The title says it all. Recently the website DenofGeek compiled their list of the most under appreciated films of 1984. Included in that list were films like Repo Man, One Upon A Time In America, A Breed Apart, Brother From Another Planet and one other film from that year. Apparently they named 2010: THE YEAR WE MAKE CONTACT or ODYSSEY TWO as I call it as part of that list. They cited the fast paced directing of Peter Hyams and Roy Scheider (Dr. Heywood Floyd) as two of the main reasons the film is on that list. They also mention that the return of Keir as Dave Bowman and Douglas Rain as the voice of the HAL-9000. Read what they had to say on it.

5. 2010: The Year We Make Contact

When this sci-fi sequel was announced, many wondered aloud: does 2001: A Space Odyssey really need a sequel? Director Peter Hyams doesn’t try to ape Stanley Kubrick’s style of filmmaking, and opts instead for a faster paced approach more akin to a Cold War thriller than a sci-fi meditation on life, the universe, and everything. Roy Scheider stars as Dr. Floyd, a scientist who investigates the discovery of life on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons.

Hyams has a specific way of lighting and framing his movies that gives them an almost oppressive air of tension; where 2001’s spaceship interiors were bathed in light, 2010’s are dimly-lit and claustrophobic. It’s of a piece with Outland, Hyams’ underrated space western starring Sean Connery; cut off from society, blue skies and clean air, life in space is akin to a spell in prison.

The visual effects in 2010 were groundbreaking at the time, though less conspicuously so than those in 2001 – even then, audiences had become numbed to the sight of ships majestically orbiting planets – and they still hold up well today. With return appearances from Keir Dullea and Douglas Rain, the latter again providing the soothing voice of HAL, 2010’s far better than its tepid reception suggested.

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Keir will be appearing at a screening of BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING in New York. The screening is being hosted by Foster Hirsch who wrote a book about the director of the film, Otto Preminger called The Man Who Would Be King, published 2006 by Knopf Publishing in both book and ebook form. Tickets are available for the screening. Click on the title below for more information. Keir played the part of Steven Lake. If you haven’t seen the film, then I’m not going to spoil the ending.

According to a new article on SlashFilm.com, seventeen minutes of footage has been found from Stanley Kubrick’s original cut of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. The film was originally 160 minutes long, but for pacing reasons Kubrick cut it back to the length it is now. I for one would love to see a new home video release with the footage restored and two versions on the disc. Now there are some purists who will say to leave the film as it is, but why not allow Douglas Trumbull to restore the footage and let the critics speak. I’m always a fan of the longer version of any film. Sometimes when scenes are cut, for whatever reason, it may not be so good for the context of the film. For instance, in James Cameron’s blockbuster Titanic, the scene where Rose (Kate Winslet) went to the stern of the ship to jump off and before Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) met her, Cameron left out an integral scene where Rose after leaving the lounge where her mother and other women were gossiping about Rose’s upcoming nuptials, with Rose sitting there almost catatonic. The scene entailed Rose returning to her stateroom where she begins tearing at the pins and combs in her hair, frantically trying to remove them. Then she also tries to get out of the corset she’s been jammed into as with the convention of the time. The scene shows her frustration at not being able to fulfill her own destiny without the constraints on her sex. This scene for me would have added a little more gravitas the Rose’s reasons for attempting to jump from the ship. Without the scene it just plays that she’s this petulant little teenager. I’ll be posting the article after the cut, but there is reportedly one scene where Moonwatcher (Dan Richter) is filmed at a low angle looking up at The Monolith clarifying the connection between the two. That would have been an integral scene to show The Monolith was definitely having an impact on the progression of the violence in the ape community and its influence on Moonwatcher. What I say is neither Eyes Wide Shut or AI: Artificial Intelligence are the films Kubrick meant for us to see. Eyes Wide Shut was edited further from Kubrick’s original edit after his 1999 death. With AI: Artificial Intelligence Steven Spielberg certainly did not make the film Kubrick envisioned.

17 Minutes of Lost ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ Footage Found

Almost like discovering a monolith buried underground, Warner Brothers recently found 17 minutes of lost footage from Stanley Kubrick‘s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey in a salt-mine vault in Kansas. But before you go and drop acid in anticipation of an extended cut of the film, consider the slippery slope this footage constitutes. One, just because the footage was found doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to make it into the public eye. Two, Kubrick himself reportedly cut the footage from the film because he felt it created pacing issues. And three, the film is just about perfect as is, do you really want to screw it up?

Hit the jump for more details on the footage as well as what it might contain.

The Film Stage first alerted us to the news of this footage. They point us to a reports from Forgotten Silver and Blastr about an event in Toronto where Douglas Trumbull and David Larson, who were working on the now canceled documentary 2001: Beyond the Infinite: The Making of a Masterpiece, mentioned the footage had been found in perfect condition. Though they weren’t sure what the plans for the footage are, they did show images of never before seen scenes that will be in an upcoming photo book. It was unclear if these images were from the found footage or not.

According the 2001 IMDB page, when the film premiered in 1968, it ran 160 minutes. Kubrick then went in and trimmed a good 19 minutes or so. It’s assumed this would be the footage that was found in Kansas. Here’s what the IMDB says was cut:

• Some shots from the “Dawn of Man” sequence and a new scene was inserted where an ape pauses with the bone it is about to use as a tool. The new scene was a low-angle shot of the monolith, done in order to portray and clarify the connection between the man-ape using the tool and the monolith.
• Some shots of Frank Poole jogging in the centrifuge.
• An entire sequence of several shots in which Dave Bowman searches for the replacement antenna part in storage.
• A scene where HAL severs radio communication between the “Discovery” and Poole’s pod before killing him. This scene explains a line that stayed in the film in which Bowman addresses HAL on the subject.
• Some shots of Poole’s space walk before he is killed.

While none of that sounds particularly exciting, new Kubrick is new Kubrick and it would be pretty cool for this footage to make its way onto some sort of epic, mega Blu-ray release one day. Still, I don’t know if I’d want to see it edited into the film. Kubrick cut it, why would anyone want to go against his wishes? But, if there is any money to be made from this footage, Warner’s will surely find a way.

Do you think this footage should be released? Do you want to see it? Do you want to see it cut back into the movie?

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Keir will be taking part in a film festival in their hometown of Fairfield with the screening of three films, among them will be ALL ME ALL THE TIME and Keir’s screen debut from 1961 HOODLUM PRIEST. Information below.

Theatre Artists Workshop 2015 Film Festival

Theatre Artists Workshop will screen four award-winning Connecticut-based films in its second annual TAW Film Festival the weekend of March 20th through 22nd. Reprising last year’s successful format, the festival will give audiences the opportunity to interact with the filmmakers in a talkback after each screening. A donation of $10 is suggested for each show, or $20 for a weekend pass. No reservations are necessary. Popcorn will be sold!

On Friday night, March 20, at 8 PM, screenwriter Susan Cinoman hosts a screening of her films, “All Me All the Time” (2009, 75 minutes), and “Love and Class in Connecticut” (2007, 40 minutes). Directed by Ms. Cinoman’s husband, Doug Tenaglia, and starring TAW actors Mia Dillon, Keir Dullea, and Sachi Parker, “All Me” is about two girls partying wildly on the night of their high school graduation while their parents marriages unravel. “Love and Class” stars TAW actors Joanna Keylock, Carol Schweid, and Bill Phillips, and was also directed by Doug Tenaglia. The film, about the arrival of the uninvited black sheep sister at a baby naming ceremony, won “Best Narrative” at the the New England Film and Video Festival and was a “Judge’s Choice” at the Connecticut Film Festival.

On Saturday March 21st, at 8 PM, the Workshop’s founding member, Keir Dullea, will host the a screening of “The Hoodlum Priest” (1961, 101 minutes), the film in which he made his debut portraying Billy Lee Jackson, a doomed, troubled youth. Based on the real-life Jesuit priest, Charles Clark, a minister to street gangs in 1959 Saint Louis, the film was directed by Irvin Kershner, and written by Joseph Landon and Don Murray. Winner of the OCIC Award at the Cannes Film Festival, 1961, “The Hoodlum Priest” was named to the National Board of Review USA Top Ten Films of 1961. Mr. Dullea later achieved fame as astronaut David Bowman in American Film Institute’s #1 sci-fi film of all time, “2001: A Space Odyssey,” directed by Stanley Kubrick.

On Sunday, March 22nd, at 3:00, Sachi Parker will host a viewing of “The Wicked Witch of the West is Dead” (2008, 115 minutes), a family drama with English subtitles about a troubled high school student sent to live in the country with her wise and “witchy” grandmother (Parker). Shot in Japan, directed by Shunichi Nagasaki and written by Kaho Nashiki and Kaori Mizushima, the film was an award winner at the Mainichi Film Concours in 2009. Sachi’s films include: “Back To The Future” (1985), “About Last Night” (1986), and “Peggy Sue Got Married” (1986). Sachi is also author, with Fred Stroppel, of “Lucky me: My Life With – with and without-My Mom, Shirley Maclaine”, published in 2013.

The Theatre Artist’s Workshop, founded over 30 years ago by Keir Dullea, has over one hundred members and is the only professional theatre of its kind in Connecticut. Each Monday night, Workshop actors, writers, and directors meet to put up scenes, audition pieces, and new written scripts to receive the support and critique of other members, develop new work, and hone the craft, and then several times a year share their talents in public performances, including the Film Festival; the upcoming Classic Night Reading of “The Man Who Came to Dinner” (Friday, April 24th and Sat. April 25th at 8 PM; Sunday April 26th at 3 PM), and the Spring Playwrights Festival, featuring new work by TAW playwrights (Friday May 29th and Sat. May 30th at 8 PM and Sunday May 31st at 3 PM).

Date: Friday and Saturday March 20th and 21st at 8 PM; Sunday, March 22nd , at 3 PM
Place: Theatre Artists Workshop, 5 Gregory Blvd., East Norwalk, CT.

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I’m not sure who these two are, but I found this podcast in my diligent interwebs searches and thought you’d like to give it a listen. My minor gripes with this podcast is the host and his guest’s inability to pronounce Keir’s name, it coming out as Keer Duleea. Does no one actually bother to try? They also fail to pronounce Roy Scheider’s (Heywood Floyd) name either. They pronounce it as ‘Schneider’. The thing I did like about this reassessment of the film is how the hosts call it “hard science fiction” in terms of how to treats both the genre and the issue of it not being what director Darren Aronofsky calls “trucks in space”. Sure there is the issue of the Discovery and the Leonov, but for the most part there is no weaponry or any sort of alien present. That’s what I think makes this film largely one of those that one doesn’t forget after viewing. Another thing I liked about what these two said about the film is the relationship between Dave and HAL (the voice of Douglas Rain) and HAL and Chandra (Bob Balaban). It is rather touching in light of what happened with HAL in the first film. The only other gripe I think I have with this assessment are the hosts who say this film is better than Kubrick’s. I say no. There can be no doubt how exceptional Kubrick’s film is. It is a classic and a forerunner to many of the space operas out today. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is without a doubt a rare film in how it portrays outer space and it’s mysteries. In the hands of a lesser filmmaker, I’d have to say quite possibly 2001 might have de-evolved into something akin to The Blob or one of the many 50s style science fiction films that seemed to not take its subject seriously. All one has to do is look at Kubrick’s artistry and realize it’s place in the history of film. I believe it is if not the best film of all time. 2010: ODYSSEY TWO directed by Peter Hyams is a great film, no question. However, it’s like comparing apples and oranges in that both filmmakers have different styles. The best thing about this film is Keir Dullea.