00:03La storia di scienze
00:03Apri la sara cinesca esterna, Hal.
00:05Mi dispiace, David. Purtroppo non posso farlo.
00:08Adio.
00:10I know that you were a big reader of science fiction novels.
00:15So, do you think that science fiction has a particular quality,
00:19which is the most we go far from hurt,
00:23the better we can understand ourselves?
00:26It is a special quality of science fiction, or not?
00:30I think that's true, but I think
00:332001 even goes beyond science fiction.
00:39It isn't just a story about space travel.
00:43It's a story of a journey
00:48and transition.
00:50And the fact that no two people
00:53experience this film the same way.
00:57that's what's, it's like a symphony.
01:00You cannot explain a Beethoven symphony.
01:03You can only experience it.
01:06and your experience will be different than my experience
01:09because I bring something different to it.
01:13I'm a different person than you.
01:15So, the perfect example of that is the fact that
01:19at the premiere, there was a nun who said
01:23she found 2001 one of the most religious experiences
01:29that she ever had.
01:30But then we have atheists who say
01:31this is one of the greatest films that ever made.
01:33So, it gives, it indicates what a different kind of film.
01:38It isn't just another science fiction film.
01:40It goes beyond it, I think.
01:42Do you think the reason maybe some people are literally afraid of this movie
01:47is because, as you were saying, it goes really deep.
01:51It's almost like a subconscious experience that can scare somebody.
01:57Well, you know, in a way, I don't know if you know what a Rorschach test is.
02:01It's like a Rorschach test.
02:03You look at an inkblot and you will see a dog and I'll see a cat
02:07and somebody else will see something completely different.
02:10And perhaps, depending on the persona of the person who sees the film,
02:16maybe they find it a little threatening, I don't know, it's possible.
02:21Today we are using constantly computers, phones.
02:25When you use your phone or maybe use your computer,
02:29are you a little bit afraid because of Al and his voice?
02:34Well, no, 2001 was, for me, so long ago
02:41and all these things have, now we have cell phones
02:44and things that Kubrick predicted have come true.
02:50But I have forgotten what old telephones are like now.
02:54I'm so used to the news. It doesn't bother me.
02:56I mean, it doesn't, I don't find it threatening at all.
02:59Sally Kubrick made a famous speech in 1998
03:05in which he said that speaking with Steven Spielberg,
03:08they confronted on which was the hardest thing of making a movie.
03:14And they said that the hardest thing is getting out of the car.
03:18To the extent that each day is a new challenge.
03:22Yes.
03:22That's true.
03:24Do you think that maybe this thing is something that
03:29not only concerns cinema, but also life?
03:32you have to be a little bit crazy to do something like 2001,
03:36to do a movie, to be an actor.
03:37But only if you do that first step,
03:40we can reach something big like a movie like this.
03:44Do you ever think about that?
03:46If you never had the courage to do the first steps,
03:50maybe you never accomplished anything.
03:54So how can we find the courage and the strength to do the first step?
03:59The first step in life or the first step in filmmaking?
04:02I'm not sure what you're asking.
04:03Both.
04:08Every new film, I've done 30 feature films,
04:11and every film presents new challenges.
04:16And sometimes you're a little, perhaps a little nervous,
04:20because you haven't found who you are exactly,
04:23but then as the days go by,
04:25which is what makes cinema so different than live theatre.
04:31In live theatre, you have a long rehearsal period.
04:34So by the time you show the public the piece of work,
04:39it's very rehearsed, and whereas with a film,
04:42you explore for the most part.
04:44Some films have rehearsal period, although never like,
04:48not like live theatre, never quite like live theatre,
04:51but sometimes we have, and that's helpful, but many, most films though,
04:57at least in my experience, you have almost nowhere.
05:00The only rehearsal you have is the rehearsal in front of the camera,
05:04and you've learned your lines for that day,
05:06and as you go, you, but then day by day,
05:10you begin to discover who your character is.
05:12It's, it's a whole different way of working.
05:14Mm-hmm.
05:15Today we have motion capture, green screens,
05:20special effects are huge,
05:23but when you did your special effects,
05:26you were on wives, and nobody did that before.
05:29Well, there were no computer-generated special effects.
05:38Everything you see in the film was done physically,
05:41one way or the other, and that's kind of the remarkable thing
05:45about that film, because it looks as modern as so many films today
05:50who rely on computer-generated special effects.
05:56We had none of that, and that indicates part of the genius
06:00that was Stanley Kubrick.
06:03And when you were up there, wearing all those wives,
06:08have you ever thought, what am I doing there?
06:10Am I crazy or not?
06:12Well, no, the only difficult stunt,
06:18where they could not use a stuntman,
06:20because if you remember, at the end of the film,
06:23I have forgotten my helmet, it's gone,
06:27it's because I'm in a hurry to save my friend,
06:30who has been killed by Hal.
06:32And so when I have to enter into the emergency airlock,
06:38because Hal will not open the doors and will not let me in,
06:42that was shot very, I had to jump with one wire toward the camera,
06:48which was down here, and I had to fall, free fall.
06:52And someone was at the other end of the rope,
06:54who finally grabbed the rope and stopped me,
06:56and then they jumped off, and I went hurtling back to the ceiling.
06:59And that was a little scary.
07:01But in general, I didn't have to do,
07:03there was nothing very frightening about anything I had to do in Space Odyssey.
07:07It might look like it, but it wasn't.
07:10You have said that many times, but what's the meaning of the monolight,
07:15not in the movie, but for you?
07:19Well, for me personally, it was the presence of the alien,
07:25although it's not the alien itself, but it is a manifestation of the alien,
07:32and the aliens being millions of years beyond us in terms of development.
07:39So each time the monolith appears, it affects human beings.
07:44So the primitive man suddenly discovers a weapon or a tool.
07:50And then at the end of the film, the monolith is responsible,
07:54as I reach up as a very old man,
07:56and the transition into whatever the next stage of humankind is.
08:02Okay, thank you so much.
