Feb 132011
A documentary from 1960, made in Canada and narrated by HAL 9000 his own self, “Universe” presents some somewhat dated information, but staggeringly good special effects (though sadly in black & white). It’s famous not only for the effects, but the effect the effects had… Stanley Kubrick saw it and thought, “Boy wouldn’t it be neato to make a sci-fi flick…”
http://www.nfb.ca/film/Universe/
You can watch it on that site, or you can (theoretically) pay to download it… that failed when I tried to download the HD format. It’s worth a look.
4 Responses to “Universe”
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Somewhere around 12:15 I suddenly became disoriented and thought I WAS watching 2001. Wow.
Figures it would take a non-Canadian to introduce me to such a great Canadian site.
How did you stumble upon it?
> How did you stumble upon it?
The “Documentary” channel aired Universe last night. I caught the last half of it (their description of it was so very, very wrong… it was not an hour long, nor was it narrasted by William Shatner), and decided to Google it.
“…The “Documentary” channel aired Universe last night. I caught the last half of it (their description of it was so very, very wrong… it was not an hour long, nor was it narrasted by William Shatner)”
There was a later, colour, documentary called ‘Universe’ narrated by The Shat (I know, I’ve got it) so that’s presumably why the Doco Channel’s listing was so hopelessly awry, they simply got the two confused.
Brilliant find, thank you for posting about it! I read about this documentary years ago and have always wondered what it’s like. I should know soon as I’m currently downloading it (bloody slooooowly, and I’m on an ultra-fast broadband link!).
BTW, on the subject of influences on ‘2001’ you’re probably familiar with this page:
http://www.astronautix.com/articles/roastars.htm
It points to similarities between the imagery of the Soviet film ‘Road To The Stars’ (1957) made by pioneering VFX technician Pavel Klushantsev and the later ‘2001’.
But you may not know that you can download (for free!) a documentary about Klushantsev and his work:
Bloody marvellous stuff!