A Forbidden Orange (2021) Poster

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7/10
Engaging and interesing documentary dealing with the premiere in Valladolid of the troubled film Clockwork Orange
ma-cortes9 January 2022
Despite being one of Stanley Kubrick's greatest's films along with Espartaco , Lolita , Paths of Glory and therefore a cinema masterpiece, 'A Clockwork Orange' was banned by Spain's Franco government, a dictatorship that had ruled the country for over 35 years after a bloody civil war . However, it was surprisingly premiered in a religious and human values festival : Seminci , in the small Castilian town of Valladolid . How could something like this even happen ? This documentary, in which Malcolm McDowell , main character in A Clockwork Orange and , in voice in off , tells his experiences and relation with Stanley Kubrick , aims to take the sectators on an adventure that answers that very question, but also poses an even greater one: can a movie change the world?

An agreeable documentary concerning the tumultuous times in the Seventies when in a little city about 200.000 people was premiered the film most prohibited in the history , adding the country was submitted to the Francoist dictatorship and a strict censorship that usually cut images of polemic movies . This splendid documentary shows professionality and experience in its realization , in fact it was made by expert Pedro González Bermúdez , he's a good Spanish writer and director, and his work has been mainly devoted to documentary filmmaking. Here he deals with the Seventies , there was an age of convulsion , worker strikes , student protests , and manifestations . That's why , authorities orderered to close Valladolid University , subsequently took place more strikes , student assemblies , protests and various students were judged by Tribunal Orden Publico : T. O. P. , or Public Order Trial . The documentary also depicts other films that convulsed at the time as ¨Last Tango in Paris¨ with Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider , ¨Emmanuelle¨ with Silvia Kristel , and other erotic pictures , the reason for thousands of Spanish people travelled to Perpignan and Paris . Furthermore , another Spanish movie ¨Eloy De La Iglesia's Una Gota de Sangre para Morir Amando¨ in USA titled ¨Clockwork Terror¨ , in Spain nicknamed ¨La Mandarina Mecanica¨, and made in similar style , was relesased with not cuts , it was a rip-off that even starred Sue Lyon , the famous starring in ¨Lolita¨. However , the polemic ¨Jesus Christ Superstar¨ by Norman Jewison was freely exhibited , as it was released not without problems because there were some protests and demonstrations of ultra-religious groups .

The Clockwork Orange's visuals clashed head-on with the regime's rigid moral and resulting in the submitting of these thorny films on the religious principles . That's why censors wished to clamp down on any kind of erotic images , extreme violence , nudism or subversive ideas in the Francoist Spain . Surprisingly, however, ¨Clockwork Orange¨ premiered uncensored at a long-runningering Catholic film festival, the Seminci in Valladolid, located in one of Spain's most conservative cities . Along with Malcolm McDowall here collaborates the prestigious writer Vicent Molina Foix telling his experience as the Spanish translator and its complex difficulty and his interview to his loved Stanley Kubrick . The film was well directed by expert documentalist Pedro González Bermúdez . He has received a whole host of awards and prizes throughout his career, such as the Goya award for best short documentary film for Return to Viridiana in 2014; he won 5 Gold Medals in the New York Film Festivals for Nostromo: David Lean's impossible dream in 2017; he was nominated for the Goya for best documentary and won 2 Gold Medals in the New York Film Festivals for When Better Davis bid farewell in 2015 and he has won various Promax and BDA awards. He has made a number of television programs for TCM Spain, TNT Spain and CNN and many more documentaries such as The Producer (2006), Sacristán: In the front row of the Gods (2014), Half-cocked: Remembering Iván Zulueta (2010), Rawan (2009), The Magnificent 10 (2008) and Cruz Delgado, a Quijote of Spanish animation (2008).
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5/10
Sorry but it's peculiar for the wrong reasons...
pedronunesnomundo6 January 2022
If you thought this movie would be a blast for because of the Christian/Fascist/ArtHouse/Clockwork tensions brought to light by this historical document, you were wrong, guys... Every side of that "crazy" story is so trivial that the final sum could never result in an epic tale!... ...The mishaps narrated and the characters involved are cute though.
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3/10
Extremely peculiar documentary
garth-5126231 December 2021
This documentary is of note chiefly because it describes a situation in which very little of interest actually happened.

A film festival based in a Spanish university town wanted to screen A Clockwork Orange a few years after its release in the US. The film was generally banned from exhibition in Franco's Spain, but because of a push towards reducing censorship, the authorities allowed it. Festival-goers were very excited and stood in line to buy tickets for hours and hours. After seeing the movie, they reported that they liked it and were glad they'd had a chance to see it. That's it.

Surely a few people died in the rioting that followed the screening of such an incendiary film? Surely the Spanish government changed its mind and sent in tanks to prevent the exhibition? Surely the film festival's coordinators were jailed, their careers ruined, and their legs crippled by repeated beatings? No, no, and no.

A Clockwork Orange created a seismic cultural wave around the globe. There's a fascinating documentary to be made about its impact, but this damp and largely pointless tale isn't the one.
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9/10
Perspective, Please !
quotesdepot1 October 2022
The documentary on the attempts to screen A Clockwork Orange in Spain in 1971 under Franco is VERY VERY INTERESTING.

Oddly, many of the young people were not only disturbed by it, but didn't think it could be made today.

But one older man said, "Wrongness isn't erased by removing the reflection of something that is wrong." It was a film of its time about a time by a man of its time.

I, too, lived in and through that time. I doubt that many of those who criticise, either the film or this documentary, did. Chaplin's The Great Dictator would resonate MUCH more strongly with those who lived during WWII than those millennials who probably don't even know the century in which it was fought. Today is not THEN. Stop judging THEN by the standards of TODAY. Perfect knowledge and perfect perspective do not exist.

Many of the themes in the film foreshadowed the racial violence that happened in the 1990s and later, perhaps even the rise of violence and neo-fascism in the Republican Party.

The film has as a theme the unchecked prevalence of violence in society by self-satisfied mobs of those who feel that the violence they inflict is justified.

The film does not glorify violence. It is a reflection of the people and the society of the time, particularly in England. Except for some subversive political parties, we have, for the most part, moved forward. Not completely, not perfectly. But we humans, are, for the most part, a work in progress.

Don't shoot the mirror; don't shoot the messenger.
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Absurd premise. Clockwork was also banned in E. Europe socialist and communist countries
random-7077817 December 2021
This film sets up a strawman and absurd premise. In fact Clockwork was also banned in Easter European socialist and communist countries as well. Banned in Poland, Hungary, USSR, Bulgaria, Romania. Also banned in Japan, Ireland, Singapore.

It was NOT the general nihilism or a political impetration of that which cased the bans, it was a) the celebratory graphic rape of the Dutch girl while the rapists sung "Singing in the Rain" and b) several direct copycat crimes copying the "ultra violence" down the actual assult in the film and the costumes.

This is a time when LIBERAL societies as well as conservatives blamed, rightly or wrongly, severe increasing graphic violence in film, TV and other entertainment for violence in the real world. In the US, DEMOCRAT Al Gore and his wife made "offensive" and "violent" lyrics in songs, especially African American Rap songs their target, calling for bans.

This documentary is laughably in a bubble, making this about Franco and the church of Spain when it was a worldwide phenomena.

Burgress (the author of the novel "clockwork) and Kubrick (the film adaptor) delayed or reduced release in the UK itself due to some sensational copycat crimes.
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1/10
Reeeeeeeedickulous
Vlad_Imirivan20 December 2021
I 'loved' this movie for all the reasons a young man might.

And just love most all of Stan's movies.

But, I remember the controversy of the day, on the release and aftermath, and subsequent consequences that were accommodated by groups like Skinhead, punks etc, {if anyone remembers 1979 when the "Warriors come out to playeeeee!!")

I remember that Stan even asked Warner to withdraw the movie himself, Clockwork Orange was pulled from UK cinemas in 1973 and not officially seen in the UK again for over 25 years was down to Stan.

This is just money grab BS doco.
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