2001: A Space Odyssey - on the big screen

Muon · 23 October, 2014, 05:03:08 AM

Anyone else excited to see this (and have you seen the great new trailer)?

http://www.bfi.org.uk/whats-on/bfi-film-releases/2001-space-odyssey

Mattofthespurs · 23 October, 2014, 07:13:46 AM

Yes and yes.

I shall be popping along to the nearest cinema showing it.

Jim_Campbell · 23 October, 2014, 07:21:33 AM

Go. Just go. Some films are completely different experiences in the cinema.*

A local cinema did a special screening of 2001 (for no particular reason I can recall... might have been the 15th anniversary) when I was in my early teens and my parents pretty much made me go. I can't tell you how pleased I am that they did.

I should note that, if you haven't seen 2001, the new trailer makes the film look quite exciting. I don't think exciting is the word for it — much of it is characterised by that stillness at which Kubrick excelled — but it is immersive and compelling.

Words like 'visionary' are bandied around far too often, but Kubrick was a genuine visionary, and to see 2001 on a big screen, as he intended, is to be both humbled and awe-struck in the face of genius.

Cheers

Jim

*See also: Blade Runner.

Muon · 23 October, 2014, 10:54:27 AM

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 23 October, 2014, 07:21:33 AM
I should note that, if you haven't seen 2001, the new trailer makes the film look quite exciting. I don't think exciting is the word for it — much of it is characterised by that stillness at which Kubrick excelled — but it is immersive and compelling.

Yeah, I've already seen it a few times but never on the big screen so it'll probably be like seeing it for the first time for me. I'm definitely going to at least one of the showings and I'm very excited about it. Like you I first saw it with my parents, but I think I was quite a bit younger at the time. I remember being intrigued by the struggle with HAL but the trippy Jupiter sequence towards the end freaked me out while expanding my mind a little at the same time. I remember asking my parents: "is the man dead?!?" over and over again and them going, "I don't bloody know!"

I only really got it on a recent re-watch, actually - on an old rental DVD on my crappy little computer screen.I found the whole end sequence inspiring and spiritual rather than scary this time around. I think I'm going to love seeing in the cinema.

Yeah, I guess the trailer may be a bit misleading. I've read reviews by people who just didn't get that the stillness and the images are where the real experience lies, and this trailer probably won't do much to enlighten anyone.

I, Cosh · 23 October, 2014, 11:53:42 AM

Yeah, go if you can. I've seen at at the cinema a couple of times, including once with a young lady who was blown away.

Reckon it would be pretty good on IMAX.

Satanist · 23 October, 2014, 12:40:46 PM

Yeah Im gonna go see this. Easily in my top 10 of all time never seen it at the cinema.

Molch-R · 23 October, 2014, 12:44:20 PM

Yeah, I think I'll be trying to make it too. Re-watched it recently and it was as fresh and startling as the day it was made.

Zanti Misfit · 23 October, 2014, 12:46:52 PM

Oooh, my fave film ever! Thanks for the alert. Great trailer, too. Old bugger that I am, I first saw 2001 way back... (Doncaster ABC cinema, I think, 1968). I would love to see it again on the big screen, this time without my mum and dad....

Muon · 23 October, 2014, 02:24:40 PM

Quote from: Zanti Misfit on 23 October, 2014, 12:46:52 PM
I would love to see it again on the big screen, this time without my mum and dad....

What is it with all these parents forcing their kids to sit through a two-hour plus philosophical rumination on the nature of man's evolution and his place in the Universe?

I have to admit that, when I first saw the movie, the Jupiter sequence shook me to the core in an existential way before I even knew what "existential" meant. I even had a few nightmares about it afterwards.

The best one was a dream in which my unconscious mind, in a stroke of comic genius, managed to conflate 2001 with Roger Corman's Battle Beyond the Stars, which I guess I must have seen at around the same time. I have a vivid memory of waking up, soaked in sweat and filled with dread, after dreaming that I crashed into the surface of Jupiter in a spaceship piloted by George Peppard's "space cowboy" character from the Corman film. I can laugh about it now but it scared the shit out of me at the time

shaolin_monkey · 23 October, 2014, 02:55:42 PM

Wow, I'd love to see this in the cinema again!!

Someone pointed out to me the motif of the monolith is present throughout the film, hidden in plain sight, and more or less the same ratio as the Tycho/Jupiter monument etc. Keep an eye out for anything rectangular - tables, pamphlets, console displays. It's everywhere!!

What totally blew my mind though, was the ratio of the monolith matches the ratio at which the film should be viewed in the cinema. So the screen itself is our own personal Stargate!!!!

Mabs · 23 October, 2014, 03:52:12 PM

Quote from: shaolin_monkey on 23 October, 2014, 02:55:42 PM
Wow, I'd love to see this in the cinema again!!

Someone pointed out to me the motif of the monolith is present throughout the film, hidden in plain sight, and more or less the same ratio as the Tycho/Jupiter monument etc. Keep an eye out for anything rectangular - tables, pamphlets, console displays. It's everywhere!!

What totally blew my mind though, was the ratio of the monolith matches the ratio at which the film should be viewed in the cinema. So the screen itself is our own personal Stargate!!!!

[/b]

Wow.

There are few films which were just made to be witnessed on the big screen; Blade Runner, Lawrence of Arabia, and of course, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

JamesC · 23 October, 2014, 04:00:04 PM

I'll definitely have to go and see this. Wonderful film.

I've never seen 2010 though - I really need to rectify that. I remember seeing a clip or a trailer for it when I was a kid and being freaked out when the guy drifts off into space.

As well as being a great film, 2001 is also one of my favourite comics by the great Jack Kirby. I'd recommend picking it up if you haven't read it. I'd love a big, shiny omnibus edition but, alas, I don't think it will ever happen.

JOE SOAP · 23 October, 2014, 04:02:07 PM

Quote from: shaolin_monkey on 23 October, 2014, 02:55:42 PM
What totally blew my mind though, was the ratio of the monolith matches the ratio at which the film should be viewed in the cinema. So the screen itself is our own personal Stargate!!!!

The Golden Ratio

Colin YNWA · 23 October, 2014, 04:03:54 PM

I've said it here before and no doubt will say it again. Yeah the Kirby series is just superb. I mean I'm a massive fan of 70s Kirby at the best of time but 2001 (certainly the pre Machine Man issues) standout even in his unsurpassed collection of works from this his golden period.

Tiplodocus · 23 October, 2014, 04:14:28 PM

Quote from: Zanti Misfit on 23 October, 2014, 12:46:52 PM
Oooh, my fave film ever! Thanks for the alert. Great trailer, too. Old bugger that I am, I first saw 2001 way back... (Doncaster ABC cinema, I think, 1968). I would love to see it again on the big screen, this time without my mum and dad....

And I was feeling old having seen it at GFT on my 18th birthday in 1982. I think I'll drag Tiny Tips out to this one.