A high school near where I lived at the time (southern New Jersey) created a mural in the cafeteria inspired by, and titled, Koyaanisqatsi. And this was in the early 90's well after the film had been shown in theaters.
Which town?
40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
101–110 of 122 posts
Re: 40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
#102Re: 40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
#103I was a teenager riding a bicycle through a neighborhood, when I came across a yard sale. Heard that someone had died. Among their things was a tape of the Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack composed by Philip Glass. Bought it for a couple of bucks, and later that night was blown away by the music. I had heard nothing like it before - it made me shiver with awe and fear. It felt like the dead was reaching out through the sound…
About 15 years ago I saw the film while a band played the soundtrack live. Philip Glass himself was playing some instruments.
What was that like?
Re: 40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
#104I can recommend watching the entire film run backwards. The music sounds approximately the same, and it turns it into a feel-good story showing assembly lines pulling cars apart, pollution being sucked into factories and mining vehicles burying ores. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6-K-arVl-U
That reminds me of one of the most poignant fragments in Slaughterhouse V
Re: 40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
About 15 years ago I saw the film while a band played the soundtrack live. Philip Glass himself was playing some instruments.
What was that like?
It was pretty magical. This was 2003 (20 years ago then) in a massive soviet-era concert hall.
It was the first time it saw the film and the live aspect left me a lot of questions whether this is somehow a completely different experience from the actual film.
I've since watched it at home many times and the live-band aspect is obviously immense but the music was pretty close to the film.
I attended the press conference as well and one of his answers really struck me.
He was asked about how he composes film scores and his answer included something along the lines: "I only compose based on the script, I never watch any of the footage before the composition is finished."
Re: 40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
#106If you like this then I can’t recommend Baraka highly enough, by the cinematographer of Koyaanisqatsi: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baraka_(film) No narration at all, just amazing visuals and music/sounds. Review by Ebert: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-baraka-1992
Baraka is outstanding and the stronger of the two films imo.
Re: 40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
#107I was a teenager riding a bicycle through a neighborhood, when I came across a yard sale. Heard that someone had died. Among their things was a tape of the Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack composed by Philip Glass. Bought it for a couple of bucks, and later that night was blown away by the music. I had heard nothing like it before - it made me shiver with awe and fear. It felt like the dead was reaching out through the sound…
If you haven't already, I'd encourage you to check out some of Philip Glass's other soundtracks. One I like in particular is The Illusionist.
There's also a very short video game OST of a game called Splice [0], [1] that coincidentally I'm listening to right now which is very similar to Glass's music. My playcount on each of the tracks is literally over 1000, and my playcount on the first track is over 2000 (getting close to 2500 now) because once I didn't notice I had it on loop(1) rather than loop(all) for several days.
It's the only music I'm able to listen to when I have a mild migraine, although when the headache gets bad I require absolute silence.
[0] https://cipherprime.bandcamp.com/album/flight-of-angels-spli...
[1] https://cipherprime.bandcamp.com/album/algorithms-and-angelo...
Re: 40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
#108Re: 40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
#109If you like this then I can’t recommend Baraka highly enough, by the cinematographer of Koyaanisqatsi: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baraka_(film) No narration at all, just amazing visuals and music/sounds. Review by Ebert: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-baraka-1992
This. Koyaanisqatsi might be more important in cinematic history, but Baraka is actually enjoyable to watch. IMHO the best use for Koyaanisqatsi is as an answer when playing charades.
> Koyaanisqatsi might be more important in cinematic history, but Baraka is actually enjoyable to watch.
To each his own. I'm not sure I'd call watching Koyaanisqatsi exactly "enjoyable" (that sounds like it's cheapening the experience), but I've seen it at least 5 times.
Re: 40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
#110I can recommend watching the entire film run backwards. The music sounds approximately the same, and it turns it into a feel-good story showing assembly lines pulling cars apart, pollution being sucked into factories and mining vehicles burying ores. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6-K-arVl-U
Interesting. One of the few movies you can fully watch in both directions. The music character makes the distinct atmosphere.
I just made a small peek and I could find new some visual details, which I was glossing over on the forward version. (e.g. explosions in the windows of the demolished buildings)