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A Leading Aim Of Auteurism Is To Differentiate One Body Of Films From Others ...


A leading aim of auteurism is to differentiate one body of films from others to say what is unique about the work of a given film-maker. In this way auteurism is connected to connoisseurship. This is not to say that auteurism need lack an explanatory dimension; the auteurist may explain how certain recurring elements in a work are expressive about his points of view. The auteurist project, however, in terms of its ‘bottom line', remains tied to differentiating one film-maker's oeuvre from those of the others. And this concern with differentiation skews the stylistic analyses that the auteurist is apt to render of individual films.
This quotation leads logically onto analysis of Kubrick's most stylistic (and deeply controversial) film, A Clockwork Orange (1971). More than any other film, A Clockwork Orange best displays Kubrick's ability to move beyond traditional notions of genre in order to leave his own personal style and imprint on the production. Also, more than any other film discussed herein, A Clockwork Orange is by far the most susceptible to misconceived perceptions about the exact purpose of the film, exacerbated by the director himself imposing a strict ban on screening the movie inside of the United Kingdom where the movie is set.
The movie follows the escapades of Alex (played by Malcolm McDowell) and his small gang of English delinquent hooligans as they rape, pillage and plunder their way through a world not so much futuristic as present in a warped state, as if the director has stumbled across a parallel universe in which morality is bankrupt and society's customs have been airbrushed from memory. Thus, there is the strange sense of numbness that greets the viewer of A Clockwork Orange when they are faced at once by the horrific violence and immorality of Alex and his gang, and the equally barbarous way in which society sees fit to discipline these innately wayward characters. While Alex is subjected to a harsh prison existence followed by a vaguely Nazi solution to his problems (torture and controversial scientific methods aimed at ‘curing' the immoral individual), the rest of his gang are elevated to the position of guardians of the law. When the two factions come face to face again, we find ourselves feeling sympathy for neither the law nor the law breaker, which leaves the audience in a strange kind of emotional limbo. Therefore, the chief criticism aimed at A Clockwork Orange consists not only of the fundamental immorality of the film but also the way in which the director elects not to add his view on the subject matter to the film-making process.


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