Sunday, July 16, 2006

Netflix



Naqoyqatsi is my favorite installment of the Reggio 'trilogy.' Yes, it features a lot of digital effects and animation of the sort entirely absent from the first two cinematic collages, and some of the sequences border on a level of cheesiness previously only achieved by those computer-generated digital music videos of Rube Goldberg instruments that play themselves on PBS late at night. But it's also lovely, hypnotic, and terrifying. Reggio reaches into the abstract often in re-imagining our creation of a world without 'nature.' A montage of dinner guests in black and white are revealed as saturated by liesure and comfort, dupes of shallow experience. Religious symbols and advertising logos jostle for prominence. Violence and natural forces shatter the illusion we can ever control Life.

At times reminiscent of Stan Brakhage, Naqoyqatsi also features a great Philip Glass score. If you hate Glass, avoid at all costs. Some primo grade wacky tabacky might elevate your appreciation, or so I'd imagine if I knew about such things.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

ah, thanks. I have the first two, uh, timeshifted, but haven't had the right confluence of set and setting to watch them. It has been a few years since I've seen either Koyaanisqatsi or Powaqqatsi, and I wasn't even aware there was a third. Blah, blah blah. Thanks for the pointer.

fifipoo07 said...

Hi geoff. I've just seen in the comments that you left on my blog and seen that they've been posted from your email address to mine. I don't give out my email address so how is this? I am understandably concerned.

Pippa

Geoff said...

Seth:

After Koyaanisqatsi I waited six months for Powaqqatsi, and then another long chunk of time for the third. P. isn't dramatically different from K. and might not be quite as good, and N. is dramatically different from the others (sounds like one of those quantitative logic questions on the GRE). Worth re-watching? I suppose so.


Pippa:

That's strange. I left the comment in the traditional manner (via your comments link). Perhaps Blogger takes it upon itself to show the email addresses when it sends a comment alert?

When you posted here I received no email notification so the address is secure on this end.

Anonymous said...

Pippa: Blogger does know your email address, because that is how you created your account. If someone comments, Blogger then uses this email to send the comments to you. The commenter does not know what this email is, only Blogger.

/Mr. Know-it-all

fifipoo07 said...

Geoff your rightAs you know I have comment moderation, so blogger send all the comments to my email address for my approval. Where it says "from", if you have an email address displayed publicly in your profile then it uses that instead of the usual "no-reply@blogger.com". So no worries ... I know you don't have my email address and unless they view your public profile nobody is going to see yours. Keep commenting. Glad you are going to see superman returns btw, trust me you won't be disappointed. Let me know what you think when you see it. Pippa

fifipoo07 said...

Just to reiterate again, there is nothing wrong, just me being stupid. Have you heard about Dubya said about Syria at the G8 whilst he thought his mic was off? If you haven't i have a link to it on my blog

fifipoo07 said...

Just wondered what the reggie trilogy is?

Geoff said...

They're films made up of clips set to music: people working, people traveling, people building and destroying things, fires burning, storms, oceans, etc.

Each film focuses on a different word from the Hopi Indian language as a sort of unifying theme. I found them interesting but to many they're very annoying.