the cinema of loneliness is not entirely new. Since the first and second editions, Francis Ford Coppola has been excised and Oliver Stone added. Essential for scholars and well-informed fans, the book is recommended for film and performing arts collections as well as for larger public libraries"Kim Holston, American Inst. for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters, Malvern, PA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"An excellent work of film criticism, and as such, demands response and debate....Kolker's analyses of each director's work...are stimulating, provocative, insightful and passionate, models of film analysis."--San Francisco Review of Books

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 504 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 3 edition (July 27, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195123506
• ISBN-13: 978-0195123500
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #474,712 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books about post-studio system U.S. cinema, July 17, 2000

By 

DPK (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: A Cinema of Loneliness: Penn, Stone, Kubrick, Scorsese, Spielberg, Altman (Paperback)

Although I missed the very first edition of this book in 1980, its second edition has been among my favorite film books for a decade. This is despite the fact that most of the film-makers discussed within (especially Scorsese & Altman) had made numerous films since the last ones featured in that edition. Now I have the joyful experience of catching up on their films with one of the finest writers on the topic of American film ever and his third edition of one of the finest books on American film ever published.

Kolker has gone back to his earlier editions and used the newer films to both confirm and refute his earlier evaluations. Many fans of film in general (and some of these directors, in particular) will not agree with many of Kolker's points. What makes this book so wonderful, though, is that you don't have to agree to enjoy it. Kolker understands that film criticism is meant to be a lively art, rather than a process of emalming great works of art. I may not agree with his assessment of each Scorsese picture but his analysis of Scorsese's significance is right on the money. At the same time, his newly added discussion of Oliver Stone is the first writing about the controversial director that gave a fair picture of his artistic strengths (there are many) and weaknesses (fewer but still significant).

Deserving of special note is the book's section on the late Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick's passing makes him the only film-maker in the book whose body of work is completely finished, a matter which Kolkee addresses in a special epitaph. It is indicative of both the quality and bold approach of the book that the author uses Kubrick's final film, "Eyes Wide Shut" as a springboard to ponder how Kubrick's work will fit into the history of cinema in the years to come. He does not make pat, easy judgements but rather admits that the still vital medium is ever shifting and even old works can take on new meanings in hindsight. It's almost enough to make me eager for the fourth edition.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Smart, exhaustive, pretentious, engaging, January 3, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: A Cinema of Loneliness: Penn, Stone, Kubrick, Scorsese, Spielberg, Altman (Paperback)

Kolker's lengthy opinions sometimes suffer from tunnel-vision -- ideas that support his over-arching theories are stressed while other influnces on/aspects of the films are ignored. But his over-arching theories are penetrating nevertheless, and a lot of light is shed on the filmmakers he discusses. His treatment of Kubrick, whose work lends itself so well to intelluctual deconstruction, is especially good. The discussion of Spielberg is interesting but a little too high-minded for the relatively simple pleasures of Spielberg's movies. Most interesting of all are the author's comparisons of the filmmakers with each other, the culture of their times, and various narrative forms and goals. (Kubrick fans should also check out Michael Herr's "Kubrick", which reveals a human side to the legendarily chilly and cerebral director).

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Specific Work Of Film Criticism I've Ever Read, July 31, 2011

By 

J. Baker - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Cinema of Loneliness: Penn, Stone, Kubrick, Scorsese, Spielberg, Altman (Kindle Edition)

As a film student I've never ran into a more specifically informative work on the details of a director's body of work (much less on the details of multiple directors). Well worth the price.

Grant it, the book sometimes drifts into pretentious assumptions about the philosophical implications of a director's stylistic choices... But it never does so without a considerable amount of validity and insight (even if the assuption is off target).

I recommend this book along with Hitchcock/Truffaut, Notes On Cinematography by Bresson, and Sculpting In Time by Tarkovsky as the greatest works on film I've read.