Over the next two weekends The Museum of the Moving Image will offer a treat that every true cinephile should indulge in, they will show Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey in 70MM! The 1968 classic won an Academy Award for its groundbreaking visual effects and received three other nominations including one for Kubrick’s visionary direction (Carol Reed won that year for Oliver! *cricket chirps*). The film will be presented in a print by Warner Bros. Classics and here are our reasons why you simply can not miss it.
5) 70MM!
The Museum of the Moving Image has done a terrific job with their “See It Big!” series and this one might just take the cake in terms of epic-ness. Recently they’ve done Avatar, Metropolis and the original Godzilla, all of them worthy entries of course, but they saved this one for last meaning they know they have something special in store.
4) The score.
Kubrick (in)famously commissioned an original score by Alex North, only to have it dismissed at the last minute in favor of existing compositions by Richard Strauss, Johann Strauss and György Ligeti and watching the film on the big screen you get why. The sheer size of the images and Kubrick’s inventive camera moves turn this into the closest we’ll ever have to real life spaceship ballet.
3) The visual effects.
You know how even the most recent blockbusters have that “cartoony” feel to them? The miniatures and matte paintings in 2001: A Space Odyssey totally kick their asses. They have an otherworldly quality that goes beyond the “been there, done that” mass production effect of CGI.
2) HAL 9000.
You think you know your screen villains, just wait until a seemingly harmless red light makes you feel more terrified than you’d ever been before. Kubrick wisely allows the simplicity of HAL’s presence to work as an ambiguous god figure; he sees everything and he sees right through you.
1) No other movie playing in the city these days will be as good as this one.
Period.
Showtimes for 2001: A Space Odyssey are as follows:
July 5 - 6:30PM / July 6 - 3:00PM 6:30PM / July 12 - 3:30PM / July 13 - 3:30PM
Tickets are $12 ($9 seniors/students, free for Museum members). Ticket includes access to the Museum's galleries and other screenings on the same day. For more information click here.
