Skip to content
2001: A Space Odyssey - BFI Film Classics (Paperback)
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey - BFI Film Classics (Paperback)
zoom

2001: A Space Odyssey - BFI Film Classics (Paperback)

(author)
£11.99
Paperback 96 Pages
Published: 14/07/2010

This product is currently unavailable.

  • This item has been added to your basket
Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is widely regarded as one of the best films ever made. It has been celebrated for its beauty and mystery, its realistic depiction of space travel and dazzling display of visual effects, the breathtaking scope of its story, which reaches across millions of years, and the thought-provoking depth of its meditation on evolution, technology and humanity's encounters with the unknown. 2001 has been described as the most expensive avant-garde movie ever made and as a psychedelic trip, a unique expression of the spirit of the 1960s and as a timeless masterpiece.

Peter Kramer's insightful study explores the complex origins of the film, the unique shape it took and the extraordinary impact it made on contemporary audiences. Drawing on new research in the Stanley Kubrick Archive at the University of the Arts London, Kramer challenges many of the widely-held assumptions about the film. He argues that 2001 was Kubrick's attempt to counter the deep pessimism of his previous film, Dr Strangelove (1964), which culminates in the explosion of a nuclear 'doomsday' device, with a more hopeful vision of humanity's future, facilitated by the intervention of mysterious extra-terrestrial artifacts.

This study traces the project's development from the first letter Kubrick wrote to his future collaborator Arthur C. Clarke in March 1964 all the way to the dramatic changes Kubrick made to the film shortly before its release by MGM in April 1968. Kramer shows that, despite - or, perhaps, because of - Kubrick's daring last-minute decision to turn the film itself into a mysterious artifact, 2001 was an instant success with both critics and general audiences, and has exerted enormous influence over Hollywood's output of science fiction movies ever since. The book argues that 2001 invites us to enjoy and contemplate its sounds and images over and over again, and, if we are so inclined, to take away from it an important message of hope.

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN: 9781844572861
Number of pages: 96
Weight: 214 g
Dimensions: 190 x 135 x 10 mm

You may also be interested in...

Adventures In The Screen Trade
Added to basket
'Have You Seen...?'
Added to basket
Star Trek: Light-Up Starship Enterprise
Added to basket
The Animator's Survival Kit
Added to basket
Lynch on Lynch
Added to basket
Paperback
£18.99
Film in Five Seconds
Added to basket
The Big Screen
Added to basket
The Moon's a Balloon
Added to basket
The Art of My Neighbor Totoro
Added to basket
Hollywood Babylon
Added to basket
Of Walking In Ice
Added to basket
Sculpting in Time
Added to basket
The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex
Added to basket
Ayoade on Ayoade
Added to basket

Please sign in to write a review

Your review has been submitted successfully.