In my book, I explore how three major 20th-century artistsâPaul Claudel, Jean Genet, and Federico Felliniâstruggled with ambitious creative worksâŠ
The French poet Stephane Mallarme (1842-1898) was modernism's great champion of the book as both a conceptual and material entity: probably his most famous pronouncement is 'everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book.' The Book was Mallarme's total artwork, a book to encompass all books. Frequently quoted, sometimes excerpted, but never before translated in its entirety, The Book is a visual poem about its own construction, the scaffolding of a cosmic architecture intended to reveal 'all existing relations between everything.'
What particularly moved me was how White's intimate understanding of both French culture and queer experience complements my analysis of Genet's theatrical works. His biography provides rich psychological insights that deepen and enrich my own research into Genet's creative process.
For anyone who, like me, has spent years studying the intersection of Genet's life and art, White's work is an indispensable companion that reveals new layers of understanding about this enigmatic literary genius.
A meticulously researched biography of Jean Genet, one of France's most notorious writers. Acclaimed novelist and essayist Edmund White illuminates Genet's experiences in the worlds of crime, homosexuality, politics, and high culture, and gives a compelling analysis of Genet's plays, novels, and essays. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography.
I found Hollis Alpert's book refreshing because it cuts through all the myths about Fellini and shows us the real person. After watching Fellini's films for years, I was glad to finally read a biography that explains how he developed his unique style.
The book helped me understand his evolution from cartoonist to filmmaker and showed me how his early experiences influenced his later work. While other biographers sometimes get caught up in Fellini's larger-than-life personality, Alpert stays focused on helping us understand the director's creative process. This is a straightforward, honest look at one of cinema's most interesting figures.
This biography, drawing on interviews with the filmmaker and his colleagues, investigates the man and the legend and defines the elusive boundaries between the two
I was interested by Stanley Kubrick's book because it shows just how deeply Kubrick researched and planned his films. As someone who studies unfinished film projects, I was fascinated to see all the detailed work that went into this movie that was never madeâfrom the costume designs to the battle plans to Kubrick's handwritten notes.
The book lets us peek into Kubrick's creative process through the thousands of photos, documents and research materials he gathered. What makes this book special is that it doesn't just tell us about the film that could have beenâit helps us understand how Kubrick's mind worked when developing his projects. This is a rare look at the early stages of what might have been his greatest film.
"The Greatest Movie Never Made" is the fascinating tale of Kubrick's unfilmed masterpiece. It is now available in an unlimited, single-volume edition! For 40 years, Kubrick fans and film buffs have wondered about the director's mysterious unmade film on Napoleon Bonaparte. Slated for production immediately following the release of "2001: A Space Odyssey", Kubrick's "Napoleon" was to be at once a character study and a sweeping epic, replete with grandiose battle scenes featuring thousands of extras. To write his original screenplay, Kubrick embarked on two years of intensive research; with the help of dozens of assistants and an Oxford NapoleonâŠ
I liked this book because it masterfully illuminates the intersection of faith and artistic expression in Claudel's work. The book's exploration of how his Catholic beliefs shaped his poetic vision resonates deeply with my own interest in spiritual literature.
What particularly moved me was the analysis of how Claudel transformed theological concepts into vivid, tangible poetry without diminishing either their sacred nature or their artistic power. The author's careful examination of Claudel's ability to weave Catholic doctrine into his verses while maintaining their literary brilliance opened my eyes to new ways of understanding religious poetry. For anyone fascinated by the relationship between faith and art, this book is an absolute treasure.
This is the first comprehensive study of the theological significance of Paul Claudel, a poet frequently cited by literary-minded theologians in Europe and theologically-minded poets (such as von Balthasar, de Lubac and Eliot). His writing combines cosmology and history, Bible and metaphysics, liturgy and the drama of human personality. His work, which continues to arouse discussion in France, was acclaimed in his lifetime as the 'summa poetica' of a new Dante. Aidan Nichols' study demonstrates how Claudel's oeuvre, which is not only poetry but theatre and prose including biblical commentaries, constitutes a rich resource for constructive doctrine, liturgical preaching, andâŠ
In my book, I explore how three major 20th-century artistsâPaul Claudel, Jean Genet, and Federico Felliniâstruggled with ambitious creative works that they never completed. Through extensive research examining letters, diaries, and unpublished manuscripts, I reveal how these "impossible" projects expose the deepest artistic aims and inner conflicts of their creators.
I analyze Claudel's unrealized fourth part of the Coûfontaine trilogy exploring Judaism and Christianity, Genet's mysterious work La Mort that was meant to establish a new morality and aesthetic, and Fellini's legendary unfilmed Il viaggio di G. Mastorna about the afterlife. By illuminating these phantom projects, I provide fresh insights into how creative ambition and artistic crisis shape major artists' careers, suggesting that such "dream projects" may be an inevitable part of the creative process itself.
