6/10
Koyaanisqatsi was one of the first experimental films I ever saw. It was a blind buy at HMV actually, and I bought it more because it was scored by Philip Glass (I was also just getting into experimental music at the time and minimalism was very appealing) than any other reason. It's remained one of my favorites, and I still return to it every now and again.
Criterion recently released the Qatsi film trilogy which I bought despite not having seen the other two before. I watched Powaqqatsi last night and frankly it was kind of a let down. The score (again by Glass) is not nearly as powerful and the images too, focusing mainly on people in third world countries going about their business, are less captivating than they were in the first installment. Powaqqatsi as a whole just feels less "composed". Koyaanisqatsi really was more than the sum of its parts but Powaqqatsi feels like what it is - a series of sometimes-beautiful shots with music laid on top of them. Nothing more nothing less.
I started the final film, Naqoyqatsi, before falling asleep and from what I saw, I'm even less enthusiastic about that one.
No comments:
Post a Comment