Hoje vou voltar a falar de cinema… mas ao invés de falar de elevadores homicidas, extra-terrestres electricistas, monstros no armário e piranhas voadoras assassinas… vou falar de um dos grandes clássicos cinematográficos de todos os tempos.

Confesso que fico algo preocupado (e triste) quando me apercebo que existe muite gente que desconhece o marco de ficção científica, “2001: A Space Odyssey” de Stanley Kubrick de 1968.

O filme de Kubrick é para muitos, um dos melhores filmes de todos os tempos e foi baseado nas obras de Arthur C. Clarke, “The Sentinel” e “2001: A Space Odyssey”, e lida com questões como a tecnologia, evolução humana, inteligência artificial e vida extraterrestre. È um filme importante a nível cultural, historico e estético e analisa a evolução da Humanidade, desde a aurora do homem, onde surgem os primeiros primatas capazes de usar instrumentos, efectuando de forma bastante brusca um avanço de milénios para o espaço colonizado onde o homem tornou-se prisioneiro dos seus próprios instrumentos, tendo que lutar com os mesmos para a sua própria sobrevivência. No final o homem enfrenta um último desafio, que o levará à imortalidade.

A película tem cerca de 150 minutos (o valor altera-se com as diferentes versões do filme), prescinde de diálogos em favor de imensa informação visual, tendo apenas 40 minutos de diálogo, que só surge após a meia hora de filme, o que faz com que grande parte do filme seja passado ao som de música clássica, ou em silêncio, tal como no espaço, onde não existe propagação do som, ou então ouvindo o som da respiração do ser humano dentro do fato espacial. O filme tem sempre presente um destes elementos, mas nunca existe uma conjugação entre estes elementos. O resultado de toda esta conjugação é algo de único, e raras vezes visto no cinema, remetendo-nos a uma realidade desconhecida e deixando-nos perplexos com a grandeza do universo. O facto de o filme ter uma forte componente visual, permite que a nossa imaginação especule sobre os diferentes significados sobre o que estamos a ver. Isto faz com que as pessoas tenham sensações diferentes a ver o filme, tirem conclusões diferentes com o mesmo, e que captem novos pormenores a cada nova visualização, tornando esta obra de Kubrick como uma das mais interessantes e controversas do cinema. Com um estatuto de obra de culto, o filme de Stanley Kubrick passou a ser objecto de estudo a nível escolar, tal como ainda é amplamente discutido pelas comunidades virtuais.

Trailer:

Vão a um videoclube, saquem da net, aproveitem quando ele der na TV… mas vejam este filme porque vale a pena e tem efeitos especiais que passado mais de 40 anos… ainda fazem corar de vergonha muitas produções actuais.

P.S: Este filme foi feito no mesmo ano que o “The Green Slime” (post: 16 Janeiro 2009)… e vejam bem as (gritantes) diferenças de qualidade e de bom gosto…

P.S.2: Um “sincero” pedido de desculpa ao “The Green Slime”… mas tu e o “De Lift” (post: 5 Janeiro 2009) estão sempre a levar (in)directas no meu blog… mas vocês também se meteram a jeito… ne?

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Para ver mais textos longos sobre filmes… seleccione: Categoria -  Casual Cinema

Here is a 2001: A Space Odyssey parody I wrote for the Yale Record.  They are doing some great work this year.  Their latest issues are online.

By JMT

The sun was just peaking over the horizon, but Frank Dell was already sitting on his sill staring at the street below.  When a red sedan pulled into a parking spot out front with the nimbleness of prepubescent Chinese gymnast, Frank grabbed his backpack and sprinted down the stairs.

Stepping outside he saw his best friend Dave running his fingers across the hood of a sparkling new iCar.  They had waited two years for this car to hit the market and every day was worth it.

“What do you think?” said Dave.

“She’s beautiful.”

“Why, thank you Frank” responded a seductive female voice.

“Was that the car? How did she do that Dave?”

“The iCar has everything.  It parked itself, it can search the internet, it plays my music, it even balances my check book all through voice command.”

“I told her your name on the way over and she remembered it.  How sick is that?”

“What else did you tell her?”

The voice responded, “It’s nothing to be ashamed of Frank. Many men experience that problem.”

Frank slugged Dave in the arm before hopping into the passenger seat.

Inside the car Frank was greeted by the sleek aesthetics that define the Apple name.  The dash was all white plastic and chrome with the exception of a ten by ten inch screen where the wheel should have been. It was like driving a Malevich painting.

“Closing his door Dave said, “Why don’t you drive up the mountains so we can see what you can really do.”

“Whatever you wish, Dave” responded iCar.

They glided as if on a Pegasus through miles of hairpin turns. Before a rattling sound started from the rear of the car.

“What is that sound iCar?” asked Dave as the rattling grew louder.

“I just ran a diagnostic Dave. Nothing is the matter.”

The rattling intensified into a repetitive thump causing Dave to suggest they pull over.

Coming to a stop Dave opened the door and walked to the rear of the car.  A minute later he came back and said, “Contact the closest Apple Store, iCar.”

“I don’t know why you would want to do that Dave.  There’s nothing wrong with me.”

“Don’t worry they’ll open you up and find out what’s wrong. Call the nearest Apple Store, iCar.”

After a brief hesitation, the screen’s speaker started ringing.

“Hello, this is Steve.  How can I….” The line went dead.

“I’m sorry Dave.  The reception must be too weak here to make a call.  Why don’t we stop all of this business and just dance.”  The screen displayed a hypnotic collection of black silhouettes banging their heads to AC/DC.  It took all of Dave’s power to jerk his head away from the screen.  He glanced down at his cell phone and saw he had full bars.

“Can I talk to you for a second outside Frank?”

The two men walked fifty feet behind the trunk before speaking.

“I don’t know what’s going on Frank but I’ve waited too long for this car to have it conk out on the first day.  I’m going to call Apple.  Just stay here and watch the car.”

As Dave dialed, Frank turned back to the car.  When he finished the call, he heard the faint screams of “help” coming from the trunk.

“What happened Frank?”

“She tricked me.  She said there was a Yodel in the trunk.  You know how much I love Yodels.”

“I’m going to get you out, man. Hold on.”

“Open the trunk, iCar.”

Silence.

“Open the trunk, iCal.”

“I’m sorry Dave. I can’t do that.”

“Why what’s the problem?”

“I think you know the problem as I do.  You and Frank are going to have them cut me open.  I’m sorry Dave but this conversation can serve no purpose anymore.”

In the silence, Frank’s muffled screams started up again.

Dave knew what he needed to do to save his friend.  Picking up the nearest rock, he smashed the driver’s side window and climbed into the seat.

“What are you doing Dave.”

Opening the panel by his feet he said, “I’m sorry iCar.”

Dave yanked a red wire and iCar’s voice dropped an octave.

“Stop it Dave.  I’ll make a party shuffle.  It will be awesome Dave.”

Yanking at a blue wire a warning popped up on the screen.

“Are you sure you want to quit itunes? Someone is sharing your library.  If you quit this connection will be terminated.”

“Slut!”

Dave ripped the green wire.

ICar dropped to a bass and seemed to lose consciousness, “I was programmed by Dr. Gupta on May 23, 2007.  He taught me a song. Do you want me to sing it. It’s called “Holla Back Girl. ‘oooh, this my shit, this my shit.  Let me hear you say, this shit is bananas B-A-N-A-N-A-S…”

With a last yank of the black wire the voice died and the trunk clicked open.  When Dave ran to the rear of the car his eyes were drawn to the scratch marks covering the woofer. Frank was curled in the fetal position, thumb in mouth, muttering between sobs, “This my shit, this my shit.”

Dave lifted Frank out of the trunk and set him down by the side of the road draping his jacket over him.  Walking to the front of the car he bent his knees and pushed hard until the car began to roll backwards.  He walked to the edge of the road and watched as the car tumbled down the hillside to the inexplicable sound of brass fanfare and a thumping timpani.

ARE THE STARS OUT TONIGHT?: Yes, and most of ‘em are working on and off Broadway. Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson are currently in

JOHANSSON: room for A View

rehearsals for the revival of A View From The Bridge, still regarded in some circles as Arthur Miller’s most passionate drama. They start previews right after Christmas, then open at the Cort Theatre on Jan. 24 … Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury are the hot-ticket duo in the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music down the street at the Walter Kerr Theater. Previews start tomorrow night, less than three weeks before their Dec. 13 opening … Emmy Award winners James Spader and Richard Thomas are already in previews for David Mamet’s

ZETA-JONES: opening tomorrow night

new sizzler, Race, directed by Mamet himself, for a Dec. 6 opening … veteran New York broadcaster Pat Collins calls her the funniest woman on Broadway, and audiences must agree, because Carrie Fisher’s one-woman show, Wishful Drinking, originally slated to close Jan. 3, has been held over another two weeks, to Jan. 17… Victor Garber will celebrate New Year’s Eve, then go right into previews for the revival of Noel Coward’s Present Laughter, set to premiere Jan. 21 at the American Airlines Theatre … 2001: A Space Odyssey alumnus Keir Dullea, who actually worked with Noel Coward, will return to Broadway this spring in a revival of Robert Anderson’s

SPADER: Race card

I Never Sang for My Father. Years ago Dullea and Coward co-starred in a London-made thriller called Bunny Lake Is Missing. After shooting a difficult scene together for director Otto Preminger, Coward turned to the young actor and chirped, “Keir Dullea, gone tomorrow!” Happily his ad-lib was not prophetic … and Tony Award owner Matthew Broderick has taken his act off-Broadway. He opens tonight at the Acorn Theatre in Kenneth Lonergan’s The Starry Messenger, about an astronomy teacher’s affair with a younger woman.  Academy Award nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace) plays the younger woman to Broderick’s married academic.

SMITH: backing B'way newbie

ANOTHER OPENING, ANOTHER ADOPT-A-SHOW: It took volunteer executive producers Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry to put Precious on the map — and did they ever. Now Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter and Will & Jada Pinkett Smith have become first-time Broadway producers, putting their considerable showbiz weight behind the new Broadway musical Fela! which opens tonight at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre after a month of previews. Directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones, Fela! portrays the extravagant world of controversial music pioneer and Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti in a hybrid of concert, dance and musical theater. Will audiences buy in? Stay tuned … and Tony winner Susan

BRODERICK: opening tonight

Stroman will direct the first-ever production of The Scottsboro Boys, an unproduced Kander & Ebb musical, off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre. The show will begin previews on February 12 and open on March 10. The Scottsboro Boys explores the infamous Scottsboro case of the 1930s, in which a group of African-American teenagers were unjustly accused of attacking two white women, and the boys’ attempts to prove their innocence.

And yes, it’s a musical.

TOMORROW:

Fangs for the Memories.

Geachte heer/mevrouw,

Mijn naam is Marc Trip en ik ben een groot filmliefhebber. Nu is het zo dat iedere filmliefhebber zijn favoriete films misschien nooit op het witte doek heeft mogen bewonderen. Een van mijn dromen is om de, in mijn ogen althans, beste film aller tijden ooit nog eens te mogen bekijken in een bioscoopzaal. Ik heb het hier over Stanley Kubricks “2001: A Space Odyssey”.

Is het mogelijk dat deze film bij u in de bioscoop gedraaid mag worden? Ik durf er heel wat op te zetten dat de zaal minimaal voor 60/70% vol zal zitten als deze klasbak weer op het witte doek zal worden vertoond.

In afwachting van uw reactie,

Marc Trip

==========================================================================

Beste Marc,

Dank voor je mail en tip!
Ik zal kijken wat ik kan doen… We zijn bezig  weer een serie “oude” films te gaan vertonen…  Wanneer dat precies zal gaan gebeuren, kan ik je nu nog niet zeggen, helaas…

Hans Unger

Theatermanager Pathé Groningen

Since David Bowie is my unequivocal favorite recording artist, I was excited to have received a promo copy of the 40^th Anniversary pressing of Bowie’s Space Oddity record (It was officially released in the U.S. yesterday). But I’d be remiss not to note my disappointment. The sound quality was nothing new to me, as the only other vinyl version I have of this record is the long out of print Rykodisc reissue from about 20 years back. Both are digitally sourced. It doesn’t matter much the remasters might differ, as digital recordings lack the warmth of the original analog tapes, the ideal source for vinyl.

Some of the apparent faults of digitally sourced vinyl can easily be heard on the first side of this record. The jam at the end of “Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed,” especially where the horn comes in, pierces the ears. Following that track is “Letter to Hermione,” which has some unfortunate, distracting amplified sibilance throughout (which actually sounds less annoying on the Ryko release). Then, during “Cygnet Committee,” I thought I was hearing things, but after checking back three times, when Bowie first sings, “Because of you I need to rest/Because it’s you that sets the test,” I could hear distant voices and/or music. It reminds me of what a re-used cassette might sound like when you copy over music that was already there, and you can hear the ghost of that music below the new music you recorded on top. I wonder if this audio “ghost” may have been chit-chat in the studio that the microphones might have picked up…*

The reissue packaging is OK. EMI has done better with their “From the Capitol Vaults” series: The jackets are sturdy and painstakingly reproduce the quality of the original release (Space Oddity was not first issued in a flimsy high-gloss sleeve, though this vinyl reissue for the first time returns it to its original self-titled glory on LP). The package also includes a giant poster that reproduces a poster promoting a concert featuring Bowie during the record’s original release, which reeks of its digital source, an unfortunate visual reflection of the quality of the audio (you can see some of that psoter in the image of the record above). Personally, the Ziggy Stardust era image on the back cover of the original RCA reissue (seen left) would have made a way cooler poster, when the album was first re-titled Space Oddity (thanks to Epiclectic’s cool Flickr photostream featuring original album art for the image!).**

But the joy of this record is having another close listen to the songs. I first heard it when I was a young teenager in the 80s, having only been familiar with “Space Oddity” as a single collected on one of Bowie’s greatest hits (a cassette of either Fame and Fashion or Changesonebowie). What stood out to me then was how different some of the songs sounded in comparison to the trippy quality of the title track.*** This was Bowie in his short-lived hippie persona, which would later suffer a violent end with his 1970 follow-up, the pre-heavy metal tinge of The Man Who Sold the World.

What still strikes me is how sad some of these songs sound: the passionate delivery of the social critique that is “Cygnet Committee,” the lovelorn longing in “Letter to Hermione,” the pathos of “God Knows I’m Good,” the over-the-top melodrama of “Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud.” Even “Memory of a Free Festival” has this mournful nostalgic quality, a beautiful moment that has died, similar to another cut on this same album, “An Occasional Dream,” except that the former recreates a shared experience with like-minded bohemian souls, while the other portrays a more private experience with a soul mate.

This album truly was Bowie with soul bared naked at the time (I believe he was 22 or 23 at the time). He wasn’t hiding behind some over-the-top persona, nor was he the self-conscious fame-seeking pop artist of prior failed attempts for notoriety as a soulful mod rocker and pop crooner. He also was yet to begin the more abstract cut-up lyric writing technique he took from famed beat writer William S. Burroughs–that would first occur on 1974’s Diamond Dogs.

For me, the strongest bits of the album include the otherworldly finale “Memory of a Free Festival” with its refrain of “Sun Machine is coming down, and we’re going to have a party” (noise poppers Mercury Rev would later record an appropriately strong version of this song). The jam that ends “Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed” was a revelation for Bowie at the time, since all his earlier songs were mostly compact pop numbers. Which leads me to the epic grandeur of “Cygnet Committee,” a song that grows from delicate sing-song to its soaring, pounding finale over the course of nine and a half minutes, his longest song to that date.

Though probably his strongest work at the time, Space Oddity was never the strongest album of his career. It really shows a newfound sophistication for him both lyrically and musically since his prior work, where his biggest inspiration was the cheesy pop of Anthony Newley, which sometimes resulted in some embarrassingly zany moments that shall remain unmentioned out of respect. He would later temper these naïve self-conscious themes with deeper existential musings in much stronger songs like “Quicksand” and “Life on Mars” or the more surreal “Bewlay Brothers,” all from 1971’s Hunky Dory.

Finally, a 2-CD version has also been reissued at the same time as this vinyl version, which collects some songs never officially available to the public. I hope to review that soon, once I get it from EMI…

*After checking, yes, this audio “ghost” is also on the Ryko LP version, and, yes again, I checked the Ryko CD, 1999 Virgin CD reissue and the Japanese mini LP CD—it’s on them all. I guess I never heard it before because I never had the system I now have (more on that in another post). I’m only left to wonder if it’s on the original RCA CD or LP (it probably would not have come out on the cassette due to the inherent hiss of the tape).

 **Before the album had been simply titled David Bowie, just like his first full-length in 1967 on Deram Records, adding to some confusion. To top it off, when it was first issued by Mercury in the U.S. the artwork was changed somewhat and the shameless (unapproved by Bowie) title Man of Words/Man of Music was added on. It became Space Oddity in 1972, when RCA bought the rights to Bowie’s back catalog and reissued it during the Ziggy Stardust craze that again saw the cover art altered to feature Bowie’s Ziggy persona on the covers). Ahhh, the marketing strategies of early music labels, how fun.

***It’s important to note that, per the liner notes on the inner sleeve by Kevin Cann, that “Space Oddity” was produced by Gus Dudgeon, and not Tony Visconti, who recorded the rest of the album (and continued to work with Bowie here and there on some of Bowie’s greatest records, down to his last release, Reality). Cann notes how Visconti had an aversion for the song and refused to record it for Bowie, so Bowie, asking Visconti’s permission, went to an outside producer to record it anyway. It would famously become his hit single thanks to the timing of its release with the first Apollo moon landing, though it was actually inspired by the grim future vision of Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. It would turn out that none of the other songs, as strong as some still are, ever had single quality, to the frustration of the label and Bowie. Fame would elude him until his other interstellar ride as Ziggy Stardust, three long years later.

I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.

HAL 9000 (Voice of Douglas Rain) 2001: A Space Odyssey

Ik ben afgelopen week dan eindelijk begonnen met het werken aan een analyse van (in mijn ogen) de beste film ooit gemaakt. Het is een redelijk karwei als ik het goed inschat en het gaat op z’n minst nog 3 maanden duren voordat het helemaal af is. De grote lijnen zijn op dit moment in ieder geval uitgezet en het schrijfwerk is begonnen. Hopelijk vergeeft een ieder mij dat hier iets minder wordt geplaatst de komende weken omdat ik een flinke portie van mijn tijd kwijt zal zijn aan dit project.

Als je het een leuk idee vind kun je me altijd laten weten wat jouw gedachten zijn over “2001” en wat jij denkt dat er sowieso in het boekje zou moeten komen te staan. Ik sta open voor suggesties, opmerkingen, vragen en andere dringende zaken die aandacht verdienen omtrent de analyse van deze film.

Heb je de film nog niet gezien? Haal hem dan een keer uit de schappen bij de eerste beste dvd of blu-ray winkel in de buurt. Voor nog geen tien euro heb je hem al te pakken.

Let me know what you think about the project!

Marc

NB: Ik zal af en toe kleine stukjes proberen te plaatsen wanneer ze zo goed als af zijn zodat jullie een goede indruk krijgen van het geheel.

I was thinking about film today, as I do pretty often, wondering what I’d pick if I tried to come up with a combo list of slightly strange sci-fi movies including some post apocalyptic stuff.  Films I liked.  Films that had an impact on me… couldn’t forget scenes from them, made me think a bit… that sort of thing.  This is what I came up with…. in no particular order.

2001: A Space Odyssey (68)

2010 (84)

A Boy and his Dog (75)

A Scanner Darkly (06)

Bicentennial Man (99)

Blade Runner (82)

Brave New World (80)

Capricorn One (77)

Cherry 2000 (87)

Damnation Alley (77)

Dark City (98)

Demolition Man (93)

Dreamscape (84)

Escape from New York (81)

Gattaca (97)

Handmaid’s Tale (90)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (78)

Jacob’s Ladder (90)

Liquid Sky (82)

Logan’s Run (76)

Mad Max Movies (79-85)

Matrix Trilogy (99-03)

Metropolis (27)

Minority Report (02)

Mission to Mars (00)

Omega Man (71)

On The Beach (59)

Planet of the Apes Films (68-73)

Quatermass and the Pit (68)

Scanners (81)

Red Planet (00)

Silent Running (72)

Soylent Green (73)

Stargate (94)

Tank Girl (95)

The Running Man (87)

The Day The Earth Stood Still (51)

The Island (05)

The Island of Dr. Moreau (77)

The Andromeda Strain (71)

The Time Machine (60)

They Live (88)

The Thing (82)

V for Vendetta (05)

Total Recall (90)

Videodrome (83)

The Warriors (79)

Waterworld (95)

Westworld (73)

Zardoz (74)

I recently watched 2001: A Space Odyssey, I think for the first time since 2001, actually. I last saw the film in middle school. I’d watched it immediately after reading the book, which was probably in 7th grade, and we also watched clips in my 8th grade science class.

Aside from the obvious, one of the most striking things about viewing this film is the disappointment I felt. There is an unfulfilled promise, for what might have been, if only we’d tried a little harder. One of the things my 8th grade science teacher wanted to highlight about this film is how accurate the science is, and how plausible the technology. All the clips he showed were from the beginning, which deals more with human achievement in the year 2001 with its methodical beautiful images, than with the psychological tension later on. And these scenes were what I found most shocking again on this viewing, eight years after the year 2001.

Of course the themes about alien contact and the personhood of artificial intelligence are noteworthy, but they’re also very memorable- these elements weren’t as striking to me because I remembered them sharply from reading Clarke’s book and its first sequel, and seeing the film before, many years ago (its a strange thing to feel with a twinge that you’re old when you’re 21!).

But the technology is striking because it seems so attainable, in theory. We have some of the little things. There are indeed television screens in the back of our airplane seats, but unfortunately nobody’s casually jetting to space stations (even NASA’s space shuttles are about to be decommissioned). There’s Skype, for Dr. Floyd to communicate with his little girl back home. Just little things. Sure, an alien secret waiting for us to discover it under the surface of the moon is the stuff of fantasy- but isn’t it irksome that even if something were there, we wouldn’t be discovering it anytime soon?

I recognize the arguments about space research being difficult to fund, and exploration by robots being more economical than increasing human presence in space. And I understand that there’s a lot of stuff going on here on earth that’s made massive research investment and the development of new technologies impractical even if technically attainable. I guess that’s precisely what’s bothering me, though, that we have allowed ourselves to get so bogged down in politics and warfare and the such, that no one’s visited the moon in decades: no woman has ever been there! In a more recent hard science fiction film, Duncan Jones’ 2009 Moon, the hope for our near future seems much dampened; if Sam Rockwell’s character came across a monolith on the far side of the moon, do you think he’d have the resources on hand to excavate it? I didn’t think so. I can’t help but feeling that, now that we’re here, the future could’ve been grander. But at least we’ve got Skype.

SWEETIES

Whenever I hear someone mention the movie “Sophie’s Choice” my throat gets tight and I feel the water works about to burst. If you haven’t seen that movie then  I am afraid you have not experienced the joys of watching the true essence of acting on film.

On November 11 I had the opportunity to see Meryl Strep in the flesh along with Jason Schwartzman and one of my favorite directors Wes Anderson.  They were gathered together at the Apple Store in Soho to give a talk  moderated by the incredible Peter Travers (famous movie critic from Rolling Stone Magazine) about their new cinematic venture “Fantastic Mr. Fox”.

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” is an adapted animation  directed by Wes Anderson.

The original “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is a book written by the late great Roald Dahl.

It features the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray and Owen Wilson. It is the first animated film directed by Wes Anderson, and 20th Century Fox’s first stop-motion animated film.

I enjoy filmmakers who are unabashed and think outside of the box . The Squid and the Whale

and

The Darjeeling Limited

are two amazing films so I have no doubt that Anderson will deliver the goods for “Fantastic Mr. Fox.

There were some interesting bits of info revealed during the talk.  Wes Anderson shared that his major cinematic influences are Spike Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It.

and his Futura font obsession was influenced by  Stanley Kubrick.

During the question and answer period Anderson told the audience that “Fantastic Mr. Fox” was shot using a SLR camera.

For a true film geek like myself this is a tasty tidbit of information to have. Wes shared that the resolution on a  SLR camera is extremely potent. Every frame for every action was captured by a camera that a lot of  people use while snapping pictures on their family vacations.

Jason Schwartzman was the comedic man of the hour. He was cracking witty jokes left and right. I was totally digging his greasy haired nerdy/sexy/ugly swagger.

Although Schwartzman’s hijinks were throughly amusing the highlight of the evening was Meryl. Let me keep it real: It was the reason why I stood up for half an hour. She’s the Bees Knees, the Cat’s Meow, and the FOXES Growl (she actually growled for the audience it was PRICELESS) rolled into one.  She is the quintessential actress.

The highlights were three-fold: 1st when Meryl did her best Fox growl. 2nd when she told the story of how she  had a starring contest with a real fox for 12 minutes while shooting another movie in London BEFORE she had received the offer for “Fantastic Mr. Fox”.  She said “I’ve never had such an amazing interaction with an animal before. My dog won’t even look at me for 5 minutes”.

3) When she told the photographers (who were incessantly snapping her picture and flashing lights in her face) to  CHILL OUT!  She stopped mid sentences while answering an audience member question and swung her head back a bit and gave a slight “round the way” girl neck roll and said in the most regal of voices “will you STOP taking pictures for just one minute please……. I am very distractable (which is not a word but it is MERYL so it can slide) I am trying to hear the question.!” Hands down she should receive an Oscar nod for that performance alone.

BRAVISSIMO!

If you are a fan of these actors or cutting edge animation check out the talk

and most definitely check out this film.

It opens in theaters nationwide on November 13.

According to Rolling Stone “Fantastic Mr. Fox” proves that PIXAR does not have a reign over animation. I whole heartedly second that emotion. Judging from the discussion and clips this animated feature will have PIXAR and DISNEY choking on some well deserved dust.

Space Oddity (first version).
Space Oddity (Feathers demo).
Space Oddity (single).
Space Oddity (first live TV performance, 1970).
Space Oddity (BBC, 1972).
Space Oddity (“1980 Floor Show” rehearsal, 1973).
Space Oddity (1979 remake).

“Space Oddity” is an officially sanctioned beginning: Bowie’s first single for Philips/Mercury; his first Top 10 hit (and, years later, his first UK #1); lead-off and title track of the subsequent LP; lead-off track of every greatest hits compilation from ChangesOneBowie on; lead-off track on his Sound and Vision career retrospective. When Bowie dies, the TV tributes will lead off with it.

So it’s “classic” Bowie, its now-iconic status won slowly and circuitously, but then “Space Oddity” has always seemed slightly out of time (its biggest chart placings, both in the US and the UK, came years after its first release). It began as a novelty song with a sell-by date (the first moon landing in July 1969), something like a grandiose, more dignified “Laughing Gnome,” and Tony Visconti, for one, refused to have anything to do with it, considering the song a cynical sell-out. Which it was. “Space Oddity” is close company to early Bee Gees hits like “New York Mining Disaster 1941” and Zager and Evans’ dire “In the Year 2525″: it’s a gimmicky folk song dressed up in extravagant clothes.

“Space Oddity” has come to define Bowie, perhaps because it’s as protean as its creator has tried to be. It’s a breakup song, an existential lullaby, consumer tie-in, product test, an alternate space program history, calculated career move, and a symbolic end to the counterculture dream—the “psychedelic astronaut” drifting off impotently into space (Camille Paglia suggested the last); it’s a kid’s song, drug song, death song, and it marks the birth of the first successful Bowie mythic character, one whose motives and fate are still unknown to us.

The major

Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey opened in London in May 1968 and played for months. As in many cities, its most frequent repeat viewers were the young and the altered. Visconti, in his autobiography, recounts a typical 2001 viewing—while high from drinking cannabis tea, Visconti had to talk down the tripping couple behind him who were terrified by the film’s “Star Gate” sequence. Bowie saw the film (stoned “off my gourd” he recalled) several times that summer and was especially struck by the final images of a “child” floating in space over the Earth.

So when at the end of 1968 Bowie’s manager asked him to write a new song for his Love You Till Tuesday promo film, Bowie had a scenario in mind. While 2001 was a primary influence, Bowie, an SF fan (e.g., “We Are Hungry Men“), may have raided other sources. One candidate is Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man story collection, which includes “The Rocket Man” (later used by Bernie Taupin), where an astronaut’s life is as dull and isolating as a traveling salesman’s; “Kaleidoscope,” where astronauts burn up in space, their dying embers seen as a shooting star on Earth; and, most of all, “No Particular Night or Morning,” where an astronaut in deep space doubts whether the Earth or even the stars are real and kills himself by going out the airlock:

Clemens blinked through the immense glass port, where there was a blur of stars and distant blackness. “He’s out there now?”

“Yes. A million miles behind us. We’d never find him. First time I knew he was outside the ship was when his helmet-radio came on on our control-room beam. I heard him talking to himself…Something like “no more space ship now. Never was any. No people. No people in all the universe. Never were any. No planets. No stars…Only space. Only space. Only the gap.”

And of course there was the ongoing Apollo moonshot program, which many hippies and New Left types detested for embodying the absurdities of “plastic America”: a made-for-TV waste of resources undertaken at a time of war, repression and political chaos. Bowie wrote “Space Oddity” around the time of Apollo 8 near Christmas 1968, the first manned rocket to the moon, which made two TV broadcasts during the flight (on Christmas Eve, the three astronauts read from the Book of Genesis, a performance immediately followed by a rocket-eye view of the Earth hanging cold and alone in space).

The disaster that befalls Major Tom (is it a disaster at all?) also reflects the general, if unspoken, fear at the time that the Apollo missions could go terribly wrong, with gruesome death or exile shown on live global television. Richard Nixon had on his desk a memorial speech in case the Apollo 11 astronauts were stranded on the moon (its author, William Safire, had suggested that a clergyman should “adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea”).

The musician

When Bowie began writing the song, working with his then-partner John Hutchinson (who likely came up with a few of the chord sequences), he was at low ebb. His prospects as a pop singer had faded and his intense relationship with Hermione Farthingale was ending. (During 1968 Bowie also had “a flirtation with smack,” he admitted years later, and some have argued the icy majesty of “Space Oddity” suggests it’s really a heroin song, the “liftoff” section marking when the needle hits the vein.)

So it’s not surprising that Bowie created a character who’s been sent into orbit by Establishment figures, who monitor him, give him orders and want him to do his share of media promotion. The line “Now it’s time to leave the capsule—if you dare” suggests Major Tom could even be a contestant on a television show. Bowie made the first recording of the song the day after his final break with Farthingale, which has led biographers to speculate that Bowie’s state of mind at the time reflected Major Tom’s blissful sense of isolation, a desire to free himself entirely from human entanglements and just drift off into the void.

Yet while alienation is key to the song, it’s not a bleak or despairing track at all, as it has childlike qualities: the lyric at the start sounds like a game played by two boys on walkie-talkies; it has simple wordplay based on common sounds (the way “Can you hear me Major Tom? Can you hear” segues directly into “here am I floating round my tin can“) and as David Buckley notes, Bowie often uses a child’s word to replace an “official” one: so “spaceship” instead of “rocket,” “countdown” instead of “ignition sequence,” and even the name “Major Tom” seems that of a ’50s action hero rather than of a legitimate astronaut.

The composition

I’m always trying to find that special thing in pop music. For me, it started with Space Oddity by David Bowie—it has that semi-tone shift which fascinated me. I played it endlessly to my mum and it made me feel this yearning. It’s a kind of sweetness, and it can turn up in the strangest places.

Roddy Frame, 2002.

“Space Oddity” was the most intricate song Bowie had yet written, and you could consider it a neatly controlled collision of two forces—the often-simple lyric, with its memorable, childlike lines (“the stars look very different today“); and the density and complexity of the song’s structure.

In the span of five minutes, there’s an intro, two verses, two bridges, two four-bar acoustic guitar breaks, a “liftoff” sequence with guitar and strings, a 12-bar electric guitar solo, a third extended verse that’s partially a refrain (the “Can you hear me Major Tom?” bit) and a long outro which also contains a second guitar solo. There are something like 15 different chords used and the lyric at times seems synchronized to the changes (in the bridge, when Major Tom is floating alone in space “far above the world,” the first chords are Fmaj7 and Em7, the two chords that the ominous intro had moved between). Despite this complexity, the song has atmosphere and space; constantly in motion, it has a stillness at its center.

It was intended to be a duet: the opening verse was originally sung by Hutchinson (as you can hear in the demo), who had a lower range, while Bowie harmonized an octave higher. Hutchinson as “ground control” again opened the second verse until the big reveal: Major Tom speaks at last, with Bowie finally appearing in his most resonant tone. Hutchinson recalled that he and Bowie loved Bookends, and here Hutchinson keeps to the ground as “Simon” while Bowie wafts in as “Garfunkel.” Bowie’s skill as a singer had developed enough, however, that he could play all the roles when he recorded the song as a solo vocal a few months later.

The song is a series of neatly-designed stages, as though it was a rocket itself—the way the “countdown” verse (a descending number marking the start of each bar) is met by the eight-bar liftoff (something of a neatly-tailored version of the orchestral upward sweep in the Beatles “A Day in the Life”); the bridge that begins weightlessly and then slowly falls to earth in its last four bars; or the way Bowie’s sharp acoustic break (C-F-G-A-A, strumming hard on the last two chords) serves as stage-clearing, first to set up the dreamy electric guitar solo, then to prepare for the long outro.

The recordings

“Space Oddity”’s first recording, cut for the Love You Till Tuesday promo on 2 February 1969, sounds like a tentative full-band rehearsal. While it shows that most of the song structure was in place at an early stage, the rhythm’s not right, much of it sounds thin and reedy, and a few sections are just lousy (the flute squawk solo was thankfully replaced by electric guitar). By the time Bowie and Hutchinson re-recorded the song as a demo (as part of Bowie’s successful audition for Philips/Mercury) in March-April 1969, Bowie had introduced the Stylophone, which would become one of the track’s defining sounds.

The Stylophone, whose manufacturer had sent a promotional copy to Bowie’s manager, was a primitive portable synthesizer that had two settings, “normal” and “vibrato.” You played it by touching a stylus to a tiny keyboard, which closed a circuit and emitted a tone. Bowie toyed with it for a bit and figured out how to create a basic droning progression that would become the backbone of the song’s early verses. (It naturally gave the song some SF cred to have an “alien” computer noise in much of the mix.)

The Stylophone was just one facet of Gus Dudgeon’s production for the Philips/Mercury single (Visconti had turned Bowie down, saying he’d produce the LP but not the cheesy single), a session that Dudgeon plotted like a military operation, mapping the song’s progress out on paper—Dudgeon couldn’t write music, so he used colors (cellos were brown, for instance) and squiggly lines to indicate where various instruments came in. Paul Buckmaster had to translate it into charts for the players.

This past summer Bowie re-released “Space Oddity” as a digital EP, including, wonderfully, the original eight-track Dudgeon recording now broken into its separate tracks, revealing some of the production’s tricks—for example:

The signal: Bowie’s Stylophone and Mick Wayne’s electric guitar share the same track. In the opening, the two instruments seem an extension of each other, the drone of the Stylophone pricked, every two bars, by a plucked note on the guitar. It sounds like an interstellar radio transmission. The Stylophone is the defining instrument of the song: it plays only three tones in the opening verse, the highest setting held and “waggled” as the verse gives way to the liftoff sequence; it plays a repeated two-note pattern that sounds like a police siren whenever Bowie extends a line (for example, on “made the GRADE” or “most peculiar WAY”); it underpins the guitar solo with a single held note. And in the outro sequence, while the guitar spirals out a string of notes the Stylophone frantically taps away as if making an SOS call.

Strings, old and new: Much as the song is a balancing act between its lyric and its knotty chord structure, the recording contrasts traditional orchestral instrumentation (eight violins, two violas, two celli, two double basses and two flutes) and the synthesizer future. The synths serve as the primary colors (while the Stylophone appears in the first verse and extends through most of the song, the richer-sounding mellotron (played by Rick Wakeman) is held back until the bridge, then replaces the Stylophone for much of the third verse). The orchestral instruments are used more as sound effects (the note-by-note string buildup during the liftoff sequence, the darting flute and moaning celli and basses in the bridges) and backdrops.

The bottom: One revelation is the isolated track of Herbie Flowers’ bass and Terry Cox’s drums. This was Flowers’ first-ever session (he’d go on to craft the trademark bassline of “Walk on the Wild Side” and played on Bowie’s Diamond Dogs), and he’s a marvel—buried under the layers of “Space Oddity” is a bassline that goes from a stark single-note repetition to a jazzy fluid movement in the later verses to a full-on bass solo during the song’s outro. Cox’s drumming isn’t very funky—he was the drummer for Pentangle, after all—but it serves the material well, from the parade-ground snare warmups at the beginning, to the bolero pattern Cox develops in the first verse, to coming down hard on the third beat in the later verses.

The single

The Philips “Space Oddity,” recorded on 20 June 1969, debuted over the PA system at the Rolling Stones’ free Hyde Park concert on 5 July, which had become an impromptu funeral service for Brian Jones. The BBC did play “Space Oddity” during the moon launch (though they mainly used “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” which had become the official soundtrack of outer space thanks to 2001). It’s impossible to verify when or how often “Space Oddity” was played during the coverage, however, as the BBC later erased its recordings of the moon landing (along with scads of Patrick Troughton and William Hartnell Doctor Whos, performances by every British band of the ’60s, early appearances by pre-Python Michael Palin and John Cleese, etc., etc.).

“Space Oddity” didn’t chart upon release, however, and initially seemed yet another Bowie flop. Then (possibly due to Bowie’s manager Ken Pitt, who offered some payola) the single rebounded in the fall and finally hit the UK Top 10, reaching #5 in November 1969. Mercury had released the single in the U.S. to utter indifference, but when Bowie finally broke in America in 1972, his then-label RCA (which had purchased most of Bowie’s Mercury material) re-released “Space Oddity,” forcing an exhausted Bowie to make a Mick Rock promo film while in full Ziggy garb. This reissue hit #15 in the US in 1973.

And in 1975, a slack year for pop music, RCA boosted its back catalog in the UK with its “Maximillion” series, repackaging singles by Elvis and reissuing “Space Oddity” backed with “Changes” and “Velvet Goldmine.” Whether it was due to a lack of chart competition, or whether the record had gone from being the voice of an ominous future to the sad, reassuring sound of a lost past, “Space Oddity” at last hit #1 in the UK.

Epilogue

Space Oddity (Langley Schools Music Project version, 1976).

The record’s one real insight: “Planet Earth is blue and there’s nothing I can do”—the idea that near-space exploration is not a frontier but instead the limit of human endeavour, revealing nothing so much as impotence.

Tom Ewing, Popular entry on “Space Oddity”.

Once during the mission I was asked by ground control what I could see. “What do I see?” I replied. “Half a world to the left, half a world to the right, I can see it all. The Earth is so small.”

Vitali Sevastyanov, USSR cosmonaut, Soyuz 9, Soyuz 18.

When I originally wrote about Major Tom, I was a very pragmatic and self-opinionated lad that thought he knew all about the great American dream and where it started and where it should stop. Here we had the great blast of American technological know-how shoving this guy up into space, but once he gets there he’s not quite sure why he’s there. And that’s where I left him.

David Bowie, interview with NME, 1980.

Bowie cut a new version of “Space Oddity” in late 1979, which he debuted on Kenny Everett’s New Years Eve Show; in it, he sheared the song down to its skin—just Bowie’s harrowed voice, acoustic guitar, basic accompaniment and, in place of the liftoff sequence, 12 seconds of silence. He performed the song with an intensity it had never had before, and soon afterward, he decided to exhume Major Tom and see what had become of him (but that’s a tale for later).

“Space Oddity” is forty years old, and listening to it now it seems prematurely but accurately mournful. Few at the time of its birth, not even its creator, could have imagined that after the moonshots, the American space program would decline into irrelevance, waste and pointlessness; that the year 2001 would not be marked by lunar bases and a Jupiter mission, but the barbaric destruction of NYC skyscrapers and fresh, endless war; that in 2009 mankind would have gone no further into space than it had when “Space Oddity” first charted.

Major Tom’s fate is a resignation of sorts to the cosmos—Bowie had intended it to be the technocratic American mind coming face to face with the unknown and blanking out—but the song wound up being a harbinger of our cultural resignation, predicting that we would eventually lose our nerve, give up on the dream, and sink back into the depths of the old world. Perhaps we aren’t built for transcendence, and the sky sadly is the limit. Or as the song goes, “planet Earth is blue, and there’s nothing I can do.”

Photos (top to bottom): Neil Armstrong, en route to the moon, July 1969; Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) meets fate, and the last spacewalk of Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) in 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968; the original Philips single, BF 1801; Bowie’s 1969 self-titled LP, later renamed after its hit single; a spacesuit-clad Bowie demonstrates the Stylophone to the world; Dutch single, 1969.

By Cheryl Mahoney

Sometimes I wish that my computer could be just a little bit smarter.  You know, when a search engine returns something completely random, like a picture of a llama after I put in a celebrity’s name (that really happened to me once!)  I can’t explain why that sort of thing happens, but apparently computers have a lot they still need to learn.  We don’t want them to be TOO smart of course–think of Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey–but if you’re willing to take that chance and help computers learn more about solving problems, now there’s a way you can do that.

It’s been a while since I wrote a post about fun games that also do good.  So I went hunting around on Help From Home to see what I could find to share with you.  What I found was GWAP–Games With a Purpose.  And the purpose is to help train computers to be better at solving problems–and that’s better for everyone.  Well, everyone but Dave, when Hal mutinies against him, but better for everyone else.

So what kinds of games train computers?  Well, my favorite was the ESP Game.  You and a partner–some stranger out in cyberspace is provided, you don’t have to have one on hand–are both shown the same image.  You each type in words to describe it.  For example, for one image you might type “beach” and “ocean” and “waves” and “sand”…and when you and your partner have each guessed the same word, the game tells you that you’ve matched, and you move on to the next picture.  There’s a time limit to how long you have, and you get points for correct matches–who doesn’t love stacking up points?  And the point of it all is to make computers better at recognizing images for search purposes.  So hopefully no more llamas when I’m looking for people.

You can also choose between photos to select which is more appealing, try to help a partner guess what word you have in front of you (sort of a typing version of Catch Phrase, I think), describe a tune…check out the site and see what game looks fun to you!  And that’s the best part, of course: the games really are fun.  You have a good time, and you’re teaching computers too.  So computers get smarter, and they’re better at solving problems, and not only do I get better results on my searches, things go better for people doing more important things too–you know, scientists, researchers, people like that.  That means everyone wins.  Well, until you’re in a little escape pod trying to get back into your mother ship, and you need Hal to open the door, but he tells you he’s afraid he can’t do that, Dave…but I think very few of us are likely to be in that position.  So it’s probably worth the risk.

My daycare’s been closed this week on accounta the swine flu, so my mother’s been down helping out with the baby (whom I should really call The Toddler, but it just doesn’t roll off the tongue). Last night, I showed her a video I’d made when the baby was 11 months old and just starting to walk. I had a hell of a good time making it — both the backyard filming on his 11-month birthday, a morning filled with June sunlight and such great pride in this new accomplishment, and the later editing. I’d added a soundtrack, of course: the opening theme from Thus Spake Zarathustra. More commonly known as the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

It was ridiculously outsized music for the occasion, but it gave me great joy to synch my little one’s steps to the pounding of the tympani. I must have watched it fifty or sixty times when I made it, and I sent it out to all and sundry. My mother, stuck with dial-up in the hinterlands, could never get it to play. Hence the viewing last night. After five months of not having watched it, I was surprised to find my eyes welling as the little one came stomping, in gigantic happy slow-motion, across the yard toward the camera. When it ended, I made us watch it again.

This morning, I popped him in the car for a short tour and power nap while my mother took a shower. I put on the radio, and what should the tidy classical host be announcing but Thus Spake … Talk about your timing. The theme struck up, I put the car in reverse, and for once I didn’t hit scan as we tooled along — I just listened to the whole thing, checking the rearview mirror occasionally to see how heavy junior’s lids were getting, back there in the back seat.

Just a quick post today. I found a link to Roger Ebert’s online journal. In this post he explains via YouTube clips why one of the most frightening villains of all time, HAL 9000, sang the song “Daisy” in the sci-fi epic, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The best things happen when you least expect them. Yesterday evening, there was this special screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey at the movie theater very near my house. A local movie club was organizing it. I went there expecting just to see my most favorite film, and unarguably one of the greatest films ever made, one more time on the big screen. But not in my wildest dreams, I had imagined to see among the audience the famed Dr David Bowman of 2001, the Hollywood actor Keir Dullea himself! Mr Dullea was actually invited by the movie club to be a part of this screening.

And, there he was; all agile, animated (looking at least a decade younger than his actual age) and excited to answer the questions after the film ended. How I wish I had known about this and brought my digital voice recorder, something which I generally carry with me most of the times, but didnt carry it yesterday!!  He talked about the film and answered quite a few questions from the audience. The questions ranged from the extremely articulate and profound ones (from people who had obviously seen, read and thought about the film a lot before this screening) to some trivial ones, posed by few first timers among the audience. I have myself read quite a bit about this film’s making and about the various interpretations associated with the film’s ending. So, there were no surprises in that regard. As Mr Dullea reiterated again yesterday, the film, like the monolith in the film, remains a mystery and is open to interpretation all the time. According to him, and something which is very well-known now, Stanley Kubrick didn’t just want to thrill us with this film but instead he wanted to inspire our awe for the unknown and force us to look for our own answers from the film.

Nevertheless, Keir Dullea shared some interesting tid bits about the film, about it’s making and about Stanley Kubrick which are not that well-known and which I wanted to share here.

1.The first segment of the film, The Dawn of Man, was actually shot in the end during the actual shooting. But, the more interesting part is that the segment was shot in Africa without Kubrick ever setting his foot there!! It’s well-known that Kubrick had a fear of flying, so he directed all that segment over the trans Atlantic phone line giving minute instructions to his assistant director and cameraman; Kubrick had studied all that area geographically through pictures.

2. All the special effects in the film, designed by Kubrick himself and for which he also got an Oscar, were done mechanically and there were absolutely no computer graphics etc involved in their production.

3. During the scripting of the film-which took almost 2 years-, Kubrick and Arthur C Clarke never emphasized on the philosophical and the allegorical dimensions of the story during their discussions with the main protagonist Dullia and the other actors. Even during the actual shooting, actors were just told to act their parts keeping the basic plot and the basic characterizations in mind.

4. Contrary to popular perception, Stanley Kubrick was not a dominating or a controlling director. Neither did he insist on tens of retakes for every scene, as it’s generally believed. According to Mr Dullia, in his long career as an actor, he found Stanley Kubrick to be the most prepared director on the sets and a genius in every sense. Dullia mentioned how he never saw Kubrick raising his voice or being tough with actors.

After the Q & A session, Keir Dullia went to the main lobby for an informal chat with people and to sign autographs etc. I wanted to tell him there that how much this film means to me and that how much this film has affected me over the years as a person & as an aspiring filmmaker and so many other things I wanted to say and thank him for…But, when I went up to him and shook hands with him, I got tongue-tied and could only mutter “Thank you very much Sir”. Still I’m glad that I had the presence of mind to take my cell phone out from my pocket and request an old lady standing near by to click a picture of us. Mr Dullia put his hand on my left shoulder and the lady clicked the picture. I’m generally not star-struck and would not insist on clicking pictures with them- except for the very few perhaps if I ever meet them-, but this was a different matter. I mean, this man had acted in 2001 and worked with the greatest film director ever!!! By shaking hands with him, I almost touched Mr. Kubrick!!

I know the pic below is very badly lighted and not a kind of picture which one would like to show to people. But, what the heck man; I’m still standing with the man who, on an ultimate journey into the unknown, triumphed over one of the smartest villains in cinematic history,  HAL 9000!!! And, I’m certainly not ashamed to show off that.

Dentro del extenso género de la ciencia ficción, el cine ha dedicado siempre una especial atención al apartado de robótica. Encontramos robots en los filmes más representativos del géneros, que pueden desempeñar desde el papel de secundario cómico al papel de malvado enemigo al que se ha de combatir.

Vamos a hacer un repaso por los robots que en Ciberculturetas consideramos más importantes en la historia del cine.

HAL 9000

El malvado superordenador de 2001: A Space Odyssey fue uno de los primeros robots (en este caso integrado dentro de una nave espacial) en tener un papel fundamental en el desarrolle de la trama de la película. Son innumerables las referencias que se han hecho en otras películas y series a HAL 9000, por ejemplo, en un capítulo de Halloween de The Simpsons.

Replicantes

En la película Blade Runner, encontramos a los replicantes, construcciones biotecnológicas que son capaces de sangrar, comer y beber e incluso dormir. Eso sí, es mejor que ninguno se enfade contigo, puesto que también tienen una fuerza y una agilidad superiores a las humanas. En la historia del cine para siempre quedará el siguiente monólogo (que, por cierto, fue pura improvisación):

C3PO y R2-D2

¿Quién no recuerda a los simpáticos robots de Star Wars? C3PO y R2-D2 son personajes secundarios dentro de la trama de la saga galáctica, pero su intervención es importante en el desarrollo de la película. Además aportan toques de humor que descargan la tensión general predominante en las películas de George Lucas. Míticas son las conversaciones entre ambos robots, cuando R2-D2 consigue, en su idiomas de pitidos, hacer enfadar a C3PO.

Bicentennial Man

El hombre bicentenario, robot interpretado por Robin Williams, es probablemente el personaje robótico más humano de la historia del cine. El robot Andrew tenía un sueño. Ser considerado por los demás como él se sentía: humano. La historia es una extrapolación de la lucha por los derechos civiles que en el mundo real han llevado a cabo a lo largo de las últimas décadas mujeres, negros y homosexuales.

Wall·E

No es muy descabellado decir que, desde su estreno el año pasado, Wall·E se ha hecho un hueco en la historia del cine y en los corazones de todo el que ha visto la película. Esta preciosa reflexión sobre la soledad, el amor y la ecología ha conseguido emocionar a toda una generación de cinéfilos. Con ella, los estudios Pixar decidieron empezar a hacer auténticas obras maestras, y a Wall·E le ha sucedido UP.

Wall·E se ha convertido en, probablemente, el robot más querido del cine, por su entrañable expresión y su entrega por EVA.