Monday, 30 April 2012

Koyannisquatsi - Life Out of Balance

Koyannisquatsi is a visual tone poem directed by Godfrey Reggio with music by Philip glass.

It exploring the many relationships between humans, technology and nature.

The film has no dialogue, only juxtapositions between image and music.

The reason for this has been said to be because '"it's not for lack of love of the language that these films have no words. It's because, from my point of view, our language is in a state of vast humiliation. It no longer describes the world in which we live."


The use of scale is used very well in this film as is the musical juxtaposition. Vast motorways from a birds eye view render man to an almost ant-like scale. 


The idea of boundary and confinement is also addressed as is the different between urban and suburban culture. Quantity and repetition also take control; lines and lines of cars fill the screen followed by lines and lines of military warfare. 


 It's definitely worth a look. It is very interesting how a narrative can be formed without words. It is the sequencing of imagery that is important as is the timing.

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