Considering we hear the same music that we hear later in the film when Dave is going through the wormhole is it possible that those first three minutes are depicting the aliens (or interdimensional beings or whatever) coming through the wormhole to Earth, then following the 3 minutes of black screen we seen a shot of the Earth (probably 4 million years ago or so) and the aliens are about the drop the first monolith?
shareI'm not sure if that was intended, but it's a perfectly good interpretation of the overture.
shareThe black screen at the beginning is the overture.
Originally, when 2001 was seen in the theater, music would be played during the overture and the curtain would be drawn with the lights dimmed. You would not see a black screen as movie screens were white and the curtains would have been closed until it was time to start the movie.
Right but is the overture meant to depict an event? Is there a purpose to it other than it just sounds good?
shareIt's just meant to set the mood for the movie and give people time to get to their seats. It comes from how live theater and opera were done.
At least that's what I've read. There could be other reasons.
I remember curtains opening as the film started in the 60s. But we were already seated.
shareThe trouble is, I think Kubrick didn't really select the music until after shooting was completed. As a matter of fact, Kubrick had hired Alex North to compose a score for the film, which North did. That score was not used in the film. The "Requiem" by Ligeti was heard by Kubrick's wife Christiane on the BBC and she suggested to her husband that he use it. I've also heard that Kubrick asked an assistant to drive to Tower Records in London and buy up every avant garde Classical LP available. This was done, and Kubrick then perused this music, selecting certain pieces to try out during editing. I was a bit disappointed to hear this, because I had some fancy theories about why certain pieces were chosen. These theories were somewhat undercut by the knowledge that most of these choices were made at very much the last minute during post-production.
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