Hey folks, Harry here... DEAR GOD I'M JEALOUS!!! Okay, sure I get to see the restored super-print of AKIRA this Thursday... but this is 2001! Man, I'm dying to see this print, and to have Frederick Ordway talking beforehand... EEEEEK! Sigh... that's okay... I can chill for a bit... I tell ya, Capone sure does use them bribes well!
Hey, Harry. Capone in Chicago here with a completely unexpected report for you of an event that led to what I believe is the North American theatrical premiere of the new, remastered, restored print of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY that took place in Chicago this past weekend.
Do you know who Frederick Ordway is? If you consider yourself an expert on 2001 then you probably know Ordway as Stanley Kubrick's technical-scientific advisor on that groundbreaking film. Kubrick depended on Ordway to keep every aspect of his film as genuine and accurate as was possible in the mid-1960s. Ordway was also very close friends with Arthur C. Clarke. In fact, it was Clarke that told Kubrick that if he wanted an authentic feel to 2001, he should bring Ordway into the inner circle. If you see a photograph of any aspect of the making of 2001, it's likely Ordway is somewhere in the image. Ordway drew up blueprints and design sketches for every single craft, room, structure, and piece of clothing in the film.
So what does this have to do with the price of bacon? I've written before about events at Chicago Gene Siskel Film Center, which is connected and affiliated with the Art Institute of Chicago. Currently the Institute's Department of Architecture has an exhibit running through October called "2001: Design for Space Travel," which features real and fictional views of buildings and spacecraft designs conceived during the previous century. Frederick Ordway has one of the leading collections of such drawings and designs in the world, including many actual photos from space travel that have never been published or displayed until now. Since Ordway was in town for the opening of the exhibit, the Film Center brought him in to show some of his exclusive home movies and slides of behind-the-scenes on 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. What I'd expected to occur was a 45-minute lecture that included some cool video and photos. But the Film Center's schedule promoted the event in an intriguing way: ! "A! very special surprise which we can't announce may be in store for the audience tonight." I'd read a few reports on this site about a new trailer playing in Europe, and I'd assumed we'd get to see this. Boy, was I wrong.
It turns out that Ordway has been in touch with Warner Bros. and the Kubrick estate to allow for a screening of the revamped 2001 print that I believe has already opened in England and played at the Berlin Film Festival. This print also had midnight New Year's Day screening on Turner Classic Movies this year, but in terms of big-screen North American premiere, I believe our screening was the first. (Ordway had no idea what Warners was planning for a U.S. release; sorry folks.)
Some of the interesting stuff that Ordway brought along with him included stills from a cut scene involving Dr. Heywood Floyd walking through the space station in the beginning of the film and running into a high school art students and having a conversation with their teacher. He also talked about the legendary narration track that was originally intended to explain some of 2001's more "complicated moments," especially the opening Dawn of Man sequence, which (along with the film's ending) Ordway told us he had nothing to do with. "That was all Stanley and Arthur," he said. Of the narration, which was to feature real-life astronomists, anthropologists, and other in the scientific community, Ordway said he has a written transcript of it and has contacted the Kubrick estate and finding the original track, but the estate says they "can't find it but are looking for it."
Ordway also showed us a short film created during the production of 2001 and shown to exhibitors to get them excited about the project. If this documentary (which features Ordway quite prominently) isn't included on the re-released DVD of 2001, I'm not going to buy it. It's wonderful to see how a studio promotes a film without showing a single frame of the film or have an interview with the director. There's a lot of footage shot just for this short of what the future will be like in 2001 that includes the 1960's vision of what a laptop will look like. It's hilarious.
I confess I didn't know that much about the making of 2001 going into this lecture with Ordway. He ended up speaking for an hour-and-a-half and I wish he'd gone on for hours longer. He's a gifted speaker full of exactly the tidbits about 2001 and other sci-fi films and authors that I wanted to hear. He told us about the complicated process of getting the new print of 2001 to Chicago, and how since the film technically doesn't have a distribution plan in the U.S. that this screening couldn't be publicized. The Kubrick estate insisted on the event being a surprise to the audience, and boy, was it! And what about that new print. It doesn't appear to have gone through the exacting detailed restoration process (color correction, digitally taking out every little scratch) that some recent re-releases have, but the print was made from the original 65 mm negative and included the intermission break that the film featured in its original release and extended exit and intermission mus! ic! . With the 10-minute break and exit music, the running time was about 160 minutes. What's really different about this version is the souped up, remastered sound. The Film Center's sound system isn't really equipped for the level of sound improvement featured here, but it was still head and shoulders above any theatrical showing I've ever seen of 2001.
Whatever Warners plan is with this film (and the rumors are many), make the effort and the trip to see this restored classic. And if you come to Chicago to see this architectural exhibit, drop me an e-mail and we'll grab a pizza. Somehow seeing a screening of TOMCATS on Monday just isn't going to cut it after such an experience.
Capone
You jealous? Well tough! Eat my bat and like it!
