Post by erik on Aug 4, 2023 9:03:20 GMT -5
Last night at the Hollywood Bowl, it was the Ultimate Trip--in the form of a film that did not show its age so overtly, despite it having been released fifty-five years ago.
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Caleb Young, conductor
Los Angeles Master Chorale (Grant Gershon, chorus master)
Richard Strauss: ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA/I: PRELUDE (DAWN)
Johann Strauss II: THE BLUE DANUBE
Ligeti: REQUIEM/II: KYRIE
Ligeti: LUX AETERNA
Khatchaturian: GAYANE'S ADAGIO/FROM "GAYANE"
Ligeti: ATMOSPHERES
Director Stanley Kubrick's groundbreaking 1968 science fiction masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey was shown last night on the Bowl's five hi-definition screens, with its all-classical soundtrack being performed onstage by the L.A. Philharmonic under Caleb Young. The epochal strains of "Zarathustra" were juxtaposed with the cagey use of "The Blue Danube" in the orbital ballet sequence where a Pan-Am spaceplane docks with the wheel-shaped spaceport. The Adagio from Aram Khatchaturian's 1943 ballet "Gayane" emphasized the isolated life that the two crew members (Keir Dullea; Gary Lockwood) of the USSC Discovery feel as they make their voyage to Jupiter, under the watchful eye of cinema's most famous computer, HAL. The highly modernistic pieces of Gyorgy Ligeti emphasized the eerie presence of the black monolith: "Lux Aeterna" being performed a capella by the L.A. Master Chorale, and the "Kyrie" of Ligeti's "Requiem" being performed by the combined forces of the orchestra and the Chorale. The entrance into the Star Gate was enhanced by the bass proportions of the Bowl's sound system, which caused the concrete surface of the Bowl to vibrate ever so slightly The atonal nature of "Atmospheres" emphasized the character of Dullea's and his voyage across time and space to that mysterious room, where he undergoes the aging process and perishes, to be reborn in the final minute and a half of the film as the Star Child, with the opening of "Zarathustra" filling the interior of the Bowl for one final time.
It is, in my opinion, far too easy to take this film's visual effects for granted, because we are spoiled rotten by CGI; but the truth of the matter is that most films that utilize CGI nowadays (including all of the DC, Marvel, and Star Wars films) owe an extreme debt of gratitude to the FX concepts, more than a few of which were designed by the late Douglas Trumbull (including the Star Gate). plus the fact that they were put into the service of a complex story of the nature of mankind, its place in the cosmos, and how technology is either used or misused. And I also felt that some audience members (the crowd I estimated to be around 14,000) were spoiled by a lot of those CGI films that are known for being fast-paced and having a lot of razzle-dazzle, which is definitely not what 2001 is, at a length of two and a half hours (and with only 40 minutes of actual dialogue, by the way), plus the fact that they were impatient to have the answers spoon-fed to them, something that neither Kubrick nor his co-screenwriter, the great Arthur C, Clarke (whose 1948 short story The Sentinel inspired the film's principal themes), were willing to do (in my view, rightly so). The nature of this film is, as always, to raise questions, because invariably the answers are to the imponderable nature of the Universe and the inquisitive nature of the human species.
The temperatures remained warm until intermission (at the point where HAL can be seen reading the lips of both Dullea and Lockwood in the space pod); and the subsequent coolness emphasized the coldness of the film's depictions of deep space. Meanwhile, Mr. Young capably guided both the L.A. Philharmonic and Master Chorale through the classical works that Kubrick so cannily used for the soundscape of this movie, which even after fifty-five years still inspired awe and wonder among the more patient members of the audience, and among the Hollywood film directing elite (most notably, of course, Steven Spielberg), In sum, it was another great Move Night at the Hollywood Bowl.
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Caleb Young, conductor
Los Angeles Master Chorale (Grant Gershon, chorus master)
Richard Strauss: ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA/I: PRELUDE (DAWN)
Johann Strauss II: THE BLUE DANUBE
Ligeti: REQUIEM/II: KYRIE
Ligeti: LUX AETERNA
Khatchaturian: GAYANE'S ADAGIO/FROM "GAYANE"
Ligeti: ATMOSPHERES
Director Stanley Kubrick's groundbreaking 1968 science fiction masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey was shown last night on the Bowl's five hi-definition screens, with its all-classical soundtrack being performed onstage by the L.A. Philharmonic under Caleb Young. The epochal strains of "Zarathustra" were juxtaposed with the cagey use of "The Blue Danube" in the orbital ballet sequence where a Pan-Am spaceplane docks with the wheel-shaped spaceport. The Adagio from Aram Khatchaturian's 1943 ballet "Gayane" emphasized the isolated life that the two crew members (Keir Dullea; Gary Lockwood) of the USSC Discovery feel as they make their voyage to Jupiter, under the watchful eye of cinema's most famous computer, HAL. The highly modernistic pieces of Gyorgy Ligeti emphasized the eerie presence of the black monolith: "Lux Aeterna" being performed a capella by the L.A. Master Chorale, and the "Kyrie" of Ligeti's "Requiem" being performed by the combined forces of the orchestra and the Chorale. The entrance into the Star Gate was enhanced by the bass proportions of the Bowl's sound system, which caused the concrete surface of the Bowl to vibrate ever so slightly The atonal nature of "Atmospheres" emphasized the character of Dullea's and his voyage across time and space to that mysterious room, where he undergoes the aging process and perishes, to be reborn in the final minute and a half of the film as the Star Child, with the opening of "Zarathustra" filling the interior of the Bowl for one final time.
It is, in my opinion, far too easy to take this film's visual effects for granted, because we are spoiled rotten by CGI; but the truth of the matter is that most films that utilize CGI nowadays (including all of the DC, Marvel, and Star Wars films) owe an extreme debt of gratitude to the FX concepts, more than a few of which were designed by the late Douglas Trumbull (including the Star Gate). plus the fact that they were put into the service of a complex story of the nature of mankind, its place in the cosmos, and how technology is either used or misused. And I also felt that some audience members (the crowd I estimated to be around 14,000) were spoiled by a lot of those CGI films that are known for being fast-paced and having a lot of razzle-dazzle, which is definitely not what 2001 is, at a length of two and a half hours (and with only 40 minutes of actual dialogue, by the way), plus the fact that they were impatient to have the answers spoon-fed to them, something that neither Kubrick nor his co-screenwriter, the great Arthur C, Clarke (whose 1948 short story The Sentinel inspired the film's principal themes), were willing to do (in my view, rightly so). The nature of this film is, as always, to raise questions, because invariably the answers are to the imponderable nature of the Universe and the inquisitive nature of the human species.
The temperatures remained warm until intermission (at the point where HAL can be seen reading the lips of both Dullea and Lockwood in the space pod); and the subsequent coolness emphasized the coldness of the film's depictions of deep space. Meanwhile, Mr. Young capably guided both the L.A. Philharmonic and Master Chorale through the classical works that Kubrick so cannily used for the soundscape of this movie, which even after fifty-five years still inspired awe and wonder among the more patient members of the audience, and among the Hollywood film directing elite (most notably, of course, Steven Spielberg), In sum, it was another great Move Night at the Hollywood Bowl.