Re: Pastorale Symphony

[Tim Conway <timcon@COMSWEST.NET.AU>]

Bob/Elmer wrote:

>You suggest that ACO was yanked and wasn't a very much-seen movie. Nothing
could
>be farther from the truth. It's can't even be called a cult film, it's one of
the
>most oft-watched and best-known movies ever released worldwide; images from it
>are as well recognized as King Kong. I think not long ago the ever-protective
>Lord High Muckymuck Chancellor or whatever in the UK tried to ban it again.
Too
>late. Everyone's seen it and will keep watching it forever. It's a brilliant
film.

Maybe it was seen often in the States but it wasn't in the UK or
Australia, and I'm not sure it was ever released in large parts of Asia.
(Kate Clunies-Ross seems to agree about the UK: after its initial release
it was withdrawn until some scenes were cut out, but Kubrick refused to
cut anything and thereby effectively banned it. In Australia I'm not sure
what happened because I came here to live in only 1991, but until this
year only bootleg copies of the video existed.)

>A very interesting story I heard (it may be just an Urban Legend) is that a
>doctor told Burgess he had only a year to live, and Burgess thought, "Oh my
God,
>what do I most want to do that I haven't done?" He thought he'd always wanted
to
>try to write a novel, so he wrote ACO. Then -- like an episode of a lousy TV
>sitcom -- it turned out there'd been a mistake in the x-rays, and he wasn't
dying
>after all. He went on to write a swell novel about his experiences in Russia
>called "Honey for the Bears," and probably lots of other stuff I don't know
>about.

Burgess's first book (ie, to be published) is Devil of a State and is
about Brunei, where he was a teacher for a while. I lived in Brunei from
1967 to 1971 and spoke to a few people who still remembered him, not
always happily, alas. Burgess also taught in Malaya, as it then was, and
did indeed return to England when diagnosed with, I think, a brain tumour
that in the end wasn't. He set out to write 4 novels in the hope that
their royalties would provide something for his widow-to-be to live on.

Burgess was an interesting character. He must have heard of GG, perhaps
even knew his playing well, but I don't think he writes anywhere about GG
or whether he liked his style of playing. Burgess lived in Italy and
other parts of the Continent for much of his later life so it's possible
that GG didn't impinge on him much, but it would be interesting (to me,
anyway) to know what his opinion of GG was, as both performer and person.

>(Tim, did you like the episode when the Simpsons visited Australia?)

Er, um, gulp -- it's confession time: I've never watched The Simpsons. Or
South Park. Or any of those similar cartoon creations. Sorry. (Do I have
to resign from the List now?) Regards to all,


Tim Conway
Broome, WA, Oz