| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
randall 
"I like to watch."
|
 Posted - 09/19/2013 : 23:18:58
|
I saw Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson's SAMSARA. It's a cousin to their CHRONOS [an IMAX time-lapse orgy] and BARAKA. These are all wordless impressions, shot on wicked big negative [70mm here], sort of like Godfrey Reggio's KOYAANISQATSI, on which Fricke was the cinematographer. This one, SAMSARA, is somehow the best of them all.
It isn't content with just dazzling you, though it does [BARAKA was in a sense a test run for this production]; it dares to disturb you as well, and thus is also a cousin to Chris Marker's SANS SOLIEL. Many, if not most, people of my acquaintance won't have the patience for any of the aforementioned flicks. But if you think you might [if you're a still photographer, you will be mesmerized], find somebody with a hi-def rig and rent the Blu-Ray of SAMSARA. It shares a distinction this year with only CLOUD ATLAS: I wanted to see it again while the credits were still rolling. |
Edited by - randall on 09/19/2013 23:20:09 |
|
|
GHcool 
"Forever a curious character."
|
Posted - 09/19/2013 : 23:56:56
|
quote:
Originally posted by randall
It shares a distinction this year with only CLOUD ATLAS: I wanted to see it again while the credits were still rolling.
Yes, but Samsara was (as far as I know) 100% real whereas Cloud Atlas is mostly synthetic. Both are great films, but Samsara is the more awe-inspiring, thought-provoking, and spiritually satisfying (at least to me). |
 |
|
|
randall
"I like to watch."
|
Posted - 09/22/2013 : 14:19:39
|
Yes, point taken. Mr. Fricke claims there are no computer-assisted effects [except, of course, the time-lapse stuff]. Everything in SAMSARA was exactly what the camera saw [time-lapse being only unnaturally condensed but still journalistic].
However, if you want to deconstruct a little, nothing about film is real. The "motion" in motion pictures is, as you well know, an illusion that uses our natural persistence of vision to animate what is in reality only a series of still photographs. [Before you push me into digital, SAMSARA was shot on 70mm film. But yes, computers are all over CLOUD ATLAS.]
I think you can compare SAMSARA to CLOUD ATLAS in one all-important respect: the effect it has on the audience. These two films, and these only this year, triggered a primal response in me: I want to see it again right now. I couldn't indulge myself in either instance, but I will eventually.
I doubt you're old enough to remember an age when you could walk into a movie theater at any time, even in the middle, and stay in your seat for the next screening. [You can see this depicted in dozens of films from the 30s through the 60s, in which characters plop down while the main feature's already rolling. There was even a catchphrase used in mundane daily life as an exit line from a circular argument: "This is where I came in."] When I saw PLANET OF THE APES in its first run in 1968 [the ultimate reveal was a complete surprise!], my friend and I looked at each other and said, "We're seeing this one again right now," and we remained in our seats for the next screening. That's how I felt about both SAMSARA and CLOUD ATLAS, and that's their equivalency.
EDIT: This little convention was first challenged in 1960 by Alfred Hitchcock, whose exhibition contract forbade any theater owner from letting anyone in once PSYCHO had begun. [The great showman had financed the picture out of his own pocket, so he pulled out all the promotional stops to save what he feared to be a lurid, dismal failure.] Those of you who have seen PSYCHO may sympathize with Hitch's desire not to confuse mid-story-seaters, since a marquee star does not survive the film's halfway point, but that wasn't why he did this. Theater owners were angry at first...anyone who walked in at any time was another ticket...but the promptness restriction caused lines to form before every PSYCHO performance. It LOOKED like a hit, and it BECAME a hit. Not only because it's a masterpiece of suspense, but also because of a great promo gimmick. These days, of course, everybody has to leave the auditorium before they let the next audience in. |
Edited by - randall on 09/22/2013 20:17:42 |
|
|
|
demonic 
"Cinemaniac"
|
Posted - 09/23/2013 : 01:38:47
|
How I wish I could legally flit between cinema screens for a whole day on one entrance ticket at my local arthouse... maybe it will come to that when cinemas are struggling to survive in the face of instant online and home projected media that will inevitably become the norm. I like the idea of watching a film over again straight away if I loved it.
I loved Samsara too - and agree, it's probably the best of Fricke's films for beauty and content. Have you seen "Nostalgia for the Light" Randall? That belongs in a pantheon of great, beautiful, effecting films of recent years. |
|
|
|
randall
"I like to watch."
|
Posted - 09/23/2013 : 20:59:13
|
quote:
Originally posted by demonic
How I wish I could legally flit between cinema screens for a whole day on one entrance ticket at my local arthouse... maybe it will come to that when cinemas are struggling to survive in the face of instant online and home projected media that will inevitably become the norm. I like the idea of watching a film over again straight away if I loved it.
I should hasten to mention, from my vantage point of MANY CREAKY YEARS, that back then there was only one screen and one program at most cinemas. No multiplexes. [Except at "ozoners" -- VARIETY-speak for "drive-ins" -- but there your headlights let the exhibitor SEE you trying to sneak around.] A little before my time, double features were common, along with a newsreel, a cartoon [our moviegoing parents saw all the classic Warner Bros. cartoons on the BIG SCREEN!], trailers, etc. In the Forties, a movie night out lasted four hours, and before tv EVERYBODY went to the movies, several times a month. I'm almost positive it was this atmosphere that allowed exhibitors to say, "come on in; the program's already started, but let's see that admission price, and here's our concession stand." The last vestiges of this hospitality allowed me and my friend to see PLANET OF THE APES again immediately -- "why didn't we catch all the hints!" -- in 1968. We thought nothing of it, we'd entered and exited in the middle many times, but we'd never before just sat there for an immediate complete second helping.
One more bit: the British horror author Clive Barker vividly remembers seeing PSYCHO and then staying in his seat for the next screening. Some young girls sat down in front of him. He says he spent the whole movie waiting for Vera Miles to go down to the cellar again, just to watch their reaction. They didn't disappoint. He claims it was that instant when he decided, I want to do that.
EDIT: I just added NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT to my Netflix queue, solely on your recommendation. So it's on your head if it sucks. [I'm only kidding; I think we can tell even from correspondence when our interests coincide. So cheers for that suggestion.] |
Edited by - randall on 09/23/2013 21:13:56 |
|
|
|
demonic
"Cinemaniac"
|
Posted - 09/24/2013 : 00:09:15
|
quote:
Originally posted by randall
EDIT: I just added NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT to my Netflix queue, solely on your recommendation. So it's on your head if it sucks. [I'm only kidding; I think we can tell even from correspondence when our interests coincide. So cheers for that suggestion.]
Ha ha! I take up the challenge. I don't think you'll be disappointed. I knew practically nothing about it when I watched it but was still stunned - all you really need to know ahead of time is it's a documentary and concerns three disparate groups of people working in the same, unique part of the world. Enjoy.  |
|
|
|
Sean
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
|
Posted - 10/01/2013 : 23:10:54
|
I'd have difficulty ranking the 'QATSIs next to BARAKA and SAMSARA as it's such a long time since I've seen them (and I've only seen them once). I recall being blown away by KOYAANISQATSI at the cinema in 1985, but that was mostly as I'd never seen anything like it. I wouldn't say I've been 'blown away' by any of the more recent ones (including SAMSARA, which I saw at home last night).
Some shots in SAMSARA were stunning though, my favourite was probably the 'dance of 1000 hands' or whatever you want to call it. The 'vortex' in Mecca was spectacular, but I also found it rather disturbing - humans 'willingly' devolving to a sub-amoebic state and behaving like matter being sucked into a black hole.
BTW while watching SAMSARA I really wanted to go nuts with the score. I recall little about it other than the fact it was underwhelming (or maybe that was deliberate?)
It's time for a KOYAANISQATSI re-watch to see how it stacks up... |
|
|
|
randall
"I like to watch."
|
Posted - 10/02/2013 : 22:12:02
|
quote:
Originally posted by Sean
Some shots in SAMSARA were stunning though, my favourite was probably the 'dance of 1000 hands' or whatever you want to call it. The 'vortex' in Mecca was spectacular, but I also found it rather disturbing - humans 'willingly' devolving to a sub-amoebic state and behaving like matter being sucked into a black hole.
I agree with both those observations, as evidently did the filmmakers, since that dance is featured on its marketing materials. [I found the opening dance far more beautiful/disturbing, but then the hands-dance absolutely topped it in the choreography sense.]
But I have to speak up for the Mecca shots: I think your interpretation of what you saw [very close to mine] would be very different if you were Muslim, and that's the lesson I learned at that location. |
|
|
|
Sean
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
|
Posted - 10/03/2013 : 00:54:32
|
quote:
Originally posted by randall
quote:
Originally posted by Sean
The 'vortex' in Mecca was spectacular, but I also found it rather disturbing - humans 'willingly' devolving to a sub-amoebic state and behaving like matter being sucked into a black hole.
But I have to speak up for the Mecca shots: I think your interpretation of what you saw [very close to mine] would be very different if you were Muslim, and that's the lesson I learned at that location.
I don't doubt that for a second; one's perception of reality while being dragged into a black hole (having willingly chosen to be there) will be very different from the perception of someone watching from outside. Hence my use of that analogy, and hence my reason for finding it disturbing; the gulf between those on the ground and those non-Muslims watching on a screen is gigantic.
BTW I've got KOYAANISQATSI to watch tonight, will report back later. |
|
|
|
demonic
"Cinemaniac"
|
Posted - 10/03/2013 : 00:59:03
|
KOOOOO-YAAN-ISS-KAT-SEEEEEEEE....
The most epic theme song ever?
p.s. if you haven't seen it the very beginning of "Alan Patridge: Alpha Papa" uses the song in a magnificently funny way. |
|
|
|
Sean
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
|
Posted - 10/03/2013 : 10:43:44
|
quote:
Originally posted by demonic
KOOOOO-YAAN-ISS-KAT-SEEEEEEEE....
The most epic theme song ever?
Funny you should say that; it's been 28 years since I saw it yet as soon as I read that (a couple of hours ago) I remembered it totally.
Which brings me to the next point (having just finished watching it)... In KOYAANISQATSI the score is major; it's striking, at times ethereal, sometimes bleak, but is always dramatic and memorable. I hadn't heard it for 28 years yet it sounded very familiar. It's fundamental to the movie. By contrast the score in SAMSARA is nothing, it's not an element in the movie at all; I recall nothing about it other than its minimalist nothingness, either they didn't want it to feature or didn't have the inclination or energy (or money) to make it relevant. As you can see I like music, I like music in movies, and for me music can make a good movie great (or awful). KOYAANISQATSI wins this one hands down.
To the images. Well, KOYAANISQATSI has a simple message here: the world is a beautiful place... now here's the human plague. That's pretty much it. It's the kind of message that was born in the stagnant seventies where dystopias were all the rage (Silent Running, Logan's Run, Soylent Green, THX1138 etc) and economic stagnation, the Cold War, overpopulation, pollution etc were on the lips of many.
I recall being blown away by the opening 15 minutes at the time (the cloud flow in particular, I'd never seen anything like it) but high-frame-rate time-lapse is all over nature documentaries now so it's no longer spectacular.
The message (or messages) behind SAMSARA are certainly more subtle (though not always), it's not bleak like KOYAANISQATSI, some of the human material is triumphant and some images are memorable and spectacular. It will probably stand the test of time better than KOYAANISQATSI for that reason. I guess I'll see it again sometime in the next year.
Anyway, KOYAANISQATSI and SAMSARA remain 8/10 on my list. |
|
|
|
randall
"I like to watch."
|
Posted - 10/05/2013 : 20:37:03
|
Yes, demmy, that was part of the creepiness: these human voices singing syllables that you couldn't apprehend while all these images casually whirred by. Point to KOYAANISQATSI. But SAMSARA has found profoundly cinematic images *constructed by humans* alongside the beautiful/ravaged planet shots. The opening uncanny-valley bit with actual people, the "hands dance," Mecca, the "monkey chant" -- these are all the more powerful because they are human. I still say, if you want to see one of these and only one, it has to be SAMSARA.
P.S. Your recommendation arrived in the mail from Netflix today! |
|
|
|
randall
"I like to watch."
|
Posted - 10/08/2013 : 21:30:03
|
I saw it last night, demmy, and you are so right! It hits the spot for fans of langorous photography, but the sociopolitical subtext is not "sub" at all. I did not know what to expect, since you don't see a human being for probably :10 [though you do see human constructions], and you don't hear one speak with sync sound until about :15 [there has been a voiceover narrator], but then...oh, I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but we enter the Chilean desert, the only spot on our big blue marble which looks "brown" from space. That super-aridity makes it one of the best spots on earth for astronomers. But there are also Chileans who look downward. I leave it for you to discover, but by the end the two converge, as they have been doing intellectually for the whole film. There is much more talk here than in the other films higher in the thread, but demmy is right: this belongs in the canon. In English, it is called
NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT
and, like those others, is recommended only for those who see a real kinship between cinema and painting, and are fine with nothing at all blowing up.
Thank you, demmy, for the tip. It didn't suck! |
Edited by - randall on 10/08/2013 21:31:08 |
|
|
|
Sean
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
|
Posted - 10/08/2013 : 23:57:02
|
Unfortunately NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT isn't available at the NZ version of Netflix, guess I'll have to illegally download it.  |
|
|
|
Sean
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
|
Posted - 10/13/2013 : 10:52:02
|
So I watched NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT.
I'd never have thought of making a documentary about such a nasty subject in such a way, glad someone did. Two sets of people looking for answers, and most are destined to remain unsatisfied.
It's also about contrast; beautiful galaxies, bright sunny days and crystal clear starlight... and something very dark and unpleasant just below the surface of the Atacama desert. The former makes the latter watchable although not exactly palatable.
Another 8/10 (same as I've given most of the others mentioned in this thread).
|
|
|
|
demonic
"Cinemaniac"
|
Posted - 10/15/2013 : 06:19:36
|
| Glad that's thumbs up all round - I thought it was magnificent. The way the groups of people are interconnected is extraordinary and quite moving. Quite something. |
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
|
|
Samsara
