2001: a Space Odyssey (1968)

I’m stunned that people debate the meaning of 2001 ad nauseum without ever mentioning the incredible design of the interiors: the orange chairs in the lobby of the space hotel, the banana leather padding and turban-headed flight attendants of the Pan Am transport, the minimalist meeting room with glowing white walls at Clavius, and of course Discovery’s dizzying interior with the rotating gravity ring. HAL’s unblinking red lens is as iconic as the monolith: a black post-modern slab that keeps turning up in the oddest places. Finally, the Louis XIV furniture in the futuristic zoo cage is such a perfect visual analogy to the time displacements and overlaps Bowman experiences in the alien’s time-space. For the design alone, 2001 is a masterpiece that would be difficult to top in any era.
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