A FORBIDDEN ORANGE
'A Clockwork Orange' was released at the end of 1971
in New York
and in January, 1972, in London.
The film had a big impact on me
but also frustrated me
because I didn't understand some of the dialogues.
Of course,
many years later, I found out that in the film
they were speaking in a made-up language.
'A Clockwork Orange' was preceded by the scent of scandal.
Many said it was immoral and cruel,
that it favoured crime, etc.
At one point it was like an anathema,
a persecution even.
People didn't consider the values of the film,
it was supposedly morally corrupt
and this made Kubrick
decide to withdraw the film.
He removed it from the cinemas
not wanting to feed into something that he said
was extra-cinematographic.
The film had a big impact
all over the world
and, at the same time, it disappeared.
It had the aura of a cursed film.
Spain is spilling its blood
in the defence of civilisation.
Back then, the majors had no control.
Franco said that the money made from American films
had to stay Spain.
He even made it obligatory for all profits and royalties
paid for American films
to be invested in Spanish production.
I've governed this state for 30 years
saving the nation from the storms of our times
and, despite it all, I'm still here, ready for anything.
SPAIN IS WITH FRANCO
WELCOME TO VALLADOLID
In the 70s, Valladolid was an important university city
and a big industrial city.
The Renault factory was here,
FASA-Renault.
Back then, FASA had 15,000 workers
so the province of Valladolid became depopulated
and a many people moved to the capital.
Up until then, Valladolid had been a typically rural city.
The rural landowners were the ones in charge.
Everything developed with FASA and blended together more
but the social differences were still quite obvious.
The neighbourhoods were very ordinary,
the living conditions were terrible
and the centre...
The people that lived in the centre
were bourgeois families and there weren't many of them.
It's a city where the bourgeoisie are very connected
with the rural world so it's rather conservative
and was very devoted to Catholicism at the time.
It wasn't completely Catholic,
that would be excessive,
but it gave the impression of a Catholic city
with deeply-rooted traditions.
The Procession of the Seven Words in Valladolid
covers the city on horseback to the beat of drums and trumpets
as is fitting for a town
with a clear lineage of a noble cavalry.
The city has 20 confraternities...
There was also a buzzing university scene.
There was a lot of activity, not only in faculties
but in the colleges too.
There were lots of activities.
One thing that wasn't so common and easy for people to access
was a normal level of culture.
We were at home most of the time.
We did go to the cinema.
We went a lot.
Sometimes three or four times a week.
UNCLE TOM'S CABIN
I worked in a bank
but in the afternoon I worked at the family cinema.
The seating area at the Roxy Cinema was my playground.
I learnt how to run the box office, I helped them move the seats,
I hid behind the curtains to see a bit of the adult film.
Back then, cinema was the best distraction.
It was my world.
The first session was at 5 p.m.
and we wouldn't just get 20 or 30 customers,
we'd get 400 or 500.
It was constantly sold out.
It's some of my best memories.
Your parents took you
and you grew up with that fondness for the cinema,
it was so important.
There are few places I've been happier
than in one of those cinemas.
The lights went down
and you waited anxiously for that beam of light
to fill the screen with images.
It was an absolutely magical moment.
You were waiting for one of life's wonders.
For me, the cinema was a break from everyday life.
It was a fantasy world but also closely linked with reality,
with wanting a different world.
Through motion pictures,
people discovered, people travelled,
people formed an opinion.
I think that cinema changed the pace of culture in Valladolid.
First, because of the university scene
but Film Week was also a decisive push.
I loved Film Week
because it changed the city.
Suddenly, there were new things to see in Valladolid.
I came to Valladolid in 1964.
I had passed my exams
to work for the Superior Body of State Administration
and I specifically requested Valladolid
because of International Film Week.
The festival was founded
by Antolín de Santiago y Juárez,
Manager of Information and Tourism,
a man with a gift for organisation.
He wanted to set up a religious film festival.
The festival was an extension of the Holy Week.
It started with a mass
which all of the guests attended.
The fact that there were nuns and priests there was a talking point
and they actually seemed the most interested in it.
RELIGIOUS CINEMA WEEK
The first session
was for religious films
and they showed a controversial film that people complained about.
But the festival had to expand
because there weren't that many good religious films
and it started to include human problems.
That was a big deal for the festival
because it could now show all types of films.
And it was called
Religious and Human Values Film Festival.
It's an umbrella term that covers so many things:
social cinema, political cinema,
cinema from a humanist point of view...
I said there was room for everything,
even eroticism, because eroticism is something profoundly human.
It triggered broad discussion.
It was a big change.
They suggested risqué films,
difficult films,
controversial films.
You weren't sure which planet they came from.
You probably couldn't see what came to Seminci anywhere else.
We started getting films from beyond the Iron Curtain
that were hardly shown anywhere else.
We had Felini's films, Rossellini's films...
Ingmar Bergman.
We had La Nouvelle Vague too.
François Truffaut.
Finally, we managed to get Buñuel.
And we showed 'The Milky Way'
and 'Simon of the Desert'.
It was incredible but it got us into two tight spots.
First with the archbishop
who almost got into a fight with Antolín.
And then with the cinematography course
which was run by Father Staehlin and Father Landáburu
who were also annoyed about the festival.
There was a kind of tension:
"We're going ahead with it but it'll cause a scene."
They showed 'The Virgin Spring'
which has a rape scene and all sorts
and there was a bit of a panic because there were nuns there.
It seemed strange to show Bergman's films
in Religious Film Week
and to see disturbing films...
you didn't know how to feel about what you just saw.
It was a cultural effervescence
made possible by Film Week.
They showed films
that really shocked people
but everyone still wanted to see them.
The cinemas were sold out every single day in Film Week.
For me, Film Week opened my mind up to the world.
Intellectual and cultural curiosity
was rife among young people.
With censorship ever present,
they looked for subterfuges
and ways to keep the flame of culture alive however they could.
On the churches' religious notice boards
next to the scheduled masses
you'd find the events' moral ratings.
You could look up the films
and were only supposed to watch the ones rated one,
suitable for all audiences.
Franco's regime was most strict about cinematic censorship.
It was easy to do across many levels,
not just in the traditional way of cutting the footage,
but also by introducing a verbal censorship
which meant changing the dialogues.
There's the famous case of the film 'Mogambo'
where censorship was used
to make the romantic relationships clearer
but they actually made it so that there was incest
instead of adultery,
which is a much bigger sin.
Besides those manipulations,
omissions and changes,
the worst thing was not getting films that were being shown elsewhere.
We didn't get the risqué films,
neither the erotic ones
nor the political ones.
For example, Kubrick's 'Paths of Glory',
the anti-war film which was one of his best works,
didn't make it here.
Francoism was terrible.
It was so dark and so brutal,
something beyond comparison.
Everything that was most in touch with the times,
that modernity that you longed to be a part of,
was completely blocked.
The Police claim she has committed cruel acts.
Yes, an interesting case.
We'll try to make you useful
in accordance with the law.
It's time for our third film programme
where you can see the film 'A Clockwork Orange',
produced in 1971 by Warner Bros.
and directed by Stanley Kubrick.
MR. HERCULES AGAINST KARATE
You either went to secret or clandestine screenings
or you had to go abroad.
Visiting Paris was more than just the Eiffel Tower
or the Champs-Élysées,
it also meant discovering the cinemas
and Buñuel's films that hadn't made it to Spain,
along with other directors.
On the weekend in Catalonia, especially in Barcelona,
they organised trips to Perpignan
to see films like 'Emanuelle' or 'Last Tango In Paris'.
It was like La Rambla over there,
everyone knew and greeted each other.
Then they did a marathon viewing.
The screenings started at 3 p.m.
and then they would run to another cinema
because they had tickets to watch two more films,
erotic ones, and others that were banned in Spain.
I saw it in Montreal, in Canada,
in 1973, something like that.
I thought it would be difficult for this to make it to Spain,
the censorship was very strict
and the chances of us getting it were very slim.
I put it to the back of my mind
and then in 1975
I directed the festival
and the possibility of showing 'A Clockwork Orange' came up.
Warner Bros. called me
and said: "Hey, we're interested in showing 'A Clockwork Orange'
in Valladolid
and the General Bureau of Cinema has agreed."
The simple fact that the General Bureau of Cinema
and the distributor, Warner Bros.,
were considering giving Valladolid a chance
gave us a certain status.
The stars aligned because, in February,
there was a post in the State Official Bulletin
saying that the censorship control system had been suspended.
The regime's leaders also realised
that this couldn't go on for much longer
and maybe saw the film as a way to show people
that they could be modern too
by showing things that were controversial and risqué.
A propagandistic way
of showing that the regimen was starting to change.
In Spain, it was a milestone
to think that 'A Clockwork Orange' might be shown in cinemas
relatively soon.
They did an experiment in Valladolid in 1974
and there was quite a commotion
at the doors of a cinema
that was showing 'Jesus Christ Superstar'.
There was a real outcry,
and it's funny because the film isn't...
So much so that 'Jesus Christ Superstar'
was authorised on a Friday to be shown on a Sunday
by the Council of Ministers
headed by Franco himself.
With that in mind,
when they suggested that we screen
'A Clockwork Orange' we decided to go ahead
thinking we'd be dropping a bomb, and we sure were.
CONFLICTIVE CITY
PEACEFUL RALLY
THE STRIKE
POLITICAL STRIKE
PROTEST MARCH
FASA Renault went on strike, so did construction...
The neighbourhoods were destroyed, there was a lot of social activity.
Other industries were also on strike, fighting over agreements
and the improvement of working conditions.
Lock-ins and assemblies in churches were common
and some working priests
said they were sent by the church to catechize the workers
and then the workers ended up unionising them.
MADRID, BARCELONA AND SALAMANCA UNIVERSITIES ON FULL STRIKE
WARNING NOTES IN UNIVERSITIES
Valladolid had a population of 200,000 people
and 30,000 of them were students
so the political atmosphere was quite combative.
In 1975,
I was studying English philology at the University of Valladolid.
A singer songwriter, Elisa Serna, came to perform a concert
which was later banned.
However, the concert went ahead
because the ministerial order stated
that the Police couldn't access the campus
so it wasn't a problem.
But that's not what happened, the Police came in
using their batons to break up the concert.
We all scrambled to get out
but some were luckier than others
and several of us got a good beating.
My father was Republican and a reprisal victim and he said:
"My girl, this is all very well but ideas are one thing
and political activism is another."
That concert changed the University of Valladolid completely.
To set an example
for other universities,
the government decided to end the academic year.
THE CLOSURE OF THE UNIVERSITY
The university closed,
a decision made by the then-rector, José Ramón del Sol.
He came out of the Faculty of Medicine
and there was an assembly in the street
with people throwing eggs
and calling for him to resign.
That made the academic authorities get together
and put up a note saying that,
because of the trouble at the university,
all academic activity was suspended indefinitely.
The regimen was very much alive in Valladolid
and other parts of the state
and the punishment for belonging to certain political organisations
even involved prison.
The Political-Social Brigade that had been at its peak
and seemed to have died down towards the end of the 60s
recovered its bad reputation
with mass arrests at the university
and among FASA-Renault workers.
A group of students from the university
were sentenced to years in prison
and one of them
had what was supposedly an accident at the Felipe II Police Station.
They said he tried to flee
via the interior patios of the station
but Cancho has always said that they threw him
from inside the station onto the interior patio.
Imagine all of those continuous combustions
in a city with a relatively small population,
and then overnight
the Seminci announced that, in April,
to celebrate its 20th edition,
there would be a special screening of 'A Clockwork Orange'.
It shook up the cultural scene.
It was a war-like challenge
to show something that wasn't approved of
and had caused such conflict.
Expectations were really high.
Fifteen or twenty days before the festival,
Warner Bros. called me and said:
"Look, we want to check your copy
of 'A Clockwork Orange'
because we're not sure it's in perfect condition."
So, the copy of the film left Valladolid
and headed for Madrid.
But two days after sending the film back
Warner Bros. called me again: "Look, we're really sorry,
but Kubrick won't authorise the screening of this film."
You're kidding?
We couldn't believe it...
It was just over a week before the festival.
Kubrick didn't think that Valladolid was the right place
to release and present the film in Spain.
He had probably heard that Valladolid still had
an international reputation
for being strongly linked to religious cinema.
I also think he heard
that at the Valladolid Festival
the 35mm projection equipment
wasn't good enough to guarantee the screening
that he wanted for the film.
He was an obsessive perfectionist.
I spent a whole week with him,
every day, for many hours,
when I started working on the translation
and subsequent dubbing of The Shining.
I'd done A Clockwork Orange before
and I was thrilled to be staying in a big hotel next to his house.
One day, I asked him for something
that I knew he didn't want to give me,
an interview.
I never felt like I was talking to a star
but that's what he was.
He had something that I really value in people,
especially those of such an artistic level,
which was an interest in others.
Instead of talking about his films or Hollywood,
which didn't interest him,
he asked you questions about things like Spanish politics
and the Spanish Civil War.
He wasn't a proud and arrogant man
or even that sure of himself.
He was a friendly person
and one thing really stood out for me,
something more important than somebody's character,
whether they're good or bad, nasty or nice,
which was his exigency.
The level of exigency
that he imposed on himself
wasn't just a quirk or a hangup, as many people have said...
"He was a maniac, he was crazy, he was a pain",
that's all been said about Kubrick.
He was a maniac, he was crazy, he was a pain
when it came to quality.
That's one of the things I admire most in artists.
Legend and Kubrick go hand in hand together.
They used to say...
and when I asked him he just smiled
as if to say: "Believe whatever you want",
that he even sent spies to the big cities
in the countries where his films were going to be shown
to find out whether the cinema had the right conditions
so that the creation that he had filmed,
shot and translated,
with him guiding the translators,
for so long
was up to the same standards
that he demanded of himself.
In fact, I remember reading
that even for the premier in New York
he demanded a certain size screen.
If Stanley Kubrick thought
that instead of showing it at Madrid's Gran Vía
or Lope de Vega cinemas,
it should be shown at the Carlos III Cinema,
a much less important one,
it would premier at the Carlos III because he said so
and he thought his film was right for that cinema.
He was capable of refusing to screen one of his films
because the colour of the room didn't go well enough
with the colours in the film
so he wouldn't let it go ahead.
He had full control over the exploitation of his film.
He wanted to control everything
from production and management to exhibition,
which the big majors do nowadays.
Warner Bros. were very interested
in showing the film in Valladolid
which would open the doors
for the possible normal commercial distribution of the film.
They called me and said: "We're going to work on Kubrick
and try to get his permission".
Warner Bros. sent one of their managers,
Angel Corbi, to London
to convince Kubrick to authorise
the screening of the film in Valladolid.
He came to see me when he got back
and told me to write him a letter
saying that the film would be screened
at the University of Valladolid.
He thought that telling him
that the film would be shown exclusively
at the University
might convince him to give his permission.
It was our only chance and we had to give it a go.
I wrote a letter explaining
about the festival's personality,
what our approach was,
that it was progressive
and the film would be screened
for the university.
That's how we got Kubrick to give us his permission.
That the festival management,
Romero with his letter
and the representative from Warner Bros. Spain,
did something all too common among epic Spanish characters,
who use every trick in the book
to make things happen that,
seen from any other angle, are absolutely impossible.
Although I'd said that the film
was going to be shown at the university,
I didn't really trick him
because the audience that watched it in the Carrión
was exclusively from the university.
The university world was fired up,
coming off the back of an exceptional situation.
The fact that a film was being shown
that had been banned and censored for four years
since its release
made the university students
lose control,
it was a reward, a cultural uprising.
You had to go!
'A Clockwork Orange' was such an attraction,
an unhealthy one, you might say,
and people queued as far as the eye could see.
I remember the cinema surrounded by people waiting.
I was in that queue
and people even brought sleeping bags.
Some people slept out there all night.
They were taking it in turns.
Two hours each and then switch.
I remember at one point the Police went by,
maybe somebody said something,
and then charged
scattering the queue
only for it to reform later on.
And the next day they rushed in
as if they'd been tied down, everyone running to get there first.
When the tickets were supposed to go on sale,
they called me and said there was a problem,
there were no tickets left at the Carrión.
"No tickets? But they're not even on sale yet."
"Yes, but there are no tickets for 'A Clockwork Orange'."
We went straight over.
When we saw the queue, Carmelo and I got a shock.
We thought: "This is going to get messy."
We asked the ticket operator what was wrong.
"Sir, the owner of the cinema,
has given all of the tickets for 'A Clockwork Orange'
to their friends, contacts, etc.
and there are none left."
None of the people waiting outside
could get in because there were no tickets.
"What do you mean?
What am I going to do with all of these people
who have been queueing for over 24 hours
waiting to see the film?"
"I don't know, there are no tickets."
They cancelled the tickets that had been assigned beforehand.
They brought out some new tickets,
gave them to the ticket operator and said:
"Use these ones".
The poor woman looked like she'd just seen a ghost.
He had given one thousand tickets
to all the people who wanted to see the film
and hadn't queued.
It had a big impact but it was well organised
and sorted out properly.
The tickets sold out immediately.
The only inconvenience, besides spending the night outside,
was that lots of people in the queue
were planning to buy ten or twelve tickets for their friends
but were met with the unpleasant surprise
that the organisers were only selling two tickets per person.
So the friend that got to the front was only given two tickets
to share with everyone...
it was a big disappointment.
We were such good friends that we drew straws for the tickets
and my husband and I ended up with them
so we went to see it
and our expectations were very high.
There was an organised way to pick up the tickets
and enter the cinema in an orderly fashion.
My role at the cinema
was to make sure nothing went wrong during the screening.
The city was divided: those who were excited
and those who sat at the front saying the rosary,
they couldn't believe it.
Peace wasn't guaranteed.
The previous year a film by Carlos Saura had been shown,
'Cousin Angelica'.
I went to see it in Gijón and they stopped the film
because Falange, very right-wing people
didn't like how they were portrayed.
The Police had their eye on it.
There was a small group of anti-riot police in the cinema.
They were keeping an eye on what was going on.
I decided to go up to the projection booth
to make sure that nothing went wrong
and that everything was running smoothly.
I watched it from up here, from where we're filming.
It was full to the rafters.
Everyone was absolutely silent, there wasn't a sound.
Silent and excited
to see what we'd waited all night for,
what it was like, we didn't want to miss a thing.
Half way through the film,
the Police rang me
to say there was a bomb in the cinema.
Oh my God...
Back then, bomb alerts
were relatively common
at cultural and problematic events.
Calling up and saying:
"Hey, there's a bomb in such a such place"
meant the activity would be stopped
and implied no risk for the person who called it in.
I decided to take a chance and I told him:
"Look, sir, I'm sorry
but I'll be held responsible for not stopping the screening.
We're half way through,
and after everything that's happened,
we'll see it through to the end."
I was impressed by the film.
It was visually striking.
The whole set design is incredible. It's brutalist.
The setting is so modern.
The colours,
the clothes...
Pop iconography was so interesting to us back then.
I thought it was absolutely fantastic,
very clever, very well done, very well performed.
Malcolm McDowell with that evil face and that eye...
It's also striking the way they try to cure him.
With his eyes held open
to make him watch the scenes of violence and everything...
I remember that the music...
perfectly matched the scenes of violence.
It made me feel quite ill,
I'd never seen violence like it.
There were some scenes that I couldn't even watch
because they were too disturbing.
I started to feel like throwing up,
I didn't know what to do...
To be honest,
I was surprised at how well-thought-out it was,
even with that constant injection of violence.
It explains the whole phenomenon of domination
between people, castes and classes,
and the State's domination of people.
It was about a type of violence
that we saw in the streets quite often.
In Valladolid, we had friends in prison...
and a friend who had been thrown
from the window of the Police station.
That was what we saw from 1971 or 1972
up until the vote for the constitution.
It was a very disturbing film,
one that doesn't leave you indifferent.
It caused a commotion,
it's one of the films that made the most noise.
The film? What can I say? I didn't like it.
It was very unpleasant...
but it's a great film.
It's astonishing
because of how it's made
and the genius behind it.
I absolutely loved it.
I don't know if I should say this... but I found it really funny.
I really enjoyed myself and the end is great.
When the screening was over everyone started clapping
but nothing untoward happened.
People were amazed by the film,
in awe of Kubrick's directing,
how powerful the film was, but that was all.
Back then, it was trendy to have a film forum.
When we saw a Woody Allen or Buñuel film
we always commented and reflected on it,
something that could go on for days
when you met up with your friends.
This film didn't give rise to that kind of film forum.
This may seem absurd...
Afterwards, they seemed almost frustrated.
I don't know what they were expecting to see...
One thing we mustn't forget
is the mark that censorship leaves
on a cultural product.
It created certain expectations and a special interest
regardless of whether they ended up watching a masterpiece or not.
It's like when you're getting ready for a trip
and you enjoy the planning more than the trip itself.
I think I've seen films that I like more
in terms of the plot and content
but I'll never forget that film.
It's a really important film that marked a before and after
in the behaviour of viewers and critics
and the people from Valladolid in general.
And that's the story of the film at the Valladolid festival.
The festival was elevated
by the screening of 'A Clockwork Orange'
but some films didn't cause such a hype...
For example, the first film by Steven Spielberg
that was shown at the festival.
A few months later, the film was authorised for screening
in art-house cinemas.
It was shown in the Cid Campeador in Madrid.
But we had to wait two more years for the commercial dubbed version.
Of all the film translation projects that I've done,
it was definitely the most difficult.
The film was shot in a made-up language.
Burgess, the novelist, said: "I'm going to do it
in a language that's all mixed up."
He blended the Queen's English with some contemporary English slang
and also some Russian
inspired by what he heard being spoken
by a group of dandies from Saint Petersburg.
The head, in the original novel and film,
is called the "Gulliver"...
It's taken from that famous novel,
Gulliver's Travels.
I translated it as the "quijotera".
I did the translation,
Saura, with Kubrick's guidelines that he sent from London,
did the dubbing
and the film was released,
as I like to joke, "openly",
not just for select audiences like before.
'A Clockwork Orange' was one of the biggest phenomena in Spain,
on a par with Star Wars.
It was shown for a year.
FRANCO IS DEAD
Valladolid is a city with a certain amount of conservatism
and a cultural effervescence
that was already around in the 70s
with Seminci and the screening of 'A Clockwork Orange'
which people still remember and talk about.
I think it still has a big impact on the city.
I grew up with that legend.
It's always difficult to know what's true and what's not.
I think it's best to just believe the legend.
It's mainly the young people who don't know
about the screening
because they're disconnected from classical cinema.
From my experience as a teacher,
I'm pretty sure that the majority of new generations
haven't even seen it.
No, I haven't seen it.
I've never heard of 'A Clockwork Orange' or Kubrick.
It rings a bell. I've heard of the title, but that's it.
I know nothing about it.
I know it was revolutionary in its time, but that's all.
I've heard it's uncomfortable to watch
but I don't know what it's about.
You recognise the iconography.
You know it's from the film even if you haven't seen it.
It's still an aesthetically powerful film.
It's become an icon.
At Halloween, people dress up as droogs...
The hats...
It's part of pop culture.
It means that they recognise some images
like with other films but it doesn't mean they've seen it.
No, I haven't seen it.
The aesthetics, an episode of 'The Simpsons'...
An episode of 'The Simpsons' or other series.
And they don't know the plot or what it's about...
The only thing I know about 'A Clockwork Orange' are memes
or jokes I've seen on the Internet.
I'm sure the film still has the ability
to awaken people's consciences and churn their stomachs.
It depends on how sensitive they are.
I think the way it started
got you hooked and you wanted to watch the rest.
At the beginning, the drunk guy they beat up
says he doesn't want to live in a lawless world.
I was shocked when they were in the tunnel beating him up.
When they rape the woman in the house and the man's watching.
When they hit each other.
As well as the scenes of explicit violence,
it's quite shocking when they force his eyes open.
Institutional violence
and how the system takes that violence and uses it.
The influence of the media on society stood out for me.
Some of the scenes are shocking
and I'm not sure what people must've thought
when it first came out.
Right from the very first scene,
with four men forcing themselves on a woman...
and not just that one, a couple more...
I found them pretty shocking because they're really explicit
for a film that was screened at a festival
and is recognised as a cult film.
I found it difficult to watch and quite savage,
but I liked it overall.
I liked the film.
I really liked the film.
I loved it.
I liked it but I feel a little unsettled.
It would be impossible for this to be released nowadays.
People would be up in arms.
It would be risky to make it now
because I think it's controversial
and very explicit.
It was too much for me.
The sexual stuff...
I don't think it would be received the same way now as it was then.
No, you couldn't make this film now because...
no director could...
get enough support to make it, and even if they did
no producer would approve it.
Maybe the film couldn't be made today
mainly because the producers
wouldn't deem it appropriate.
We sometimes automatically apply
certain scales of behaviour
and, in real life,
we have to be very strict
and recognise there are some things we can't do
and shouldn't do,
but it's another thing for me to envisage a book
with a violent scene that might upset somebody...
Just because it upsets somebody
doesn't mean that work must disappear.
Wrongness isn't erased
by removing the reflection of something that's wrong
from a beautiful film or book.
Having been through it myself
but also having had time to reflect on it,
I despise the existence of censorship.
That censorship was much more severe,
tougher and more aggressive
but much less subtle
than it would be to today accept a censorship on traditions,
on habits,
on what's politically correct or incorrect,
on what's commercial and what's not.
With any cultural or artistic activity,
the creator's need for freedom is fundamental.
Translation: Amy Sue Bennett Subtitles: Bbo Subtitulado