American cinematographer - the old ultra violence KUBRICK

American Cinematographer – The old ultra-violence

Vincent LoBrutto

October 1999

Source: American Cinematographer, October 1999, Vol. 80 Issue 10, p52

Item: 505834968

When A Clockwork Orange was released in 1971, the nightmarish near-future world depicted in the film seemed closer to reality than ever. The "free love" mood of the Sixties was officially over. Hippies were being retired and the boils of punk nihilism were beginning to fester. Watergate loomed up ahead, and "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" was the youth culture's new mantra

"A Clockwork Orange employed a darker, more obviously dramatic type of photography," Alcott told AC in 1976. "It was a modern story taking place in an advanced period of the 1980s -- although the period was never actually pinpointed in the picture. It called for a really cold, stark style of photography."

Kubrick's adaptation of the novel is depicted in three segments. In the first, Alex and his gang terrorize the locals with their lust for sex and violence. Next, Alex is imprisoned and selected for the Ludovico treatment. Finally, after his release, Alex's victims get their revenge, but in the end, Alex's glee for mayhem returns -- man cannot alter his fate. Each of the three sections has a distinctive color palette and camera style that expresses the narrative. To depict Alex's fondness for "ultra-violence," Kubrick and Alcott employed a bright color presentation with high-key lighting, fluid zooms, and dolly shots. Alex's time in prison and reprogramming is rendered in cool, flat tones, as long takes and subtle camera moves create a somber and then clinical atmosphere. The last segment returns to the environment of the first, but is rendered in gray and low-key tones. Flatter lighting and desaturated colors help to define Alex's comeuppance.

Understanding that filmmaking is as much a mechanical craft as it is an artistic endeavor, Kubrick has always kept abreast of technical innovations which he could possibly implement in his productions. However, many of his aesthetic and conceptual ideas reached beyond off-the-shelf technology.

For this film, Kubrick envisioned shots that would utilize extremely long, continuous zooms.

A Clockwork Orange was shot on location for $2 million during the winter of 1970-71. Kubrick's home, then outside London in Abbot's Mead, was the command center for the production. The property included editing rooms and a music facility which had a carefully catalogued record collection. The director had screening facilities in his living room, and a garage that served as his office. "Kubrick said, 'I want to make the movie within an hour and a half's travel time of my house, so figure out how far I can reach in that time in the rush hour,'" line producer Bernie Williams told Neon magazine. "We sent an army of production assistants to go out and shoot stills and do homework on locations. We bought 20 VW minivans, and made them into mobile offices and prop trucks so we could get around more quickly."

Kubrick wanted to create his near-future world by utilizing the modern architecture of contemporary England.

New lens technology made it easier to shoot on location while maintaining Kubrick's strict technical standards.

The f.95 lens made it possible to shoot in a room with natural light until late in the afternoon with 200 percent less light than the earlier standard f2.0 lenses required.

Since Kubrick's early days as a still photographer, he had centered his compositions. Centered and counterbalanced images are pleasing to the eye and respect the frame that embraces them. A centered image represents order, control, discipline, logic and organization -- the very qualities inherent in Kubrick's personality. Shot by shot, Clockwork generally maintains these austere principles, yet the filmmaker recognized that telling Alex's tale also required the use of more avant-garde camera techniques. "Telling a story realistically is such a slowpoke and ponderous way to proceed, and it doesn't fulfill the psychic needs that people have," the director told Paul D. Zimmerman of Newsweek. "We sense that there's more to life and to the universe than realism can possibly deal with."

Kubrick told Joseph Gelmis of Newday, "I wanted to find a way to stylize all of this violence, and also to make it as balletic as possible." Toward this end, the director over-and undercranked the camera to cinematically interpret the film's graphic images of brutality, transforming the acts into something beyond mere explicitness. "The attempted rape on stage has the overtones of a ballet," Kubrick commented. "The speeded-up orgy sequence is a joke. That scene took about 28 minutes to shoot at two frames a second. It lasts on screen about 40 seconds. Alex's fight with his droogs would have lasted about 14 seconds if it wasn't in slow motion. I wanted to slow it to a lovely floating movement."

Partially for the sake of production speed and economy, Kubrick and Alcott primarily relied on practical lamps to light the film. Both the Korova Milkbar and the health farm feature clusters of bare Photoflood bulbs built into futuristic fixtures, while other scenes -- such as those set in the prison -- feature single bulbs strung simply from the ceiling, or exposed fluorescent tubes glowing brightly. Color temperatures often clash.

To supplement this illumination, Alcott often used very lightweight Lowel 1,000-watt quartz lights bounced off the ceiling or reflective umbrellas. This approach allowed Kubrick to shoot 360-degree pans without concern for hiding cumbersome studio lamps, though larger sources were required for many scenes, such as when Alex and his gang assault an old drunk in a harshly lit underground alley. "I find that the Lowel light has a far greater range of illumination from flood to spot than any other light I know of," Alcott would later note. "In fact, it's the only light of its kind that gives you a fantastic spot, if you need it, and an absolute overall flood. Also, when you put a flag over most quartz lights you get a double shadow -- but not with the Lowels. But then, of course, they were designed by a cameraman."

The Clockwork production was originally slated to shoot for 10 weeks, but ultimately took close to a year. Kubrick's usual high shooting ratio and meticulous methods contributed to the lengthy production schedule. The director demanded 30 takes for the shot in which Alex unexpectedly whacks Dim (Warren Clarke) with a heavy walking stick while they lounge at the Korova. During the shooting of the scene in which Alex bludgeons the Cat Lady (Miriam Karlin) to death with a large penis sculpture, the technical crew was crouched down outside the room while the director personally filmed McDowell and Karlin with his handheld Arri 2C. Writer Alexander Walker was an observer and participant in the event. "Kubrick had decided to shoot the fight to the death in 360 degrees with a handheld camera; the Steadicam hadn't been invented at that point," Walker told Neon magazine. "Kubrick held onto the camera, the man with the power-pack held onto Kubrick [from behind], and I held onto the man with the power-pack. We were whirling around and it was very difficult to control [our] momentum; we'd end up in a heap on the floor, or I'd be swung around and end up in shot."

  Music was a crucial element at the center of Burgess's story, exemplified by Alex's supreme love for the works of Beethoven. Kubrick wanted classical music throughout the film to provide point and counterpoint with the story. In order to bring a futuristic quality to 18th-century motifs, Kubrick looked to electronics.

Although Kubrick continued to control every aspect of the cinematography on his films, Alcott made an enduring and distinctive contribution to A Clockwork Orange, as well as Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (for which he earned an Academy Award for Best Cinematography -- see AC Mar. '76), and The Shining (AC Aug. '80). The use of light in these films is intrinsically linked to Alcott, marking just one of the many contributions he brought to his work with Kubrick.