Showing posts with label 2001: A Space Odyssey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2001: A Space Odyssey. Show all posts

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Kubrickian?


I was thinking of the Kubrick films I've seen — 2001, Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut, AI, Full Metal Jacket, Lolita — and I was having a hard time thinking of the "Kubrickian" threads in them. I would not guess, if I didn't know already, that the same director made all these films (although I would guess that Spielberg had a hand in AI just from the way it looked and the subject matter). It's interesting to me how some directors have a very bold signature — like you can spot a Woody Allen film from a mile away (urban, angst-ridden, intellectual, silly, self-gazing), and others are harder to identify. Do you see a particular aesthetic in Kubrick's films or a commonality of theme/subject matter? (Now that I think about it more, they all do seem to involve people in extreme situations ... futuristic societies, isolated hotel, war, bizarre sexual situations ... and maybe notions of how society tends to be at odds with human nature and how society seems prone to moving in absurd directions).

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Monoliths

The powerful rock formation reminded me of a scene in "A Passage to India" where the female lead visits a stone Hindu temple that contains all sorts of sensual carvings and is covered with jungle growth. She nearly has a nervous breakdown over her exposure to this elemental, sexual force. And then, of course, there's the famous monolith in "2001: A Space Odyssey," standing erect and mysterious and austere among the savage primates. Is the rock in "Picnic" just another example of the mysteries of life and nature finding expression in a phallic symbol?