” KOYAANISQATSI “…Film Review

PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA

“KOYAANISQATSI”-life out of balance 1983

director godfrey reggio, music phillip glass, cinematography ron fricke

yeah, just had “earth hour”,where business+private householders turned off the lights for 1 hour on saturday night so tis quite prescient to discuss this film,all slow motion/speeded up scenes of this planet+its inhabitants…no CGI as in NAQAQUATTSI(sic) so film does look dated(and not just those beehive hairdos+sideburns -ouch!)

again it starts in the grand canyon/nevada desert with hopi indian rock art —then mining….uranium enriching + bombs -so far so predictable + 1 image stands out – a nuclear test with a joshua tree in the foreground, the mushroom cloud ascends with a thick trunk so similar to the tree ,i felt a hard knot of sadness in my throat simultaneously with a hit of pure aesthetic pleasure—i’m not even adding phillip glass’s score @ this stage…reggio works best when he walks this fine line between horror+the sublime…

the rest is pretty much us poor dumb humans working @ sausage factories and dodging cars in busy cities…fair play but don’t forget godfrey,as wim wenders showed, each of these rat-like beings possesses a world of feeling+thought…desire+fantasy…ie, he’s making a point but over-egging the pudding…some would argue that nuclear proliferation has prevented more large-scale wars in the last 70 years….for a more satisfying response i lead viewers to search out peter weir’s “the last wave” and wim wenders’ “where the green ants dream”…

too much speeded up traffic+and not enough contrast with individuals– i see this as his first pessimistic+monastic work (he trained as a priest) ,against received opinion i prefer the next 2 in the trilogy…coming soon…they have more heart and aren’t into being purely alarmist…

i give it ****, what do you think?
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