Long Beach Post: 2001: A Space Odyssey At The Art Theatre This Week

Thursday, February 9, 2012

2001: A Space Odyssey At The Art Theatre This Week

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12:40pm | I'm not a film critic. I'm a fan. Normally, the idea of writing something about a film, especially an old film that's been celebrated by nearly every critic, seems rather pointless to me. Still, when I heard that our local Art Theatre was mounting a week-long showing of 2001: A Space Odyssey, I felt moved to share my personal feelings about this film.

First, if you've seen the film, read no further. I'm writing this to anyone who hasn't seen it. For

those of you still reading, let me give you a brief synopsis: When evolution reaches a stage where the eventual development of humanity is balanced on a knife edge, a mysterious object appears and, somehow, provides early proto- humans with a new technology that aids in their survival. Flash forward to the 'future,' when a government bureaucrat is called to the Moon to investigate a mysterious object millions of years old. The object points them to Jupiter and, a few years later, a journey to said planet takes a small crew of scientists there.

The film has little dialog. Mostly, it is music, sound, and images. The pacing is, at times, almost meditative, and the atmosphere unbelievably cold. People talk about the amazing visual style, and special effects (for which it won an Academy Award) but, for me, I find it to be an intensely emotional story. In the great span of human development, the future vision seems sadly familiar. We're still facing the same stupid conflicts, relying on the same brute-force solutions, and suffering from the same delusions of grandeur. On the individual level, we see the main character, Dave, pushed to the limits of his humanity, and beyond.

Stanley Kubrick's list of films include Dr. Strangelove (Or How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb), Lolita, Full Metal Jacket, The Shining, Sparticus, and A Clockwork Orange. Each reveals a great love of story, humor, a painterly visual style, a penchant for technical innovation, and the patience to allow actors to discover and embody the characters they're portraying. In 2001, however, his patience seems to expand to excess. At times, minutes tick by achingly, but this is not caprice. Kubrick is using each moment to frame the next so that, when it comes, the viewer is ready.

I guess that it is important to state the significance of the film. Not only has it been hailed as a masterpiece, and one of the greatest films of all time, but it has woven its way into the cultural fabric. It is part of the 'Zeitgest.' It has been referenced in MAD Magazine, Robot Chicken, Futurama, The Simpsons, Monty Python's Flying Circus, the game Spore, Zoolander, the recent remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Electric Company, Sesame Street, Farscape, South Park, and Roger Waters' Amused To Death. (That's a very incomplete list, by the way.)

Ultimately, it is a journey for the viewer and, if you let go of expectation and judgment, you might just find it very rewarding.

The film is running through June 10th, showing at 11 AM, and at 11:55 PM on Friday & Saturday nights, with a final 11 AM showing on Sunday, June 13th. It is unrated.

The Art Theatre is located at 2025 East 4th Street, and the box office phone number is 562-438-5435. Their website is www.arttheatrelongbeach.com.

Related Stories: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick, art theatre

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Another prime example of the importance of Art. As Mr. Wolff has stated, "...it has woven its way into the cultural fabric. It is part of the 'Zeitgest.'" What other "craft" has such lasting profundity? Only Art.

BrigittaV
This is one of my favorite films, but almost everyone I know who is from the GenX or younger generations seems sadly puzzled by it. I guess they can't take what seems to them to be the movie's glacial pace, and for them I suppose the special effects don't seem so whiz-bang fantastic. Of course, the movie's story has always been somewhat baffling for anyone used to more straightforward and obvious movie plotting. And finally, it is a particularly unrewarding movie to see on the small screen, with its 3:4 aspect ratio. Only now with the availability of widescreen HD TVs and surround sound can the home viewer appreciate the full vision of this movie. I was fortunate to have seen it in a theatrical re-release in the mid-seventies, in a theater which still had it's original large screen, and I loved every minute of the movie. (And no, I wasn't high, either.) I liked both the long view it gave of human evolution, and the mini-story in the middle about man and computer. It was also the first film that gave the viewer a sense of the icy cold vastness of space. Ordinarily, I don't like Kubrick's films -- not because of any technical or film craft defect; he's a fantastic film maker -- but because I find his films somewhat misanthropic. 2001 is probably his only film where he presents a positive view of man and his future. (I haven't seen all his films, so I won't go out on a limb and positively state that this is his only film like this.) As for the film's special effects, I still find them brilliant. Kubrick showed what it would be like to be on the surface of the moon a year before any human arrived there, and he got it exactly right. Everything in the movie looked plausible and real, in a way that no scifi movie up to then had been able to do. The space station, for example, had a purely functional design which was unlike the aerodynamic mainstream concepts of the time. (Who needs aerodynamics in a place with neither gravity nor air?) For a film that's over 40 years old, it looks and sounds remarkably contemporary, and I might add, non-cheesy.

Sander lives with his wife, step-daughter, dogs, and cats. He's an avid photographer, and enjoys creating close-up images of flowers and plants, and capturing urban landscapes. He's been involved in music production since the early 80's, and worked professionally as an audio engineer, live sound mixer, and producer.

Sander Roscoe Wolff is a musician, artist, and was co-founder and Executive Director of LongBeachCulture.org, the City's first comprehensive, and free, arts calendar and registry.

He has served on the boards of the 2nd City Council Art Gallery + Performance Space and the East Village Arts District, curated a 6 month gallery exhibition in the Long Beach World Trade Center, and produced Songs For Bethune, a CD of original and traditional holiday songs by local artists, to raise funds for the Arts Council's Passport to the Arts program.

His work has been featured in local gallery exhibitions, in SoundWalk, and L.A. Siggraph's Photon Ballet.

His current music project is Ain Soph Aur, a systems based improvisational performance duo and studio team.