£6.00
(£4.50 conc.)
Doors 2:00pm
Film 2:30pm
A new book and film club for avid readers and Deptford cinephiles. Every second Sunday afternoon of the month, we will meet up to watch a film adaptation of a book or a writer’s biopic. After the screening, there will be an informal chat about the book and the film, upstairs in the bar. There will be cake!
dir. Stanley Kubrick
year. 1971
country. UK, USA
run-time. 136min
rating. 18
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)
based on the novel
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
We launch in October with a screening of Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.
A Clockwork Orange arrived in 1962 as a dystopian novel by Anthony Burgess and by 1971 had been adapted into the controversial and acclaimed film by Stanley Kubrick. Along the way it became one of earliest sparks in what has become the fiery debate about whether or not art that engages with violence is instigator or mirror.
Unlike Stephen King who took years to come to terms with Kubrick’s artistic assault on The Shining, Burgess was generally positive about the film adaptation of his novel, even worrying that it might be too seductive. It was a view that came to be shared by Kubrick who ultimately requested that Warner Brothers remove the film from UK distribution in 1973 after media coverage associated it with instances of "copycat" violence and linked it to at least two murders. It was more than a quarter of a century later, after Kubrick's death, that the film could finally be seen in the UK unrestricted.
We are left with a book that has been named by Modern Library as one of the best 100 books of the 20th century and a film that was both nominated for the Best Picture Oscar and given a Condemned rating by the catholic church. Indeed, a real horrorshow few rassoodocks could achieve.