BEWARE: FILM SCHOOL BULLSHITIt is wrong to see cinema as the art of image, it is also the art of movement, space, editing, acting and audio visual art. These elements can influence, combine or oppose each other. 2001: A Space Odyssey is described as “the most cinematic of films” in that is speaks the pure language of cinema. However, I disagree with this statement. It has been said that it avoids dialogue, which is true, but only in a vocal sense. Where dialogue, nay; explanation, is needed, the film uses other methods to speak. For example, the subtitles and chapter headings placed into the film force the spectator to read much into the images that they otherwise might not have. Thus the band of ape-people going about their daily lives are subtitled The Dawn of Man bringing much meaning to them. Another example is that of HAL’s murder of the 3 hibernating crew members (not even dignified with names). No dialogue is ever spoken either during or after their deaths, but it is said that the medium of editing that is the sole medium of communication in “pure” cinema. Again, not so. The sequence would mean nothing without the use of text seen on screens around the ship. If the film were made just 10 or 15 years later (in the period of Alien and the Trek films) then these messages may well have been spoken aloud by some unseen female computerised voice. Again, this is the “pure cinema” of audio and visual, but it is the language of text that makes the sequence clear. What happens, happens between the edits in the film and, specifically, the edits between the flashing text. Perhaps “Pure Cinema” can be applied to a few certain sequences in the film. The most obvious one is the “Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite” sequence where the only text and language to appear is the subtitle at the start, one so ambiguous to the audience that it may as well not be there anyway. What follows is a piece of cinema in its purest form, true audio and visual art.
Whenever the monolith appears, the scene ends with an audible and visual crescendo which is cut in a most immediate manner, via an edit. This ends all sound and picture and creates a definite before and after. First there is something, and then there is nothing. It is a form of instant communication, a basic foundation for cinema itself. The monolith can be seen as a physical representation of the cut, a representation of a chapters end, a full stop (or an exclamation mark) or even a physical representation of a cinematic piece of grammar, the fade to black (illustrated at the end of the film when the camera zooms into the monolith literally making the screen darker and darker until it becomes the next scene).
Edits in 2001 are presented as an act of abstraction, pure symbolism, especially the bone-satellite edit. One single twenty fourth of a second has never meant so much. The entire film is founded on abstraction and a kind of mysticism. For instance, the concept of rhymes is often brought up in discussion of the film. Repeated factors within the films running time that, importantly, are unaware of each other, because amnesia is a vital part of rhyme. For example, we see an ape run its hand along a smooth wall in pre-history, and the action is repeated by an astronaut in the future. But the most obvious one is that of incongruously placed objects, such as the unexpected appearance of a monolith at the dawn of man or a space-pod in a hotel lobby. The monolith itself is a vital part of the films mysticism. An anthropological symbol which cries out for multiple interpretations and a signifier of abstraction itself. It is the same in all instances, locations and scales.
However, I would like to elaborate on the films obsession with the before and the after. For example, in the scene which features HAL asking about loyalty to the ambiguous mission, he is answered and then immediately falters and starts his eventual downfall with the discovery (is it a fault in HAL or is HAL lying?) of the failing part of the ship. There is the Before (HAL’s question) and the After (the faulty part). What happened in the middle? What was the process that led from the before to the after? It’s a question the film raises but does not answer, an unseen process of HAL’s mind. This unseen process of thought is illustrated earlier in the film when we see HAL and Poole playing chess with each other. In chess, it is not so much the actions of the players that are important, but the unseen thought processes in their minds. Indeed, actions aren’t even part of the game played, as both players indicate the movement of the chess pieces only by voice.
Kubrick’s shots are shrouded in these “invisible” processes. With a simple edit comes much meaning; where there was, now there is. One of the most iconic images from 2001, and indeed from the whole art of cinema itself, is that of a simple bone being thrown into the air and the cut to a satellite in the future. Again, the spectator is given no clues of the process between these two events, and the film doesn’t give us any later on, with no views of Earth life, even when Floyd video-phones his daughter at home. However, it is the symbolism and meaning of this single cut that shows the power of cinema itself. The bone goes up, and then falls down and then we see a shot of things that have gone up and stayed there. First a satellite, then the shuttle and eventually Floyd’s floating pen, his arm outstretched in zero gravity mirroring the actions of the ape-men earlier in the film. A single image illustrating the pinnacle of human triumph. This sequence also gives a view of infinite regression with the pen floating inside the shuttle floating inside the solar system floating inside the universe..etc. Another significant edit within the film concerns the death of Poole whilst fixing the antennae of the Discovery. We see one of the ships pods move on its own (we assume with HAL at the controls), we see Poole from the pods point of view, then the outstretched claws of the pod and then Poole’s body struggling as it floats away into the blackness of space. Another instance of Before and After, we do not see the event itself. We assume Poole’s oxygen line has been cut by the claws of the pod, but it may as well have been cut by the scissors that cut the celluloid film pieces. Murdered by an edit!
In 2001, the shots in the film are constantly juxtaposed through cuts. Since the 1920s, cinema has normally softened the jarring nature of a cut through use of continuity of movement, sounds and images. However, Kubrick’s edits are purposely naked and devoid of this tradition. He delights in the Cut-Cut, cutting both sound and image, playing off the deep black of the space outside and the extreme white interiors of ships. The Cut-Cut is used to underscore the rupture between these two spaces absolutely.
2001: A Space Odyssey is undeniably one of cinemas most beautiful pieces of art. It may not be “pure cinema” but it certainly exceeds at being successful cinema. A true piece of multi-levelled genius which constantly offers some new way to examine or just to enjoy.
(,
Tue 18 Sep 2007, 16:56,
archived)
Whenever the monolith appears, the scene ends with an audible and visual crescendo which is cut in a most immediate manner, via an edit. This ends all sound and picture and creates a definite before and after. First there is something, and then there is nothing. It is a form of instant communication, a basic foundation for cinema itself. The monolith can be seen as a physical representation of the cut, a representation of a chapters end, a full stop (or an exclamation mark) or even a physical representation of a cinematic piece of grammar, the fade to black (illustrated at the end of the film when the camera zooms into the monolith literally making the screen darker and darker until it becomes the next scene).
Edits in 2001 are presented as an act of abstraction, pure symbolism, especially the bone-satellite edit. One single twenty fourth of a second has never meant so much. The entire film is founded on abstraction and a kind of mysticism. For instance, the concept of rhymes is often brought up in discussion of the film. Repeated factors within the films running time that, importantly, are unaware of each other, because amnesia is a vital part of rhyme. For example, we see an ape run its hand along a smooth wall in pre-history, and the action is repeated by an astronaut in the future. But the most obvious one is that of incongruously placed objects, such as the unexpected appearance of a monolith at the dawn of man or a space-pod in a hotel lobby. The monolith itself is a vital part of the films mysticism. An anthropological symbol which cries out for multiple interpretations and a signifier of abstraction itself. It is the same in all instances, locations and scales.
However, I would like to elaborate on the films obsession with the before and the after. For example, in the scene which features HAL asking about loyalty to the ambiguous mission, he is answered and then immediately falters and starts his eventual downfall with the discovery (is it a fault in HAL or is HAL lying?) of the failing part of the ship. There is the Before (HAL’s question) and the After (the faulty part). What happened in the middle? What was the process that led from the before to the after? It’s a question the film raises but does not answer, an unseen process of HAL’s mind. This unseen process of thought is illustrated earlier in the film when we see HAL and Poole playing chess with each other. In chess, it is not so much the actions of the players that are important, but the unseen thought processes in their minds. Indeed, actions aren’t even part of the game played, as both players indicate the movement of the chess pieces only by voice.
Kubrick’s shots are shrouded in these “invisible” processes. With a simple edit comes much meaning; where there was, now there is. One of the most iconic images from 2001, and indeed from the whole art of cinema itself, is that of a simple bone being thrown into the air and the cut to a satellite in the future. Again, the spectator is given no clues of the process between these two events, and the film doesn’t give us any later on, with no views of Earth life, even when Floyd video-phones his daughter at home. However, it is the symbolism and meaning of this single cut that shows the power of cinema itself. The bone goes up, and then falls down and then we see a shot of things that have gone up and stayed there. First a satellite, then the shuttle and eventually Floyd’s floating pen, his arm outstretched in zero gravity mirroring the actions of the ape-men earlier in the film. A single image illustrating the pinnacle of human triumph. This sequence also gives a view of infinite regression with the pen floating inside the shuttle floating inside the solar system floating inside the universe..etc. Another significant edit within the film concerns the death of Poole whilst fixing the antennae of the Discovery. We see one of the ships pods move on its own (we assume with HAL at the controls), we see Poole from the pods point of view, then the outstretched claws of the pod and then Poole’s body struggling as it floats away into the blackness of space. Another instance of Before and After, we do not see the event itself. We assume Poole’s oxygen line has been cut by the claws of the pod, but it may as well have been cut by the scissors that cut the celluloid film pieces. Murdered by an edit!
In 2001, the shots in the film are constantly juxtaposed through cuts. Since the 1920s, cinema has normally softened the jarring nature of a cut through use of continuity of movement, sounds and images. However, Kubrick’s edits are purposely naked and devoid of this tradition. He delights in the Cut-Cut, cutting both sound and image, playing off the deep black of the space outside and the extreme white interiors of ships. The Cut-Cut is used to underscore the rupture between these two spaces absolutely.
2001: A Space Odyssey is undeniably one of cinemas most beautiful pieces of art. It may not be “pure cinema” but it certainly exceeds at being successful cinema. A true piece of multi-levelled genius which constantly offers some new way to examine or just to enjoy.
B+it lost some marks because I didn't read it all
(
Prof UnderCover evitable,
Tue 18 Sep 2007, 16:58,
archived)
i didn't read it allbut what i did read resente a well constructed and literate argument
B+
(B+
mictoboy shitting in your cunt since,
Tue 18 Sep 2007, 16:59,
archived)
I was going to read thatbut then I decided not to bother, and had a KitKat Chunky instead.
(
RiffRaff lurking like a lurky thing,
Tue 18 Sep 2007, 17:27,
archived)
very nicebut someone's jizzed on it
( mictoboy shitting in your cunt since,
Tue 18 Sep 2007, 16:53,
archived)
are you going to begin it: "When you are the moon..."?
cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations,
Tue 18 Sep 2007, 16:54,
archived)
