GG-Re: Re: Pastorale Symphony

["Thomas W. Conklin" <tconklin@btc-bci.com>]

Hi Tim:

    Oh my Droogies, a Clockwork Orange has a central theme that is missed by
most viewers.  We function as an organic clock to such an extent that we
are, according to the vision of Burgess, incapable of escaping it.  When we
watch rape and brutality set to the most gorgeous music in the movie, we
become excited and it is, in a sense, beautiful.  Even the playful music of
Singin in the Rain has its place with violence acted out in a kind of game.
Alex cannot truly be himself without Ludwig Van and Beethoven stands in the
center of the movie as the supreme combination of our love of violence and
our passion for the sublime and transcendental quality of great music.  The
BBC used the first notes of Beethoven's 5th as it's ID sounds during WWII.
Beethoven's 3rd was written in praise of Napoleon.  If we gum up Alex's
gears by torturing him with the 9th while he views violent scenes, we turn
him into a man incapable both of responding in violence or with creativity.
Of course, the book was much better than the film mainly because of the
Russian/English slang language.  Both are classics of the 20th Century.

Tom

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Conway" <timcon@COMSWEST.NET.AU>
To: <F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, November 18, 2000 4:09 AM
Subject: Re: Pastorale Symphony


> Dominic Lesnar wrote:
>
> >When that episode originally aired, a friend was so moved by that scene
and
> >Beethoven's music (he had no idea of the source of the music, just that
it
> >was *good*) that I was obliged to give him a birthday gift of... the 6th
> >symphony! (Not Gould's version). Hmm, I doubt he's since listened to it,
but
> >each time they air that episode I dig mine out and enjoy the babbling
brooks
> >which surround me!
>
> Has nobody seen Disney's cartoon 'Fantasia', first released in, I think,
> the 1940s? It has the most joyous (and perhaps kitsch) representation of
> LvB's Pastoral (not Pastorale) Symphony ever devised, complete with a
> non-PC, fat, belching, quaffing Bacchus and numerous fawns, nymphs,
> satyrs and assorted tosspots and nubiles. An 'improved' Fantasia has
> recently been released but I'm not sure in what way the improvement is
> achieved. It is designated a 'kids' film but if you haven't seen it, give
> it a go when it hits your video store. The JSB T&F in d-minor alone is
> worth the hire price.
>
> ...and then Max Kuenkel wrote:
>
> >Yes, that scene is magical. I'm sure that scene is used in film schools.
> >It's one long take, if I remember correctly (I haven't watched TV in over
a
> >year). What a wonderful scene. I wonder how many people got turned on to
> >classical music by watching that scene. Maybe a lot. Of course, the same
> >could be said for the famous death scene in "Soylent Green". If anything,
> >that was even more powerful, perhaps the most powerful use of Beethoven's
> >music in any movie, ever. If you haven't seen it, watch Soylent Green.
There
> >is only a minute or two from the 6th symphony, but that minute will blow
you
> >away.
>
> OMFIAMP (One man's fish is another man's poison), but although I've never
> seen Soylent Green I have seen A Clockwork Orange. Stanley Kubrycht
> (sp?), the producer and director, bought the screen rights of AB's novel
> from Anthony Burgess, so the story goes (although it may be that K bought
> the rights from someone else who had previously bought them from AB) for
> a mere £200 or thereabouts when AB was ill and impoverished in, I think,
> the late 1950s. Luckily, AB made his way in the world through his other
> writings.
>
> A Clockwork Orange is a powerful work and features a 'hero', Alex, a
> young thug who beats people up but loves LvB, in particular the 9th
> Symphony. This is all set in the future, and in 1963, the year the film
> was first released, the most futuristic way of playing music was by
> cassette tape. Wow. Nonetheless, that particular lack of vision in no way
> detracts from the film, its story or the magnificent score. Most people
> will remember the absolutely incredibly _right_ use of the The Beautiful
> Blue Danube for the docking of the space craft in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
> Kubrycht was a master when it came to choosing music for films.
>
> Beethoven's 9th permeates the film in the most powerful way imaginable.
> One of the nastiest scenes is set to our hero singing Singing In The
> Rain. However, Alex's love of the 9th was imbedded in AB's novel and was
> not chosen by SK.
>
> Kubrycht allowed distribution of the film for a while in the early 1960s
> and then withdrew the film because, I think, of bad reviews. Now that he
> is dead, the owners of the film have re-released it. Give it a go (but
> tell your aunt to close her eyes when the music gets 'nice').
>
>
> Tim Conway
> Broome, WA, Oz
>