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Post by bungo the mungo on Apr 8, 2019 18:29:31 GMT
the bfi are rereleasing A clockwork orange. what are your thoughts on it? how does it hold up?
for me, its shock value hasn't diminished. it hasn't dated at all. it still looks futuristic and is brilliantly shot. i'd rank it top 3 kubrick. mcdowell was an incredible actor in the 60s and 70s, probably my favourite from that period. of course, the myth was that it was banned in the UK when in fact it was due kubrick withdrawing it because of death threats.
time for a reevaluation?
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Post by driftin on Apr 8, 2019 19:08:04 GMT
It's still an utterly visceral and striking film today. I've seen it many times and it never fails to impress me. I'm going to see it at the cinema for the first time when it's available to watch here in Leicester.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Apr 8, 2019 19:15:51 GMT
I saw it on Sunday.
Like a lot of Kubrick films I think it grows on repeated viewings and I've been thinking about it since. Its themes certainly resonated with me more, perhaps because the spectre of totalitarianism isn't so far removed these days but I found it more subtle and thought provoking than I remembered.
I forgot how funny, grotesque and ott it is at times. Think of the gurning left wing subversive writer (Kubrick is as critical of him as he is the right wing government politician) or Alex's school teacher ("yeeees?"). As unpleasant as Alex is everybody else bar the chaplain is fucking horrible. The system is as corrupted and debasing as Alex.
I love the films style. The soundtrack, the brutalist buildings and general atmosphere of violence and decay.
It's a great film but I didn't always think that.
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Post by Half Machine Lipschitz on Apr 8, 2019 19:24:01 GMT
I'd love to see it on the big screen. It's such a great looking film.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Apr 9, 2019 7:04:40 GMT
I'd love to see it on the big screen. It's such a great looking film.
It is. If you ever get the chance to see Barry Lyndon on the big screen then please do. Son of a gun, that movie is beautiful!
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Post by Half Machine Lipschitz on Apr 9, 2019 12:23:25 GMT
I'd love to see it on the big screen. It's such a great looking film.
It is. If you ever get the chance to see Barry Lyndon on the big screen then please do. Son of a gun, that movie is beautiful!
Oh for sure. I've only ever seen it on a television, but it must look great in a proper theatre. I loved reading about how Kubrick overcame all the challenges he faced when trying to shoot by candlelight and/or daylight indoors. I had this image as my facebook home page several years ago:  |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2019 12:43:29 GMT
I love it, though part of me would like to see the original ending from the book.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2019 14:38:20 GMT
For a long time it didn't live up to the mythic idea I had of it growing up.
It's very hard to convey this to people younger, but it exerted such a strong power through being this movie that no one had seen, but which seemed to influence so many things. For years I'd rely on my mate describing the scenes he remembered from seeing it once. I remember the anticipation I felt going up to The Scala in Kings Cross when we heard they were going to illegally show it. And the crushing disappointment when it was pulled at the last minute..I mean we were literally sitting there in front of the big screen waiting for it to appear! The cinema got into a lot of trouble for it too, it's amazing the power Kubrick wielded over it.
Now there's enough distance for me to view the film independent of all that weight and yeah it's fantastic.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Apr 10, 2019 8:38:36 GMT
You’d see its influence all over the place so even though you’d never actually seen the film it still felt like it was part of popular culture. Look at The Universal by Blur for example of Bonzo dressed as a droog in the 70s. It always felt rock n roll in the same way that, say, Performance did.
I remember seeing Tony Parsons talk about it (I’ve checked and this was in 1993, the video is on youtube btw) so I was aware of it from a youngish age and I remember being suitably intrigued by it. Of course the forbidden fruit element was impossible to deny.
Did you hear about that La Scala book that was released recently? Big, fuck off coffee table thing with all the listings and lots of photos etc. Sounds like a hell of a place! I can’t imagine Kings Cross was very pleasant back then. It sounded like a dump when my old man worked down there in the 90s.
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Post by bungo the mungo on Apr 10, 2019 9:46:07 GMT
Did you hear about that La Scala book that was released recently? Big, fuck off coffee table thing with all the listings and lots of photos etc. Sounds like a hell of a place! I can’t imagine Kings Cross was very pleasant back then. It sounded like a dump when my old man worked down there in the 90s. i used to go to the scala a lot, back in the days when kings x was a dangerous place. i went to 'the prisoner' and 'avengers' screenings but it was the 'alice in wonderland' all-nighters which were the most memorable. i saw films like barbarella, performance, the trip, head, psych-out etc for the first time there. the all-nighters were an excuse to get off your tits on acid. some real characters there. the most memorable night was when the damned played there in their 'naz nomad and the nightmares' guise. i also saw an ultra-rare screening of a swinging london film called 'pop down', which starred zoot money and featured footage of his band 'dantalian's chariot'. heady days. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2019 10:12:14 GMT
You’d see its influence all over the place so even though you’d never actually seen the film it still felt like it was part of popular culture. Look at The Universal by Blur for example of Bonzo dressed as a droog in the 70s. It always felt rock n roll in the same way that, say, Performance did. I remember seeing Tony Parsons talk about it (I’ve checked and this was in 1993, the video is on youtube btw) so I was aware of it from a youngish age and I remember being suitably intrigued by it. Of course the forbidden fruit element was impossible to deny. Did you hear about that La Scala book that was released recently? Big, fuck off coffee table thing with all the listings and lots of photos etc. Sounds like a hell of a place! I can’t imagine Kings Cross was very pleasant back then. It sounded like a dump when my old man worked down there in the 90s. Oh it was. Not a place to hang out. Whereas Soho had that "glamorous seedy", Kings X was just seedy. Despite all the new builds and regeneration it's still pretty down at heel now. You'd see the influence of CO everywhere, I remember there was this band called The Addicts who dressed up as Droogs. People would go to football dressed up as Droogs. I think when I got round to finally seeing it, what threw me was how stylised it was. Of course that fits in with Kubrick generally, but I think I'd been expecting something more like Scum. |
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Apr 10, 2019 11:28:45 GMT
Did you hear about that La Scala book that was released recently? Big, fuck off coffee table thing with all the listings and lots of photos etc. Sounds like a hell of a place! I can’t imagine Kings Cross was very pleasant back then. It sounded like a dump when my old man worked down there in the 90s. i used to go to the scala a lot, back in the days when kings x was a dangerous place. i went to 'the prisoner' and 'avengers' screenings but it was the 'alice in wonderland' all-nighters which were the most memorable. i saw films like barbarella, performance, the trip, head, psych-out etc for the first time there. the all-nighters were an excuse to get off your tits on acid. some real characters there. the most memorable night was when the damned played there in their 'naz nomad and the nightmares' guise. i also saw an ultra-rare screening of a swinging london film called 'pop down', which starred zoot money and featured footage of his band 'dantalian's chariot'. heady days. Sounds fabulous! People fucked on acid, some speeding freak jerking off in the corner (probably a youthful and flushed G) and all of 'em watching mondo weirdness on the big screen you'd struggle to find anywhere else.
Back when London was all together rougher and more interesting.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2019 11:28:47 GMT
I was surprised by how Catholic the book was, the whole redemption theme got lost in the film. Good cinema though.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Apr 10, 2019 11:30:30 GMT
Kubrick was right to remove the final chapter.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2019 11:35:48 GMT
Probably. It works better in the novel.
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