Despite being one of Stanley Kubrick's greatest's films along with Espartaco , Lolita , Paths of Glory and therefore a cinema masterpiece, 'A Clockwork Orange' was banned by Spain's Franco government, a dictatorship that had ruled the country for over 35 years after a bloody civil war . However, it was surprisingly premiered in a religious and human values festival : Seminci , in the small Castilian town of Valladolid . How could something like this even happen ? This documentary, in which Malcolm McDowell , main character in A Clockwork Orange and , in voice in off , tells his experiences and relation with Stanley Kubrick , aims to take the sectators on an adventure that answers that very question, but also poses an even greater one: can a movie change the world?
An agreeable documentary concerning the tumultuous times in the Seventies when in a little city about 200.000 people was premiered the film most prohibited in the history , adding the country was submitted to the Francoist dictatorship and a strict censorship that usually cut images of polemic movies . This splendid documentary shows professionality and experience in its realization , in fact it was made by expert Pedro González Bermúdez , he's a good Spanish writer and director, and his work has been mainly devoted to documentary filmmaking. Here he deals with the Seventies , there was an age of convulsion , worker strikes , student protests , and manifestations . That's why , authorities orderered to close Valladolid University , subsequently took place more strikes , student assemblies , protests and various students were judged by Tribunal Orden Publico : T. O. P. , or Public Order Trial . The documentary also depicts other films that convulsed at the time as ¨Last Tango in Paris¨ with Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider , ¨Emmanuelle¨ with Silvia Kristel , and other erotic pictures , the reason for thousands of Spanish people travelled to Perpignan and Paris . Furthermore , another Spanish movie ¨Eloy De La Iglesia's Una Gota de Sangre para Morir Amando¨ in USA titled ¨Clockwork Terror¨ , in Spain nicknamed ¨La Mandarina Mecanica¨, and made in similar style , was relesased with not cuts , it was a rip-off that even starred Sue Lyon , the famous starring in ¨Lolita¨. However , the polemic ¨Jesus Christ Superstar¨ by Norman Jewison was freely exhibited , as it was released not without problems because there were some protests and demonstrations of ultra-religious groups .
The Clockwork Orange's visuals clashed head-on with the regime's rigid moral and resulting in the submitting of these thorny films on the religious principles . That's why censors wished to clamp down on any kind of erotic images , extreme violence , nudism or subversive ideas in the Francoist Spain . Surprisingly, however, ¨Clockwork Orange¨ premiered uncensored at a long-runningering Catholic film festival, the Seminci in Valladolid, located in one of Spain's most conservative cities . Along with Malcolm McDowall here collaborates the prestigious writer Vicent Molina Foix telling his experience as the Spanish translator and its complex difficulty and his interview to his loved Stanley Kubrick . The film was well directed by expert documentalist Pedro González Bermúdez . He has received a whole host of awards and prizes throughout his career, such as the Goya award for best short documentary film for Return to Viridiana in 2014; he won 5 Gold Medals in the New York Film Festivals for Nostromo: David Lean's impossible dream in 2017; he was nominated for the Goya for best documentary and won 2 Gold Medals in the New York Film Festivals for When Better Davis bid farewell in 2015 and he has won various Promax and BDA awards. He has made a number of television programs for TCM Spain, TNT Spain and CNN and many more documentaries such as The Producer (2006), Sacristán: In the front row of the Gods (2014), Half-cocked: Remembering Iván Zulueta (2010), Rawan (2009), The Magnificent 10 (2008) and Cruz Delgado, a Quijote of Spanish animation (2008).
