A Clockwork Orange

"Initiative comes to thems that wait." Alex

"Initiative comes to thems that wait." Alex

☆ Masterpiece 

A Clockwork Orange (1971) is a comedic horror satire on society.

Directed by Stanley Kubrick.

Starring Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee and  Adrienne Corri among many others.


A Clockwork Orange is Kubrick's faithful reproduction of Anthony Burgess novella, A Clockwork Orange. The interesting thing to me about this faithful adaptation is that Kubrick based his film on an incomplete novella whose redemptive final chapter was omitted until 1986 by Burgess American publisher. Priceless. Anthony enjoyed the film and especially Malcolm McDowell's performance, even though the films ending was not as hopeful and his. Stanley set out to show a society where both the left and the right political views are extreme and dangerous.

What I enjoyed most about this ultra violent film was the unique direction that Stanley employed with his wide angle lens and Malcolm's performance. McDowell's point of view is filmed with a wide lens and when we are just viewing Malcolm, Kubrick uses a normal lens to make him appear sane.

The scene below is utterly amazing as far as direction and acting. Watch how Kubrick switches from a regular lens at the start. Stanley shows Malcolm normal with a regular lens, then switches to a wide angle lens during the fight with the woman and back to a regular lens after the fight. The scene's violence comes off as comedic and absurd. Malcolm owns the entire scene and the film with his accurate, fearless portrayal of his homicidal, rapist character.





Trivia - This was the first film to use Dolby noise reduction during filming.







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New York State of Mind - Alicia Keyes and Jay-Z


"In New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of. " Alicia

"In New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of. " Alicia

☆ Classic 

New York State of Mind (2009) is an uplifting music video.

Directed by MTV VMA Awards.

Starring Alicia Keys and Jay-Z.

What I find remarkable about this video is that we get to see Shawn Carter transform backstage into Jay-Z. Shawn grabs his microphone, puts on his Yankees baseball cap and Jay-Z emerges from the back of the stage like Clark Kent emerging from a phone booth as Superman. Another remarkable point in the video is how Alicia uses the prior note to step into to spring off into her high notes when she belts out New York. The third remarkable point I find in this video is how composed they stay when someone jumps on stage at the end. Both acknowledge the stage intruder and then stay in character and the audience does likewise and the stage intruder is left isolated, alone and looking foolish. The audience empathy stays with Alicia and Jay-Z.







Trivia - The MTV VMA Awards show was the first tie Alicia and Jay-Z performed the song together on stage.





Rocky

"Women weaken the legs." Mickey

"Women weaken legs." Mickey
☆ Iconic 

Rocky (1976) is the greatest film ever made.

Directed by John G. Avildsen.

Starring Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Carl Weathers, Burt Young and Burgess Meredith.

Stallone's Rocky, will go down in historical film annals for its simple, straight forward story telling of humanities universal themes of love, commitment, honor, selfless heroics. One thousand years from now audiences will easily understand Sylvester's film. Actually, if King Leonidas, or Mark Anthony or Lord Nelson or Winston Churchill where shown Rocky they would easily relate to Rocky's story and his heroics. Sylvester does not use clever plots, or sophisticated dialogue, or screwball antics or visionary cinematographic imagery to tell his extraordinary tale. Stallone instead just tells us a story as old as man in a simple, straight forward manner that grabs us from the opening credits to its powerful ending.

Watch the tenderness, humor, poignancy and hope that Stallone employs to win Shire's heart in the romantic scene below. It brings back memories of me doing the same things to win the love of someone I desperately wanted to bring romantically into my life. Stallone's desperate call to Adrienne at the end of the film mimic's Marlon Brando's desperate call to Stella in A Street Car Named Desire (1951)






Trivia - Stallone was inspired by the Wepner - Ali fight in 1975 in which Wepner lasted 15 rounds in-spite of a broken nose and large cuts above both eyes.