2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick; US, 1968)

2001 is its own “Monolith”—majestic, anomalous, indecipherable, and most certainly created by an alien intelligence. Teaming with the great science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, Kubrick set out to compose a film of “mythic grandeur,” and we are happy to report from the other side of the “Star Gate” that he succeeded. Not so much a sci-fi film, though it has the requisite techno-gadgets, as an inquiry into the origins of consciousness, Kubrick’s foray into heady mythmaking required a quantum leap in visualization. Between Douglas Trumbull’s “split-scan” psychedelia and the wizardry of the revolving Discovery interiors, the visual awe bursts like a supernova. But all this pictorial pyrotechnic was applied in the service of 2001’s cosmological probe, keeping it sharply relevant and exhilarating even in 2014. From the furred tool-wielding hominids to the “Star Child,” a transcendental fetus floating through the ether, this evolutionary parable—punctuated by the appearance of each new monolith—encourages a form of visual euphoria. Only HAL 9000’s utterance in calm, reassuring tones—“It can only be attributable to human error”—reminds us of our real-world imperfection.

• Written by Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, based on Clarke’s story “The Sentinel of Eternity.” Photographed by Geoffrey Unsworth. With Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter. (160 mins, Color, ‘Scope, DCP, From Warner Bros.)