This Friday night, Mondo Celluloid takes over the Art Theatre for a midnight showing of Stanley Kubrick’s award-winning adaptation of the Anthony Burgess novel, A Clockwork Orange. Banned in England for nearly 30 years due to death-threats and copy-cat crimes, and first released in the U.S. with an ‘X’ rating due, primarily, to some scenes of graphic sex, the film instantly catalyzed audiences the world over with an unswerving look at politics, privilege, youth culture, drug abuse, and violence.

Logan Crow, Executive Director and Programmer of Mondo Celluloid, spoke with me about the film, and his ongoing efforts to celebrate cinematic treasures.

Sander: Can you explain why, when it was first released, the film was so impactive?

Logan: Well it was so uncompromising, in terms of its violence and graphic sexuality. You had a protagonist who rampantly attacked and raped innocent people, who was so glib about it, and who you had to essentially root for and sympathize with as the “hero” of the film. It also sparked some “copycat” crimes, particularly in England. Kubrick and Warner Bros actually willingly pulled it from release in England after these crimes. It wasn’t re-released in England until March of 2000.

Part of what makes it such a classic and a triumph is just how accurately it adapts Burgess’ novel. Kubrick didn’t shirk away from any of that content, that horrifically violent and bleak dystopian future that Burgess laid out. No doubt, audiences had never seen anything quite like it – particularly, again, the glamourization of the violence. The film is told through the point of view of someone who truly glamourizes violence, so yes, in that sense, the film glamourizes it too.

“Natural Born Killers” was criticized on that same level. “How can you make a film that criticizes the media’s obsession with violence, but make it so violent?” I think, when you have a film that is trying to make an audience connect with its heroes’ lust for violence, it has to really put you in that headspace.

Sander: In addition to the content, which came straight from the book, it had a stunning visual style. The cinematography, set design, and costumes were unlike anything seen before.

Logan: Absolutely. And the score – those synth-heavy renditions of Beethoven. It’s a beautiful film. Some films can’t help but be beautiful despite their garish subject matter.

Sander: There are several aspects to the film that keep it relevant. One is the struggle between the rights of the individual, and the power of the state. Another is an exploration of youth culture.

Logan: Absolutely. And what’s fascinating is that – as is typical in satire – it takes an exaggerated approach. It’s futuristic, the styles are outlandish, the youth speak in a language of their own making, etc. And still, despite what’s come before, and the violence that Alex has inflicted, one does resent the State for their fascist exploitation of him. It’s an fascinating arc of a story.

And humor. There are so many lines that are quoted by the fans, not just from Alex but from his droogs, from some of his victims, from his social worker Mr. Deltoid, from the doctor who examines him at the hospital. There is so much exaggerated acting, so many lines delivered with manic glee. It just adds to this feeling of a world gone literally mad. Touches like his mother’s purple hair, and statues of nude women who deliver psychedelic milk.

Sander: The infamous codpieces!

Logan: RIGHT!? Kubrick was a master at that. “Dr. Strangelove” reduces a doomsday scenario to essentially a movie about a bunch of grown men playing in a sandbox, throwing their toys at each other. He was a brilliant satirist.

Sander: Let’s talk about Mondo Celluloid. What is it, and how did it come to be?

Logan: At its inception, Mondo Celluloid was created as a sort of comprehensive calendar of repertory/classic screenings in Los Angeles. I grew up at theatres like the New Beverly, theatres that would play classics on 35mm, where you could still see Kubrick and Fellini and De Sica on the big screen. And the Nuart, which plays a different audience favorite every weekend. I wanted to create a website where film junkies like myself could find out where such movies were playing, all across the city. So it started first as a Myspace website.

It picked up in popularity very quickly. After some time I realized that people were under the impression that I had something to do with the programming of these films. They would send me requests, they would beg me to play this film or that film. So one day I thought, “Why not?” I contacted the owner of one of my favorite cinemas, the Vista in Los Feliz, and he agreed to let me start a midnight series.

I opened with Russ Meyer’s “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” on May 10, 2008. I invited Haji, one of the actresses from the film, to come down, and she graced the audience with a fantastic Q&A. After a few more films I found out that The Art Theatre in Long Beach was about to reopen. I was always a big fan of The Art – I think I saw a run of five Almodovar films there. I went to LBCC’s film school, and we would often hop down to The Art to see what was playing. So I drove out, spoke to the General Manager, and asked if I could bring classics to their theatre.

I kicked off the series at The Art with a screening of “The Forbidden Zone” on December 12, 2008, with director Richard Elfman in attendance. This was a huge deal for me and for a lot of the locals who came out, as Richard was a founding member of the band Oingo Boingo, one of my all-time favorite bands.

So I screen a different film every Friday night at midnight. They range from cult, camp, horror – essentially what some call “Audience Favorites.” And I try to make an event out of the experience – we’ve incorporated live bands to open some films, live bands to score some silents, giveaways – in the case of “A Clockwork Orange,” we are welcoming people to come dressed as “droogs,” and are letting droogs in 1/2 off for the effort.

MondoCelluloid.com continues to host a calendar of repertory screenings in Los Angeles – that will never change. But now, we also have reviews – of both new movies and classics – and our own screening series.

We’re also kicking off a bimonthly classics matinee series at the Art starting Saturday March 27 and Sunday March 28 with a 35mm print of “Casablanca.” We continue April 10 & 11 with “The Graduate,” and hopefully go on from there!

There’s a misconception that Logan only likes “weird films”. That’s never been the case, but I admittedly do love the midnight film scene.

As a non-profit, we’re really trying to ramp up sponsorship. This will allow us to venture out and start going more towards the obscure approach. This is the main thing that distinguishes us from a venue/theatre: If The Art plays an obscure film and gets 30 people in the door, no problem – they’ve paid the studio for the rights, and have made popcorn and soda sales to boot, but we (Mondo Celluloid) actually RENT the theatre. We pay them to do what it is we’re doing. So we’ve got that expense, plus the expense of the licensing rights for the film, and we do not get any concession sales, so we’re bacially ticket-driven.

My goal is to get to the point where we can have enough sponsors that we can go more obscure. Play groovy 60’s movies. Experimental films. Local artists.

We actually decided against showing the original “Wicker Man” because we feared it would be too obscure. That’s the position we’re stlil in. But that will change. So, that’s the big next move for us: Sponsorships, so we can make these sorts of things happen.