The Ultimate Trip: Stanley Kubrick's Space Odyssey

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Archive on 4: The Ultimate Trip: Stanley Kubrick's Space Odyssey

BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4, The Ultimate Trip: Stanley Kubrick's Space Odyssey

Christopher Frayling explores Stanley Kubrick's 1968 science fiction masterpiece.

Christopher Frayling explores the legacy of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi movie masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey. From 2018.

Christopher Frayling explores the lasting influence of Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C Clarke's 1968 sci-fi masterpiece.

2001: A Space Odyssey was released into the world in April 1968. Puzzling, infuriating, inspiring and thrilling, it captivated audiences at the time and, 50 years on, continues to exert a powerful effect on our thinking about the present and the future.

This remarkable movie was the result of a synthesis of two very different visions. 

Based on his own short story The Sentinel, it was written by British author Arthur C Clarke - a futurist of uncanny ability. The film director was Stanley Kubrick - an American working in the UK, whose previous works included gladiator epic, Spartacus and savage nuclear satire, Dr Strangelove.

Marketed as The Ultimate Trip, 2001 became an essential experience for younger audiences - many of whom saw it multiple times, and sometimes in an enhanced state of consciousness. But alongside its wildly psychedelic visions, 2001 also presented an extraordinarily convincing and intricate vision of future space travel.

Cultural historian and writer, Christopher Frayling travels back in time to the creation of 2001, hearing how organisations like NASA and IBM were enlisted to help Kubrick craft his vision. 

And he speaks to scientists, critics and filmmakers to examine the film's enduring influence on science, design and popular culture.

Interviewees:

*  Maggie Aderin-Pocock, space scientist
*  Piers Bizony, science journalist
*  Victoria Broackes, Senior Curator, V&A Museum
*  Catherine Constable, Professor of Film Studies, Warwick University
*  John Landis, film director
*  Christopher Nolan, film director
*  Georgina Orgill, Stanley Kubrick Archivist, University of the Arts London.

Producer: Jane Long

A Hidden Flack production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in April 2018.

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