Old Hollywood
Cinema
1900-1979
Nostalgia is a seductive liar - George Wildman Ball
A Clockwork Orange (1971, dir. Stanley Kubrick) Scene here. “It had been a wonderful evening and what I needed now, to give it the perfect ending, was a little of the Ludwig Van. Oh bliss! Bliss and heaven! Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh. It was like a bird of rarest-spun heaven metal or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now. As I slooshied, I knew such lovely pictures!”

A Clockwork Orange (1971, dir. Stanley Kubrick) Scene here.

“It had been a wonderful evening and what I needed now, to give it the perfect ending, was a little of the Ludwig Van. Oh bliss! Bliss and heaven! Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh. It was like a bird of rarest-spun heaven metal or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now. As I slooshied, I knew such lovely pictures!”

Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange (1971, dir.Stanley Kubrick) Q. What was your attitude towards violence and eroticism in your film? Stanley Kubrick: The violence in the story has to be given sufficient dramatic weight so that the moral dilemma it poses can be seen in the right context. It is absolutely essential that Alex is seen to be guilty of a terrible violence against society, so that when he is eventually transformed by the State into a harmless zombie you can reach a meaningful conclusion about the relative rights and wrongs. If we did not see Alex first as a brutal and merciless thug it would be too easy to agree that the State is involved in a worse evil in depriving him of his freedom to choose between good and evil. It must be clear that it is wrong to turn even unforgivably vicious criminals into vegetables, otherwise the story would fall into the same logical trap as did the old, anti-lynching Hollywood westerns which always nullified their theme by lynching an innocent person. Of course no one will disagree that you shouldn’t lynch an innocent person, but will they agree that it’s just as bad to lynch a guilty person, perhaps even someone guilty of a horrible crime? And so it is with conditioning Alex. Q. In your films, you seem to be critical of all political factions. Would you define yourself as a pessimist or anarchist? Kubrick: I am certainly not an anarchist, and I don’t think of myself as a pessimist. I believe very strongly in parliamentary democracy, and I am of the opinion that the power and authority of the State should be optimized and exercised only to the extent that is required to keep things civilized. History has shown us what happens when you try to make society too civilized, or do too good a job of eliminating undesirable elements. It also shows the tragic fallacy in the belief that the destruction of democratic institutions will cause better ones to arise in their place. Certainly one of the most challenging and difficult social problems we face today is, how can the State maintain the necessary degree of control over society without becoming repressive, and how can it achieve this in the face of an increasingly impatient electorate who are beginning to regard legal and political solutions as too slow? The State sees the spectre looming ahead of terrorism and anarchy, and this increases the risk of its over-reaction and a reduction in our freedom. As with everything else in life, it is a matter of groping for the right balance, and a certain amount of luck. -excerpted from Kubrick: The Definitive Edition by Michel Ciment, Gilbert Adair, & Robert Bononno

Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange (1971, dir.Stanley Kubrick)

Q. What was your attitude towards violence and eroticism in your film?

Stanley Kubrick: The violence in the story has to be given sufficient dramatic weight so that the moral dilemma it poses can be seen in the right context. It is absolutely essential that Alex is seen to be guilty of a terrible violence against society, so that when he is eventually transformed by the State into a harmless zombie you can reach a meaningful conclusion about the relative rights and wrongs. If we did not see Alex first as a brutal and merciless thug it would be too easy to agree that the State is involved in a worse evil in depriving him of his freedom to choose between good and evil. It must be clear that it is wrong to turn even unforgivably vicious criminals into vegetables, otherwise the story would fall into the same logical trap as did the old, anti-lynching Hollywood westerns which always nullified their theme by lynching an innocent person. Of course no one will disagree that you shouldn’t lynch an innocent person, but will they agree that it’s just as bad to lynch a guilty person, perhaps even someone guilty of a horrible crime? And so it is with conditioning Alex.

Q. In your films, you seem to be critical of all political factions. Would you define yourself as a pessimist or anarchist?

Kubrick: I am certainly not an anarchist, and I don’t think of myself as a pessimist. I believe very strongly in parliamentary democracy, and I am of the opinion that the power and authority of the State should be optimized and exercised only to the extent that is required to keep things civilized. History has shown us what happens when you try to make society too civilized, or do too good a job of eliminating undesirable elements. It also shows the tragic fallacy in the belief that the destruction of democratic institutions will cause better ones to arise in their place.

Certainly one of the most challenging and difficult social problems we face today is, how can the State maintain the necessary degree of control over society without becoming repressive, and how can it achieve this in the face of an increasingly impatient electorate who are beginning to regard legal and political solutions as too slow? The State sees the spectre looming ahead of terrorism and anarchy, and this increases the risk of its over-reaction and a reduction in our freedom. As with everything else in life, it is a matter of groping for the right balance, and a certain amount of luck.

-excerpted from Kubrick: The Definitive Edition by Michel Ciment, Gilbert Adair, & Robert Bononno

Malcolm McDowell & Ludwig van in A Clockwork Orange (1971, dir. Stanley Kubrick) Q. Alex loves rape and Beethoven: what do you think that implies? Stanley Kubrick: I think this suggests the failure of culture to have any morally refining effect on society. Hitler loved good music and many top Nazis were cultured and sophisticated men but it didn’t do them, or anyone else, much good. via Kubrick: The Definitive Edition by Michel Ciment, Gilbert Adair, & Robert Bononno

Malcolm McDowell & Ludwig van in A Clockwork Orange (1971, dir. Stanley Kubrick)

Q. Alex loves rape and Beethoven: what do you think that implies?

Stanley Kubrick: I think this suggests the failure of culture to have any morally refining effect on society. Hitler loved good music and many top Nazis were cultured and sophisticated men but it didn’t do them, or anyone else, much good.

via Kubrick: The Definitive Edition by Michel Ciment, Gilbert Adair, & Robert Bononno

Wendy Carlos - Henry Purcell / Title Music from A Clockwork Orange (via Stanley Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange)

Moog synthesizer versions of a variety of classical pieces dominate theClockwork Orange soundtrack, including works by Beethoven & Henry Purcell (the piece posted here is derived from Purcell’s Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary, originally composed in 1695). Kubrick enlisted Wendy Carlos and her producer/musical partner Rachel Elkind to create these synthesizer interpretations, which were intended to provide futuristic-sounding musical accompaniment for the film.

(The album Stanley Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange contains only the truncated music actually used in the film. If you want to hear more of Carlos’s score, A Clockwork Orange: Wendy Carlos’s Complete Original Score contains all the music she wrote for the film)

Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange (1971, dir.Stanley Kubrick) “Man isn’t a noble savage, he’s an ignoble savage. He is irrational, brutal, weak, silly, unable to be objective about anything where his own interests are involved—that about sums it up. I’m interested in the brutal and violent nature of man because it’s a true picture of him. And any attempt to create social institutions on a false view of the nature of man is probably doomed to failure.” -Stanley Kubrick, 1972

Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange (1971, dir.Stanley Kubrick)

“Man isn’t a noble savage, he’s an ignoble savage. He is irrational, brutal, weak, silly, unable to be objective about anything where his own interests are involved—that about sums it up. I’m interested in the brutal and violent nature of man because it’s a true picture of him. And any attempt to create social institutions on a false view of the nature of man is probably doomed to failure.”

-Stanley Kubrick, 1972

Wendy Carlos & Rachel Elkind - Theme from a Clockwork Orange (Beethoviana) (Stanley Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange)

“I was one of the few artists to have worked more than once with him [i.e. on A Clockwork Orange and The Shining]. The experience and memories are indelibly etched on my brain…Stanley Kubrick was not an easy man to work for. He was vastly interesting, completely open about all his “secrets”, and had a dry sense of humor. You were always stimulated working with him. But it was seldom painless. I would truly have preferred to be another director or friend. 

…Recent attempts since his death to paint a revisionist image of Kubrick as some kind of warm and fuzzy fond old uncle are both ignorant and bizarre. The world has plenty of avuncular supportive seniors already. What’s in short supply in the world is Stanley Kubricks: artists who will spare no effort to do work of the highest caliber. Yes, it’s impractical, and not a role most artists are able to inhabit with comfort, unless you command the respect and financial support system he needed.

It allowed him to “wing it”, the way most creative projects are intuitively ‘steered’, kind of groping forward towards some kind of inevitability. He’d often risk experiments, creative trial and error. When Stanley liked what you were doing he supported you ‘all the way’; you’d be hard pressed to find a more canny supporter. Many young directors got messages and calls from him if he loved their newest film. (I’ll bet Hitchcock, another real master, never did that!) Kubrick assembled a support system/nest to avoid most usual external needs to compromise. We may all envy him in this.

I liked Stanley, I enjoyed Stanley, I loved his intelligence and curiosity — but he often drove me nuts. We’d completely, passionately disagree on some detail, where a day earlier we were seeing things in essentially congruent ways. Yin and yang. I think he rather took my abilities and attempts to please him for granted, but I never knew for sure, and now never will. I did try to do my best work for him each time, each ‘cue’. How could you not?”

-Carlos on working with Kubrick (via)

Stanley Kubrick & Malcolm McDowell on the set of A Clockwork Orange (1971, dir. Stanley Kubrick) (via) “Well, as you know, when Singing in the Rain came out, for generations of people, [Gene Kelly] swinging around that lamp post and slapping in that water, and singing…it’s one of the most euphoric moments we’ve ever seen on film. So when I had to come up with something for this sequence, which involved my character in a very brutal situation, that’s when he’s happiest. So Singing in the Rain just popped out. I just started singing it, and [Stanley] Kubrick bought the rights and we redid the whole thing and incorporated it. A footnote to that is that a year afterward, when the film had been out and it was a big hit, I was invited to come to Hollywood by Warner Brothers. I came out and it was very nice to meet everybody. I had never been to Hollywood before. And some guy who was my minder said, ‘Hey, there’s a party in Beverly Hills tonight, Malcolm. Do you want to go, there’s going to be lots of stars there?’ And I went, ‘Yeah! I would love to!’ I was like a kid in a candy store. And we go and he said, ‘Hey, you won’t believe this. Gene Kelly’s here. Would you like to meet him?’ And I went, ‘Oh yeah!’ (laughs) So he had his back to me and he tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘Gene, I’d like to introduce you to Malcolm McDowell’ and he looked at me and…then turned around and walked off. But you know, I totally got it. I totally understood. I took his glorious moment and put a different spin on it. I guess I kind of ruined his moment in a way. But of course, it was an homage to him, because it was so amazing. And so indelible in me as a person, that I blurted it out and started singing it [while filming the scene].” -Malcolm McDowell (via)

Stanley Kubrick & Malcolm McDowell on the set of A Clockwork Orange (1971, dir. Stanley Kubrick) (via)

“Well, as you know, when Singing in the Rain came out, for generations of people, [Gene Kelly] swinging around that lamp post and slapping in that water, and singing…it’s one of the most euphoric moments we’ve ever seen on film. So when I had to come up with something for this sequence, which involved my character in a very brutal situation, that’s when he’s happiest. So Singing in the Rain just popped out. I just started singing it, and [Stanley] Kubrick bought the rights and we redid the whole thing and incorporated it.

A footnote to that is that a year afterward, when the film had been out and it was a big hit, I was invited to come to Hollywood by Warner Brothers. I came out and it was very nice to meet everybody. I had never been to Hollywood before. And some guy who was my minder said, ‘Hey, there’s a party in Beverly Hills tonight, Malcolm. Do you want to go, there’s going to be lots of stars there?’ And I went, ‘Yeah! I would love to!’ I was like a kid in a candy store. And we go and he said, ‘Hey, you won’t believe this. Gene Kelly’s here. Would you like to meet him?’ And I went, ‘Oh yeah!’ (laughs)

So he had his back to me and he tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘Gene, I’d like to introduce you to Malcolm McDowell’ and he looked at me and…then turned around and walked off.

But you know, I totally got it. I totally understood. I took his glorious moment and put a different spin on it. I guess I kind of ruined his moment in a way. But of course, it was an homage to him, because it was so amazing. And so indelible in me as a person, that I blurted it out and started singing it [while filming the scene].”

-Malcolm McDowell (via)

Wendy Carlos - Country Lane (A Clockwork Orange: Wendy Carlos’s Complete Original Score)

From the liner notes: Scored, but never used, Country Lane “depicts Alex’s near drowning at the hands of his ex-Droogs, utilizes motifs from Rossini’s The Thieving Magpie plus the medieval religious theme of Dies Irae (Day of Wrath), which is also heard in the title music, plus authentic rain storm sounds, plus a suggestion of Singin’ in the Rain. In its few minutes, this Country Lane manages to sum up the mood of the entire film.”

Stanley Kubrick & Malcolm McDowell on the set of A Clockwork Orange (1971, dir. Stanley Kubrick) (via)

Wendy Carlos - Timesteps (A Clockwork Orange: Wendy Carlos’s Complete Original Score)

From the liner notes:

Wendy was, by her own admission, “about three and a half minutes” into [composing] Timesteps when a friend gave her a paperback copy of A Clockwork Orange. Like so many other readers, Wendy fell under the spell of Anthony Burgess’ vision of a world of tomorrow filled with ultra-violence. She was also struck by the fact that her Timesteps music seemed to capture the exact feeling of the opening scenes of Burgess’ book. Further work, and Timesteps evolved, subconsciously, into a kind of musical poem based on Clockwork — a work that, as Wendy says, was an “autonomous composition with an uncanny affinity for Clockwork.”

Then, the same friend who had given her Clockwork sent a clipping from a London newspaper announcing that Stanley Kubrick had just begun production of a film based on Burgess’ book. Wendy and [her producer Rachel Elkind], both admirers of Kubrick’s previous work, began to share the same day-dream: “Wouldn’t it be great if…”

Timesteps and Beethoven’s Choral Movement were airmailed to Kubrick. Wendy and Rachel waited. Finally, came a request from Kubrick: Could they come to London and discuss the use of Wendy’s music in the film?”