Koyaanisqatsi / Powaqqatsi [DVD] [1983]

Koyaanisqatsi is a Hopi Indian word, one of its meanings being "Life Out of Balance". This is a little misleading, since principally what Reggio is portraying in this film is the effect of machines and technology on people, and where we fit in to it. I say "what Reggio is portraying", but that is inaccurate. It is really what Reggio _and_ Phillip Glass, the soundtrack composer, are portraying. The soundtrack through this wordless movie is continuous and is as important as the images. If you have never heard Phillip Glass' music before, it is a sort of repetitive classical music called "process" music or "minimalist". It works through repetition, hypnotic effects and dynamic build-up. It can be very very effective.

In fact in this movie the music has an almost drug-like effect. During the slower scenes of the movie, there is slower repetitive music, and I felt myself relaxing into it. But during the very fast scenes in the movie, the music is ridiculously fast, and the effect is very invigorating. I almost felt like punching the air at times!

So what exactly are these scenes? Well they are slow panning, slow-motion, fast motion, and normal motion scenes of nature, technology, people, cities, etc. If you have seen the movie "Baraka" you may know what I'm talking about (Koyaanisqatsi created a genre, of which Baraka has become a part). Using scenes of the desert, of the moon rising, of buildings being demolished, of freeway footage sped-up, and of subway stations at a blur, Reggio documents mans' integration and dependency on technology, and how it affects us. And he does this in brilliant synergy with Phillip Glass' music.

This is no "difficult" or "experimental" movie in the sense you may be thinking. It is captivating and exciting. I had a group of friends round to watch the DVD, some of whom liked art-house movies, and some of whom didn't. They were all impressed by Koyaanisqatsi.

If you want a new, exciting and engrossing experience in movies, then check out this DVD. If you just want to see some great filming, and to hear some fabulous process/minimalist music, then check out this DVD. If you want to feel that you've experienced something extraordinary and deep, and seen the world in a new light, and been given a great buzz from doing all of that, then check out this DVD.

OK, so there aren't a great deal of extras. No scene-by-scene director's commentary, no hour length "The making of..." documentary. But those things are fluff anyway. There are the obligatory trailers and tacked-on interviews with Godfrey Reggio (director) and Philip Glass (composer) but the heart of the movies are, of course, the movies, and these are everything you could ask for. Stunning high definition widescreen transcriptions, plus both soundtracks reprocessed into dart-around-your-livingroom 5.1 surround. Unless you're already kitted out, this will be the most expensive DVD you ever purchase since you'll want the top of the range widescreen TV and home cinema setup to appreciate it in all its glory. You can also throw away your old soundtrack LPs or CDs in favour of this 5.1 version, but if you need a soundtrack at all, get the 1998 rerecording of "Koyaanisqatsi" on Nonesuch which is a) less abbreviated than the original LP b) a brand new recording so different to the one in the film c) absolutely stunning.

If you know the -Qatsi films, no further recommendation is required, and you're probably already half way through check-out. If you're new to them, they are certainly worth the gamble. Happily, they're not New Age visuals set to New Age music, don't fear, but some of the most haunting images you'll ever see set to possibly the two finest soundtracks of all time. It's not possible to put them on as wallpaper.

Here's a very brief overview. Godfrey Reggio started the project in 1978 (as he explains in the interview) as a follow-up to a film warning about government surveillance. (There's a very strong religious undertone too, but don't worry, it doesn't cloud the results.) The idea was to create a movie with no narrative, no characterisation, not even a title, though he eventually settled on "Koyannisqatsi" as being totally inscrutable and meaningless to the majority of people. (Fittingly, it's from a Native American language.) Cinematographer Ron Fricke was sent out to film America, and the footage was married to a score written for the project by Philip Glass. Throughout most of "Koyannisqatsi" the films were sped up, forming a whirl of dizzy images now familiar from countless adverts/pop videos etc which came in the film's wake -- clouds billowing, sun and moon sweeping across the sky, cars streaking on highways, lights dancing on and off in nighttime skyscrapers, ant-like people scurrying onto escalators, etc. The "plot" moves the viewer from beautiful scenes of the untouched American landscape to the modern, urban, technological wasteland -- housing estates being demolished, tramps and the homeless, urban ghettos and so on -- via production lines churning out weiners and twinkies, cars being made and cars being crushed, the rich under the glittering lights of Las Vegas and the poor in the same city's gutters -- the American dream in all its blasted glory. The idea was to show how America has lost touch with its own landscape to embrace a technological future which had ended up betraying it. Many of the images are as futuristic as anything you see in "Blade Runner", especially the nighttime grids of light which are big US cities (though the film shows its age slightly when Reggio compares these to computer circuit boards, now something of a cliche). The haunting final scene, in which a NASA rocket explodes shortly after take-off and we follow, for what seems like an eternity, the tumbling, burning wreck of the capsule as it falls back towards Earth, accompanied by Glass's mournful score, sums the entire film up succinctly.

In contrast to the sped-up whirl of "Koyannisqatsi", the second movie, "Powaqqatsi" is mainly slowed-down film, this time broadening the scope to a global travelogue detailing the lives and labours of the majority of the world's population -- poor, enslaved, but fiercely proud of themselves and their culture. The defining scene here is the lengthly pre-title sequence of dirt-caked workers staggering up a muddy slope in a South American gold mine, hauling up endless sacks of mud and the fallen bodies of their co-workers, trading their lives for the few grains of gold which will make their white masters even richer. "Powaqqatsi" suffers slightly from not having a narrative flow -- it is, essentially, a travelogue -- and by an uneasy juxtaposition of message (the dreadful burden of work) and image (how glorious and beautiful the world is), but Philip Glass's soundtrack is, if anything, even better, especially the majestic "Anthem" which won Glass a Golden Globe when it was lifted for use in "The Truman Show"!

Within these films time-lapse filming (speeding-up the very slow) and slow-motion has been targeted at subject matter with such genius that it is impossible not to view both the natural world, and technically-laden humanity, in a different light.

Cutting to the chase, let's clarify what's on offer here.
The films in the Koyaanisqatsi trilogy are NOT standard Hollywood feature-film productions - these films essentially are breath-taking video footage married very well to a soundtrack of looped music...
The films in the Koyaanisqatsi trilogy are NOT aimed at any age group, culture, or creed - assuming you are open-minded and (initially) patient most people will be glad they have watched them.
The films in the Koyaanisqatsi trilogy ARE essential to anyone who has a home cinema, and occasionally wants to watch something a little different.
No bad language (no dialog at all), no violence and sex (difficult with no cast to speak of), and yet profound and totally watchable.
How many films can this be said of?