Nov 15th    
2001: A Space Odyssey***  (U)        
(Prince Charles Cinema)  

(GB 1968)                      
MGM/Hawk. 141m. Super Panavision 70

From the age of apes to the futuristic space age, Man seeks to unravel the mysteries of an enigmatic black monolith.
Kubrick's extraordinary if slightly enigmatic science fiction allegory, every bit as breathtaking and baffling as it was when first released in 1968, starting with men in fairly skilfully designed monkey suits, then jumping drastically forward to the Moon space station orbit, then the Jupiter mission with the addition of partly irrelevant psychological drama with the villainous computer HAL-9000, and then finally the climactic journey into infinity, where Kubrick loses his way with the narrative trying to replace plot with spectacle and at times overbearing music. Technologically speaking the film seems light years ahead of its time, and has not dated, in the spite of the irony of the year of its setting now being in the retrospective past. 

Written by: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clark, based on his short story "The Sentinel".
Producer/Director: Stanley Kubrick.
"Starring": William Sylvester, Keir Dullea. Gary Lockwood, Daniel Richter, Douglas Rain (voice of HAL), Robert Beatty, Leonard Rossiter.
Photography: Geoffrey Unsworth, John Alcott.
Production Design: Tony Masters, Harry Lange,Ernie Archer.
Special Photographic Effects: Douglas Trumbull.