But isn’t 2001 somewhat predictable? There really isn’t a lot of mindblowing going on other than the technical achievements, and to a certain degree it panders to the same old new age darwinian sentiments.
^ Oh no.
Well…
Stalker, a very cosmic film, but instead of showing the space (planets, spacecrafts), he shows a more inmanent cosmos, that of spirituality. It is new kind of religious film, without showing the word God or even faith, neither christianity. It is like the religion of aliens, or of a evolved human. In that way it is similar to 2001.
Staler is just as much about faith as it is about knowledge and creativity. One of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen.
And then, of course, there’s The Mirror.
Stalker is THE film, the perfect holy communion between science and faith, and thats the thing that the new human should be searching, Stalker is beyond the future, it is a prophecy about a new kind of understanding of the universe, of a new civilization, of a new society. Beyond old darwinian aspects of nature, it is the thought of the evolved and more intelligent human, the human that has integrated to nature, cosmos and finally God.
Stalker is THE film, the perfect holy communion between science and faith, and thats the thing that the new human should be searching, Stalker is beyond the future, it is a prophecy about a new kind of understanding of the universe, of a new civilization, of a new society. Beyond old darwinian aspects of nature, it is the thought of the evolved and more intelligent human, the human that has integrated to nature, cosmos and finally God.
We need an Stalker in this world to get that state.
Disney’s Fantasia, it is the only motion picture which can even resemble a simularity to Stanleys scape opera.
There is another film in the trio with 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and SOLARIS called IKARIE XB 1. It is in the family of Sci-fi novels and with its style, it is right in the middle between the other two.
NOTHING can quite touch 2001, a truly singular achievement… but as others have said, STALKER is the only thing that comes close, that kind of “cosmic”, spiritual level of film (for my lack of better descriptors right now)… SOLARIS is great, but doesn’t quite measure up to me; its too talky, less visual, and too preoccupied with classical philosophical ideas (you could say it never gets its feet off of earth’s ground, in a way). Tarkovsky achieved something much more dazzling AND profound with STALKER, and also achieved getting across his own, more singular and original, philosophical and spiritual ideals (and he never even had to leave Earth, but he does go into another “time and space” for sure!)
However, 2001 will always be the god of sci-fi film for me, its beyond mere descriptive words…
2001 and Solaris are comparable because they are both about the numinous, but approach them in different ways. 2001 is extroverted and effects based, and is rather minimalist, whereas Solaris is introverted and poetics based (by that I mean one thing stands in for another instead of being the exact effect—instead of space travel in 2001, for instance, you get the roads, or a close-up of the lead’s face), and is actually filled purposefully with more information than the audience needs (not in the lead but in the periphery).
So they’re very interesting in opposite directions towards the same goal way. Stalker as comparable to 2001 is a bit messier, and when it comes down to it the discussion of Tarkovsky/Kubrick movies is really the comparison of Tarkovsky and Kubrick, not so much of the movies in specific.
I think a lot of the movies listed in this thread are very good choices, from Citizen Kane to Fountain to Koyaanisqatsi. All different ways of creating profound effects for the audience. However, 2001 is idiosyncratic. There is truly nothing else precisely like it out there.
—PolarisDiB
This is quite an odd choice I know, but parts of Herzog’s Herz au glas, give me what I imagine the majority of you feel towards 2001. Especially the shot of the water near the start of the film.
I still haven’t made my mind up about stalker, parts of it I adore beyond belief, the image of the owl, I want to know, I was to understand it!
But if besides I guess my odd inclusion, going along with the general feel of this thread, Zerkalo (Mirror) is the ultimate. The scene with the man washing the womans hair, i wrote a whole university essay on the sound in that scene, it’s beyond perfect.
Ken Russell’s TOMMY (1975)
2001 masquerades as a sci-fi flick…….. but then totally blew me away near the end with that LSD-like sequence…. (blew me away much more than the monkeys did).
apursansar
Well, at least the OP got out of the thread.