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A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1980) – 35mm Scan opportunity (WIP) - Help Wanted

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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!

If I seem inactive, check me on FanRes: https://forum.fanres.com/user-1389.html

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SpacemanDoug said:

What aspect ratio is it in?

Assumably, the print isn’t hard matted, which would allow for a 1.33 open-matted presentation in theory. However, I would most likely release the scan to 1.66 matted as Kubrick intended back in the day.

UPDATE: Actually it is hard-matted it seems

If I seem inactive, check me on FanRes: https://forum.fanres.com/user-1389.html

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“Stop It Stop It Please I Beg You!”
i remember this movie!
restore it this is a classic!

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Would like to participate, as well.

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Happy to help

Hello, although I have uploaded many things in the past, my Mega account was taken down recently. If you are looking for something I’ve previously said I uploaded, I may not have it anymore or know where it is. I’m sorry

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So unfortunate news on the matter of the auction: I did not win (having set the max bid to a little over €300). I guess someone out there very much wanted that print and set their maximum to God knows how much (it could’ve been over €500 for all I know, which is well out of my out-of-pocket budget).

So what does that mean for this thread? Well, for the time being there won’t be a scan on the horizon, though I do intend to hunt down another print of the movie to see if that can be scanned in the stead of this German one (as I have several leads).

In the meantime though, I guess I’ll just go back to focusing more on Inferno ( https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Inferno-Dario-Argento-1980-35mm-Scan-opportunity-WIP-Help-Wanted/id/85379 ) until I hear something promising to update this thread with.

If I seem inactive, check me on FanRes: https://forum.fanres.com/user-1389.html

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Wow I missed that thread somehow. Put me down for $25 for inferno and then if you track down another clockwork orange I can pledge the other 25 to that

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timemeddler said:

So they botched the bluray of this one?

Botched isn’t the right term. It’s more of a case of the transfer looking dated, similar to the early blu ray transfers of 2001 and The Shining compared to their recent 4K counterparts.

These are your final steps

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timemeddler said:

So they botched the bluray of this one?

Pretty much. It wasn’t handled very well and looked meh even back when it came out. The soundtrack is revisionist nonsense as well.

DarthKenobi said:

Botched isn’t the right term. It’s more of a case of the transfer looking dated, similar to the early blu ray transfers of 2001 and The Shining compared to their recent 4K counterparts.

2001 and The Shining’s old masters (even with the wrongly colored tennis ball) are excellent compared to what WB pulled on Clockwork Orange tbh.

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What’s the status of the project?

Project creator and film enthusiast.

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Personally, I don’t see much of a point. Clockwork Orange is getting a new 4K UHD release this October. It would’ve been worth it if it wasn’t hard matted

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Does an unmatted version exist in the first place? I don’t have an 80’s Laserdisc handy to check, unfortunately.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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I always assumed that 4:3 versions were pan and scan.

Project creator and film enthusiast.