Celebrity Biographies
Arthur C Clarke
There are filmmakers who, with 100 titles behind them, have hardly contributed anything to the history of the Seventh Art. And others that with a single film occupy a place of honor. Among these is Arthur C. Clarke, co-writer of the legendary 2001: A Space Odyssey .
Briton Arthur C. Clarke has gone to meet Stanley Kubrick , the man who helped etch his name on celluloid, beyond the stars. With just turned 90 years old, he had toasted on the occasion of such a round birthday for the peace of the world and expressed his desire to one day receive the call of ET, the extraterrestrial, a very graphic way of referring to his desire for a better world. The prestigious science fiction novelist passed away at dawn on March 19 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, his place of residence, due to lung failure.
Arthur C. Clarke was born in Minehead, Somerset, Great Britain, on December 17, 1917. He was passionate about science from a very young age, and legend has it that as a boy he drew a map of the moon with the help of his domestic telescope. At King’s College he studied Physics and Mathematics, and such scientific background would be used profusely in his science fiction novels, where he made a real disclosure, giving a plausible basis to interplanetary travel and space exploration. Curiously, his technical article “Extra-terrestrial Relays” laid the foundations for geostationary orbit satellites. He would also have experience in flights, since during World War II he joined the RAF, the Royal Air Force.
In the field of science fiction novels, he received the prestigious Hugo and Nebula awards. Among his works of the genre are “The Sands of Mars”, “Date en Rama”, and of course, “2001: A Space Odyssey”. The last two gave rise to other installments, not as valuable as the originals. Although “2001” was based on a short story, “The Sentinel”, which gave rise to the idea of the Stanley Kubrick film, and the novel. Naturally, 2001: A Space Odyssey It is a true icon of the cinema of the genre, full of unforgettable moments, such as the ellipsis of the bone turning the air that gives way to a ship on a space trip to the moon, with the sound of a waltz of “The Blue Danube”. His vision of evolution also stands out, with steps taken through an external superior intelligence, which led to various interpretations. There was also a hopeless vision of man, since his first intelligent act was aggression and violence against the humanoids with whom he disputed the water of a pond.
The gestation of the film took four long years – he and Kubrick had planned 82 weeks – where there was no lack of exhausting and depressive stages, according to Clarke confessed in his diaries.