Steven Soderbergh on ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’

Speaking of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Steven Soderbergh has released his own edit of the film (!):

maybe i was too scared to touch it until now, because not only does the film not need my — or anyone else’s — help, but if it’s not THE most impressively imagined and sustained piece of visual art created in the 20th century, then it’s tied for first. meaning IF i was finally going to touch it, i’d better have a bigger idea than just trimming or re-scoring.

I’ve only watched the first few minutes so far — and as a fan of both 2001 and Soderbergh, it’s no surprise I like what I see. It feels like a recut just for people who are intimately familiar with the original through repeated viewings over the decades — more dream-like than logical. I’m saving the rest for tonight, in the dark, on my Pioneer plasma TV. Speaking of which, Soderbergh writes:

by the way, i’ve seen every conceivable kind of film print of 2001, from 16mm flat to 35mm internegative to a cherry camera negative 70mm in the screening room at warner bros, and i’m telling you, none of them look as good as a bluray played on an pioneer elite plasma kuro monitor. and while you’re cleaning up your spit take over that sentence, let me also say i believe SK would have embraced the current crop of digital cameras, because from a visual standpoint, he was obsessed with two things: absolute fidelity to reality-based light sources, and image stabilization.

I know what he means about looking “good” from Bluray on a good plasma TV, but there’s nothing like the experience of seeing it big — really fucking big, in a packed movie theater — from a 70mm print. It’s a different experience.

★ Wednesday, 14 January 2015