Category: Culture

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F1

The new Formula 1 (motor racing) season is well under way. This year there are 24 races, going on until December, so roughly one every two weeks, except it isn’t that as they have a winter break of several months, plus an extended break in the summer. So you will have races once a fortnight or sometimes once a week (eg Bahrain and Saudi Arabia).

We can remember following the sport in the 70s and especially 80s, when there were fewer races and each race seemed more of an event.

Some are on purpose-built race tracks (eg UK), some are on street tracks, public roads that are blocked off and converted (eg Monaco).

Monaco was a recent race. It’s always hyped as being special, unlike any other and so on. The track is quite short, so the leaders can catch up with the back markers and lap them maybe twice. For our brains, it’s confusing. Also, the streets are narrow and windy and overtaking is very hard. The recent race was just a procession. Even the commentators say, the qualifying is everything. Get to pole position and, barring accidents etc, you will win.

In other words, it’s dull.

We used to watch on BBC1. Murray Walker was the commentator, with maybe James Hunt as his sidekick. It was entertainment for a couple of hours.

Now it’s on cable channels. The coverage is extensive. Apart from the interviews and build up, there’s Free Practice 1 (FP1), FP2, FP3, Qualifying, the race, Sprint Qualifying, the Sprint, and all the post interviews and analysis. Hours and hours of it. If you are a dedicated fan, there’s not much more you would need.

It used to be a novelty when a car had a camera above and behind the driver. Now every car has multiple cameras, including inside the driver’s helmet (how can that be safe?) and you can use technology just to watch your favourite, to the exclusion of all others, if you pay the subscription.

We always watch on tv, rather than going. We knew someone years ago who went and, even in the 1990s, paid £100 per person for general admission. We’re sure we saw tickets in the thousands for last year’s UK race.

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2001: A Space Odyssey

We first saw 2001 at the Capitol cinema in Scarborough (now a bingo hall, we suspect) in what must have been a 35mm print. It didn’t make a lot of sense, but was impressive.

When we came to London, the Casino theatre, now the Prince Edward, was showing it as intended: huge screen, 70mm or similar print, surround sound, overture and interval. What a wonderful experience.

2001 got mixed reviews when it came out, but, over the years, has become regularly one of the ten best films ever made in many polls.

It is a true cinematic experience. There is dialogue, but mostly it’s inane, you know, normal. The story is told through the images. This is pure cinema.

You have to be impressed that there is no cgi here, so short cuts. But don’t judge the film by how it was made, judge it by what you see on the screen.

Digital scans have done this film no favours. There are big format film copies around. The BFI shows one sometimes, but it is scratched and broken with portions missing and is not great to watch. We have seen another with intrusive French subtitles.

The story? At it’s heart it’s another Kubrick war film. In the first section, the monolith appears to give one ape tribe an advantage over another. They learn how to make weapons and how to kill their enemies. War has begun.

Once we are in space, we see objects orbiting Earth. In some version of the film they were bombs. The Cold War continues: the American and Russian scientists have a very cold and wary conversation. The American scientist is evasive and lies to the Russians. And so on. In the Jupiter voyage section, HAL wages war on the humans.

It’s another film that was reduced in length after the first performances, and at some point there was supposed to be a prologue and narration, but that did not happen.