HAL 9000

19Jun11

Hi Robert, Sorry. I thought that putting a comment underneath the last comments you left on my wall would be going to your wall. So, I deleted my comment before I started writing it, not realizing that I was erasing the comment you left as well. I'm not the greatest at understanding everything to do with working with computers. Anyways, you asked me what my favorite Kubrick film is and I would have to go with 2001. I say this, because the technical brilliance in special effects at that time was like nothing that had come before. I like how the character of HAL has this calm voice while he's being murdered by David Bowman. I suppose I like the scale of the film, how it straddles millions of years from the dawn of man until humankind's exploration into space. The ending I think sort of goes off into this kind of aesthetic experience where you just let the images and the sound just wash over you. I think Eraserhead is like that too, where, at a certain point, you just go with the experience and don't try to rationalize things too much. I also think 2001 shows how small humans are in the scale of the universe. And I think the monolith is a symbol of higher intelligence. But, I would like to say also, that his other films are just as good. Such as Barry Lyndon, where he was using those Zeiss lenses to shoot in low light. As far as reading books about Kubrick, I have read La Brutto's book on him as well as Kagan's, Nelson's, Walker's and I have read three books on 2001 in particular with another one that I haven't read which is a monograph book from BFI and I have not read the Taschen book you mentioned but I do have a copy of it. I do not have yet that Napoleon book though. Thanks for your interest.