Case Sudy- 2001: A Space Odyssey

2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick stated after the release of the film that he had created a film that has intended to bypass the conscious rationalisation of its audience and to sink straight into the unconscious

Various interpretations of the films:  a bold statement about mankind’s evolutions to the stars.

A propaganda films to increase the public support to the US moon landings, that came shortly after the film’s release

It is like a cinematic rubix cube (complicated)

Kubrick’s films affected the audiences directly through unconscious symbols (semiotics and steganography- is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one, apart from the sender and intended recipient)

 The art of encoding hidden messages within a seemingly unrelated context, Kubrick was a master of these skills

Steganalysis is the art of decoding such hidden messages

Same haunting music played every time a evolutionary step is being taken in the film, the apes encounter monolith in the dawn of man, when astronauts encounter second monolith in moon, the third when

the character David encounter another near Jupiter.

 Music is the singing voice of the monolith (A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock, such as some mountains, or a single piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are most often made of very hard and solid metamorphic or Igneous rock.)

The music Is played few places too which audiences fail to notice, at the beginning of the film over a black screen, and intermission just before the astronaut do the battle with Hall 9000 computer, again over a black screen. Why the black screen?  In the book by Arthur C. Clark book, the monolith is described as a pyramid shaped piece of polished mineral surrounded by spherical force field. Kubrick changed this to a black rectangular box, because the monolith is representation of the cinema screen itself. The dimension of the monolith turned 90 degrees almost fit the wide screen cinema frame of which the film was shot.

S during the film opening and intermission we are not looking at an empty black screen, but rather the surface of monolith “ the monolith is the film screen” and its singing directly at its audience the same way with the ape-men and astronauts.

For over 40 years’ people watching the film not realizing they are staring at the monolith.

“The film itself is a Star gate and we are its subject”

Space Odyssey now has literal meaning, refers to as special relationship between a screen, the audience and the audience surroundings.

The scene we see the camera moves several meters outside the room (we see the view into the room as if we are looking into a window/ 3D effect) if you see the dimension of the room and the monolith when turned 90degrees we see they are in same aspect ratio. This brings back the point of the monolith representing the cinema screen