Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I picked up KOYAANISQATSI and POWAQQATSI recently on DVD, and I am delighted by what MGM put out. There are interviews on the discs with filmmakers Godfrey Reggio and Philip Glass (whose role in the pictures seems to be as an equal partner with Reggio), and I am fascinated all over again by these hypnotic, mesmerizing collages of sight and sound. I am dying to see this new chapter in his trilogy about the way we live in and with and on this world of ours. Here’s what one reviewer had to say:
Oct 9, New York City, at Clearview Chelsea West on 23rd St.
Yesterday, the culmination of more than 14 years of hard work and inspiration was finally realized for filmmaker, Godfrey Reggio. He, along with Philip Glass, (Steven Soderberg, the executive producer, was notably absent from the screening because he was, quote, “busy finishing ‘Solaris’”) was on hand to introduce the third and final installment of his famed Quatsi Trilogy, “NAQOYQATSI.”
When Koyaanisqatsi, the first of the trilogy, came out in 1983, it was declared a seminal work in experimental filmmaking, lauded by such filmmakers as Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Soderberg, along with legions of astute filmgoers. George Lucas said of “Koyaanisqats”: “I want to make that kind of film.”
This was followed several years later by the second, “Powaqqatsi: Life in Tranformation”
After years of legal disputes to reclaim the original rights of the first two films, and after years of searching for a financial backer, culminating in the form of Steven Soderberg and Miramax, Godfrey Reggio has completed and premiered for the first time yesterday his much anticipated final chapter of his trilogy.
Anyone acquainted with the first two film will be immediately struck with the number of digital images that was specifically created for this film. If “Men in Black II” is the epitome of digital effects that stand for nothing, this film will surely go down as a film that utilizes digital effects for a greater purpose since “Naqo” (which means war) “qatsi” (which means life), presents us with a brutal onslaught of images, both real and synthesized, representing “life as war.”
What sets this film apart from a simple collage or montage of horrifying images, is what made the first two films so memorable-it’s, as he put it, “narrative drive.” Watch for the startling barrage of images in the middle of the film of seminal figures of our age, Pope John Paul II, Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Einstein, Princess Diana, made from wax figures. And watch how he juxtaposes those images immediately with a negative composite of a giraffe running in the wild plains of Africa. We definitely won’t see that in a Ken Burns documentary.
The film is set against the score of the incomparable Phllip Glass, accompanied by the equally impressive, Yo-Yo ma in cello. Phillip Glass’ score alone is worth the price of second admission. It’s safe to say that, after a 14-year hiatus, he hasn’t missed a beat and his contribution to this film is remarkable, memorable, and inseparable from the film experience itself.
Godfrey Reggio was busy working on this film when the Twin Towers fell only several blocks from his New York City studio last year. What Francis Coppola said of his upcoming film: “History has beckoned on my door steps” can be equally said of Godfrey’s. But let’s hope that history stops there since none of us will want it to beckon to Godfrey’s last images presented in his unforgettable, must-watch film.
Jae Lee
Y’know, I had a feeling any review I got in of this flm would be fairly literate, and not the typical “This movie sucked, yo!” type stuff that gets coughed up after certain types of film screen in town. Thanks so much, Jae, for sending this one in.
"Moriarty" out.
