2001: A Space Odyssey Tickets

2001: A Space Odyssey

USA/UK 1968

Director/Producer: Stanley Kubrick

With: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, Leonard Rossiter, Margaret Tyzack, Robert Beatty, Sean Sullivan, Douglas Rain, Frank Miller

141 minutes/ PG cert

SHORT NOTE

Philosophically ambitious, technically innovative and visually stunning, Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi epic demands the biggest screens on earth!

 

“An overpowering experience, awe-inspiringly photographed by Geoffrey Unsworth.… after all these years it remains a trip well worth taking.” — Mark Kermode, The Observer

 

 

NOTE

“Co-written by the director and novelist Arthur C Clarke, the film charts the progress of ‘civilisation’ through the influence of mysterious black monoliths on prehistoric apes developing their skills and, later, on astronauts involved in a secret mission to Jupiter. Characteristic of Kubrick’s interest in evolution and artificial intelligence (most notably in the astronauts’ battle of wits with troublesome computer HAL 9000), the film also displays his desire for technical perfection: Geoffrey Unsworth’s camerawork, Douglas Trumbull’s pioneering effects and the production design remain enormously impressive to this day. But what’s perhaps most striking is the audacity of the measured, largely dialogue-free storytelling, with Kubrick allowing the judiciously chosen music (Ligeti, Khachaturian, the two Strausses) and the crisp, balletic beauty of the images to work their spell. A cinematic milestone, and a huge influence on the development of the sci-fi genre.” — Geoff Andrew, British Film Institute

“It feels as intelligent and provocative as ever, bearing years of conceptual dreaming. Until today’s equivalent of novelist Arthur C. Clarke commits a hefty chunk of time to envisioning the beginning of human civilization, as well as the far ends of the future, there will be no new film that supplants it. Though it was showered with technical praise, 2001 lingers on the mind like a tall, black riddle: Where are the new bones, the new tools, that will take us higher? Do we even deserve them?

And if The Shining can grow as a black comedy, so can this one. Douglas Rain’s clammy voice work as HAL 9000, the murderous machine, remains one of Kubrick’s snazziest pieces of direction.” — Joshua Rothkop, Time Out New York