Few films in movie history sum up the principles of pure cinema better than Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey. A film about the birth and evolution of the human race, while it's based on a novel its place outside conventional narrative filmmaking is clear. There are many shots in 2001 which capture the essence of what "pure cinema" is, not least the shot when the monkey throws the bone club into the air, which then match-cuts to the orbital platform floating in space, transporting the audience across aeons of time in a split second. It's one of the most iconic shots in the history of cinema, and it is something which only cinema is capable of achieving. Kubrick's background as a photographer and his faultless eye for composition, combined with his revolutionary use of music to juxtapose moods makes him one of the masters of pure cinema. That he managed to do this in such a wide variety of genre movies, from the science fiction of 2001 to the horror of The Shining, makes his achievements all the more impressive. Which other examples of "pure cinema" belong on this list? Why not let us know about them in the comments?
