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Kubrick Country: Houston: The Shock in The Book Is
Kubrick Country: Houston: The Shock in The Book Is
both just around the corner, not much still patiently waiting on the shelf, and Houston: The shock in the book is
farther away than a Jack Nicklaus picked it up. I started to read the book when Alex gets to prison, and he says
drive. Kubrick has made all his films and finished it in one sitting. By the something like, "I'd done all this, and
in Britain since Lolita (1961); but in end of Part One, it seemed pretty I was fifteen." I don't imagine it could
a remarkable way he has kept himself obvious that it might make a great ever work on the screen, but did you
apart from all worlds, appearing film. By the end of Part Two, I was even think of casting someone as
neither as an expatriate American film- very excited about it. As soon as I young as that in the part?
maker nor as a resident British di- finished it, I immediately reread it.
rector. From Lolita on, his films have For the next two or three days, I reread Kubrick: No. I had Malcolm McDowell
been set in Kubrick country. it in whole and in part, and did little in mind right from the third or fourth
After 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), else but think about it. It seemed to chapter of my first reading of the
Kubrick had intended to make a film me to be a unique and marvelous work book. One doesn't find actors of his
about Napoleon and had advanced of imagination and perhaps even genius in all shapes, sizes, and ages.
some considerable way toward the genius. The narrative invention was Nor does an actor find many charac-
project when it was postponed in the magical, the characters were bizarre ters like Alex, who is certainly one of
wake of studio retrenchments and and exciting, the ideas were brilliantly the most surprising and enjoyable in-
nervousness about big-budget commit- developed, and, equally important, ventions of fiction. I can think of only
ments. He turned instead to A Clock- the story was of a size and density
one other literary or dramatic com-
work Orange, Anthony Burgess's tour that could be adapted to film with-
parison, and that is with Richard III.
de force of identification with Alex, the out oversimplifying it or stripping it
Alex, like Richard, is a character whom
ultimate teen-ager. Part of the attrac- to the bones. In fact, it proved pos-
you should dislike and fear, and yet
tion of the novel for Kubrick was obvi- sible to retain most of the narrative
in the film. Many people have praised you find yourself drawn very quickly
ously its language, the Russian-based into his world and find yourself seeing
argot that Burgess called Nadsat. But, the special language of the book, which
is itself a stunning conception, but I things through his eyes. It's not easy
interestingly, it also strikes one as in
don't think sufficient praise has been to say how this is achieved, but it
a sense his first English film. Lolita
given for what might be called, for certainly has something to do with
almost consciously played down the
want of a better phrase, the ordinary his candor and wit and intelligence,
American landscape aspects of Nabo-
language, which is, of course, quite and the fact that all the other char-
kov's novel; Dr. Strangelove and 2001
were both international movies that extraordinary. For example, when the acters are lesser people, and in some
could have been made in any country Minister says at the end of his speech way worse people.
with the film-making resources. The to the press, "But enough of words.
satire of A Clockwork Orange, how- Actions speak louder than. Action now. Houston: The Richard III comparison
ever, seems specifically English in its Observe all," Burgess is doing some- is superb, but of course with Richard
lines of attack. Stanley Kubrick him- thing with language that is really you are safely in the past. There aren't
self hardly reacts to questions along marvelous. all the in-nnediate associations your
these lines, preferring to suggest that audience is going to have with contem-
he has simply filmed an English novel porary violence.
Houston: Both your last two films in-
on London locations, and that equiva-
volved you in a great deal of research Kubrick: I don't think there's anything
lents for most of the characters could
and background reading. It looks here to be concerned about here. There is a
be found in America or anywhere else.
as though you had filmed the novel very wide gulf between reality and fic-
Perhaps—but the impression persists
that Kubrick country has acquired an fairly straight, but did you in fact do tion, and when one is looking at a film
English province. research around the edges of the film the experience is much closer to a
—the brainwashing technique, for dream than anything else. In this day-
instance? dream, if you like, one can explore
Houston: Did you read Anthony Bur- ideas and situations which one is not
gess's book when it first came out in Kubrick: Some of my films have able to do in reality. One could ob-
1962? started with the accumulating of facts, viously not enjoy the activities of
and from the facts narrative ideas Richard III if one were actually in-
Kubrick: I first read the book about seemed to develop, but of course A volved with them, but we do enjoy
two-and-a-half years ago. It was given Clockwork Orange started with a Richard III—and so with Alex.
to me by Terry Southern while I was finished story, and I was quite happy Alex's adventures are a kind of psy-
making 2001, and due to the time to skip the birth pangs of developing chological myth. Our subconscious
pressure I was in, it joined that an original narrative. As far as tech- finds release in Alex, just as it finds re-
nical research is concerned, there ob- lease in dreams. It resents Alex being
Penelope Houston, one of Britain's best- viously wasn't a great deal required. stifled and repressed by authority,
known writers on films, is editor of Sight I had certainly read about behavioral however much our conscious mind
and Sound. psychology and conditioned-reflex ther- recognizes the necessity of doing this.
PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG
42 ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED SR/DECEMBEP 25. 1971
space ship in 2001 moved to The Blue
Danube. From the rape on the stage
of the derelict casino, to the super-
frenzied fight, through the Christ fig-
ures cut, to Beethoven's Ninth, the slow-
motion fight on the water's edge, and
the encounter with the cat lady where
the giant white phallus is pitted against
the bust of Beethoven, movement, cut-
ting, and music are the principal coa-
siderations—dance ?