"Koyaanisqatsi", meaning "crazy life" or "life out of balance" in the Hopi language, is the name of one of the most beautiful and mesmerizing films I've ever seen. It is a collection of scenes that range from geological splendor to human squalor, many in time-lapse and aerial sequences.
At the beginning we see clouds surrealistically flowing over mountaintops and waves crashing over the camera. At the end we see slowly panning clips of citiscapes filmed in New York and Los Angeles sometimes over the course of the entire night.
Traffic flows, congests, and then flows again. Cars stop and start at each light as they flicker between red and green. There are shots of manufacturing plants, subway stations, strip mines, atomic bombs, rows of military vehicles and abandoned housing projects all seamlessly woven together. Sometimes we see individuals as they pass by on the street, but the scale of the film is much greater than that of a single person.
The musical score nicely accompanies the imagery, sometimes rythmic choral and others mournful organ. It is deliberately repetitive, but the visual interest is usually sufficient to keep it from being annoying.
The film is from 1983 which added to my interest; although life is most aesthetically appealing now it hasn't really changed much. Los Angeles is just a little more jammed with traffic.
While the premise of Koyaanisqatsi is that modern life is unbalanced, this isn't the feeling I got from watching. The city scenes of people frentically crowding around subway platforms and cars wending their way through highways like manic ants seemed to be just as natural as any from the wilderness at the beginning of the movie. How could we even ourselves humans if we didn't change and adapt our environment to suit our needs? Would it natural for us all to live in clay huts, gather berries and kill 4-legged beasties for food, or would that be merely naturalistic?
Still, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Already ordered it and the two follow-up films by the same director. If you have a little patience and any desire for a different view of life than you're used to, check it out.
Posted by eric at March 7, 2006 05:45 PM