The final in the qatsi trilogy.
Posts Tagged ‘Godfrey Reggio’
Film Trailer: Powaqqatsi
Sadly the only YouTube trailer has its audio removed (silly, silly companies) and so this fan made one will have to do!
Koyannisqatsi Trailer
While we’re having an audio DVD week here at Higher Plain Music, I thought actually posting the trailers to the films I’ve been reviewing might actually set you into the tonal moods of the art. If these trailers intrigue you, grab the film!
Film Review: Powaqqatsi
Powaqqatsi is the second of the qatsi trilogy and revolves pretty much around its tagline “Life in Transformation”. It once again follows the visions of Godffrey Reggio and the music of Philip Glass as the 96 minute audiovisual treat attempts to take you on a journey of experience, thought and emotion.
The biggest change for me was the general direction of the piece. Where as Koyanisqqatsi made more landscape and time lapse photography, Powaqqatsi is dominated by humans. This leaves us with a sizeable proportion of the film staring into the eyes and faces of various cultures and nameless people. This makes the film much less passive and I recommend you need to really be in a specific mood to watch the feature as if you aren’t ready to engage it full on, it will completely miss you.
Some of the footage however is mesmorising. The opening segment in a Brazilian gold mine is mind boggling, seeing thousands of people in ant lines working together for a common goal tolerating all kinds of conditions. There is also a segment where various media adverts for perfect living a hammered at you. The way how it jars you and almost repulses you is quite genius. There is also a great short scene where a small child stops and stands aimlessly infront of a pro-war graffiti.
The music has a recurring theme in amoungst some great world music compositions from Glass and while its more diverse than its predessor, its actually more seemless and drifting so it doesn’t pull you right up and scream at you.
From the interviews that are on the DVD, Powaqqatsi is all about the southern hemisphere that is being eaten alive by the efforts of the Northern hemisphere’s daily procession. I found that angle on the film really quite intriguing and upon a second watch now knowing that knowledge, different symbolisms take on a new meaning for me. Powaqqatsi is not going to be any more accessable than Koyanisqatsi. I actually didn’t take as much away from it as the original, but it still packs a punch and left me feeling a bit more dismayed with the world as a whole but with feeling a need to change burning in the forefront of my mind and for that, it’s certainly done its job.
Film Review: Koyaanisqatsi
Koyaanisqatsi is the first of a trilogy of -qatsi movies (qatsi meaning life in another language) and is an audio/visual treat. With all these films, the emphasis is on taking you on a journey through music and the images on your screen.
This film deals with “life out of balance” as is starts off showing various landscapes in awesome detail, cloudscapes rolling by and not a single human in sight. It then abruptly cuts to massive tractors upheaving the ground and large land explosions for oil and ore. The films relatively dream like for the first half hour as slowly more human contact comes into play and the film takes a more sinister turn of beauty.
Time lapse photography was new when this was originally released but you still haven’t seen some of the sheer beauty in the shots. The DVD cover shot of the moon rising is jaw dropping, the way how the world is almost ant-like in its daily precession is quite humourous and thought provoking at the same time and some of the people who are caught on camera just at certain points reveal in their face a certain freezeframe of their life in just a few seconds.
All of this is completely overscored by Philip Glass who’s music is every bit as important as the visuals on screen. The two melt into eachother perfectly, its really quite something. Some of the music is hypnotic, some of it grand in scale, some of it utterly maddening.
The final part of the movie which shows the Atlas-Centaur rocket exploding and falling to the ground is such a poignant section and really is the perfect part of the movie to assess exactly how open ended the film can be for people. Some people would be saddened, others strangely transfixed on the flaming beauty of it and others maybe proud of humanities attempts.
Koyaanisqatsi is designed to evoke, but never really tell you what to evoke and how and for that its one of the most personal and inspiring films to be seen and heard.
