Last night the Egyptian was playing a 70mm print of 2001: A Space Odyssey, so I headed up to Hollywood with a friend to check it out. I have never seen a 70mm print of 2001, so I was really excited. Unfortunately, the print was aging poorly. It had a not-so-obvious pink glow to it and most of the reels had dirt and scratches on them. At the beginning of the screening, an announcer warned of a slight clicking that would be heard during a portion of the movie before the intermission. It was there but not distracting enough to ruin the experience for me.

Speaking of ruining the moviegoing experience, I really hate seeing movies in Los Angeles, because the audience almost always does just that. They're either talking or texting or on the phone or kicking backs of seats or something that detracts from the moviegoing experience. And, this screening was no different. Behind me, a father brought his young boy to see this Kubrick classic, and throughout almost the entire picture the little boy talked to his father, and the father never told him to be quiet. Not once. This isn't odd behavior in LA, because people out here tend to believe the theater is their living room.

Now, if you're familiar with 2001's opening, you know there's a short overture at the very beginning before the movie starts. During this overture there's only a black screen with white type that reads OVERTURE (and of course music is playing). The projectionist being a romantic for classic theatrical presentations kept the house lights up at a dim level and turned the projection lamp off so the white on black overture screen was not visible, yet we could still hear the music. This is how they used to do intermissions, as well.

Well, immediately, the annoying LA audience members who were not familiar with the movie's opening started pointing fingers at the lights and started looking back at the projectionist window as if to make aware the issue to some oblivious usher. Eventually, someone in the row directly behind me (I think it was the father of the boy) yelled, "TURN OFF THE LIGHTS AND TURN ON THE SCREEN!" As if this was as simple as hitting the power button on the remote in his living room. Suddenly, some audience member yelled back, "It's the overture, you asshole!" Half of the theater (the half who knew of the overture) whistled and clapped and roared, including me. I actually held up my hands as I clapped so the douche behind me could see how much I enjoyed seeing him taken down a notch or two.

Anyhow, I just felt like sharing. I laughed pretty hard about that for the rest of the night. And even thought it wasn't a beautiful print of 2001, it was still 2001 and it was still in 70mm! Fun times.