ONCE UPON A TIME… A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

Official Selection: Cannes Classics – Cannes Film Festival

Protagonists:

• Christiane KUBRICK, the filmmaker’s widow
• Jan HARLAN, producer, S. Kubrick’s brother-in-law
• Malcom MC DOWELL, actor, role of Alex Delarge
• Bernard WILLIAMS, associate producer on the film
• Warren CLARKE, actor, role of Dim
• Gaspar NOÉ, filmmaker
• Laurent MUCCHIELLI, sociologist
• Elisabeth ROUDINESCO, historian, psychoanalyst

Portrait of a film: Adapted from an eponymous novel by Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange is Stanley Kubrick’s ninth feature film. In England, in the near future, the Droogs gang spreads terror by committing random acts of violence. Their leader Alex is arrested for murder and agrees to be used as a guinea pig in a new therapeutic experiment that makes him hyper sensitive to any form of violence. Released from prison, Alex survives and is restored to his former state by order of the government. Upon its release, the film sparked a strong controversy and, after a series of assaults and crimes were committed in its name, it was withdrawn from circulation in the UK at the request of the Director himself.

Portrait of an Era: Although it is supposed to take place in the future, the film is deeply rooted in the late 1960s, a period marked by the Vietnam War, youth protest movements and the rise of insecurity in Western societies. Its implicit message is the fears triggered by the multiplication of youth gangs in England (rockers, mods, skinheads) and the political debates initiated by the proponents of anti-psychiatry against the techniques of psychological conditioning and the abuses of chemical psychiatry. Aesthetically, A Clockwork Orange is a perfect reflection of its time, between psychedelic kitsch and pop art, and the music of the first electronic synthesizers.

Portrait of a filmmaker: When A Clockwork Orange was released in 1971, Stanley Kubrick was 43 years old. Born in New York, this former press photographer turned filmmaker was living in London with his family. He shot A Clockwork Orange after abandoning a major project on Napoleon. A perfectionist filmmaker, he supervised the production of his films from their inception to their distribution. Rebellious and libertarian, he believed that civilization was only a protective varnish and that the true nature of man, evil, could resurface at any time. Yet even the worst of criminals does not deserve to be tortured. A Clockwork Orange is the work of a visionary.