Sight and Sound 2022 Top 20

never mind the dystopia doesn't 2001 as story - which is probably the least of it as a movie anyway - belong to a Freudian "humanity the abandoned child looking for its daddy" strain of SF

I mean there's a big baby and everything

See also AI, which is “in dialogue” with 2001 on this topic, as they say.

This strangely neglected topic.

Robot boy wants his mommy, waits aeons in suspended animation until finally he is granted his wish by more advanced aliens - or alien robots? - who deliver her to him in resurrected form, if only for 24 hours

It’s almost like good art can bear a multitude of interpretations.

But I suspect xyzzz is being a bit troll-y and “ain’t I stinker” about this whole thing so I’m not sure it’s worth engaging with said poster on this topic.

2001 elides questions of ownership - who's funding all this?

it's v clear the answer is "the state, in partnership w pan am"-- that is, the good ol mil-ind-com

Kubrick, if not Clarke, might have better anticipated the rise of the despotic billionaire spaceship owner/controller

would this movie really be better if they had howard hughes onboard

should benoit blanc have come too

Ahm sorrih Dave. Ahm afraid ah can't doo that,

Ah say, ah say, ah say Dave

i do p much agree w alphie that the movie's suggestion that specieswide transformation and victory in our historic confrontation with the hal-thing is something we need to go to jupiter for is an opiate, and that in this way the movie's a reflection of the values of the v age it is critiquing. (i mean that's kinda what things... do, tho.) still i enjoy thinking abt that confrontation i guess, and usually do say yes when someone asks if i'd enjoy something i already enjoy but in space.

Don’t think he likes to be called that.

apologies if so! a hollow voice says doh.

wait who are we talking about/to

my last was in response to xyzzz re: exploration, space travel, palpitating the pebbles of an alien world etc

Morbs’ take that 2001 is an optimistic film because it looks forward to something beyond humanity is a characteristic and correct take

― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Tuesday, January 10

Agree with this. I also like its imagining a more advanced civilization guiding our evolution

Hmm, not a correct take, sorry.

LOL

OK, then.

It seems to me that Clarke's vision--and it comes through more clearly in the book than it does in the film--is that the "star child" is the next step in human evolution, prompted (again) by the monolith and whatever mysterious force is behind it. As a vision of the human future, it's quite optimistic, if a bit chilly.

Hmm, not a correct take, sorry.

― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, January 10, 2023 4:09 PM (three hours ago)

Well, you should know

I've traced the post ... the starchild is coming from inside the thread!

This is your moderator etc.

Do not attempt to adjust your television set.

Have you all spent the entire day talking about 2001?

Worth it

touché

Just wait until we talk about Andrei Rublev.

There's like 15 more of these to get through - someone post something snotty about Cléo

Starchild grew up to be a Starman iirc. Then fell to earth.

And started a war

lol clem

There's like 15 more of these to get through - someone post something snotty about Cléo

The never-made Madonna remake would have owned.

xyzzz, there'a way to have a conversation without constantly using variations on "You're wrong" and "Not correct." I'm sure I'm the only one who agrees -- and I don't even like 2001.

― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 10 January 2023 bookmarkflaglink

That's a bit weird. I gave my take on why I thought it wasn't doing it for me. I don't really like art that says "there is something better out there than this".

Hmm, not a correct take, sorry.

― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, January 10, 2023 4:09 PM (three hours ago)

Well, you should know

― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Wednesday, 11 January 2023 bookmarkflaglink

You haven't watched The Last Samurai. Please.

Never mind the seven of them.

someone post something snotty about Cléo

The silent film pastiche is poorly observed and executed - Godard never did anything else half as embarrassing. Vagabond rules much harder.

the thought of anyone trying to adapt HdW's The Last Samurai fills me with both intense joy and despair, don't think anyone could pull it off

set it in space. Ludo is the real starchild

DeWitt would sue that stupid idea, it would never get off the ground.

Rewatched La règle for something like the fifteenth time. It is insane how good it is. Just wonderful acting on every level, even the smallest roles.

I was introduced to it in possibly the worst way, in an aesthetics class where we only watched a snippet of the costume party sequence alongside a reading from Bazin - basically just focusing on formal aspects, the way the camera moves, depth of field. I don't think the magic of it exactly came through. The film does so much to build up this crazy world of love and secrecy and shifting alliances. You watch the whole thing and it's like... a battle as intricate as Seven Samurai.

Yes indeed

gotta rewatch that one

The way Renoir begins with Jurieu, seemingly forgets about him, then re-centers the film around his dumb clueless presence for the denouement are examples of good screenwriting (despite how much he said he and the cast improvised) and choreography. The one most committed to obsolete class prerogatives has to die to snap everyone back to reality.

There’s only 4 of these that I have any specific memory of how they go. Probably 2 or 3 others that I believe I’ve seen but have no memory of. I guess I shouldn’t be allowed to vote, but voting anyway, for SitR which is the only one I’ve rewatched recently and which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I'm not gonna poll the directors' list because too much overlap but might be nice to have it here:

1) 2001
2) Citizen Kane
3) The Godfather
=4) Jeanne Dielman
=4) Tokyo Story
=6) Vertigo
=6) 8 1/2
8) Mirror
=9) In the Mood for Love
=9) Close-up
=9) Persona
=12) Taxi Driver
=12) Barry Lyndon
=14) Beau Travail
=14) Seven Samurai
=14) Breathless
=14) Stalker
18) Apocalypse Now
19) A Woman Under the Influence
=20) Bicycle Thieves
=20) Rashomon

Big outlier here is the Cassavetes, I think?

SiTR would be an extremely sensible pick for the greatest movie ever made, imo.

2001 kind of a perfect choice for directors since it probably represents their greatest dream: full control over a big studio budget, major cultural impact, personal/ambitious/uncompromising.

Big outlier here is the Cassavetes, I think?

Yes, that's interesting. It's almost surely the least scripted film on the list. I suppose it's because he was able to get such stellar performances from Rowlands and Falk.

Rewatched La règle for something like the fifteenth time. It is insane how good it is. Just wonderful acting on every level, even the smallest roles.

Nora Gregor's terrible!