"Stanley. you can‘t direct me like that. You can direct Tom like that. but not me".‘
Thankfully. the tvvo soon found themselves on the same vvavelength. and the Antipodean screen goddess
novv has nothing but the fondest of
memories. 'So many times the relationship vvith a director can he an actor’s nightmare.~ she said in a previous intervievv vvith .\'r’ii'sii'r'r'k. ‘But ours vvas incredible. It transcends making the film. He was like a father.‘
The closest thing so far to an
audience reaction for the film itself
(no test screenings or focus groups for Stan). came at Sho’ West in l.as Vegas. an annual hoopla vvhere movie
exhibitors are given sneak previevvs of forthcoming product. Instead of
providing the traditional trailer.
Kubrick submitted ()0 seconds of
footage featuring his in—the-huff stars
RICK
preparing to go at it like knives in the marital bathroom. The multiplex ovvners cheered. clearly believing that celebrity 'l‘ 'n’ A on screen will mean a
multitude of burns on seats in their
auditoria.
l-lad Kubrick lived. it‘s likely that pressure may have been brought to bare to trim some of the more hardcore moments. but with the director gone this is one instance vvhere final cut means final cut. especially as his stars are fiercely protective of their mentors vision.
‘If anyone tries to cut it. they've got to get through me.‘ (‘ruise has insisted. "l‘here‘s no vvay that‘s going to happen. It‘s our movie. it‘s Stanley‘s movie. and no one's going In touch it.‘
Eyes Wide Shut opens in August.
EYES WIDE SHUT
THE DROOGS DON’T WORK
Actor MALCOLM McDOWELL remembers Kubrick's controversial classic, A Clockwork Orange.
‘."/ch3: Alan Morrison
If you’ve seen it at all, it’s probably been a tenth generation pirated video with foreign subtitles obsCuring the screen. Even though it hasn’t been screened in British Cinemas since Just after its original release in 1971, A C/ockwork Orange remains one of the most talked about, controverSial films of all time.
Based on Anthony Burgess’s seminal novel, the film tells the story of young Alex, his friends (’droogs’) and his taste for ultra-violence, including rape. In Britain, it was blamed for copycat attacks and newspapers wrote of gangs of thugs dressed in Alex’s trademark bowler hat and overalls. Director Stanley Kubrick pulled the film from UK distribution in 1974, and it hasn't been legally screened Since. As the ban lay solely with Kubrick, not any official censor, the fate of the film may now rest in a reading of Kubrick’s will. Warner Bros, who hold UK rights to the film, ’have no plans to release it' in the foreseeable future. However a rumour currently sweeping the film industry suggests Ewan lvchregor might star in a Spielberg directed remake.
‘lt’s a watershed film for me and for many peOple my age,’ says Malcolm McDowell, who was 27 when he starred in the film. 'II was one of the great cinema roles in a film that was at the zenith of Stanley Kubrick’s career in terms of his imagination and brilliance: the look, the Korova lvlilk Bar. l’m very disappomted that there hasn’t been a reissue of that film, because it stands up well, and it's very current. Look at Los Angeles now —- it’s totally C/ockwork Orange land. The gangs have taken over, there’s graffiti on the walls to advertise what gang is in what area; and you don't muck around, you don’t go into those areas, not unless you want to be beaten up.’
Kubrick’s often exasperating precision on the set and during the editing process is legendary, but McDowell stresses that the director left his cast room for improwsation — even in A Clockwork Orange's infamous rape scene.
’Raping and beating and feeling happy — and what’s euphoria? lt's "Singin’ In The Rain”,’ says McDowell about Alex’s state of mind and the song that accompanies it on screen. ’It came out as a spontaneOus thing. That's the way that great scenes in movies happen. You can’t really write it in a script somehow, and most really great directors allow for this spontaneity. It was Just done, Stanley said, "Oh God, I love that" and rushed off to buy the rights to the song, then choreographed it. That’s the way it was done — it was shot within a week, JUSi through an improvisation.’
Milking it: Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange
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