A Clockwork Orange : Analysis of opening sequence
iview Author: Shashank Walia (Delhi, India)
Email: shashankwalia [at] live.com
Content: Analysis of the opening sequence of Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” in accordance with the classic essay “Visual Pleasure and Narative Cinema” by Laura Mulvey.
The opening sequence of Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange is set in a milk bar where the central character of the film Alex with his four droogs is stimulated by a nightly beverage of “milk-plus” and is now in the mood for some “old ultra violence”. The milk bar doesn’t have a female precense in human form but its is very much there in the form of mannequin. The design of the bar is quite erotic and full of sexual references; the presence of nude figures of women in various different positions reflects the concept of sexual pleasure, lesbianism and pervertness. Now this is a perfect example of skilled and satisfying manipulation of visual pleasure by Hollywood.
Laura Mulvey in her article stated that woman displayed as sexual object is the leit-motif of erotic spectacle: from pin-ups to striptease, from Ziegfeld to Busby Berkeley, she holds the look, plays to and signifies male desire. This scene actually reflects the extremity of male sexual desire when in the narration Alex states that after drinking milk they have earned strength and are now in mood for some old ultra-violence, major part of whose is subjected to fulfillment of their sexual desires. The mannequin in the bar is symbolically used to present the buildup of the sexual desire of the male population present there. Mulvey further states that scopophilic, arises from pleasure in using another person as an object of sexual stimulation through sight.
The sets, the background score, the gestures of acting, the setting, the narrative and the camera in the scene completely justifies the statement given by Mulvey. The central character of the film who is an anti-hero personality is gazing directly into the camera which is moving backwards (dolly out) revealing the nude mannequins which acts as a device of sexual stimulation for the male viewers. Parallel to depiction of female figure in films Mulvey also presents the reaction theory when she states that traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium, with a shifting tension between the looks on either side of the screen. This scene completely agrees with this argument of two levels – the mannequin does act as a source of erotica for the character within the frame but also for the spectator who keeps on shifting focus from the characters in frame to nude figures. The background score is highly aggressive in nature with focused violent male dialogues running parallel which clearly reflects the dominance of masculinity over feminine persona.
Female figure in the scene is used as serving agents to their counterparts, the forbidden and private parts of their body are exaggerated and are projected as devices to fulfill the services. The filmmaker not only presents female figure in the scene as oppressed ones physically but also psychologically by the means of gestures of the mannequins. Male figure in the frame are standing straight reflecting their power and dominance whereas female figures are either lying performing some kind of sexual act or bend towards the male so as to provide some kind of service to them. Another very important aspect which is revealed in the later scene is the use of female mannequin as a machine which further strengthens the argument of Mulvey of use of feminine figures as an erotic and oppressed object in cinema.
Tags: A Clockwork Orange, Laura Mulvey, Stanley Kubrick, World Cinema
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
stanley kubrick is one of the most original directors ever and it is shown in abundance -in this movie, as to why he is So.
Amazing sequence , this one is – sets the tone for the movie. Some of the shots are so strongly shot, you cant ignore this movie. It just keeps coming back to you…. and what brilliant music. BGM is easily one of the best ever for any movie. period.
Very well written. This is a landmark film whose each scene can be and deserves to be deeply analysed again and again..
from what i’ve heard, kubrick was one of the rare directors who enjoyed the right to the coveted final cut. the producers were in such awe of him that it’s unheard of.
kubrick is a fantastic director; and every scene in this movie is worth analyzing so closely bcos every shot taken has a story to tell. the use of lighting and the camera-work was brilliant. kubrick is a genius
Korova milk bar……Alex and his droogies…….indulging in intoxication…to trigger der thirst for ultra-violence………
man..this was some film…..
the most amazing thing about the opening sequence is that…the way it comes back in the middle and in the end….establishing exactly the scenario of Alex’s life….amazing….simply superb
I completelly agree with all of you…Kubrick was a master filmmaker………..although he was a step son of cinema but the best one too….
Good article..infact alex and is friends had their crotch accentuated with their attire to indicate male dominance.
I believe the book “viddy” good..:)
on the contrary, the argument of Mulvey of use of feminine figures as an erotic and oppressed object in cinema is also critiqued by kubrick in a later sequence where the female is used to fill in the protagonist with absolute negativity and horror.
in the sequence where alex is forced to c the female gettin raped by 6 different men, alex is nt only disgusted but also starts to feel sick at the plight of the female n the fact that wen he did the same thg, it gave him pleasure bt watching the same thg is givin him disgust.
Your point does hold some strenth but actually, the later scene which you are talking about doesn’t directly critiques the Mulvey’s theory but actually starts a whole new discussion about the concept of prison reforms and establishment over indulgence in psyche repair of an indiviual by experimenting biologically and physically too. But yes your connotation can’t be ignored.
i said kubrick critiques the point n tries to balance it in the same film. the discussion bout the concept of prison reforms is a separate entity all together. but my point was simply the fact that same female figure was used to critique the earlier portrayal of female figure by kubrick. n since that female scene lasted only about 10-20 seconds, in contrast with the beginning sequence that also lasted for a very short span of time.
well its all bout semiotics n discourse !!
if i will take out one point, u cn critique or agree with it but i dont shrug away frm wat i said.
i believe in it.