yesterday i finally took the chance to see kubrick's 2001- A Space Odyssey, which i have wanted to see for quite some time and never really got around doing. actually, ever since i knew that our introduction music to the university cinema group is part of 2001, namely zarathustra. now yesterday they screened it in our small local artsy cinema and i went.
what a movie! i was well prepared by the opinions of others who warned me that it was very slow, and rather weird, and most of them said that it was normal not to like it the first time. i did like it. it was weird and slow and i liked it. the psychedelic part towards the end was a bit too long in my opinion, but other than that it was an amazing experience.
what i find most interesting with the movie is the motif of the circle. the planets, the sun and moon, the spaceships, even the space-helmets, and in the end, the baby, they are all circles on the screen. within the spaceships, the travellers and crew walk in circles. hal, the computer, is sumbolized by a red dot, also a circleform.
then, i felt like there were two metaphorical circles embedded in what happens, and both are somehow intertwined. the first circle starts with the first step towards mankind, which is triggered by this almost biblical stone plate, enabling, in essence, one tribe of apes to kill another tribe which is not as smart. so one could say that the first step towards mankind is being taken by a killing of someone of your own race (this does sound familiar, doesn't it? wasn't there something of that kind in the bible, cain and abel?). this circle closes when the computer develops human emotions and kills one of the two space travellers on their mission to jupiter, though it is broken when the hal is disconnected by dave, the second astronaut.
the other circle is a smaller one and could be called a circle of life, which dave is sent upon after his reaching jupiter. in the end of very psychedelic race he lands in a romm in pale colours and 19th century furniture. as he looks into a mirror he sees he has aged. when he enters the next room, he sees and old man sitting at a table, eating. it is dave himself, even more aged, and a few moments later we see him lying in bed in the same room, dying. the film closes with a baby which, in a bubble looking a bit like a planet, floats through space.
apparently, especially this last scene with the baby has been widely discussed, but i haven't really bothered to read anything about the movie. so these are my own thoughts about it, and i just hope that others are as fascinated by the movie as i am.
oh, and in case i ever get married and in case i ever want to dance a wedding waltz in that case, it would have to be the blue danube. and no, not just from a tape or cd or a band, but from film. with 2001 being screened on a wall behind the dancefloor. the scene of the dancing spaceships. perfect.
pictures from somewhere on the internet. not mine, of course.
what a movie! i was well prepared by the opinions of others who warned me that it was very slow, and rather weird, and most of them said that it was normal not to like it the first time. i did like it. it was weird and slow and i liked it. the psychedelic part towards the end was a bit too long in my opinion, but other than that it was an amazing experience.
what i find most interesting with the movie is the motif of the circle. the planets, the sun and moon, the spaceships, even the space-helmets, and in the end, the baby, they are all circles on the screen. within the spaceships, the travellers and crew walk in circles. hal, the computer, is sumbolized by a red dot, also a circleform.
then, i felt like there were two metaphorical circles embedded in what happens, and both are somehow intertwined. the first circle starts with the first step towards mankind, which is triggered by this almost biblical stone plate, enabling, in essence, one tribe of apes to kill another tribe which is not as smart. so one could say that the first step towards mankind is being taken by a killing of someone of your own race (this does sound familiar, doesn't it? wasn't there something of that kind in the bible, cain and abel?). this circle closes when the computer develops human emotions and kills one of the two space travellers on their mission to jupiter, though it is broken when the hal is disconnected by dave, the second astronaut.
the other circle is a smaller one and could be called a circle of life, which dave is sent upon after his reaching jupiter. in the end of very psychedelic race he lands in a romm in pale colours and 19th century furniture. as he looks into a mirror he sees he has aged. when he enters the next room, he sees and old man sitting at a table, eating. it is dave himself, even more aged, and a few moments later we see him lying in bed in the same room, dying. the film closes with a baby which, in a bubble looking a bit like a planet, floats through space.
apparently, especially this last scene with the baby has been widely discussed, but i haven't really bothered to read anything about the movie. so these are my own thoughts about it, and i just hope that others are as fascinated by the movie as i am.
oh, and in case i ever get married and in case i ever want to dance a wedding waltz in that case, it would have to be the blue danube. and no, not just from a tape or cd or a band, but from film. with 2001 being screened on a wall behind the dancefloor. the scene of the dancing spaceships. perfect.
pictures from somewhere on the internet. not mine, of course.
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