The Extraordinary Image: Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and the Reimagining of Cinema

by Robert P. Kolker

Overview

Welles. Hitchcock. Kubrick. These names appear on nearly every list of the all-time greatest filmmakers. But what makes these directors so great? Despite their very different themes and sensibilities, is there a common genius that unites them and elevates their work into the realm of the sublime? 
 
The Extraordinary Image takes readers on a fascinating journey through the lives and films of these three directors, identifying the qualities that made them cinematic visionaries. Reflecting on a lifetime of teaching and writing on these filmmakers, acclaimed film scholar Robert P. Kolker offers a deeply personal set of insights on three artists who have changed the way he understands movies. Spotlighting the many astonishing images and stories in films by Welles, Hitchcock, Kubrick, he also considers how they induce a state of amazement that transports and transforms the viewer. 
 
Kolker’s accessible prose invites readers to share in his own continued fascination and delight at these directors’ visual inventiveness, even as he lends his expertise to help us appreciate the key distinctions between the unique cinematic universes they each created. More than just a celebration of three cinematic geniuses, The Extraordinary Image is an exploration of how movies work, what they mean, and why they bring us so much pleasure. 
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813583099
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	11/30/2016
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	15 Years

About the Author

ROBERT P. KOLKER has been teaching and writing about film for over forty years. He is the author or editor of A Cinema of Loneliness (4th ed.,); The Altering Eye; Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey: New Essays; The Oxford Handbook of Film and Media Studies; The Cultures of American Film; and Film, Form, and Culture. 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
 

Prelude
 
The Passion of Film
 
What We Talk About When We Talk About Film
 
The Body of Work
 
Origins
 
The Films They Made

 
The Work of the Body
 
Hunger Artists
 
Apollo, Dionysus, and Nemesis
 
Embodiment and Performance

 
Form, Time, and Space

 
The Dreamworld
 
The Spaces of Space Fiction
 
Cycles and Symmetry
 
Photograph of a Photograph

 
Power and Sexuality
 
The Art of Feeling
 
Coda: An Immense Shadow

 
Chronology of Films by Welles, Hitchcock, and Kubrick

 
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
 

Editorial Reviews

09/26/2016
Film scholar Kolker (The Cultures of American Film), whose work is often taught in film studies classrooms, devotes this disappointing study to an obscure analysis of his three favorite film directors: Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, and Alfred Hitchcock. The chief issue is that Kolker hasn’t enough original insights to justify the book. Early on, Kolker relates a story of a meeting with Paul Schrader, best known as the screenwriter of Taxi Driver. When Kolker explained his project, Schrader responded that these subjects make up “a well-trod road.” And he’s right; Kolker himself admits that there is no shortage of biographies and monographs on his trio. His book is often repetitive and unclear, problems exacerbated by weak structure. In brief, this is a misfire. It’s heartening to know that Kolker has revised several of his books several times over; this one could be something special with a second or third look by its undoubtedly enthusiastic and thoughtful author. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"The Extraordinary Image takes as a welcome point of departure the notion that filmmaking is essentially the craft of building images, and telling stories by way of their composition and juxtaposition. Kolker’s project is especially well-tailored to that insight, as the directors under consideration are among the most purposefully cinematic of filmmakers... The book is littered with keen observations readily savored."

Boston Review

"Robert P. Kolker takes readers on a fascinating journey into the lives and work of these three directors, examining the unique visual themes—and finding the common threads of genius—in their cinematic worlds."

Parade Magazine

"This book offers far more pleasures than we can easily count, all reflecting the author's passion for film and his ability to get it into highly personal writing. He shows us how Hitchcock, Kubrick and Welles brought excitement and light to the cinema, however dark or distraught their films became, and there is something quite dazzling about the way he keeps picturing these three figures as belonging together and yet entirely different from each other."

author of Alfred Hitchcock: The Man Who Knew Too Much - Michael Wood

"Kolker ingeniously brings together three dissimilar filmmakers—Hitchcock, Welles, Kubrick—and deftly manages to make them convincing subjects of a comparative study… Kolker writes with such fluency and grace about these filmmakers that he makes the feat of discussing their quite distinct and challenging respective oeuvres seem easy... Kolker's study makes one hungry to experience its subjects' creativity anew, inspiring one to revisit the oeuvres of three great, distinctive, and distinct filmmakers whose bodies of work, as Kolker persuasively argues, converge in the creation of lasting and, indeed, extraordinary images."

Cineaste

"Like the three masters he loves, Kolker brings power and passion to his brilliant study of this trio of closely related and unforgettable filmmakers. It is a supremely sublime achievement."

author of Introduction to Documentary and Speaking Truths with Film - Bill Nichols

"The most refreshing quality of The Extraordinary Image is its respect for the humanist tradition. Kolker’s bottom-line insistence on the deeply rooted humanity of the greatest cinema is invigorating, especially when he connects his emotions about movies with his longtime effort to share his insights and enthusiasms with students and readers."

Hitchcock Annual

"This is not the first book to consult when studying Kubrick, but Abrams provides enough compelling insights and revisions of well-trodden territory to make one go back to the films. His study doubles as a general intellectual biography of Kubrick, and one of its pleasures is learning what books were on Kubrick’s shelf."

Choice

"Robert P. Kolker takes readers on a fascinating journey into the lives and work of these three directors, examining the unique visual themes—and finding the common threads of genius—in their cinematic worlds."

Parade Magazine

11/15/2016
Kolker (emeritus, Univ. of Maryland; The Cultures of American Film) clearly loves the movies. Specifically, he admires the evocative and engaging images created by Welles, Hitchcock, and Kubrick, and the journeys those images provide to discerning viewers. He examines and draws thematic lines among all of their major films—with a particular emphasis on Welles—and his lifelong devotion to the field is evident in his commentary. For a book of criticism, it is wonderfully accessible, less like a lecture and closer to a conversation. His observations reflect both the consensus of critical thought on these films, and his personal connections to the images. VERDICT As these are three of the most analyzed men in film history, much of the director-specific narrative is not particularly original, but this collective study adds a distinctive tone that will make this of interest to fans of any of these filmmakers.—Peter Thornell, Hingham P.L., MA

Library Journal