I discovered Koyannisqatsi last year — it was profoundly striking, and has since become probably my favorite film. Incredible.
40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
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Re: 40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
#112If 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
Ron Fricke is person who made Koyaanisqatsi the beautiful visual journey that it is. I would recommend watching any of his other works. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Fricke (FWIW, Powaqqatsi is also pretty good, but I would strongly suggest avoiding Naqoyqatsi which is just not very good).
Fascinating, I thought that Naqoyqatsi was better than Powaqqatsi. Maybe I should rewatch both again.
Re: 40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
#113Watching this movie on a large dose of LSD is quite the experience!
This was my first experience with it. Transformational.
Re: 40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
#114I guess I am the only one that is not cultured enough for this movie. It looks like a bunch of random, mostly fast forwarded, clips changed so many lives on HN
Beauty may just be in the eye of the beholder.
Have you tried watching it through—not just clips? Despite it having no dialogue, it tells an enthralling story about society & technology. I always give the caveat "this may not be for everyone" when I recommend it, but people usually follow up gleaming about the movie to me.
Re: 40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
#115Re: 40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
#116Koyaanisqatsi is just one of those Magic films that you can start watching and think yeah whatever - and then as it goes on and on you just get more and more blown away by incredible intensity of the soundtrack and visuals. A really transcendental experience. The backstory that Philip Glass originally didn’t want to score it is also amazing, as is the reason for Francis Ford Coppola’s name being on the artwork even t…
> Francis Ford Coppola’s name being on the artwork even though he had nothing to do with the film. Sounds like a strange take. From [1]: > Koyaanisqatsi opens with the words “Presented by Francis Ford Coppola.” This simple endorsement by one of cinema’s most renowned directors solidified the film’s reputation and propelled it into movie theaters around the world. Not sure if FFC gave them money (I guess yes since he'…
From what I understood, he simply endorsed the film to help it get a wider audience. He didn't produce, direct, or have an involvement with the making of the film. That's what I meant.
Producers, executive or otherwise, are usually involved in financing the film before and during its production. This didn't happen. He saw it after production and felt compelled to help spread the message.
I think it's great that he did, but it's surely one of those weird artefacts of why Koyaanisqatsi is successful.
Re: 40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
#117Koyaanisqatsi is just one of those Magic films that you can start watching and think yeah whatever - and then as it goes on and on you just get more and more blown away by incredible intensity of the soundtrack and visuals. A really transcendental experience. The backstory that Philip Glass originally didn’t want to score it is also amazing, as is the reason for Francis Ford Coppola’s name being on the artwork even t…
Any good sources on the Philip Glass backstory?
It's remarkably difficult to find sources seeing as searching for 'Koyaanisqatsi' and 'Philip Glass' brings up a ton of renditions!
But the story goes something like this: He turned down the request to score the film, because he didn't consider himself a composer of film scores. So, the director went and got a load of Philip Glass music and overlaid it on the film himself and sent it to Glass. Once he saw it, he was in.
Nothing particularly mind-blowing in terms of a tale of how the film got made, but it could have easily gone in a completely different direction and not be the film we know.
Re: 40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
#118Yeah, I'd say it felt about that long.
Re: 40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
#119first heard in GTA IV I think, dunno the radio station though :D
Re: 40 Years of Koyaanisqatsi
#120The article is a moving tribute to the power of Reggio's vision and the brilliance of Glass' score. I was living in Santa Fe in the '70s and was at that first screening, it was the world premier, at the Lensic Theater. I still have the stub. I was there because Godfrey Reggio came into the sandwich shop I was a partner in and because I was friends of friends of some of the guys on the camera crews shooting footage in…
About 10 years ago I went to a lecture in Santa Fe by Reggio where he talked about the movie, screened it, and answered questions after. 10 years before that I saw Glass perform the music in Albuquerque with his orchestra while the movie played on a big screen above. At that point I had watched the movie perhaps 100 times. To say I am a huge fan is an understatement.
The overwhelming impression I got from Reggio and Glass was that they didn't so much create the experience as give birth to it. Of course they both intended to create something great, but I think the movie's success as a cultural artifact exceeded their wildest expectations.
There are very few movies I care to watch more than once. There are even fewer that will still be watched and studied 10,000 years from now (assuming we survive that long). Koyaanisqatsi is one of them.