2010 (1984), ok so it's narrative theme of Cold War insanity has dated a little and the year is way off but you need to blame the first film for that.
Visually however the film looks fresh and there are some really good performances there so this is me saying 2010 is a much better film and sequel than Aliens :P
Like Aliens it is a sequel to a landmark piece of cinema which it never stood much of a chance of approaching in greatness and in some ways it undermines the greatness of the earlier film (I always read HAL's insurrection as the monolith influencing his developing consciousness, having him have a White House administered brain fart is a bit twee).
Unlike Aliens it's tone, while lighter, never becomes so frothy that it overwhelms the piece and the film looks much more like the production design cousin of Alien than it's official sequel does (The Leonov resembles Cobb's preferred design for the Nostromo and is photographed and framed with a more style than poor old Sulaco was).
Watching it again gave me some ideas for improvements which I may discuss elsewhere at a later date.
50 Jovian moons.
Next up and continuing our Ken Russell retrospective here at the Chateau was Women In Love (1969).
Much remembered in Argentina for 'the buggery scene' (they cut the nudity from the nude wrestle between Oliver Reed and Alan Bates' characters and made the episode much more explicit than even Lawrence would have dared) it carries the themes of Lawrence's early book (and Russell's later film) The Rainbow rather well.
It's all rather over-wrought but that's more from Lawrence than Russell.
The characters seem to all need a good hose down with cold water, not for the sex, which is rather tame by 21st Century standards but more because of their knotted emotional self and mutual flagellation.
Russell however didn't flinch from showing them all up for what they are and visually it's astonishing.
My teen crush on Alan Bates has not faded, it's still rare to see male beauty celebrated on screen as much as female beauty but in this film, if anything, it's the fella's the camera lingers more on than the ladies.
But it's landscape that Ken is most in love with.
Be it a golden inferno of a cornfield or the opal palette of frozen mountains the film is a real jewel box.
Four Balls and Eight Nipples.