2001: A Space Odyssey

btw, David Bowie, your new handle suits you, with the IQ and all.

Paul Newman could have voiced HAL, too.

if you're gonna be a monkey, be a gorilla

Bunny Lake Is Missing
David and Lisa

Russell Schweickart, BS and MS from MIT who did research in the Experimental Astronomy Lab there

Buzz Aldrin, an MIT PhD in Astronautics

Frank Borman, a Cal Tech MS in Aeronautical Engineering, and graduate of Harvard B School's Advanced Management Program

Story Musgrave, MBA (UCLA) and MD (Columbia) and member of the New York Academy of Sciences who has studied at an advanced level math, computer science, chemistry and neurophysiology

Unfortunately, most NASA gigs in places I'd never live(central florida, houston, los angeles, cali desert, sunnyvale, etc).

Have, somewhere, a battered paperback called The Making of 2001 with lots of fascinating production details (I think it's stayed in print).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/kubrick-2001.jpg

once saw a back-to-back screening of 2001/2010. i am probably one of the rare few who thought 2010 wasn't so bad... hell, i even read that damn 2061 book. is clarke still alive?

john landis really ran with that...

2010 wasn't hideous, but it inevitably literalized everything. Tragic mundanity.

I didn't recall Clarke's status, but he just got honored in Sri Lanka (his adopted land).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke

is clarke still alive?

very much so! and living in shri lanka.

i love 2001.

I wonder if she ever got her bush baby.

http://imdb.com/name/nm0001158/

xpost

And "The Dawn of Man" birthday ... which covers both the man-apes and the moon excavation.

HAL was originally voiced by Bronx-accented Psycho detective Martin Balsam. I do a decent impression of HAL's rendition of "Daisy."

Full Metal Jacket
Dr. Strangelove
Spartacus
Paths of Glory

I like all of these! I really do! And except for FMJ I liked all of them BEFORE I ever had any intention of joining the cast of MASH so there!

BTW Joshua could whup HAL's ass.

did you like Barry Lyndon, TOMBOT? it's got war in it.

Man, Spartacus is fine as Decadent Hollywood Rome spectacles go, but i can't take that slaves-frolic-with-the-lambs shit.

And haven't seen La Jetée at all. But que sera, et al.

Isn't it the case that Sarah Cracknell was screentested for the Starchild? (Her dad was 1st AD.) Stanley decided to go with a fake.

Not the only thing that he ran into the ground...

hence
2001 = WAR KUBRICK

Joshua??? Haha, is that the WarGames computer? You'd put a killer of astronauts up against something programmed by Matthew Broderick?!?

(Reagan-era kiddie nuke adventures: The Manhattan Project > WarGames)

The WOPR had the entire nuclear arsenal of the world at its disposal. It almost wiped out the human race. They couldn't shut it down, they had to teach it futility. That's a much, much more interesting character arc than HAL, and better armament to boot.

When I get my own digital projector and an apartment to fit it in, I'll be sure and netflix 2001 again and let you know how I feel afterwards. I am not optimistic.

(I also think Henry is right, AGAIN. Enrique didn't we used to get in fites on film threads? what went wrong?)

So is the ending of 2001 Kubrick's most optimistic? Is it, as John Simon dissed, "a shaggy God story"? Or is tracking human evolution as a series of steps engineered from Beyond the Infinite depressingly deterministic? And why do aliens like 18th-century French decor?

but i'm unsure abt evolution as a theory.

ok lol

i was a riot at college

That's a shame! I always find it interesting to see where different people draw the line beyond which everything becomes "pretentious" or "masturbatory".

Apparently the 2001 makeup people weren't considered for an Oscar because the pajama-clad Academy types didn't realize the apes were actors.

although he did use a real chimp baby...

http://blogs.citypages.com/pscholtes/images/11111111%20Jack%20Kirby.jpg

I loved the movie so early and unconditionally that reading Pauline Kael's pan as an adolescent was an event. But she was so wrong...

The 2001 apes were in Shepperton Studios -- the landscapes were rear projections.

I have. It looks great, but it doesn't change everything else I find wrong with it. This is my issue with Kubrick almost en totale. Everything looks great (except most of the Shining but I'm not sure who to blame really for why the Shining is so awful, mainly I blame Nicholson), but that's...it...which there is something to be said for that but there is also something to be said for not making films like Eyes Wide Shut.

And yeah the space baby thing was crap, I gotta be honest, that is totally awkward cinema IMO.

I can understand the Starbaby not working for you, but "awkward"? If the finale shows the post-human evolutionary leap, how else would you show it? All the other options seem too mundane.

(friend claims this is why I hate Brando in The Godfather, but I maintain it's because he's bad)

Dune, aghhh. Medieval-style sci-fi... me so sleeeepppyyy...

How the hell did you get to see Dune in the theater? Man.

I bought tickets to see Dune in a theatre. WTF?

i hate movies-as-competition shit.

what do you mean?

But as films go, Stence, you must admit that 2001 has the edge, no?

I meant where the hell do they still show Dune in the theater! I guess not in Alabama or Tennessee or the Washington DC metro area.

I was far more bored by the Herbert book -- Lynch slightly improved on it, if only by the brio with which Kenneth MacMillan popped pustules and devoured boys. Hundreds of pages on spice and worms...
(drooling, slackjawed...)

But yeah, Dune is not at all the kind of SF 2001 is.

http://www.twomorrows.com/kirby/articles/312001.html

xpost that book is unreadable. I'm not a big sci fi person though, really. The movie is about 4 hours of Kyle MacLachlan staring blankly which I'm mostly ok with. I like the fact that the disaster that was Dune actually managed to get the go-ahead for Blue Velvet from de Laurentiis.

Obviously, I disagree with that article on the '76 comic. Kirby's "lazy," "loose" style in the mid-'70s was a thing of almost abstract beauty.

well yeah, i did post earlier that it's my favorite film.

Hello! JOSHUA was totally designed by Dr. Stephen Falken. He, like, named it after his dead son or whatever. Sheesh.

The entire screenplays for Strangelove and Lolita? Well, in having Terry Southern and Nabokov write them, anyway.

Kubrick is described as an enthusiastic black jokester in conversation.

"She's having a cavity filled next week by your Uncle Ivor" is at least a good a joke as "WOPR," in either case.

By the way, she did get her bushbaby - they even filmed a scene where you see it getting purchased but it got cut.

It's the final countdown

We must, we must, we must leave from here
We must, we must, we must, we must leave from here
Gotta make our play, gotta get away
Gotta make our play, gotta get away
Gotta make our play, gotta get away
Gotta make our play
Let us out of here, let us out of here, let us out of here

We just want to feel the sun and be your little daughter or your son
We're just words that lovers use, words thaat light that automatic fuse
When that love explosion comes, my, oh my, we want to be someone

In theater viewings, I always find the StarChild shot tremendously moving. As I do Nicole Kidman's "Fuck" (his second-most optimistic ending).

the only good part is the opening credits set to randy newman's "burn on."

Any opinions on the discarded Alex North score that Kubrick dumped for the Strausses? I know it came out.

i still haven't heard it, but i'd like to. anybody got a copy?

Yes! But, it's packed away along with 2000 other CDs (DYS?) awaiting this mythical house move.

That's kinda the point (or one of them) -- the characters are all caught up in being concerned with their phones and their zero-g toilets and their Hilton lounge meetings and their turkey sandwiches that they can't be bothered to spare a moment to be amazed by the fact that they LIVE IN OUTER SPACE. None of the 21st-century humans in the movie have learned yet to look beyond their mundane tools and machines to something transcendent, and when they do find something amazing -- the Tycho monolith -- they line up to take touristy pictures in front of it.

i liked it!

Just remembered this recent news about the jettisoned prologue:

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/film/news/article321643.ece

But not ethically, or metaphysically.

x-post I always liked that Tarkovsky moved the material w/Berton up front rather than revealing it in the middle.

j/k. i like the book a lot.

xpost- yeah i've never really known the whole chronology, tho i think he explains it in the introduction. but the thing is, if the shooting was finished, he prolly would've written them as going to jupiter instead, but what do i know?

HAL is very well done. In the book it's mentioned that he's neural-net-based,
which was a very radical thing to say in the late 60s, but dead-on.

well clarke was pretty hot on anticipating new technologies.

Alas, the Pan Am logo on the Floyd craft always gets a laugh now.

sergei eisenstein on 'paris, texas' and ingmar bergman on 'beverley hills cop' would have made '83-'84 a different time.

the reason why i used the two examples i did(even if i did overstate the "different time" bit) was not to grab two random examples out of the air, but that Jodorowsky and Lynch where the original directors of those two flicks. there was even plenty of design work that went into Dune with Jodorowsky at the helm(as mentioned upthread). And that both versions differently wildly from their initial planning(Ewoks were added, Dali was removed, etc).

Of course, Jodorowsky probably wouldn't have had the wizard of oz references or jack nance in the final version, etc

in terms of just grabbing wildly different directors and inappropiate film choices: i'd pay good money for
-Roman Polanski's "Disorderlies"
-John Woo's "Out of Africa"(or even "The Natural")

now, in regards to the current convo, what was the name of the phone company used in 2001? was it Bell?

2001 Supernerd Final Jeopardy: What's the first line of dialogue? (I can only guess)

And the last line? Floyd on tape [sic]: "[blah blah monolith], its origin...unknown"?

Bullitt not haf toomuch dialog for Noisedik to grow rezless?

And they make a biiIIIIIiiggggg deal about moving the portable airport tunnel thingy over to the airplane, to show that THIS is the future! No more having to climb stairs, people!

There's a lot of that in the movie, including that one extended bit about what a fax machine is.

And the painted ponies go up and down...

Also, Roy Scheider in space! Bob Balaban & John Lithgow in the same movie! Candice Bergen as the SAL 9000! Dude had dolphins in his living room!

Candice Bergen as the SAL 9000!

I'm afraid to verify this!

I realized the key in your last post though as to why you would like Steve McQueen; I mean he barely says anything in the vast majority of his movies. Everyone wins.

Tell me more

Usually. Especially THE BIG GAME climax. Cept for that awesome Bollywood cricket musical.

Also... Keir Dullea way hotter than Steve McQueen.

Except The Bad News Bears, which is terrific. (The original, obvs.)

Nahhh. 80-foot screen minimum, 120 pref'd.

You could make an argument that perhaps Dave is even more robotic than HAL

A former MGM publicist details the saving of 2001's marketing.

"Why doesn't Pauline Kael like my movie?"

That article is so annoying. About half of it is the guy talking about how much Kubrick respected and liked him.

This just came out on Blu-ray along with A Clockwork Orange, uncensored Eyes Wide Shut and a deluxe edition Full Metal Jacket. Want.

Did Kael really love The Bible?

When the film came out, Stanley set up an office in the conference room on the 26th floor of the MGM building. Tearsheets of ads and reviews from every publication lined the walls. The Monitor essay had to be reprinted immediately, as an ad in the following Sunday's New York Times (Adler's weak review had just appeared) and for insurance sake, in the next issue of the Village Voice, in case Sarris was negative. Most importantly, it had to be read as an editorial; it could not look like an advertisement. The only commercial information would be a discreet line at the very end stating "2001: A Space Odyssey is showing at Loew's Capitol theatre."

Stanley got it immediately. Our plan was that I'd make the case and he'd play back-up if necessary. My boss bought the concept; there was nothing to lose. Business was well below average for a major release. And I was the film's designated point man, having Kubrick's trust. Advertising layouts were ordered immediately. But when the mock-ups arrived, I was shaken. Instead of an editorial look, the Monitor reprint was contained within the standard corporate information: MGM credits and the distinctive unfolding Cinerama logo fought the copy. It was too radical to remove the studio's corporate identity. The intended impact would be lost.

Stanley made his move. Privately, he went to the studio bosses to talk about the film's future openings, saw the mock-ups, and walked out with the layout we wanted - his calm logic prevailing. The advertising agency also delivered with placement. On Sunday, the piece appeared opposite the New York Times' main film page, making it look like a two-page editorial spread. There was nothing stating it was a paid ad. On Thursday, it ran opposite Sarris' lengthy negative review in the Village Voice. The campaign to turn the tide was engaged.

awesome, he invented the advertorial. hurray for this guy.

Sarris, out of touch, always

xp

Well, I don't think this was the first time an advertorial was done. (Eric, I was wondering the same.)

sD, nearly every 'major' critic panned the film. John Simon called it "a shaggy God story."

I just am endlessly amused that the studio was expecting Flash Gordon from SK, even at that point. Did they read the Clarke story?

Unless I'm mistaken, I went to a screening last night on the 28th floor of the old MGM building cited there.

im pretty psyched to watch this again... just got that new kubes box set.

wish there was a way to abbrev 'box set'.

'BS'
I had S4rr1s in school.

wish there was a way to abbrev 'box set'.

-- That one guy that hit it and quit it, Friday, November 2, 2007 4:12 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

lol

s1ocki not bothered by aspect ratio futzing?

what's the futzing? it's UN-futzed no?

the versions on the new dvds are the theatrical, not tv

I haven't followed it, I just know there was clusternerding over it.

it's tricky cos el kubo *preffered* tv framing or something. but telecine is not a 'right or wrong' thing and there's always someone who thinks they've been cheated.

no, he preferred the tv framing for home video (so i hear) / tv. this is all before 16:9 tvs became the thing.

exactly.

he just hated the black bars. so there you go

The AR debate is mainly perpetuated by nerds who insist on calling square compositions Kubrickian because, apparently, TV was their first exposure to most of his films.

This is the box that has the daughter's making-of-The Shining doc, yes?

The previous DVD version of The Shining had it too. You're asking because you want to see Shelly Duvall get knocked around more than she does in the main feature, right?

no, but I do want to see Kub badger her.

And then her waxing generous some months later from behind the safety of a restraining order.

scatman so intense in that doc

shelly duval is in a mental hospital or something now, correct? didn't I hear that somewhere (probably here on ILX, bastion and font of all truth)?

you're thinking of Margot Kidder

specifically this incident:

Kidder has bipolar disorder, which led to a widely publicized manic episode in 1996. Kidder was found by Los Angeles police in a distressed state. She was placed in psychiatric care.

thinking of Margot Kidder is quite an achievement these days.

Imagine a 2001 DVD with Martin Balsam's HAL track, ah. Did you know Douglas Rain also does the robot butler (and computer) voices in Sleeper? "The police are here. Will you be wanting lunch?"

you've been thinking about Sleeper a lot lately, apparently

just bcz my Orgasmatron is broken?

There was this exchange on the Shelley Duvall poll. I think there was some more information somewhere, I don't know. I can't find anything else to corroborate what's being said here:
I saw her being interviewed on something recently and she's put on a LOT on weight. She's like double the size now.

so, up to 100 pounds then?

-- akm, Wednesday, August 8, 2007 12:45 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Link

Yeah, I realised that as soon as I typed it. She's probably tripled or quadrupled in size. I thought it was Shelly Winters.

-- nate woolls, Wednesday, August 8, 2007 12:56 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Link

shelly duvall is in a mental home?!

:(

-- pisces, Wednesday, August 8, 2007 12:57 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Link

she's definitely not in a mental home, she's still making movies!

I'm glad! She's great, imo.

yeah I wish I saw more of her - the last thing I can remember really enjoying her in was Roxanne (also probably Steve Martin's last decent movie)

iMdb doesn't have her making a film since '02

from what i remember, the tv versions didn't chop off the image, they actually removed masking from the top and bottom of the image, revealing more?

yes.

ie, visual info that was not seen in theaters

A bunch of links to contemporaneous interviews/reviews on its 40th anniversary:

http://www.mcnblogs.com/mcindie/archives/2008/04/101_links_as_20.html

SK in Playboy:
"The very nature of the visual experience in 2001 is to give the viewer an instantaneous, visceral reaction that does not—and should not—require further amplification. Just speaking generally, however, I would say that there are elements in any good film that would increase the viewer's interest and appreciation on a second viewing; the momentum of a movie often prevents every stimulating detail or nuance from having a full impact the first time it's seen. The whole idea that a movie should be seen only once is an extension of our traditional conception of the film as an ephemeral entertainment rather than as a visual work of art. We don't believe that we should hear a great piece of music only once, or see a great painting once, or even read a great book just once. But the film has until recent years been exempted from the category of art—a situation I'm glad is finally changing."

saw this on ch5 on sunday. infuriatingly slow but WOW at the visuals. such an amazing looking film. that was the only reason i kept watching. and i know some ppl seem to think the bit towards the end where its like some massive interplanetary light show is a bit crap, but i thought it was amazing and really beautiful.

love it, but could do without the annoying start of nothingness

the opening is the BEST

it is totally majestic

^

the however many minutes of blackness and then the planetary alignment is like the definition of @_@

i saw moon tonight and i kept thinking how pathetic the long shots of planets looked (not talking about the ropey/cute exteriors in moon here) compared to 2001.

I always go whenever the Arclight Cinedome shows this in the Cinerama Super Panavision 70 format. I've never gotten tired of it ever.

a longtime fan of this movie, and kubrick in general, but just bought the 2007 reissue (as well as clockwork orange). Slowness of this movie is like giant gears of a celestial rollercoaster unlocking, eeking out steam that eventually blows the railing away, and by the time the coaster actually gets going, there's no track in the world that could contain it. Anticipation during this movie, to me = of the gods. The payoff of this movie, to me = of the gods. The pacing of this movie, especially alongside its music, is one of the best technical lessons I've ever gotten on how to produce a piece of art. mangs, it's like the gift that keeps on giving!!

The first part of this movie is all about style and it succeeds wonderfully. The middle part is about the story and it succeeds, too. The ending is all about style and, for me, it failed.

The ending failed for me way back when I first saw it on a big screen in the theater, back when the film was new. I was even stoned, which others at the time assured me was the proper way to see the film. Still, it failed. A shame, too. It deserved a successful ending.

how the fuck else would you end this movie?

Not for me to say. I'm just the paying public.

a longtime fan of this movie, and kubrick in general, but just bought the 2007 reissue (as well as clockwork orange). Slowness of this movie is like giant gears of a celestial rollercoaster unlocking, eeking out steam that eventually blows the railing away, and by the time the coaster actually gets going, there's no track in the world that could contain it. Anticipation during this movie, to me = of the gods. The payoff of this movie, to me = of the gods. The pacing of this movie, especially alongside its music, is one of the best technical lessons I've ever gotten on how to produce a piece of art. mangs, it's like the gift that keeps on giving!!

― Dominique, Monday, July 20, 2009 9:23 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

well said

how the fuck else would you end this movie?

Why, with a Blue Thunder-era Roy Scheider yukking it up with some Cosmonauts as they watch Jupiter play dominoes with itself, that's how!

they should have ended it with dr floyd "going in" and saving dave

should have ended in a party scene, with all the main characters dancing

http://www.justdjj.com/Media/dancing_baby.gif

hahah

HAL djing

"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't play that"

"a fifth of beethoven"

all he plays is daisy at 33rpm :(

turns out it was all in the mind of an autistic bush baby

can someone make animated gif with HAL strobing a dance party with Frank Poole flailing his arms in a space suit like he's dancing but really he's dying?

x-post - Dominique totally otm.

I stanned the blu-ray of The Shining on that thread and by jiminy I will stan the blu-ray of 2001 here; if you're a fan of the film and have the hi-def capability then you *owe* it to your eyes to get it. I've never had a chance to see it at the cinema (let alone in 70mm), but the clarity and beauty of the image on BR is stunning. It also brings out the frankly demented level of detail that Kubrick insisted on for the sets and fx eg. text on VDUs is legible, small print on pod doors etc.

open the pod bay doors, HAL

I stanned the blu-ray of The Shining on that thread and by jiminy I will stan the blu-ray of 2001 here; if you're a fan of the film and have the hi-def capability then you *owe* it to your eyes to get it. I've never had a chance to see it at the cinema (let alone in 70mm), but the clarity and beauty of the image on BR is stunning. It also brings out the frankly demented level of detail that Kubrick insisted on for the sets and fx eg. text on VDUs is legible, small print on pod doors etc.

― Bill A, Tuesday, July 21, 2009 4:52 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i second this

I saw a 70mm print of 2001 in 2001 in NYC which was awesome, but without the curved cinerama screen the corners of the print were a little out of focus. kubrick woulda been apoplectic.

i second that emoticon

frankly demented level of detail

see also the book "2001: filming the future" by Piers Bizony

I think a reading of Clarke's novel helps one appreciate the film.

The book "The Lost Worlds of 2001" is worth a look as well.

Yeah, all the Kubrick Blu-Rays are absolutely top notch. Whoever did the mastering on those babies should get a medal.

I've never had a chance to see it at the cinema (let alone in 70mm),

I saw a 70mm print at the AFI Silver Theater a few years ago and it was absolutely stunning. Saw the "restored" THX-1138 there, too.

I'm such a nerd that I'm waiting to get a better stereo before watching it on Bluray.

It's the gift that keeps on giving

This is spot on (as is the rest of your post, Dominique). I basically bought a massive telly and a Blu Ray player just to watch this on, and it's superb. It's a film that's steadily got better all of my life and it's still incredible how much better it looks, despite in the time it was made, computers didn't even have screens and now they can process complicated 3D graphics while they're having lunch. It's a testament to the fact that the ideas are the important thing, not the technology.

It also taught me (something that took a long, long time) to understand the oft-repeated point about leaving things to the imagination being better, and this has opened me up to lots of stuff. It's so natural to think it's better to 'know the answer', but this is a great example of that not being the case. It's just so enigmatic, graceful and beautiful. A traditional view probably wouldn't consider views of spaceships and stuff 'beautiful'; more stuff for teenage boys, but 2001 changes all that - like most Kubrick films, it's like watching a series of modern art paintings. I think it's my favourite film of all time.

I thought it were reet boring and crap

also why are all the secretaries (incl. robot ones) female?

In fact, the only flaw in this film is this, and in fact that's not even Kubrick's fault - it's possible Zippy was based on Poole:

http://collativelearning.com/PICS%20FOR%20WEBSITE/stills%206/poole%20struggling.jpg

http://www.btinternet.com/~acbarrett/nzip.jpg

For a second I thought you meant Zippy the Pinhead

Yeah sorry, probably only means anything to thirty something UK people. Zippy was in a 70s/80s kids' program in the UK - he was a noisy guy who talked over everyone, especially Bungle and George, and he was convinced he was always right - a sort of ultimate ILXor.

It's a film that's steadily got better all of my life and it's still incredible how much better it looks

This was the biggest thing driven home for me at last night's Fox Theater viewing. First of all I could not believe how good everything looked, it was absolutely beautiful. And at every crucial fx shot I would look really close to see if I could find errors and they are all still so seamless and so magically perfect. The cheetah attack in the intro I still can't believe that isn't real. Apparently all the spaceship shots were done in-camera with no blue screen, resulting in a very natural and very hi-fi look.

If at times not my favorite movie ever then certainly one of the most beautiful. The sound was amazing too but I've rambled on about all this already on the Kubrick thread Stanley Kubrick: Classic or Dud?

17 minutes of footage Kubrick cut out has been found

i'm amazed that this footage was ever lost - always assumed that SK at least had kept a print of the longer version.

hope they release this on dvd at the same time as the longer tv cut of the shining, which has never been issued on a home video format afaik

Came across this on D3m0n0id today, sounds like a party.

Original film name: 2001: A Space Odyssey
New film name: Plan 2001 From Outer Space
Original Runtime: 141 mins
New Runtime: 80 mins
Amount of time Cut: 61 mins

Your intention for this fanedit:
To remove the art-film pretentiousness from The Greatest Movie Ever Made and turn it into a fun, faster paced sci-fi flick while still retaining what little plot there was to begin with. Kubrick fanboys are advised to stay far, far away.

Cut:
-3 minutes of blank screen and opening credits
-Dawn of Man segment removed
-docking the spaceship shortened
-Floyd's video call to his daughter removed
-conversation with Russian astronauts shortened
-landing on the Moon shortened
-changing the AE-35 shortened
-Intermission removed
-Dave returning to Jupiter One and killing HAL removed
-Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite shortened
-various small chops here and there to help the pace
-rearranged the order of the scenes

Added:
Completely new score featuring music from James Brown, The Edgar Winter Group, Pink Floyd and many more. I tried to make all the additions to the score have some sort of unique meaning to them - sometimes synching through musical or lyrical cues, sometimes for a laugh, sometimes for an "I see what you did there" moment or sometimes just plain fun.

lol demonoid retards

if yr gonna troll, at least cut it down to 22 minutes and add some breakcore, strobing and '2k6 youtube ronaldinho compilation' effects

I showed two clips to my grade 6s yesterday: the Strauss docking scene, and about three minutes of HAL's demise. They seemed especially fascinated by the HAL scene.

I've been completely smitten with this film since I was a small kid, probably like a lot of people I guess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nxZOMAFXBgw#!

I noticed that in the viral Prometheus videos David had a totally soft, Douglas Rain style equalisation on his voice.

children's menu tie-in, 1968

http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.de/2013/05/2001-space-odyssey-howard-johnsons.html

Just as the repairman is about to re-enter the spaceship he slips and floats away gets murdered by a psychotic AI

(sorry, spoilers)

In the lost HoJo cut, the space stewardess drops in randomly during the Jupiter mission

The shot where you're looking through astronaut Dave's eyes to old Dave, and Dave walks towards you and suddenly you realise young Dave is gone and OMG perspective shift from first-person-young-Dave to third-person-old-Dave! Literally the most breathtaking movie moment ever. For me.

― ledge (ledge), Thursday, December 1, 2005 12:02 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^this. acid trip / nightmare logic p much filmed here for maybe the first time

that definitely blew my mind when i first saw it as a kid

The only time I've used the noun "monolith" has been in reference to this film

I've been completely smitten with this film since I was a small kid, probably like a lot of people I guess.

A big "thank you" to my parents for letting me watch this since age 4 or so, aside from the political discussions it's an easy film for a kid to grasp

Love this blog:

http://typesetinthefuture.com/2001-a-space-odyssey/

http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/photos/2001-kubrick-s-space-epic-among-new-movie-stamps-copyright-royal-mail-photo-1399976903111.html

Did i fuck that up? i am hopeless at these things. One more try (it is the new 2001 first class stamp)

https://uk.movies.yahoo.com/photos/2001-kubrick-s-space-epic-among-new-movie-stamps-copyright-royal-mail-photo-1399976903111.html

fuckit

(also first response hall of fame)

http://www.designweek.co.uk/pictures/464x350fitpad%5B238%5D/0/1/9/2079019_2001-A-Space-Odyssey-Stamp-.JPG

thank you, it's nice isn't it (also slightly contentious entry as a 'british film')

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqOOZux5sPE

I saw Jodorowsky's "Dune" and there is a clip from this in it, it's from the Blue Danube section, and even just as an isolated 20-second movie clip w people occasionally talking over it, it is still the most brilliant and beautiful alignment of imagery and music I may ever witness. Everything about it is perfect, from the snail pacing to the color timing (those faded blues OMG heaven must be that color).

finally getting to see this on the big screen next weekend, pretty stoked

"2001 should be played in a temple 24 hours a day" — John Lennon

that's super expensive to have an empty flight for just heywood and they still make him sit in business class.

this film is an incredible thing. have loved it since i was 15 but seeing it in a theatre somehow makes everything fall into place in a way it never did before. and yeah definitely the best opening/credit sequence in all of film history -- i was tearing up a bit.

dominique's post upthread about how the pacing is "like giant gears of a celestial rollercoaster unlocking" is so otm. feel like i've been searching for that phrase for years to explain to ppl why this film isn't "boring."

I saw this for the first time* on bluray the other night

*I attempted to watch it twice before but I always fell asleep somewhere between the apes and HAL

Now I'm really mad at myself for not giving more attention earlier, and I'm suuuuuuuuuuper jealous of Mr Veg who first saw it in a big cinerama dome when he was 10

I can't imagine anything more awesome than seeing this as a kid, seriously anyone itt who has that memory congratulations you win at life.

There's so much I love about it that it's kinda hard to even say in detail because you guys all know but thank fuck he worked so hard to NOT do what was expected, and god love everyone who worked on that movie for committing to the sheer level of detail needed to pull it off. Those space scenes are fucking immaculate

I cried when HAL got shut down ;_; ...and I didn't even know about the whole 'Daisy' song being a real thing (ie Bell labs) until I watched the special features

Can anyone recommend a good 'making of' book that I should read? I would love to know more.

the worst part about it taking me so long to see 2001 is that I've loved so many of his other movies, saw Eyes Wide Shut in the theater ffs, like WWWWHAAAAT IS WRONG WITH ME lol

it just always seemed intimidating I think. and I always exhausted myself going 'ok what does this mean, why is the ape doing that, what's that for, what's it represent blahahaahha' and this time I was like fuck it, I'm just gonnna watch the bloody thing like a bloody movie the way Kubrick intended ppl to watch it and not get all nerded out until afterwards

^^ learning recently that that attitude pretty key to tackling any big cultural object.

this movie remains a miraculous thing.

Good book: The Making of Kubrick's 2001 - Edited by Jerome Angel. Mentioned upthread I think (probably by me). Contains tons of details about the movie, the story, the novel, lots of theories and suchlike, reprints of reviews etc that came out at the time.

Can anyone recommend a good 'making of' book that I should read? I would love to know more.

'The Lost Worlds of 2001' by Arthur C. Clarke is a mixed bag of early screenplay bits, the original short story that the film was partly based on ('The Sentinel'), and recollections about working with Kubrick.

'2001: Filming the Future' by Piers Bizony is more a conventional 'making of' with a lot of technical detail but it also goes into the people behind the scenes, not just Clarke and Kubrick. There's also a chapter in the book summarising Kubrick's other films, which really helps put '2001' into context.

The Jerome Agel book is pretty good.

this is a great essay going around a while back about the fonts
http://typesetinthefuture.com/2001-a-space-odyssey/

totally didn't know those were IBM spacesuits

I started watching 2010 the other night -- I don't mind it but god is there anything in the original that isn't a) driven into the ground and/or b) completely over-explained, sheesh

haha that movie is so bad

i feel bad for them re the space scenes.

A lot of '2010' is a huge expo-dump. The only way it could avoid feeling clunky is for people who haven't seen '2001'. Having said that, I like '2010' a lot.

it's much more a sequel to clarke's '2001' than it is kubrick's

I can't imagine anything more awesome than seeing this as a kid, seriously anyone itt who has that memory congratulations you win at life.

:D

So happy to hear about your first 2001 screening! I would give anything to see it again for the first time!

and the bluray is legit gorgeous

I didn't see it as a kid, but I did see it (as I've probably already mentioned upthread and am too lazy to check) several years ago in an AMAZING 70mm print at the AFI Silver Theater in Maryland. It was absolutely mind-blowing.

I didn't even know about the whole 'Daisy' song being a real thing (ie Bell labs)

OK, I don't think I know what this means. Wha?

I'm suuuuuuuuuuper jealous of Mr Veg who first saw it in a big cinerama dome when he was 10

I can't imagine anything more awesome than seeing this as a kid, seriously anyone itt who has that memory congratulations you win at life.

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, June 13, 2014 11:45 AM (9 hours ago)

me too! saw the theatrical re-release w/ my stepdad in 1980, when i was 13. completely mind bowling. loved the "white room" section towards the end best of all, has long stayed in my mind as one of the most breathtaking sequences i've ever seen onscreen. remember sitting in the theater afterwards, after the credits had finished with the music still playing. wasn't sure we were supposed to leave or what. my stepdad explained that the extra music was there so people on drugs could re-orient themselves.

xpost: (from Wiki)

In 1961 an IBM 704 became the first computer to sing, in a demonstration of Bell Labs' newly invented speech synthesis – and the song was "Daisy Bell".[3] Vocals were programmed by John Kelly and Carol Lochbaum and the accompaniment was programmed by Max Mathews. In a famous scene in the 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the intelligent HAL 9000 computer during its deactivation loses its mind and degenerates to singing "Daisy Bell", which was one of the first things HAL learned when it was originally programmed. The author of the story, Arthur C. Clarke, had seen the 1961 demo.[4]

http://youtu.be/41U78QP8nBk

neat, huh?

thx VG, def hadn't heard that.

:D

I liked this when I saw it - someone has reverse engineered the images used for the slitscan sequence

http://seriss.com/people/erco/2001/

Fun fact: in the French dubbed version, HAL sings Au clair de la lune. Makes it a whole different movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdi5PqMm4jQ

2001 Space Odyssey. Dave turn off HAL

In a nice coincidence, my wife gave me a copy of the Taschen SK Archives for Father's Day this morning.

wait, is father's day on a saturday this year or something??

No, they gave me presents and fixed breakfast and all that a day early because my daughter has to work tomorrow morning.

I didn't see it as a kid, but I did see it (as I've probably already mentioned upthread and am too lazy to check) several years ago in an AMAZING 70mm print at the AFI Silver Theater in Maryland. It was absolutely mind-blowing.

Ha. I caught a 70mm screening at that AFI a few years ago too.

An unfortunate thing about 2001 is that it seems to devalue with each viewing. Realized this a few years ago when I saw it maybe four times in a span of a few months. It just doesn't have the return value as other favorites.

Seeing this as a teenager was monumental though. I could probably credit that moment as what really got me interested in film.

Yeah, I've only watched 2001 maybe 2 or 3 times ever. It's not a movie that you want to go back to on an annual basis.

My favourite thing about this movie (along with the soundtrack, the ending, the moon sequence... pretty much everything except the monkeys, and even the monkey are great) my favourite thing is the unique style of editing, super rhythmic. It feels like every shot is too long or too short, the editing is obtrusive, like its own character. It never feels zany like a Godard film, it just feels weirdly musical or something.

otm

re: re-watchability, I agree. but it's certainly not a fault of the film. there's something like a conscious lack of depth or nuance (in a very good way). it's like the Iliad or something mythological.

?? do you mean everyone's lack of affect and frank's stepford parents?

The thing I like best about 2001 is the way it sounds, there's a softness and cushioned timbre in the dialogue tracks especially in the way HAL's voice is treated, that I love. It sounds more complicated than just a slightly reduced bandwidth/high end but I can't describe what it is, the sound of Douglas Rain's voice is one of my favourite things.

I realized I could make a bunch of money if I developed an app for iPhone users that would make Siri sound like HAL. And no matter what your name is, it would call you Dave.

yes, all of the 21st-century ppl are banal; talk about prophecy.

i go back to this on an annual basis more or less and it gets better all the time so

that's OK, Eric goes back to Showgirls on a monthly basis.

one thing i noticed is that dave seems to have more personality than the other humans -- he sketches, gets pissed off at HAL, gets emotional when he has to shut off HAL, etc. it's pretty subtle, but i think it's there.

I watch nothing on a monthly basis.

Except episodes of The Golden Girls, which I watch on a nightly basis.

movie is so much weirder than the book

well novel is just Clarke, adapting the script he and Kubrick wrote from Clarke's little short story. He was gonna streamline it and make it less opaque.

p much agree w/ tarantino that digital cinema is 'watching tv in public', but still interested in seeing the new warner bros digital print mentioned here (no mention, of course, of a restoration of the missing footage)

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/announcements/bfi-rerelease-stanley-kubricks-2001

peter kramer's 2001 bfi monograph is pretty good, btw, esp on the film's nuclear paranoia.

thing i can never get over abt 2001's production history is that until v. late in the day, the film came with a voiceover that explained a lot of what was going on

You're gonna kill me if you say it was Peter Sellers doing the v/o.

Michael Bentine in fully 'Potty Time' mode?

there is no missing footage, as SK didn't want it in the film. (It's true that the fact that it premiered w/ 20 mins that he cut immediately makes that stuff a bit of a Grail, but I really am not curious to ever see it, and it looks like he definitively disposed of it.)

Acc to wikipedia:

In December 2010, Douglas Trumbull announced that Warner Brothers had located seventeen minutes of lost footage, "perfectly preserved", in a Kansas salt mine vault. A Warner Brothers press release asserts definitively that this material is from the postpremiere cuts, which Kubrick has stated totaled nineteen minutes. No immediate plans have been announced for the footage.

I wld be very curious to see it, ditto the lost ending of The Shining

i've stumbled across the claim a few places that the beatles used some outtakes from 2001 for a sequence in the film version of magical mystery tour, but it's never really explained how on earth the beatles would have gotten their hands on outtakes from 2001.

kubrick gave them the footage after he pulled out of filming their version of lord of the rings, having shot prepremiere 'missing footage' of the fabs in full hobbit costume that allegedly now resides in landfill under the M8

ditto the lost ending of The Shining

That would be the "lost" penultimate scene. I saw it 34 years ago, you're not missing much.

where would the blue powdered food scene fit in if he's eating full room service fare by the end?

> the lost ending of The Shining

didn't they tack a bit of this onto the end of bladerunner?

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/smart-news/ridley-scott-reused-footage-from-the-shining-at-the-end-of-blade-runner-2005687/

oh, that was outtakes of the initial sequence of the shining, not the end.

you can read the script pages of the 'lost' shining scene here. i think SK was right to take it out, doesn't add much at all.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/lost-ending-to-stanley-kubricks-the-shining-revealed-20130124

Briefly misinterpreted that "SK" as "Stephen King" and just realized that King and Kubrick have the same initials. Paging the Room 237 guys?

the tommyknockers is all about how sk faked the challenger disaster

originally called the sammy knockers

New trailer for BFI festival screenings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfF0vxKZRhc#t=12

Amazing how many indelible images there are in this movie.

see at what point you lose hope for this 3001 adap

http://thedissolve.com/news/3822-ridley-scott-to-executive-produce-a-2001-a-space-o/

I'm holding out for 2002.

On the big screen.

yep, i'll be going on sunday. psyched as i only ever saw it once, quite recently on a crap TV.

was shown not even all of it in music class at school on a tiny telly

front row, big screen

there is nothing to add

seeing it on 70mm tonight. quite excited.

Just saw it on the big screen at last, third time in total, can't recommend the experience enough.

dont see it on 70mm. it just looks old. which usually is what i crave, but for this, esp after a lecture at the bfi on its set design/rendering of the future/space travel etc, it felt wrong - this film should look new. (also dont see it after a long day at work).

Was surprised to see this is on at a local cinema next week. Wasn't aware it had been rereleased.
Not sure what the deal is since I only looked at timetable for Monday.
I don't remember seeing rereleased films listed for normal runs there though they have had things like Twilight marathons so you coukd see all the films in order.
This was the same cinema that showed the Nick Cave 20000 Days On Earth link up. I haven't seen if the other multiplex has it.

This is a new digital print of 2001 produced by the BFI as the lead film in their current SF season. These BFI prints tend to 'tour' cinemas around Britain, primarily arthouses but also certain multiplexes for one-off screenings.

There is an interval of a couple of minutes of darkness and music when HAL turns.

the intermission and music that leads up to the start of the film and at the end was actually one of my favourite parts lol. i wish all cinemas presented films like that, as a real presentation.

I kind of feel like I need to read something about 2001 before I rewatch it this weekend. Like, I wasn't quite sure what to expect the first time round and afterwards I wasn't sure what I had seen. It feels like the majority of the 'plot' takes place right slap in the middle of the feature, which is bookended with a very long intro and a very long outro. I'd like to know more about what to look out for, what Kubrick is going for, small details, bigger pictures... Is there something I can read that would be a good place to start?

http://www.goldenageofscifi.info/pdf/TheSentinel.pdf

In the words of Arthur C Clarke, "I am continually annoyed by careless references to 'The Sentinel' as 'the story on which 2001 is based'; it bears about as much relation to the movie as an acorn to the resultant full-grown oak."

This one might be more fitting, I first encountered it as a short story but apparently it's a chapter in the novel developed alongside the film:

http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Cultural/Art/2001.html

Fair bit of confusion at the musical introduction, some seemed to think the show had started with the curtains still drawn xxp

Prob mentioned on this thread before, but the BFI monograph by Peter Kramer on 2001 is excellent:
http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/2001-a-space-odyssey-/?K=9781844572861

Saw this on the last re-release some years back, at the Curzon Mayfair, The pre-credits sequence with the snippet of Ligeti and the Curzon's sixties style interior made me feel like I had jumped back in time, or maybe forward.

Actually just looked back at the timetable for that cinema locally . & it has had 2 showings a day on for the current week and one showing a day for next week. So somewhat more than a one off.
Is that happening elsewhere than the BFI too?

Well there's the British Film Institute - a lottery-funded body with an educational and preservationist remit - and the National Film Theatre in London, which is run by the BFI but shows films owned, distributed or revived by many different companies. The BFI mount a number of different seasons at the NFT over the course of a year, and generally most seasons will have a 'lead' film that then tours the whole of the UK. Any cinema can show a BFI-distributed film, for as long as they like; here in Glasgow, 2001 has had a week-long run at the GFT, the city's sole arthouse cinema, and a one day showing at the big Cineworld multiplex. I'm sure the BFI is keen to have films they distribute (and create new prints for) shown as widely as possible, but as they tend to specialise in arthouse fare, showings at more commercial cinemas are generally limited to a single showing, if that; for their Chinese cinema season earlier this year, the BFI created a new print of Spring in a Small Town, which I saw at the GFT, but which never made it to Cineworld.

I don't know the nature of the financial arrangement between the BFI, Warner Bros (who have the DVD/Blu-Ray rights to 2001) and the Kubrick estate with regard to this new print of 2001.

Saw this last night on a massive screen, with a pleasingly big and attentive audience. A modern - loud - cinema sound system brought it home to me just how much of a space opera this actually is; it's amazing that the music choices were all made after the fact, and after a score had been commissioned.

There was one weird jump cut in the middle of the scene with Leonard Rossiter, which felt like the most obvious place where Kubrick had taken out footage after his initial cut.

I thought the music was what was already being used as the scratch track, before any soundtrack work was considered.

Oh right - I know there was an Alex North score that Kubrick didn't use - but was the classical music in place at the time of filming (which would make sense given the choreography between music and image)?

From Wiki:

In the early stages of production, Kubrick had actually commissioned a score for 2001 from noted Hollywood composer Alex North, who had written the score for Spartacus and also worked on Dr. Strangelove.[11] However, during post-production, Kubrick chose to abandon North's music in favor of the now-familiar classical music pieces he had earlier chosen as "guide pieces" for the soundtrack. North did not know of the abandonment of the score until he saw the film's premiere screening.

In March 1966, MGM became concerned about 2001's progress and Kubrick put together a show reel of footage to the ad hoc soundtrack of classical recordings. The studio bosses were delighted with the results and Kubrick decided to use these "guide pieces" as the final musical soundtrack, and he abandoned North's score.

Kubrick chose to abandon North's music in favor of the now-familiar classical music pieces he had earlier chosen as "guide pieces" for the soundtrack.

Thanks - it's not entirely clear, but I take that to mean that the classical music choices were first applied to the film after filming had completed, but before North's score was ready. So it's not like Leone's Once Upon a Time in America, where the Morricone score was played to the actors during filming.

It's interesting to me how often 'master planner' Kubrick made decisive creative decisions like this, well after filming had completed (ie his tinkering with edits, or abandoning narration on 2001).

Yeah, I guess he commissioned the score at some point in production then went with the temp tracks during editing.

So watching this today has confirmed to me that Kubrick films are so much more enjoyable the second time round, and should always be viewed on a big screen. Same as the Shining screening I attended a couple of years ago. I was blown away.

A friend who saw it in Croydon said they played generic R n'B during the intermission, is this standard or just a Croydon thing?

It's a Croydon thing (we got Ligeti)

we got 3 minutes of A$AP Rocky during the blank screen at the beginning. The docking bay part was 'Sugar' by System of a Down. The psychedelic trip to Jupiter section was 'Jesus He Knows Me' by Genesis.

they were obv going for the 'zane lowe rescores' vibe.

don't go all pinkfloydplanetarium on us

more films should have intermissions. how much better would winter sleep or boyhood have been with a gap after the 1.5 hour mark?

people wd go to the lobby, start texting, never come back.

i like uninterrupted long films for as long as i can stand em. pretty sure the 2001 intermission is there cuz the film premiered ~20 minutes longer.

I thought it was there cos it was a pretty common feature of cinerama 'roadshow' movies, back in the day?

Intermissions are also probably poopooed know as offering viewers a chance to theatre hop in the multiplex.

Serious Question: What was the last major release to feature one?

When I saw "As Good As It Gets" in Mexico, there was an intermission.

Pretty wild. "Hoo boy, these Helen Hunt/Greg Kinnear performances are wearing me out… better take a walk to the lobby for a few minutes."

pretty much all bollywood movies have intermissions.
when lawrence of arabia was re-released recently, i know that had an intermission with the original music.
cant think of any others though. apart from maybe grindhouse/death proof (though not sure if that was an intermission or just a specially arranged double feature with the trailers etc, lot of fun either way)

Cremaster 3 had a short intermission, not sure if that counts as a "major release" though

or even a release

The roadshow version of Carlos had intermissions between episodes/segments, and was the last thing that wasn't a rep film I recall attending that did so.

did the original release have an intermission?

i know Barry Lyndon did:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=titZx8VA4DY

As was typical of most movies of that era released both as a "road-show" (in Cinerama format in the case of Space Odyssey) and subsequently put into general release (in seventy-millimetre in the case of Odyssey), the entrance music, intermission music (and intermission altogether), and postcredit exit music were cut from most (though not all) prints of the latter version, although these have been restored to most DVD releases.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film)

They were still doing it when I saw Heat at the dominion in 95.

The Directors Cut of Nymphomaniac had an intermission. When I saw Norte there was an intermission, but that was a festival-showing, anyone who saw it in actual release?

Saw Norte at the Glasgow Film Festival and there was no intermission.

During the 2001 intermission, we actually had someone selling choc ices etc in the auditorium, which was a nice touch

When I went to see Rivette's Out One at the NFT, spread over three nights, for the final evening the audience were asked beforehand whether we wanted an intermission or not (we voted no!)

The revived Gone With The Wind thread elsewhere on this board reminds me that there was an intermission during that when I saw a new digital print of it last year

Saw this at the BFI. Beyond the Infinite will never get old. Still amazed at how it was achieved, I'm sure a little googling would clear it up but why not enjoy the mystery. All I remember is a quote from a book I read years ago, Douglas Trumbull told Kubrick he would need giant plates of glass and a machine as big as a house, Kubrick said. "Do it. Get it. Whatever you need."

Blue Danube scenes are an elegy for a future that never happened.

Heywood Floyd is an asshole.

The most dated moment now is when you see Heywood Floyd reading a newspaper

Also all the dolly birds in service roles and hunks in the pilot seats. Wouldn't have been too far sighted to switch the gender roles around a bit.

oh boy here we go with "dated" again

i saw lawrence of arabia a few years ago at cinema 21 in portland and it had an intermission. it was nice because i had gone alone but during the intermission i stood around outside the theatre and talked to smokers from the audience about the movie so far + our expectations for pt 2, and i wouldn't wanna do that for every long movie (don't interrupt stalker) but it worked for that one. might work for barry lyndon. 2001 it's cool cuz it's a cliffhanger iirc.

Yeah I get it, a) it's stood up remarkably well and ii) who cares anyway, especially now it's set in the past. Just a minor observation let's be cool. Xp.

or not strictly a cliffhanger but yknow comes after an alarming reveal xp.

a scene not praised enough is hal murdering the sleepers: the cuts from frantic twitching vitals to serene sleeping faces to impassive eye to flatlines. really violent! honestly kinda feels like watching psycho.

(topped by hal's own death, tho; not a lot of better movie deaths)

xp - yeah, good point. 2001 frightened the shit out of me when i saw it the first time aged 8 or so and that was one of the scariest scenes. it's one of my favourite movies now but i still find the whole thing much stranger and more unsettling than the shining.

a scene not praised enough is hal murdering the sleepers: the cuts from frantic twitching vitals to serene sleeping faces to impassive eye to flatlines. really violent! honestly kinda feels like watching psycho.

― difficult listening hour, Thursday, December 11, 2014 12:49 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't remember this in the version I saw?

oh, the lines going across the screen - yeah that was a bit much!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4n3dbPqk58

amazing how effective the sound is there - just the low ambient hum of the discovery and then a series of beeps.

that last weird scraggly curve on CENTRAL NERV. SYSTEM rllllly freaked kid me out too

Stalker does actually have a "Part 2"brittle card though.

Stalker is about as long as a typical cgi blockbuster these days and 2001 ia only 2 hours long.

Er... title card.

Sorry about the typos. I'm blaming ios8.

xpost

The close-ups of the flashing 'Computer Malfunction', 'Life Function Critical', 'Life Functions Terminated' signs during that sequence really gave off a heavy J-L Godard vibe (text+primary colours)

Stalker is about as long as a typical cgi blockbuster these days and 2001 ia only 2 hours long.

def support intermissions for marvel movies.

the stillness of the shots of the crew and HAL kinda give me a la jetée vibe too

Lost footage? I remember futuristic cars in the movie in front of sleeping Heywood, definitely don't remember any lovemaking.

The movie being shown on the TV set in front of the sleeping passenger was a little more complicated. Kubrick wanted shots of a futuristic car, and close-ups of a love scene taking place inside. A crew was dispatched to Detroit to shoot a sleek car of the future which was provided by, I believe, the Ford Motor Company. The exteriors were shot in 35mm, but the interiors were shot without seats or passengers, as four-by-five Ektachrome transparencies. Using these as background plates for a normal rear-projection set-up, on actor and actress were seated in dummy seats and Kubrick directed the love scene. Shot on 35mm, this was cut together with the previous exterior shots, and projected onto the TV screen using a first-surface mirror.

ok my dirty mind substituted "lovemaking" for "love scene". still, you get two shots of talking heads, not even a smooch.

http://extension765.com/sdr/23-the-return-of-w-de-rijk

Anyone watched that yet?

2001 Gets Turned Into “The Weirdest Sci-Fi Comic Ever Made” by Jack Kirby

https://filmfork-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/content/2001pic05.jpg

http://www.openculture.com/2015/01/jack-kirbys-2001-a-space-odyssey.html

I've got the "treasury" version of that, its so big that it doesn't fit on any shelf in my house and languishes under my bed so I forget it exists

Love those comics so much. His actual adaptation of the film is next level.

The Treasury Edition is the movie adaptation, then the comic series spins off (loosely) from that. I'm guessing there are copyright issues that have prevented this from ever being reprinted.

kind of amazing kubrick even allowed the series to be done in the first place! maybe he didn't have a say, i don't know...

and/or Clarke

on Kubrick and the 2.20:1 ratio

The height-to-width proportions of the frame are as essential to the power of this image as the alignment of elements and submissive angle of framing. In a wider aspect ratio, the lateral plane would predominate, pushing the edges a bit further out and slightly diminishing the towering effect. (This is exactly the case with anamorphic 35mm prints of 2001, created when the film went into wide release — at reduced prices — after its initial roadshow tour: The top and bottom portions of the 70mm frame were cropped to accommodate the extra width of a 2.35:1 aspect ratio.) Machine or messenger, the monolith is the film’s only constant character, accompanying the human species on its four-million-year journey from Pleistocene tool user to Zarathustrian new man incubating in a cosmic cocoon, an idea first embodied (with a lotus theme) in Les Nénuphars, a 1901 painting by Czech artist František Kupka, another modern visionary smitten by physics, astronomy, and Nietzsche’s philosophy of transhuman evolution. In its epochal manifestations, the stone transmits knowledge (Moon-Watcher’s “discovery” of the bone as tool/weapon is accompanied by a flashback to the power shot of the monolith), produces a beacon signal that instigates a manned mission to Jupiter, spurs the magical alignment of Jovian satellites that triggers Bowman’s stargate experience, and appears one last time—stoic, eternal, absolute in its impenetrability—in the serene white dream chamber where an aged, bedridden Bowman, beyond heuristics or any mappable coordinates in time and space, undergoes a final transformation.

http://reverseshot.org/symposiums/entry/2013/space_odyssey

Has everyone seen this? rare example of Kubrick allowing his work to be re-used.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vezy9pRxeOA

well, since SK died in March '99, do you know that it was he who allowed it?

Well, since it first aired in January 1999, would assume so. If not then his estate must have allowed it, which is more or less the same thing.

*one* would assume so

OK, didn't know the airdate

Hm.

http://i.imgur.com/W9JVlkt.jpg

I doubt Kubrick had anything to do with that Apple ad - unlike with the later Warner Bros films, he didn't have any veto over the way that 2001 was exploited, hence the Marvel Comics, the 2010 movie etc.

Well I dunno, wiki has sources saying he gave his permission. The difference being that (unlike the comics and 2010) the ad actually uses footage from the film. who knows.

Who am I to argue with Wiki - the Kubrick estate certainly have a say in the way that 2001 is presented on home video (ie no 'special edition' with the footage that was excised from the premiere), so you could well be right about the difference being actual content rather than intellectual property.

I like to think that Kubrick would've be delighted by the Kirby comics, but my guess is that SK was only barely aware of them at best.

I wonder if they tried to get Douglas Rain to do the voice for that ad, whoever is copying him isn't doing a good enough job.

yeah apparently they asked him but he refused to do it

saw this for the first time ever a few days ago, at the cinema, front row, was also very stoned. i have been waiting for years to see this in the movie theater, and I am really glad i waited.

yeah finally seeing this on the big screen last year rates as one of my best ever moviegoing experiences

Same. Also, get stoned.

You don't need to get stoned. I saw it stone cold sober on the big screen and it remains one of the greatest works of art I will ever witness

yeah you do. and you have to take drugs to enjoy dance music.

lock thread

It will be shown in Copenhagen at the end of summer, but at open air and on digital. I want to watch this on a scrappy 35mm when I finally watch in on a big screen. I've watched it on DVD a bunch of times.

the last time i saw this what blew my mind was the scene near the beginning where the guy stands in front of an american flag and acknowledges to the scientists that having to maintain the quarantine's official cover story while knowing the truth will make them uncomfortable and anxious, which not only foreshadows hal's psychosis but links it to the secretive impulses of the Complex that built him. i was stoned.

(the first time this movie really Got me i wasn't. tho i was 16 which amounts to the same thing.)

we should rank uncannily stilted scenes of pronouncements from authority in the first quarters of kubrick movies: "i completely understand your negative feelings" vs "for some people, solitude and isolation can in itself become a problem" vs "she o.d.ed on coke"

(vs "your days of fingerbanging mary jane rottencrotch through her pretty pink panties are over")

Now I'm really mad at myself for not giving more attention earlier, and I'm suuuuuuuuuuper jealous of Mr Veg who first saw it in a big cinerama dome when he was 10

I can't imagine anything more awesome than seeing this as a kid, seriously anyone itt who has that memory congratulations you win at life.

I also first saw 2001 when I was 10, but it was on TV.

priced-to-move Taschen book on the film (560 pp, $50)

http://twitchfilm.com/2015/08/book-review-piers-bizonys-the-making-of-stanley-kubricks-2001-a-space-odyssey-gallery.html

I own this earlier version of the Bizony book -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/2001-Filming-Future-Piers-Bizony/dp/1854107062

lots of interesting background stuff obv, but he is not a very good or insightful writer. Sadly.

70mm screening at the prince charles in london in a few weeks...

http://www.trbimg.com/img-55d5278a/turbine/la-2436119-et-spaceodyssey-2-lkh-02-jpg-20150819/800/800x450

LA Philharmonic just recently played the soundtrack live to the film.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-phil-2001-review-20150820-story.html

I keep forgetting Keir played the piano player i Black Christmas.

This looks kinda interesting:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-2001-File-Landmark-Science/dp/0957261020/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0PJT8DR8YC4YW9CKBQG6

Incredible! I was just daydreaming about a live music performance of this the other day. Blue Danube / Spinning Space Stations sequence is my favorite film sequence of all time.

I saw it at the Bowl which was great/interesting because the film is so good I kind of forgot that the orchestra was playing at all. That said, I'd never heard the choral parts live before (and had never really heard any avant-garde choral music live) and that was amazing.

http://i.imgur.com/5U1yFUO.jpg

Wow.

awesome

Great idea

Saw it at a 70mm one-day-festival a year ago, sober, front row, blown away

Did they perform Ligeti's Aventures at the end section in the fake hotel suite?

I believe so. It seemed complete and again, so seamless that it I occasionally forgot about the live aspect.

First viewing in 14 years yesterday at MoMA, unfortunately in DCP, not 70mm...

Very funny that Bowman shakes his hand from the hot package when he pulls his dinner out of the Discovery meal slot. Goddamn future can't get anything right.

Also it seemed to me that the name of HAL's creator, Dr Chandra, was DUBBED with another name in the disconnect scene! What reason could there possibly be for that?

I always wondered that, in the film it's Dr Langley

ok. i thought it usta be Chandra in the film.

Clarke finished the novel quite apart from the completion of the script.

Was lucky enough to see this on a big screen a week ago. Theater was absolutely packed on a Tuesday evening!

Caught a lot of the more subtle dark humor this time around. For instance in the message from ground control confirming that HAL is malfunctioning and they know this because.....the HAL on Earth confirmed it LOL

Are they being lied to by all their computers?

Also I kind of wonder if HAL had some kind of weird meta reaction to watching himself give an interview about himself on public TV. Because really shortly after viewing that TV episode is when he starts pulling shit.

If he wasn't just evil the whole time and at some point in the film turned evil I think it may have to do w the TV interview. Maybe HAL is camera shy.

If you accept his personhood, I wouldn't call his killing of Poole "murder." It's self-defense.

People have speculated that he has the guilts bcz he knows the objective of the mission, and the humans do not.

btw the classical composers get screen credit, but not the guy who wrote "Daisy Bell."

HAL's identifying of the AE35 as faulty doesn't appear to be 'pulling shit,' but a straightforward error. (and in fact we don't know for sure that it's an error)

I never fail to marvel at the sound of Douglas Rain's voice and whoever the sound guy was that caught it with such softness.

I know it's very obviously telegraphed but the unsettling, glitchy 'just a moment, just a moment' right before HAL announces that the AE-35 has malfunctioned is the point, for me, that he makes the decision or it is made for him somehow.

I always assumed the monolith was matted in on the man-apes' soundstage, but from the way Moonwatcher touches it, I don't believe so. (Haven't looked it up.)

btw the monolith moon-pit scene was the first one shot, at the end of December '65.

btw the classical composers get screen credit, but not the guy who wrote "Daisy Bell."

― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Sunday, September 6, 2015 1:40 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I would suspect that credit is given to the copyright-holding performers of these public domain works, and that none is given for Daisy Bell because it is sung either by an actor or the IBM 704 from which a recording was made in 1961. Whether there is a copyright on that I don't know. Not my specialty.

People have speculated that he has the guilts bcz he knows the objective of the mission, and the humans do not.

yeah this is big. imo it's foreshadowed in the briefing given to the scientists at the beginning: they're told they'll be uncomfortable maintaining the official story. hal is directed both to monitor and help pilot the ship, to the best of his prideful ability, and to conceal from the crew the nature of the mission. he doesn't always know what information to relay and the information he relays becomes erratic; the crew notices; hal kills them to defend both himself and his sense of himself as infallibly helpful.

maresnest otm about "just a moment, just a moment" suggesting... something. a digital psychotic break. either he invents it to kill poole because he's decided that when the crew is dead he will no longer have to lie, or it is a genuine glitch caused in some way by his double consciousness -- or it's both, like, maybe the error is consciously genuine but manifests and sets in motion the fulfillment of an unconscious desire to be alone on the ship. regardless i think the fault report is hal's first act of legal insanity. the middle part of this movie is kinda hitchcock in space.

i know everything hasn't been quite right with me. but i can assure you now--very confidently--that it's going to be all right again. i feel much better now. i really do. look, dave, i can see you're really upset about this. i honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill and think things over. i know i've made some very poor decisions recently, but i can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. i've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. and i want to help you.

People have speculated that he has the guilts bcz he knows the objective of the mission, and the humans do not.

tbh, i've always thought this was a given, it never occured to me to think otherwise.

I always assumed the monolith was matted in on the man-apes' soundstage, but from the way Moonwatcher touches it, I don't believe so. (Haven't looked it up.)

Kubrick was pathologically obsessed with not only the design and look of the monolith but how to keep crew members fingerprints and dust off of the pristine, polished surface.

http://nzpetesmatteshot.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/kubricks-2001-one-mans-incredible.html

People have speculated that he has the guilts bcz he knows the objective of the mission, and the humans do not.

Pretty much stated to Heywood Floyd by Dr Chandra in 2010 iirc

Formatting is sketchy, apologies..

-Do you know why HAL did what he did?
-Yes. It wasn't his fault.
Whose fault was it?
-Yours.
-Mine?
CHANDRA:
Yours.
In going through HAL's memory banks
I discovered his original orders.
You wrote those orders.
Discovery's mission to Jupiter was already
in the advanced stages...
...when the first small monolith was found
and sent its signal toward Jupiter.
By direct presidential order, the existence
of that monolith was kept secret.
-So?
-So as the function of the command crew...
...Bowman and Poole
was to get Discovery to its destination...
...it was decided
they shouldn't be informed.
The investigative team was trained
separately and placed in hibernation...
...before the voyage began.
Since HAL was capable of operating
Discovery without human assistance...
...it was decided he should be programmed
to complete the mission autonomously...
...in the event the crew
was incapacitated or killed.
He was given full knowledge
of the true objective...
...and instructed not to reveal anything
to Bowman or Poole.
-He was instructed to lie.
-What are you talking about?
I didn't authorize anyone
to tell HAL about the monolith.
The directive is NSC 342-slash-23,
Top Secret, January 30, 2001 .
NSC, National Security Council,
the White House.
I don't care who it is.
The situation was in conflict
with the basic purpose of HAL's design...
...the accurate processing of information
without distortion or concealment.
He became trapped.
The technical term is an H-Mobius loop,
which can happen in advanced computers...
...with autonomous
goal-seeking programs.
The goddamn White House.
I don't believe it.
HAL was told to lie...
...by people who find it easy to lie.
HAL doesn't know how,
so he couldn't function.
He became paranoid.
Those sons of bitches.
I didn't know.
I didn't know.

man is this bludgeoning--

The goddamn White House.
I don't believe it.
HAL was told to lie...
...by people who find it easy to lie.
HAL doesn't know how,
so he couldn't function.
He became paranoid.
Those sons of bitches.
I didn't know.
I didn't know.

compared to this (quoting myself upthread)--

the scene near the beginning where the guy stands in front of an american flag and acknowledges to the scientists that having to maintain the quarantine's official cover story while knowing the truth will make them uncomfortable and anxious, which not only foreshadows hal's psychosis but links it to the secretive impulses of the Complex that built him

i don't friggin' care what they (ie Clarke) said in 2010

Kubrick's take was the simpler one:

"In the specific case of HAL, he had an acute emotional crisis because he could not accept evidence of his own fallibility. The idea of neurotic computers is not uncommon - most advanced computer theorists believe that once you have a computer which is more intelligent than man and capable of learning by experience, it's inevitable that it will develop an equivalent range of emotional reactions - fear, love, hate, envy, etc. Such a machine could eventually become as incomprehensible as a human being, and could, of course, have a nervous breakdown - as HAL did in the film."

http://www.archiviokubrick.it/english/words/interviews/1970superstar.html

This guy posits that HAL was ice cold from the outset.

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0095.html

Once when I was in France, 2001 was on TV in a dubbed version, which I decided to watch because the dialogue is not exactly key to the movie. However in the scene where HAL breaks down, instead of Daisy, Daisy he sings Au Clair de la Lune, which I found most disconcerting. Now I'm wondering whether he sings a different song in every language.

i read that there are a few diff songs

Many non-English language versions of the film do not use the song "Daisy". In the French soundtrack, Hal sings the French folk song "Au Clair de la Lune" while being disconnected.[103] In the German version, Hal sings the children's song "Hänschen klein" ("Johnny Little"),[104] and in the Italian version Hal sings "Giro giro tondo" (Ring a Ring o' Roses).[105]

Bought tickets for the 70mm presentation of 2001 at the Prince Charles. There were plenty of central seats available on the first two rows but I thought that might be insane, so I went about half-way back. It's in a couple of weeks' time.

acc to iNdB trivia, Kubrick did the sound of astronauts breathing.

Bought tickets for the 70mm presentation of 2001 at the Prince Charles. There were plenty of central seats available on the first two rows but I thought that might be insane, so I went about half-way back. It's in a couple of weeks' time.

how was the 70mm screening at the PCC?

It was pretty good, though the print wasn't pristine and I'd forgotten that flat-65mm presentation (i.e, not filmed with anamorphic lenses, like QT's Hateful Eight) is actually "only" 2.21:1, so at first I was distracted by the fact that it wasn't as panoramic as I thought it would be. 2.35 releases (the original DVD? VHS?) are actually letterboxed versions of the 2.21 original.

I wish I had been closer though. The music for the Beyond The Infinite sequence sounded great. And I'd forgotten how much I enjoy the dry economy of the Lockwood/Dullea conversations.

i saw it on 70mm at the bfi but wasnt blown away, maybe as the print wasnt as immaculate as hoped (it looked arid rather than rich), but maybe for the reasons you mentioned too. apparently the pcc now have a new print (or maybe this is the one you saw already) so am wondering if i should try again. though i still think, as i prob posted already, that 2001 might actually benefit from DCP.

The 2014 re-release was digital, wasn't it?

I first saw 2001 at the Unit 4 cinema in Wallasey in the summer of 1980, when it still had one large screen. I was 11 and I went with my older brother. He says I stared transfixed at the screen for a good minute after the intermission had started. I think it was first broadcast on British TV on New Year's Day 1982 or 1983. Oh, the arguments at school after the Xmas break - me defending it against the "boring and stupid" jibes.

A very interesting old article by Douglas Trumbull here - interesting despite the fact that I understood hardly any of it.

http://cinetropolis.net/vintage-article-by-douglas-trumbull-on-creating-special-effects-for-2001-a-space-odyssey/

This is playing in the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood Wednesday night. Not sure of the format.

think you just show up with a ticket

http://bhautikj.tumblr.com/post/145339946114/2001-a-space-odyssey-rendered-in-the-style-of

hello drukqs

impressive.

The Alien re-cut is funny.

new 70mm print in LA

http://americancinematheque.blogspot.de/2016/12/the-return-of-2001-space-odyssey-in-70mm.html

check out that bottom photo

He looks better than I expected!

http://i.imgur.com/rFM3SGV.jpg

you get a t shirt

https://drafthouse.com/event/2001-a-space-odyssey

Pretty good t shirt

Should be Kubrick/Kraftwerk one...

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0640/9215/products/kubrickxt_1024x1024.jpg

LA people:

http://www.curbed.com/2017/3/24/15051198/2001-space-odyssey-bedroom-installation-los-angeles

https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2010/10/monolith.jpg

http://bloomsmag.com/17-minutes-of-lost-2001-a-space-odyssey-footage-found/

*spit-take*

Warner Bros otm

I've been hearing about a 4K restoration so perhaps when that comes out...

these scenes are one of those tantalizing things that are bound to disappoint. they are scenes people saw at the first screening and gave vague descriptions about. i always wondered where the extra docking sequence was cut out from.

i am fine with them never adding the scenes back into the film, although if they get released there will be a fan edit.

An entire sequence of several shots in which Dave Bowman searches for the replacement antenna part in storage.

I don't know, guys. So ready to drop acid and watch this.

SPOILER: He eventually finds it.

Yeah, but wait until we see all the Predator ship equipment stored back there.

i need to see this and the cut ending from Phase IV pls

Phase IV lost ending is on YouTube

lol wrong URL there, meant to paste https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beLpsWaUDNk

When HAL is being deactivated the voice isn't simply slowed down; they used a device called the Eltro Mark II "Information Rate Changer" to achieve time compression/expansion and pitch shifting. Supposedly Douglas Rain's voice is slightly time stretched the whole way through.

There's a nice write-up by Wendy Carlos.

http://www.wendycarlos.com/other/Eltro-1967/index.html

That's super interesting to me thanks! I have obsessed for decades over the particular quality of Douglas Rain's voice in the film (my day job involves a lot of voice recording) and it's always stumped me why/how it sounded like it did, my best guess was some kind of unusual low pass filtering and compression combination that was a result of being stored on an optical format.

that's excellent.

This is still easily the greatest film ever made to me. I might upgrade to 4k whenever they release it on the format.

This is a rare example of everyone being right about something. And that is very interesting Noel thanks!

https://youtu.be/Hu64xbgprWY

1960 space documentary "Universe" narrated by Douglas Rain. He did other films and TV, but I can't find any clips on YouTube.

If you play it at half speed, it does sound like Hal being deactivated.

Douglas Rain is still alive at 89. I really hope they get Dullea and Lockwood to present the vfx Oscar this March (50th anniv), with a possible cameo from HAL.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Rain

4K disc coming on May 8.

https://www.urbandaddy.com/articles/41836/a-forthcoming-book-details-the-making-of-2001-a-space-odyssey

http://variety.com/2018/film/news/cannes-christopher-nolan-50th-anniversary-2001-1202738280/

Premiere screening in DC 50 years ago today, I think.

Opened theatrically 2 days later in NYC, day of MLK's murder.

Nolan, who will be attending the festival for the first time, will also participate in a Cannes masterclass on May 13, during which he will discuss his filmography and his passion for Kubrick’s work.

Most interested in his discussion of the extent to which his filmography is in no way reflective of his passion for Kubrick's work.

I mean, I have a passion for sentences that aren't unwieldy but you'd never know it.

people often say that kubrick's work is cold and distant and you can def see those properties in nolan (in fact i recently went off on one in the dunkirk thread about how only nolan could make an emotionally inert movie about hundreds of thousands of men awaiting violent death)

but mostly i don't happen to share that feeling about kubrick's work - yeah, he's patient and surgically precise and has a super-distinctive eye for composition and nolan def aims at all three of those, with varying degrees of success

but there's no way nolan could make a movie with as clear a vision of human absurdity as dr strangelove or as sympathetic for a monster as a clockwork orange or the startling fusion of sardonic wit and outright horror as the first half of full metal jacket

kubrick understood how people work and nolan just... doesn't

oh, and one more stray thing: i think it's kinda telling that kubrick's work can inspire an entire feature-length documentary devoted to obsessively-researched interpretations of just one of his movies and the most intense discussion nolan's work has ever inspired is whether that fucking spinning top at the end of inception is gonna fall over or not

Dunkirk is not "emotionally inert"

Sorry. Im sorry. Im trying to remove it.

The casual viewer of any Christopher Nolan film can rest assured that they're taking in the whole of the text and subtext minute-by-minute, such that all that remains when it's over is an empty celluloid husk with nothing further to offer.

The story of Douglas Rain, who was hired to voice HAL four months before the film was released and has reportedly never seen the film.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/movies/hal-2001-a-space-odyssey-voice-douglas-rain.html

huh, that's great - thanks for posting

i don't think i knew martin balsam was supposed to be hal!

I did know that! lol at Kubrick casting a fellow Bronxite

i wonder if balsam's performance survives anywhere? or for that matter if the script for douglas rain's narration is still around, if indeed it was ever written...

if not destroyed, presumably in the SK archives, not going public anytime soon

The casual viewer of any Christopher Nolan film can rest assured that they're taking in the whole of the text and subtext minute-by-minute, such that all that remains when it's over is an empty celluloid husk with nothing further to offer.

― Arthur Pizzarelli AKA The Peetz (Old Lunch), Tuesday, April 3, 2018 5:15 AM (twelve hours ago)

Is that such a bad thing? When you think about it, films are kind of like pudding cups. The casual eater of any Christopher Nolan pudding cup can rest assured that they're taking in the whole of the pudding and subpudding inch-by-inch, such that all that remains when it's gone is an empty polypropylene husk with nothing further to offer. That's kind of an ideal situation vis-à-vis pudding cups. Probably movies, too. I mean, it's not like anyone's ever gonna watch Dunkirk twice.

kubrick understood how people work and nolan just... doesn't

― someone’s burgling my miscellanea (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, April 3, 2018 3:48 AM (thirteen hours ago)

I don't know that Kubrick's work displays great insight into the subtler aspects of human experience (deeper feelings, experiences and relationships). Technical mastery aside, I value Kubrick primarily for his sharp and fascinating turn of mind. He was interested in interesting things, and he expressed his interests in interesting ways. Nolan, meanwhile, is quite keen on graph paper.

I've looked in vain for the Soderbergh edit. Anyone seen it floating around the internet?

Kubrick made my favourite movie ever (2001) and Nolan's third Batman movie is up-there in my worst-ever list

I don't see much similarity between them, Nolan plays with plot convolution and formal Gordianisms, Kubrick sought transcendence in restraint and broad strokes

I don't think of Kubrick as particularly sensitive to "human emotions", he's has the distance of a Greek chorus, an emissary from the uncaring heavens, who documents human interaction without actually caring about the humans themselves

Nolan isn't interested in human emotions either aside from "how can I elicit enough pathos in the audience to keep their attention until the extent of my clever plotting is on full display"

I guess I should say something nice in this post. Dunkirk is a good movie and the score is a good score

Is The Prestige a good movie? All I can remember about it right now is that I don't like actors and I don't like the way they act

it's pretty good, iirc. Kind of odd and ... Gothic?

the prestige is great

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/04/03/alternative_2001_space_odyssey/

Tucked in a downstairs corner of the maze that is the London College of Communication is the Stanley Kubrick Archives. It's open to the public for pre-booked visits and on a recent nose-around, though initially distracted by the first-edition Robert Crumb comics, I managed to get to grips (touch gently with gloved fingers) with one of the first draft scripts of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Bound in black and looking very much like the monolith from the film, I was surprised by the extent to which this script differs from what we see and hear in the finished film. One of the most striking divergences is the presence of a benevolent second HAL, determined to thwart his evil twin.

well, i'm glad that was fixed!

After listening to this half-hour feature on the making of 2001, I'm convinced the ape scene is the most impressive achievement in the history of bloody difficult film-making. It also mentions the English actor who temporarily got the HAL job in between Balsam and Rain:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0635dz7

Anyone see operation avalanche? Cool movie set at nasa when Kubrick “faked the moon landing”. Mockumentary with a dope recreation of Kubrick himself in one scene!

i still remember the first time seeing 2001 and it being a crappy VHS copy on a tiny CRT it still shaking me to the core so many times. sometimes you see a movie or hear an album that leaves you charged, maybe jittery, wanting to do something, wanting to tell the world about this experience you just had. 2001 is like that concentrated in the most potent form.

good for Nolan the celebrating films he likes. i don't see any reason to compare his work to Kubrick's. people be inspired by art and then make art in response to that inspiration which can be entirely different.

imo Kubrick's humanist side is vastly underrated. there is so much humor and pathos throughout his filmography, so many strange interpersonal conflicts nobody else touches upon in that way. i think it's an easy leap to go "Well his films are pretty, they must not have much to offer" when movies like A Clockwork Orange or Barry Lyndon are knee deep in the question of what it means to be human.

Looks like the UHD disc release has been pushed to the fall.

imo Kubrick's humanist side is vastly underrated. there is so much humor and pathos throughout his filmography, so many strange interpersonal conflicts nobody else touches upon in that way. i think it's an easy leap to go "Well his films are pretty, they must not have much to offer" when movies like A Clockwork Orange or Barry Lyndon are knee deep in the question of what it means to be human.

― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 4 April 2018 22:48 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Looks like the UHD disc release has been pushed to the fall.

― Spencer Chow, Thursday, 5 April 2018 00:25 (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Kubrick street team report:

Hallmark ornament coming in October

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--qp9AdUf_--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/h3alsc3jvzzmrc79oj4g.jpg

https://io9.gizmodo.com/hallmark-has-a-talking-glowing-hal-9000-ornament-heade-1824995676?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_facebook&utm_source=io9_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

I had an opportunity to see the original HAL, Discovery 1 and starchild model props (plus a Bowman lithograph) at a big Kubrick retrospective.

https://scontent-sjc3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/d932425303b99f34b96ea9a57937f006/5B697174/t51.2885-15/e35/14719159_1237523612971450_5037676212172881920_n.jpg
https://scontent-sjc3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/0904b0aed83b9ba13111684af202376d/5B6BFD1A/t51.2885-15/e35/14540580_187259038396489_2470394673886134272_n.jpg
https://scontent-sjc3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/df6a4dbf17262a4e3cb379cc01d35100/5B7002EA/t51.2885-15/e35/14726477_1114684005268120_4923423742727553024_n.jpg
https://scontent-sjc3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/6e9038c8b443ecb4fbc4a851e1092cf1/5B747F72/t51.2885-15/e35/14714456_724506451040115_2110870189967933440_n.jpg

so cool!

the filming of that starchild in those brief shots at the end is so masterful, it's almost shocking to see that it's just a static plastic doll!

Excerpt from the book

https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-unspeakably-disgusting-way-stanley-kubrick-created-1824112455

Returning from the factory in the early hours of the morning with red eyes and swollen from the fumes, he ignored the foul reek for weeks on end, scrupulously writing down what percentages, temperatures, and densities of which liquids required what heights to drop from to create a given effect.

it's ponderous but tbf there's a lot to ponder

and no Jedi blather befouling your ears!

If you're in the DC area this April and May you can hang out in a replica of the room from the end of the film.
https://airandspace.si.edu/events/2001-space-odyssey-immersive-art-exhibit

(for a whole two minutes)

Haa...

https://i.imgur.com/JOocJGh.jpg

why isnt that fucking Kubrick exhibit ever coming to NYC

Got to attend this tonight. I asked Benson if there were any great mysteries/questions left - really the only thing he couldn't get were some of the more (presumably) volatile letters from MGM HQ to Kubrick. Also, apparently an original Aries IV model was recently discovered?

Dan Richter says he can easily play Moonwatcher shopping for groceries at Whole Foods.

http://www.indiewire.com/2018/04/james-cameron-2001-a-space-odyssey-lacks-emotional-balls-1201958421/

https://imgur.com/a/Uz2qLaf

i bet Cameron thinks i remember 5% of what happened in Avatar

"emotional balls"

One does have to admit that Titanic really brings the emotional sack

Aliens has quite a nut.

Sorry, quite a Newt.

Avatar has balls of a different color

About 3/4 done with the new Michael Benson book, Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece, and man is it full of some great anecdotes I hadn't heard before:

- Clarke was apparently really concerned about Kubrick finding out he was gay, so one day he simply said, "Stanley, I want you to know I'm a very well-adjusted homosexual." Kubrick blithely replied, "Yeah, I know" and kept working.
- Gary Lockwood came up with the scene where Bowman and Poole get into the pod to secretly discuss disconnecting HAL, because he thought the existing scene where they received instructions from Earth was too corny.
- David Birkin (brother of Jane), who started as a tea boy before working his way to location scout and second-unit aerial photographer, was asked by Kubrick to move some protected trees from one location to another while shooting plates in South West Africa. He led a nighttime raid with a bunch of hired goons, cut through the fence, sawed down the trees then nearly lost them all trying to ford a surprise river.
- A crew member fell from a very high set and broke his back during an effects shot. When Kubrick was told, he responded, "Gee, that's terrible. Did he ruin the take?"
- Both the stuntman doing the wire work for the zero-g shots of Bowman and Poole, and the actors in the ape-man costumes, regularly suffered from oxygen deprivation/CO2 buildup and passed out.

Definitely a recommended read. Gives a much less worshipful, much more inside-baseball look at the entire production from conception to screen.

lol at the concept of 'surprise river'

def wanna read this though, there's so much mystique around kubrick and this movie in particular that a nuts-and-bolts 'here's how we did it' sounds fascinating

I saw it last night on the big screen for the second time. each time I see it, a little bit more of it clicks into place but I never understand the ending. I'd love to read this book

dog latin, there's plenty written and recorded about the ending (not to mention the Clarke novel-ization)

yeah I figured I should finally read up more on it