A Clockwork Orange

  • Tuesday January 15, 2019 7:00 PM

A Clockwork Orange, 1971
136 minutes

Enjoy happy hour at Café Modern before the film!

A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 dystopian crime film adapted, produced, and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel by the same name. Malcolm McDowell stars as Alex, a charismatic, antisocial delinquent. The film chronicles the horrific crime spree of Alex’s gang, then his capture and attempted rehabilitation via an experimental psychological conditioning technique by the Minister of the Interior. In his catalogue essay for Big Camera/Little Camera, Omar Kholeif points out that Simmons, “keen to pry apart the binary construction of male/female desire and the ways in which it is portrayed on screen,” assigns the role of Alex to Ellie in My Art. As she dons the character’s black hat and frayed eyelashes, she leaves the viewer to ponder, “Is she a man, or is she a woman playing a man, who may be, in part, playing a woman?”  

Tuesday Evenings at the Modern: Films is an extension of the Modern’s weekly speaker series, Tuesday Evenings at the Modern. This special winter version of Tuesday Evenings at the Modern: Films is in conjunction with Laurie Simmons: Big Camera/Little Camera, as it traces references made in Simmons’s own feature-length film, My Art, 2016In My Art, the film’s protagonist, Ellie, a 65-year-old artist played by Simmons, enlists those around her to play various roles in restaging excerpts from old movies, which are threaded together in Ellie’s art to address nostalgia and memory.

To create a full experience for audiences, as with the lecture series, these presentations include a brief introduction and opportunity for discussion following the films. Seating is available in the Modern’s auditorium at 6:30 pm, and the program runs from 7 pm to no later than 9 pm. With this special program, the museum’s galleries and Café Modern are open until 7 pm. Tuesday Evenings at the Modern: Films is free and open to the public. Up to two free tickets can be attained at the admission desk beginning at 5 pm the day of each screening.