2001: A Space Odyssey

Overview

Stanley Kubrick is renowned for pioneering the use of found classical music in his films. There’s perhaps no Kubrick scene more memorable than Alex being bound with a straightjacket and specula as Ludwig van plays to scenes of concentration camp ultra-violence in A Clockwork Orange, and if there’s one thing in The Shining more harrowing than Jack Nicholson’s eyebrows it’s the haunting score.

But no Kubrick film is more lauded for its dramatic marriage of sight and sound than 2001: A Space Odyssey. Ligeti’s spectral "Requiem" plays to a mysterious black monolith and Strauss’ 1986 "Also Sprach Zarathusa" strains to the fabrication of a hominid’s first weapon, while the soundless moments paint the chilling void of the infinite beyond clearer than any music could.

At this year's Sydney Festival the soundtrack of Kubrick’s sci-fi masterpiece will be played live by the Sydney Symphony and Sydney Philharmonic Choirs as the film plays on a gargantuan screen. You’ll have trouble looking away even without any surgical lid-clamps.

Read our list of the 12 best things to see at the Sydney Festival in 2013.