2001: A Space Odyssey with Keir Dullea and special guests

With stars Keir Dullea and Daniel Richter, author Michael Benson, and neuroscientist Heather Berlin in person

Dir. Stanley Kubrick. 1968, 149 mins. (plus intermission). 70mm print from Warner Bros. With Keir Dullea. As brilliantly engineered as the space program itself, Stanley Kubrick’s mysterious and profound epic—“the ultimate trip”—is about nothing less than the beauty and the banality of civilization, blending cool satire, passages of avant-garde cinematic inventiveness, and an elaborate vision of the future. The celebrated new 70mm print, supervised by Christopher Nolan, was struck from new printing elements made from the original camera negative. Keir Dullea, who faces off against HAL as astronaut Dave Bowman, will appear after the screening for a conversation with Daniel Richter, who plays the man-ape Moonwatcher in the “Dawn of Man” sequence, and writer Michael Benson (Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke and the Making of a Masterpiece, Simon & Schuster, 2018). The discussion will be moderated by neuroscientist Heather Berlin, and will focus on the making of the film and its depiction of artificial intelligence. Followed by a book signing with Michael Benson.

VIEW THE TAPED DISCUSSION HERE.

About the speakers:

Keir Dullea is an award-winning actor best known as Dave Bowman, the mission leader in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Dullea made his film debut in Hoodlum Priest (1961), and for his role in David and Lisa (1962) he won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer. His recent films include Farenheit 451 (2018) with Michael B. Jordan, Infinitely Polar Bear (2015) with Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana, The Accidental Husband (2008), where he played opposite Isabella Rossellini, and Robert DeNiro’s The Good Shepherd (2006). Dullea recently starred on television in three seasons of Aaron Paul’s Hulu original The Path. On stage, Dullea has starred in numerous acclaimed productions including as F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Other Side of Paradise (1992) and Butterflies Are Free (1969) alongside Blythe Danner.

Dan Richter is best known for playing Moonwatcher, the man-ape, in the opening sequence of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, which he also choreographed. Richter has had a long career as a mime, choreographer, actor, director, producer, and memoirist. His book Moonwatcher’s Memoir (Carroll & Graf, 2001) is about his role in 2001. Richter’s 2012 memoir The Dream is Over (Quartet Books, 2012) describes the years he spent living and working with John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Michael Benson is an artist, filmmaker, and writer. His new book Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece (Simon & Schuster, 2018) was called by Kirkus “essential for students of film history, to say nothing of Kubrick’s most successful movie.” Benson is also author of Cosmigraphics: Picturing Space Through Time (Abrams, 2014), and contributes to publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Rolling Stone.

Heather Berlin is a cognitive neuroscientist and psychiatry professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Berlin co-hosts Startalk All-Stars with Neil DeGrasse Tyson. She recently co-wrote and starred in the acclaimed Off-Broadway show Off The Top about the neuroscience of improvisation.