This intimate portrait by his former personal assistant and confidante
reveals the man behind the legendary filmmaker--for the first time.
Stanley Kubrick, the director of a string of timeless movies from
Lolita and Dr. Strangelove to A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space
Odyssey, Full Metal Jacket, and others, has always been depicted by the
media as the Howard Hughes of filmmakers, a weird artist obsessed with
his work and privacy to the point of madness. But who was he really?
Emilio D'Alessandro lets us see. A former Formula Ford driver who was a
minicab chauffeur in London during the Swinging Sixties, he took a job
driving a giant phallus through the city that became his introduction to
the director. Honest, reliable, and ready to take on any task, Emilio
found his way into Kubrick's neurotic, obsessive heart. He became his
personal assistant, his right-hand man and confidant, working for him
from A Clockwork Orange until Kubrick's death in 1999.
Emilio was the silent guy in the room when the script for The Shining
was discussed. He still has the coat Jack Nicholson used in the movie.
He was an extra on the set of Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick's last movie. He
knew all the actors and producers Kubrick worked with; he observed
firsthand Kubrick's working methods down to the smallest detail. Making
no claim of expertise in cinematography but with plenty of anecdotes, he
offers a completely fresh perspective on the artist and a warm,
affecting portrait of a generous, kind, caring man who was a
perfectionist in work and life. The paperback edition has a new foreword
by Matthew Modine, who is featured in the book and starred as Private
Joker in Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.
