2001: A Space Odyssey

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!