Walther Ruttmann’s non-narrative rhythmic portrait of Berlin, usually connected to the “kino-eye” of Dziga Vertov, also had a clear influence on Godfrey Reggio. Much more upbeat than Koyaanisqatsi, Symphony covers a “regular day” in the metropolis circa 1927, celebrating modern life before the speed and exploitation turned sour. No dire Hopi prophecies here, even though [...]
Posts Tagged ‘koyaanisqatsi’
The 11th Hour
It’s unavoidable that the even-handed but alarming eco-documentary The 11th Hour will be compared to the Al Gore Oscar-winning global warming shocker An Inconvenient Truth, but climate change is only one of the topics the film addresses. In fact, The 11th Hour has much more in common with Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi, the narration-free film that [...]
Inland Empire
You notice a lot seeing Inland Empire a second time. First of all, you realize you’ve been getting tired of capitalizing the title like that. Then, it sinks in that David Lynch is right: Inland Empire makes perfect sense–and it’s about a woman in trouble.
The reason Inland Empire works so goddamn well, I think, is [...]
Our Daily Bread
Koyaanisqatsi without Philip Glass and more butchery. Nikolaus Geyrhalter observes the industrialized production of food–cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, salt, fish, beef, eggs, apples, pork, chicken, etc etc. Except for casual snippets overheard during worker’s poignant luch breaks, there is no dialogue–just striking images: men crawling after a neon-lit vehicle on their knees to harvest salad at [...]
