German
Koyaanisqatsi
Film review
Koyaanisqatsi
If you want to have a wider look at our planet and the relationship between humanity ,nature and technology the best you could think to do is watch Koyaanisqatsi's "life out of balance".
This powerful documentary that came out in 1982 and took director Godfrey Reggio more than six years of filming, is the first, and best of the Qatsi trilogy followed by Powaqqatsi (1988)| and Naqoytsi(2002). Watching this film is a mind blowing experience that makes you see our planet under a totally new prospective in a juxtaposition of humanity and nature. Focusing on the speed of modern life the movie consists in lots of long slow motion and time lapse photography of landscapes and scenarios, it has no dialogue and no vocal narration. But something that makes it so special is the beauty full music composed by Philip Glass that fill the images with up fling rhythm and symphonies. It starts with a growling basso chant that deeply repeats "Koy-aan-is-qat-si"( wich is a Hopi indian term meaning “life out of balance”), then a cool organ arpeggio followed by a full orchestra that slowly grows in speed and joins the visuals in a superb way. The images and the music are perfectly synched and melted together and in order to do that Reggio and Glass spent an additional three years of collaboration working on it, with Glass composing scores to fit the film and Reggio re-cutting the footage to fit the score.
Even though there is no plot in the traditional sense of it, you definitely understand the full scenario. The film opens on ancient native American cave drawings, while the soundtrack chants "Koyaanisqatsi".Then the launch of a space shuttle is followed by images of empty deserts. At this point we see cloud formations moving (speeded up) and itercutted with a montage of ocean waves (slowed down) and in such a way we are able to see the similarities of movement between these natural forces. This technique of comparison exists throughout the film, and through it we learn more about the world around us. The film progresses from purely natural environments, to nature as affected by man and technology, and finally to man's own manmade environment, devoid of nature yet still following the patterns of natural flow as depicted in the beginning of the film, yet in chaos and disarray. Through this the film conveys its key message, which is Koyaanisqatsi: life out of balance; crazy life; life in turmoil; life disintegrating; a state of life that calls for another way of living.
When it first came out on the 5 October 1982, the film was showed to an initial crowd of 5000 peoples that filled the Radio city music hall in New York and experienced a new and deeply remarkable film experience. Soon all around the globe people were having the same experience , they were coming out of the cinemas stunned and amazed. This film deeply influenced lots of artist, and since then and a new gender of documentaries was created.
Sources:
http://www.philipglass.com/music/recordings/glass_reflections.php
