|
Naqoyqatsi
review by Gregory Avery, 18 October 2002
Naqoyqatsi, the title of
Godfrey Reggio's new film, derives from the Hopi and translates, so
the film tells us, as either "life as war" or "civilized violence".
And Reggio's film, the third in a
trilogy begun with Koyaanisqatsi in 1983 and Powaqqatsi
in 1988, is done in the style of the symphonic montage films, such
as Berlin, Symphony of a City and Man with a Movie Camera,
only utilizing a host of modern technologies (photosonics, thermal
videography, laser film processing) to distort images, combine them,
or radically degrade or retool them. Reggio gives us a lot, and he's
entirely in earnest, even when he asks us to indulge him. There are
some risible moments, as well as some images and sequences that are
impossible to dismiss outright, especially in endangered times such
as these.
The film shows the same fallibility
as in Reggio's previous two films, though, in that he tends to favor
the decorative quality of images rather than the drama that may be
inherent in them. He cross-cuts footage of the W.T.O. riots in
Genoa with P.O.V. footage from violent video games, to genuinely
chilling effect; he turns isolated faces engaged in and reacting to
(apparent) conversation with each other into something altogether
suspect just by the way they're lit and photographed; skydivers
jumping out of the back of a plane are multiplied into an endless
stream of people who look like they are swarming out into space.
We're given sinisterized images of Albert Einstein, and a montage of
famous faces -- Arafat, Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Colin Powell,
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Princess Diana, John Paul II -- which
turn out to be wax effigies from Madame Tussaud's. (There are also
brief appearances in the film by Osama bin Laden, and, at one point,
Dolly the sheep.)
But what's the point? There's the
obvious: The tyranny of modern technology. The soulless nature of
modern society. The adverse effect of modern media. But, like the
figures in the closing sequence, Reggio leaves it all spinning in
the air. He doesn't provide the solutions to the problems, but wants
us to come up with the answers ourselves. (Which was a number of
people asked me both before and after the film's screening: "What's
this movie about?") But the film doesn't give us enough
substance to stimulate thought -- it's in danger of putting itself
in the position of simply being one big phantasmagoria that only
elicits a big "wow".
When it first came out,
Koyaanisqatsi (or, "life out of balance") made an impression by
providing super-clear views of unspoiled terrain in the American
Southwest that registered with incredible detail, then contrasting
it with super-fast footage of people and traffic in modern cities
that wasn't blurry but moved with incredible velocity. (Both filmic
techniques were subsequently appropriated, and exhausted, by
commercial media.) Powaqqatsi (or, "life in transformation")
was made up primarily of footage made in Third-World countries, but,
as David Denby noted, the film gave only passing regard to people
and situations a single one from which another director like
Satyajit Ray could have elicited an entire movie. Naqoyqatsi
uses original footage shot in London and in the U.S. -- the opening
shot, which goes from the "Tower of Babel" by Pieter Brueghel the
Elder to an urban building, with broken, gaping windows, located in
Detroit---but no single shot in the film registers in the same way
as the closing shot for Koyaanisqatsi, where Reggio
stretched-out a shot of a fragment of an exploding rocket falling to
earth in such a way that it started turning into something else and
took on a whole new, wholly unexpected significance while you were
watching it, simultaneously causing you to hold your breath to see
if the sequence would sustain itself and continue its momentum.
(That moment was also greatly aided by Philip Glass' original music;
and his score for Naqoyqatsi, while featuring some beautiful,
mournful cello solos by Yo-Yo Ma, is, unfortunately, not among his
best.)
André Bazin wrote that films can
provide a means not only for entertainment but for the audience to
define their relationship to the world around them. Naqoyqatsi,
and Reggio's previous two films, are a good attempt, a striving
attempt, a dedicated attempt, a challenging attempt, and a noble
attempt. But it may not be enough to change the world. |
|
