NOTE: The auction this project was based on ended with someone else winning as the higher bidder. As of this time, there is no further progress unless a new print is found.

Quick first note, meant to write 1971 not 1980 for the year for clarification.

Anyways, it has come to my attention that an auction for a 35mm print of A Clockwork Orange has shown up on eBay recently.

Given the amount of interest that people had with Gweedo16’s Italian Eyes Wide Shut thread, I thought I’d give making a thread here a shot and see if it’d be possible to collect donations before the auction ends in 7 days.

35 mm Film

Uhrwerk Orange

Deutscher Lichtton
trotz sinem Alter guter Zustand und Farbe
mechanisch i.o.

Google Translation

German light tone
good condition and color despite its age
mechanically ok

As you can see, it’s a German print, however it should be fairly easy to sync up the original English mono track once it gets scanned. Also, according to the seller’s description translation, the print is in good color, which is not something you see every day for a movie of this age (as all other listings I am aware of from the past are all faded red). Furtherly, I can confirm that the movie was apparently uncut in Germany ( https://ssl.ofdb.de/view.php?page=fassung&fid=1061&vid=121522 ), so thankfully that’s not something to worry about.

Currently, the auction is sitting at €36~ and will no doubt spike before the end. However, the good news is since it’s overseas, the scan rates will be cheaper than any of my typical preservations, going at €30 per reel rather than $5 per minute.

What this means is, in short, the scan itself will merely be €240. The total cost will no doubt be much higher as one will have to account the costs of shipping and a hard drive and the print itself, but it’ll all likely still be cheaper than one of my usual attempts.

The main thing at the moment is to be able to secure enough donations to ensure that the print can be bought for preservation (since all of the aforementioned costs can be worried about later as they’re not on a deadline). By my guess, the auction will likely be at least €300~, though for all we know, luck could be on our side and will only end up needing €150~.

So in short, if anyone is interested in helping to secure this print, please pledge within the following 7 days!