Powaqqatsi
April. 29,1988 GAn exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.
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Reviews
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
That was an excellent one.
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
I was completely unfamiliar with this when I came across it in a second hand store. It looked like something I'd maybe like. I found that to be an extreme understatement. I was glued. I was mesmerized. I was completely taken by this most beautiful piece of work, and piece of art.I so loved watching the manner and methods in which the people in the 3rd world countries performed their jobs and daily tasks. Though one can detect the harshness and agony associated with some people's tasks, there were numerous others where it looked poetic, majestic, and noble. Yes, noble. When contrasted with the scenes of modern society, the city looks utterly ugly, incorrigible, stark, cold, and dead.Are we really at an advantage living in a modern and wealthy civilization? Is not the sweat of the brow still blessed by God if it's done for His glory? Watch this beautiful, superb, disturbing, poetic work of art. See what you yourself glean from it.
Koyaanisqatsi is one of the 10 best films that has ever been made, in my opinion. It was a totally new cinema experience and the music and images were perfectly combined to give a very powerful message. Elements of the film have been copied incessantly since. Powaqqatsi, again, didn't have as much of an effect on me but was clearly made with a lot of passion and attention. All a bit Fair Trade hemp, but certainly watchable. With a masterpiece and a half under his belt I never thought Godfrey Reggio would make anything as bad as this to finish off the trilogy. The computer animation on this is terrible. It looks incredibly out of date for 2002, like a 1993 Future Sound Of London video. I'm led to wonder what today's computer animation, so shiny to our eyes, will look like 10 years down the line. You never can tell, though funnily enough, hand-drawn animation like Snow White still looks amazing. I have no idea what Mr Reggio is trying to communicate with his trippy fractals, shimmering ones and zeros, and clunky computer icons. There is one visual trick in this film- making every image all fuzzy and reversing the colours- and it's a damned ugly trick. It really doesn't seem as if he had any other thought behind this than "Oh, I'll saturate everything in neon- that'll make it look more techno". Perhaps he is trying to say that the world is ugly now, he's not going to treat us to the breathtaking magnificence of his earlier work because he's lost hope for us, we are now entirely out of touch with nature. Well maybe that is true, but there's no need to make something so unpleasant to punish us for it. This is an absolute mess.
This film sweeps along in what sometimes looks almost like a travel documentary. The viewer is taken to Brazilian mines, across plains, native fishing fleets, Egypt (?) and New York. The film seems to be drawing a contrast between the Third World and "Civilization" ways of lifeThe images presented are breath-taking and beautifully shot, if at times a little disquieting (the close-up, "in the face" shots of people make you feel that you are invading their privacy!). But what makes the film for me is the music, I honestly thought at one time that it was the reason for the film.The Score is by Phillip Glass, and just soars along linking everything together. It's very well done and you find yourself disappointed when a theme ends, only to be replaced by another, just as good as the last. Some of the music also cropped up in "The Truman Show" (Jim Carey as Truman, 1998), causing me to dig out my aging VCR recording of Powaqqatsi and wear it out a little more. Looking forward to the DVD.
Powaqqatsi may not be the fast passed time lapse world of Koyaanisqatsi and there is nothing wrong with that. This movie is a counter point to Koyaanisqatsi. Reggios's plan was for a three part series I believe the new movie is almost done. This is not North America. Just think of the time envoled in this shoot, the locations, the stunning cinematograghy. This is the real world. A world where many people still live with out electricity, still hold onto the past, work on the land or sea, work hard for very little. This is movie of world culture. Anyway one who puts this movie down is truly living in a bubble. This is not a movie that gets backing money easily this is a movie of sweat and toil. I commend the filmmaker for taking a risk and creating a visual feast of the developing world that we are destroying.