A Clockwork Orange (1971)

 Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange from 1971 is a masterpiece in psychological cinema. The film follows a leader of a gang named Alexander Delarge who thrives on chaos. After Alex's arrest he is put through a psychological aversion therapy known as the Ludovico Technique. Alex is released back into society as a "reformed" person and eventually attempts suicide where he wakes up in a hospital after surviving. Due to his suicide attempt the general public is against the technique as they believe that it is inhumane. Alex is soon reverted to his natural violent state.

This film explores themes of government control and free will. Is it better to be forced to be good or be evil by choice? This is the question that the film asks us. Honestly I think that it is better to be evil by choice. By forcing someone to be "good" you are taking away the human aspect of a person. Although this may reduce crime it is unethical and bad for society to implement.

When this film was released it was seen as something to steer clear of. When it released no one had seen anything like it. The world was not ready for this film but the film was ready for this world. It's like that one Back to The Future quote: "I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet, but your kids will love it." The ultraviolence depicted in the film was too much for audiences in the past but as we see now in films it is more widely accepted. This film is not violent just to be violent, it is violent in order to make a point. There is a difference. People seem to gloss over this fact and take the film for what they think it is rather than what it really is. People don't see the message, people only see the violence. Although modern films are violent we still rarely see anything like this.

The violence is choreographed in the same vain that a Broadway show would be. The film is also accompanied by beautiful music which is in contrast to the dark and gloomy atmosphere that this film provides us with.

Although this film may not be for everyone I still believe that it is worth a watch.

Napoléon (1927)

I recently purchased the Blu-Ray off of Amazon. The restoration of this film was done over 50 years by film historian Kevin Brownlow. This five and a half hour long masterpiece chronicles the early rise of Napoléon Bonaparte.

Napoléon (1927) is my favorite film of all time. This film was meant to be the first of a hexology of films chronicling the life of Napoléon Bonaparte. Abel Gance ended up overbudgeting on the first of them and left us with what we have today. The film opens with a snowball fight at the military school Brienne which Bonaparte attended as a child. It ends with the first Italian campaign which is projected on a 4:1 aspect ratio.

The film uses a panorama technique akin to cinerama known as polyvision. This image was created by aligning three 4:3 cameras next to each other in order to make the panorama. When multiplying 4:3 three times you get this aspect ratio. In theaters this film was accompanied by a live orchestra playing beautiful music in contrast to three different silver screens lined up together to make a wider image.

This same technique was used earlier in the film at Brienne where we see nine screens projecting a pillow fight from nine different perspectives!

The same technique was used during a scene where a tempest at sea is contrasted and intercut with The Reign of Terror. In the Kevin Brownlow restoration of the film we can't see this. It was lost and eventually reconstructed to a single screen version where we can see different overlays and fast cutting across the screen.

The director of the film Abel Gance would never put down the pen and continued to build off of this film until 1971! Gance first made a sound version of the film released as Napoléon Bonaparte (1935) which was followed up with several other editions. During the 1935 version we actually do not see the triple screen finale at the end of the film. Later in 1955 Gance followed up with the 1935 version but with the triple screen finale. This then became a television movie in the 1960s which then lead to 1971 with Bonaparte et la Revolution. This four and a half hour Frankenstein-like biopic was made. You may be wondering why I am calling it a "Frankenstein biopic." Well Gance used footage from his other films such as Austerlitz (1960) where he stitched together different footage to make one sound film.