Dok (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} cyberinsekt) wrote,@ 2008-02-24 11:04:00 |
|
Philip Glass - The Vivid Unknown
So, I finally got round to watching Naqoyqatsi this week, and I'm feeling ambivalent about the whole affair. Let's cover the upside first. It is a stunning achievement in the craft of film-making. It looks incredible. The digitally manipulated images are used to great effect, and there's something very satisfying about seeing a polemic that has the honesty to manipulate its source material.
The downside is sadly rather more significant. Naqoyqatsi is crass and bombastic. It treats the viewer like an idiot. The juxtaposition of images is often banal. Whereas the previous two films in the trilogy featured long, lingering shots, this seems to feature many more short cuts. Previously, it felt as if the viewer was being given time to look at the evidence and judge for themselves the merit of Reggio's filmic argument. With this release it's all urgent didact and image overload.
Reggio overstretches his case. The film covers "life as war" or "civilised violence", and in one cringeworthy sequence extends that metaphor into sports. We see the contorted faces of athletes as they perform, and are invited to compare these with the joy on the faces of people shown in social settings. You don't need me to point out the obvious, do you? It's about as subtle as cholera, and marginally less edifying.
Whereas with his previous Qatsi films there was always the nagging doubt that Reggio was a technophobe, now there seems to be no doubt. Numbers and equations cascade by, and then boom! Oh look, it's a nuclear explosion. How inevitable. And there's Einstein. Doesn't he look silly? The extent of his distrust of science is frankly staggering, and is so strong that it comes across as entirely misanthropic. I was amused at this in a film that relied so heavily on digital post-production.
Oh, and in the end credits the film's feng shui consultant is listed. Enough?
With all that said, I enjoyed the music. It's not Glass's best, and frankly I'm rather relieved by that. If he'd produced something masterful for this peculiarly unpleasant film, I'd have found it difficult to fully appreciate. Instead what we get is pretty much more of what we'd expect from the first two installments. There are a few passages that stand out, but my choice would have to be this gorgeous sequence at the end, with Yo-Yo Ma as the featured cellist.
Philip Glass - The Vivid Unknown
So, I finally got round to watching Naqoyqatsi this week, and I'm feeling ambivalent about the whole affair. Let's cover the upside first. It is a stunning achievement in the craft of film-making. It looks incredible. The digitally manipulated images are used to great effect, and there's something very satisfying about seeing a polemic that has the honesty to manipulate its source material.
The downside is sadly rather more significant. Naqoyqatsi is crass and bombastic. It treats the viewer like an idiot. The juxtaposition of images is often banal. Whereas the previous two films in the trilogy featured long, lingering shots, this seems to feature many more short cuts. Previously, it felt as if the viewer was being given time to look at the evidence and judge for themselves the merit of Reggio's filmic argument. With this release it's all urgent didact and image overload.
Reggio overstretches his case. The film covers "life as war" or "civilised violence", and in one cringeworthy sequence extends that metaphor into sports. We see the contorted faces of athletes as they perform, and are invited to compare these with the joy on the faces of people shown in social settings. You don't need me to point out the obvious, do you? It's about as subtle as cholera, and marginally less edifying.
Whereas with his previous Qatsi films there was always the nagging doubt that Reggio was a technophobe, now there seems to be no doubt. Numbers and equations cascade by, and then boom! Oh look, it's a nuclear explosion. How inevitable. And there's Einstein. Doesn't he look silly? The extent of his distrust of science is frankly staggering, and is so strong that it comes across as entirely misanthropic. I was amused at this in a film that relied so heavily on digital post-production.
Oh, and in the end credits the film's feng shui consultant is listed. Enough?
With all that said, I enjoyed the music. It's not Glass's best, and frankly I'm rather relieved by that. If he'd produced something masterful for this peculiarly unpleasant film, I'd have found it difficult to fully appreciate. Instead what we get is pretty much more of what we'd expect from the first two installments. There are a few passages that stand out, but my choice would have to be this gorgeous sequence at the end, with Yo-Yo Ma as the featured cellist.
Philip Glass - The Vivid Unknown
