Earticle

Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film titled 2001: A Space Odyssey has generally been considered as a monumental piece of mainstream epic science-fiction. However, this film can be evaluated as having properties of experimental cinema by boldly trying technical innovation and aesthetic experiment in various aspects. From the filmmaker’s process to filmic structure, technical innovations, screening method, mise-en-scène, cinematic style and its (auto-)reflexivity, 2001: A Space Odyssey is highly experimental. We will attempt to separate out aspects of 2001: A Space Odyssey that derive explicitly from traditions in experimental cinema, whether adopting those traditions or innovating within them, by identifying the film’s experimental strategies and relating them to other experimental films that came before and after. This will show that the purely formal characteristics of the film’s conception carry meanings on their own relating to Kubrick’s personal expression, ideas about cinema and philosophy that go beyond the scope of the film’s narrative.

This paper proposes to revisit the mysterious scenarios in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and to formulate an occult parataxis between the two key cinematic works. By investigating the symbols of the occult in the two “slow movies,” the paper proves that Kubrick is not only a film artist who employed optical and aural illusions to elucidate and conclude the unseen nature and social ordering, but also a self-reflective philosopher who explored conceptual and physical allusions to contemplate and seek the answers to the uncertainty of life and death, progress and destruction, and transience and permanence. In substantiating the assertion, an in-depth analysis is conducted concerning Kubrick’s application of Occultism in the two classic works, utilizing Aleister Crowley’s theory of Magick and Mysticism as the principal analytical underpinning. The paper further investigates Kubrick’s filming operation of occultism by connecting the patterns of magick manifestation to the concept of the sublime, indicating that the attainment of non-attainment in the two movies is what Kubrick mainly targeted for within the representation of ceremonies and myths. That is to say, Kubrick succeeded in presenting the unpresentable by alternately reviving and depressing the “dead ceremony” and the “living myth” so that his occultism empire can be constructed in cinematic world.

본고는 스텐리 큐브릭 감독이 니체의 『짜라투스트라는 이렇게 말했다』의 구조와 주제를 틀로 하여 영화 <2001:스페이스 오디세이>를 제작했다는 점에 초점을 두고 영화 <2001>을 니체의 철학적 사유를 통해 분석해 보려고 했다. <2001>은 최고의 SF 영화로 시대를 초월한 완성도 있는 걸작으로 많은 감독과 작품들에서 경이의 대상으로 추앙되어 다양하게 오마주 되고 있는 텍스트이다. 이러한 작품에 대한 오랜 동안의 존경과 걸작이라는 평가는 <2001>이 후진들에게 귀감이 될 만큼 심오한 깊이를 내장하고 있다는 의미도 된다. 그러한 심오함은 큐브릭에게 영감을 준 니체의 『짜라투스트라는 이렇게 말했다』와 밀접하다는 점에 착안하여 본고는 영화 <2001>에 내포되어 있는 니체적 사유를 바탕으로 영화를 읽고, 그러한 니체적 읽기를 통해 <2001>의 난해하고 낯선 장면들이 무의미하게 구성되고 배치된 것이 아니라 우리 인간의 삶과 관련하여 철학적인 메시지를 구현하고 인류의 진정한 진화를 위한 새로운 사유를 전달하고 있는 것임을 이해할 수 있는 참조가 되고자 했다.

This article tried to analyze the film <2001: A Space Odyssey> through Nietzsche’s philosophical reason, focusing on the fact that Stanley Kubrick produced the film <2001: A Space Odyssey> based on the structure and theme of Nietzsche’s 『Also sprach Zarathustra』. <2001> is the best science fiction film. It is a masterpiece that is timeless and complete. It is a text that is widely appreciated as an object of wonder in many directors and productions. The long-standing respect and masterpiece of these works also means that the contents of <2001> embed profound depth so that they can be likened to a model. This paper analyzes <2001>, focusing on the fact that such profoundness is closely related to Nietzsche’s 『Also sprach Zarathustra』, which inspired Kubrick. This article read a film based on the Nietzsche thought implied in the move <2001>, and through such Nietzschean reading, this article would like to be a reference that understands that the strange and unfamiliar scenes of <2001> were not constructed and arranged in a meaningless way, but that they are embodying a philosophical message concerning our human life and conveying a new reason for the real evolution of mankind.

큐브릭은 니체의 철학소설 『Zarathustra』를 SF 영화 <2001>의 구조와 내용 그리고 주제를 형성하는데 중요한 요소로 삼는다. 또한 『Zarathustra』를 음악적으로 해석한 슈트라우스의 심포니〔Zarathustra〕를 니체 철학의 핵심 개념들(힘에의 의지, 위버멘쉬, 영원회귀)을 보여주는 결정적 장면에 삽입함으로써, <2001>과 『Zarathustra』 사이의 관련성을 강하게 암시한다. 그리고 니체가 다양한 시적 상징과 알레고리로 자신의 철학을 설파한다면, 큐브릭은 영상과 음악으로 자신의 메시지를 전달한다. 언어 보다는 음악으로 메시지를 전달하는 <2001>의 ‘형식 파괴적 형식미’ 역시 니체의 음악관을 반영한 것으로 보인다. 음악은 차라투스트라의 또 다른 모습인 디오니소스를 대변하는 예술 양식이다. 니체의 디오니소스적 음악이 신화를 창조하는 음악인 것처럼(Nietzsche 1872, 134), <2001>은 음악적 장치를 통해 ‘과거의 신화’를 ‘미래의 신화’로 새롭게 창조하고자 한다. 그리하여 그 옛날 바다를 항해(모험)했던 오디세이 자리에 광활한 우주를 항해(모험)하는 새로운 오디세이를 내세운다. 때문에 우리는 <2001>을 미래를 향한 ‘우주신화’ 내지는 ‘우주대서사시’라 부를 수 있다.

2001: A Space Odyssey von Stanly Kubrick wird heute als ein monumentaler Film angesehen, der mit technischer Exaktheit und philosophischer Phantasie das asthetische Niveau des SF-Genres vorantrieb. Der Film ist ein Weltraumepos, das uber die Bedeutung des Menschens im Kosmos spekuliert. Gleichzeitig ist der Film eine Weltraumoper, die die wesentliche Botschaft von Kubrick nicht durch Sprache, sondern hauptsachlich durch Musik vermittelt. Es ist offenkundig, dass Kubrick in 2001: A Space Odyssey Nietzsches Philosophie tief reflektiert und in vielerlei Hinsicht ubertrug, wie bereits in der Titelszene des Films zu erkennen ist. Es ertont die Introduktion aus der Symphonie Also sprach Zarathustra, in der Richard Strauss den gleichnamigen philosophischen und allegorischen Roman Nietzsches musikalisch interpretierte und vertonte. Die aus drei Teilen bestehende Grundstruktur des Films scheint sich an den drei Verwandlungen des Menschen (vom Affen uber den Menschen zum Ubermenschen) und des Geistes (vom Kamel uber den Lowe zum Kind) zu orientieren. Die in kunstreichen Szenen dargestellten wichtigen, aber ratselhaften Elemente (Monolith, Knochen, HAL9000, Bowman, Starchild etc.), die von zentraler Bedeutung fur den Inhalt und die Thesen des Films sind, konnen ebenfalls mit zarathustraschen Ansatzen und Konzepten (z.B. der grosse Mittag, der Wille zur Macht, Umwertungen aller Werte, die ewige Wiederkunft etc.) erklart werden.