I’ve always been curious to know when the term “fatal exception” originated in computer terminology. Here’s part of the modern definition from http://www.whatis.com:
In a computer error message, a fatal exception indicates an exceptional situation requiring that the program responsible for the situation be closed. In general, an exception is any uncontemplated situation (which includes but is not limited to program errors). A fatal exception simply means the exception can’t really be handled so that the program can continue to run.
Someday, I’m going to use the pause and zoom features on my DVD player to see if that phrase doesn’t pop up somewhere in the film. Kubrick did have a sense of humor; I wouldn’t be suprised if he slid that term in if it were in use at the time.
No, TNT is a 'lil bit 'o everything. There may have been a second network called TNT Classic that could have been renamed Turner Classic Movies, though.
I think they just put intermissions in movies that are really long. My sister said The Sound of Music had an intermission, and Branagh’s four-hour Hamlet had one. I think, though, that they’re letting movies get longer and longer without putting in an intermission. When I saw 2001 at a rep theater a few years ago it didn’t have one.
I used to work in a movie theatre, so here are a couple of cents on the intermission thing.
Where I worked we would have intermissions if there were enough people in the audience at any given time. If there was a poor showing, there would be no intermission, so it was not at all carved in stone.
Some projectionists also like to take brakes from the movie while others don’t. Oh, and it can also depend on how well stocked the kiosk is and whether the manager on call is particularly worried about selling candy.
And children’s films were almost always cut in two, ‘cause you know those kids be needin’ their suga…
Anyway, that post may not have been one of the great insights of human history, but at least it’s an intermission report from an “insider”!
Another question on the movie and the soundtrack … I’ve heard it said that music had been composed for the film but that Kubrick didn’t like it at all, saying he had better stuff in his record collection. That was supposedly why a lot of classical music was used. Is this partially (or even all) true?
From what I remember, only the music played during the moon landing, and possibly some during the psychedelic sequence, was original with the film; the rest was previously composed. So was there other music or was it planned from the start to use the pieces?
None of the music to 2001 was original to the film. In fact, this was a dramatic departure for Kubrick who previously used only original music but after that, preferred to use music that was already in existance.
Alex North, the composer of the soundtrack to Spartacus, was commissioned by Kubrick to score 2001 and did so. The CD is available. It is a very, very odd soundtrack. Kubrick heard it and didn’t care for it, so he decided to go with the temporary soundtrack of classical music he had put in place until North’s compositions had been recorded.
– Arken (who’s proud to be the son of an author of a scholarly book about 2001)
