Koyaanisqatsi

The film Koyaanisquatsi was a creative and confusing feature that focused on Man’s effect on nature (at least how I saw it). The movie took and interesting and rather simplistic approach to creating this feature. I felt as though the movie was a neo-realism peace that took an artistic stance on our world and how we live in it. At the same time it also created a stunning visual, at every point during the film, whether it showed thriving landscapes in nature or the face paced energy of the city. This creativity made it into an attraction as well as a neo-realism piece, so it embodies the characteristics of both Bazin and Munsterberg. I really enjoyed the way that the images and time lapsed videos create really fun and thought provoking ideas. Each image juxtaposed with the other creates stories about real life by evoking ideas. For instance when they showed sped up scenes of crowds it showed how fast and crazy life is in cities, and these create a commentary with the nature pictures earlier on in the film where everything is just sweeping, statics, while remaining austere. The director made really smart choices by using the high speed on many of the urban settings because it created a storytelling and aesthetic aspect to it. The sped up scenes make the city settings appear so much more interesting, but at the same it time it has this idea of time passing by without any change and granted it a hollowness. The techniques that they used as well for the natural shots were amazing which were the helicopter-flyover style gave every scene a lot of grandeur and depth. Each natural shot shows landscapes, and as they progressed, the speed increased showing that the nature is disappearing. Overall this film does an amazing job creating concepts and ideas using images which is a very pure way of expressing thoughts. Every color, every transition, and every sped up day was calculated to make the viewer think. It created this overall narrative of the stark contrast between us and nature and how we cannot escape the effect we have on the planet and upon each other. In my opinion it makes for a beautiful and deep film that dazzles the eye and legitimately entrances the audience.