On the threshold of the space conquest, Kubrick laid the touchstone of the science fiction movie. A metaphysical and grandiose work with a captivating rhythm.
The dawn of
humanity. Apes, or the first men of ape-like appearance, having difficulty in
feeding, fight over water. Under the influence of a mysterious black monolith
planted in the ground that they discovered one morning, they were inspired to
use a bone as a weapon. Therefore, they use it for hunting but also ... to kill
their enemies! 4 million years later, humans discover a black monolith on the
moon similar to the previous one. This same object of extraterrestrial origin, astronaut
Bowman will find on the outskirts of Jupiter. He will prove to be a doorway to
the stars and infinity, through which Bowman will be sucked into another
space-time dimension to meet a higher intelligence that will cause him to die
and be reborn as an astral fetus.
Astronaut
David Bowman's meeting with this extraterrestrial entity that closes the movie
has not yet provided us with all the keys to understand it and thus remains one
of the most mysterious in the history of cinema, everyone have been there, of
its own decryption. Faced with the existence of so many critiques, analyzes,
reviews of this visionary and innovative masterpiece, how can we not be
intimidated when we approach this "ultimate trip" as 2001 was
so aptly described on the original movie poster. Because this is certainly the
most inked movie since its release, with interpretations of its meaning
numbering in the hundreds, most of them of a very high standards. It would be
pretentious to think of writing something new about the Stanley Kubrick movie
here; but one of its great strengths coming from its mysterious aura, it is not
bad to keep it a minimum of mystery and to avoid embarking on a new analysis of
this monument of the 7th art which could very quickly become pompous. Moreover,
authors such as Michel Ciment and Norman Kagan, among others, have spoken of it
perfectly and intelligently before us. But if by a hypothesis as improbable (
improbable as to discover tomorrow a black monolith at your doorstep) as
flattering, someone were to learn of the existence of this unique movie by
coming to this site, it is not negligible to repeat a new review and a quick
summary; it will certainly not add much to the edifice which has already been
raised to it, but it will at least have the merit of existing in these places.
“I tried to
create a visual experience that goes beyond the usual verbal references and
directly penetrates the subconscious with its emotional and philosophical
content. I intended to make my movie an intensely subjective experience that
reaches the viewer at the innermost level of their consciousness just like
music does. You have the freedom to speculate as you wish on the philosophical
and allegorical significance of this movie” said Kubrick in a famous interview
with Playboy in 1968. This sentence from the director clearly demonstrates all
the richness that this movie can conceal but instead of giving us ready-made
answers, he prefers that each one makes his own idea on his philosophical or
metaphysical meaning. Christine Tournier in Positif n° 483 summed up Kubrick's
approach well by writing: "The director appeals to the intelligence of the
spectators (not intellectualism). Everyone to hear what he can and what he
wants. Kubrick here shows great respect for those who will share this journey,
allowing them to make their own in the universe he suggests." It is indeed
important to repeat that this is not a movie for intellectuals and that it may
be enough to let oneself embark on this journey into the unknown, to immerse
yourself in it without a priori or shyness, and the questions will arise on
their own at the end or during the vision. In the first degree, this hypnotic
experience can also work very well even if the ins and outs will always remain
obscure to some: a poem does not necessarily need to be understood but to be
appreciated. But before briefly tackling the themes of the movie, let's take a
look back at its genesis.
One day,
Kubrick had the idea of making a movie about the notion of intelligent
extraterrestrial life. As usual, he then rushes to all the existing documents
that deal with the subject; and seeing the evidence to him that another
intelligent life form existed elsewhere than on Earth, he decided to make a movie
on the subject. With the great science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, they
give birth to a preliminary treatment which, reworked, will become the
screenplay for 2001. While Kubrick is directing his movie, Clarke is
working on his personal vision for the screenplay that will give the famous
novel namesake less mysterious but just as successful. Sadly, while his 2010
sequel remains interesting, Clarke will write two more deeply boring and
uninspiring sequels. Filming takes place over 7 months and postproduction takes
another two years, the budget growing disproportionately - 60% is attributed to
the special effects used in more than 200 shots of the movie. Whether it's work
on models, visual or photographic effects, these have absolutely not aged and
have nothing to envy to today's all-digital. Meticulous like never before,
Kubrick finally saw his movie released in 1968: the end result is one of the
rare examples of a blockbuster that turns out to be an experimental movie at
the same time. But it was not designed in this elliptical shape initially. It
was initially to be quasi-documentary with voice-over and sequences of
scientific or metaphysical interviews. It was during filming that Kubrick made
important changes, gradually eliminating all the overly explicit elements of
the script and considerably pruning the dialogue. With this decision he was not
far from achieving the dream he had always internally desired, to make a silent
movie: “There are areas of feeling and of reality that are inaccessible to
speech. Non-verbal forms of expression like music and painting allow access to
it, but words are a terrible straitjacket” he said.
2001 is an
extremely ambitious work, a visual and philosophical poem on the fate of man in
his relationship to time, progress and the mystery of the universe: the movie
addresses all these themes without ever being heavy or above all pretentious.
We can completely understand that some may be resistant to this movie and get
bored deeply, but how to have the bad faith not to recognize all the thematic,
philosophical or metaphysical riches that it addresses. How could such a
renowned critic as Pauline Kael say in Harper's Magazine that this is
"monumentally unimaginative"? On the contrary, the movie is
constantly intriguing and enthralling with all the questions it raises.
Regarding the famous final sequence that we mentioned at the beginning, we
prefer Kubrick's explanations to probable misinterpretations: "The
third monolith takes Bowman on an interior and interstellar journey to the
human zoo where it is placed, which is reminiscent of an earthly hospital
environment, straight out of his dreams and his imagination. Immersed in
eternity, he passes from middle age to senescence, then to death. He is reborn
as a higher being, a star child, an angel, a superman if you can call him, and
come back to earth, ready for the next leap forward in man's evolutionary
destiny. "
The biggest
paradox of this movie could come from the description of its main characters.
While all humans appear to us to be completely bland, dull, devoid of passions,
enthusiasm or desire other than to do their job well (the dialogues are
deliberately sanitized, devoid of any emotion, and indeed without much interest
in the understanding of the plot), the only character who seems to us to be
endowed with feelings is the super computer Hal 9000. This pure rationality
that Hal represents can lead to the irrational: after having suffered an
initially unimaginable failure, for fear of being disconnected by men, he will
decide to kill in his turn in order to survive, and the only astronaut who will
escape his destruction will in turn have to lobotomize him so that the last
stage of this odyssey can be accomplished. This scene will be the most moving
of the movie, the spectator remaining astonished to have been more saddened by
the "death" of the machine than by those humans just before. Here,
the progress therefore always passes through murder: this pessimism of Kubrick
could be tempered by the birth of this child of the stars who will undoubtedly
be at the origin of a new step forward for the progress of this Humanity, a
step forward that we hope not only scientific but also humanist.
Told like
this, the movie could seem hectic but it is important to warn the novice viewer
that he is not going to attend a Star Wars-style space opera, but that he will
find himself in front of a contemplative work at a very slow pace, some long
sequences being absolutely devoid of action and even sound! No one should be
afraid of this radical treatment, but we must not hide this aspect which, it is
true, has already repelled more than one and which will continue to divide the
public for a long time. Whatever the case, this purity, this nudity does not
prevent the birth of anguish, emotion, suspense, humor and the breath of
adventure. And the legend that with each new vision we discover a detail that
had escaped us is quite correct: the symmetry and the astonishing resemblance
that exists between the eye of Hal 9000 and the glowing sun have just been
revealed to me.
As well as
being a movie of phenomenal richness, it is also an unforgettable cinematic
experience due to the meticulousness of a demiurge Kubrick at all levels of the
cinematic creation process. The construction of the story in four independent
blocks and the division of the sequences reach a sort of perfection; everyone
has heard of the cheeky ellipse that makes the viewer leap over four million years
in just two shots: a bone is thrown into the air by a monkey, bone which in the
next shot is transformed to a spaceship. The whole -documentary part is of
unparalleled scientific rigor which will make Kubrick a perfectionist, and
especially a visionary since his representation of space was so accurate, that
one day American astronauts were questioned what they had seen in space, and
replied "It's like in 2001 while cosmonaut Alexis Leonov says he
feels like he has been in space twice, the first being during his vision of the
movie. We could also rave about the precision of the tracking shots, the
dazzling beauty of Geoffrey Unsworth's photography from the first frames, but
also the prodigious use of classical music where we least expected it.
Initially, the
music was written by Alex North, a composer who had previously worked for
Kubrick on the occasion of Spartacus. The score written for 2001
performed very well according to those lucky
to hear it. But Kubrick was not satisfied with the experiment and
decided not to put up with this original composition and to use only pieces of
classical music which he will use sparingly and appropriately, and which he
will contribute to, elsewhere for the most part to be immortalized. It will be
first of all the introduction of the symphonic poem Thus spoke Zarathustra
by Richard Strauss, of an impressive solemnity and which immediately places the
movie in the highest spheres. Then The Requiem and Lux Aeterna by
avant-garde composer György Ligeti are used in the movie 's most mysterious,
even scary sequences. This almost atonal music creates a very powerful
uneasiness and a feeling of strangeness. But Kubrick's genius idea is certainly
to have used Johann Strauss's famous The Blue Danube for what remains,
the most luminous and poetic scene of this masterpiece: The waltz of the
ships. And it would be unfair not to mention a piece that is still too
little known, The adagio of the Gayaneh ballet suite by Khatchaturian:
music of poignant melancholy, that which opens the narrative block of the trip
to Jupiter and which accompanies Franck Poole while jogging inside the
spaceship. Now, for almost all of his other movies -except Full Metal Jacket,
Kubrick will make a specialty of finding pieces of classical music to accompany
his movie s.
This vast
poetic reverie with the power of unprecedented fascination which plunges you
into a state bordering on hypnosis, with vertiginous metaphysical perspectives
which stimulate the imagination of the spectator, is irrefutable proof that the
only artists practicing in the so-called "serious" arts do not have a
monopoly on genius and that if we attach this adjective to celebrities like
Mozart, Zola or Manet, we can as well attribute it to a filmmaker. Cinema is
also an honorable art, which many still doubt, like literature, painting or
music. This movie is an artistic masterpiece that can be placed on the same
level as for example In search of lost time by Marcel Proust, The
sonatas for violin and piano by Brahms or Irises by Van Gogh. Let's
no longer be cautious with the cinema and affirm loud and clear that with movies
of this caliber and many others, he can hold out against other arts born well
before him. Regarding 2001, Michel Ciment said in his indispensable work
on the director: "The director has designed a movie which has suddenly
aged all science fiction cinema, at the risk of disappointing "specialists"
who do not 'did not find their dear extraterrestrials there and to perplex
"amateurs" by the audacity of its narration. "
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