Two Books about Otto Preminger
Posted July 2 , 2014 From Cineaste , Summer 2008 (Vol. XXXIII, No. 3). It’s gratifying that Such Good Friends has finally come out on DVD. — J.R. The World and its Double: The Life and Work of Otto Preminger by Chris Fujiwara. New York : Faber & Faber, 479 pp., illus. Hardcover: $35.00. Otto Preminger: The Man Who Would Be King by Foster Hirsch. New York: Alfred A, Knopf, 573 pp., illus. Hardcover: $35.00 Few film directors resist critical biography as much as Otto Preminger, given all the puzzling and intractable mismatches one encounters as soon as one tries to reconcile his very public life with his no less private body of work as an auteur. This is a difficulty acknowledged in the title and subtitle of Chris Fujiwara’s book, and one he essentially tries to resolve by splitting most of his chapters into two sections. But the overall disassociation of Preminger’s life and work, even though it’s addressed by this structure, still becomes a...