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How entertaining? ★★★☆☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 1 April 2014
This article is a review of VISITORS. |
“[Normally, one likes to begin with a quote from the film being discussed, but there are no words uttered or written, bar the title, VISITORS.]”
Godrey Reggio, monk turned experimental film director (what a curriculum vitae!), famous for the ‘Qatsi trilogy’ (KOYAANISQATSI, POWAQQATSI, NAQOYQATSI), has returned with another visually resplendent and surreal work. As beguiling as his celebrated arthouse trilogy is, there is a sadly valid pessimism that pervades the three films – humankind’s relationship to nature and technology is out of balance. Not retreading old ground, Reggio and his team now look at facades – those of people, man-made structures, animals and trees. To reveal something hidden, the camera attempts to penetrate the surface, to unfortunately middling effect.
Reggio’s not-so-secret weapon is composer Philip Glass. The master musician slam-dunks another aural winner – the cavalcade of black and white imagery may have lost their appeal sans the Glass touch.
Godrey Reggio, monk turned experimental film director (what a curriculum vitae!), famous for the ‘Qatsi trilogy’ (KOYAANISQATSI, POWAQQATSI, NAQOYQATSI), has returned with another visually resplendent and surreal work. As beguiling as his celebrated arthouse trilogy is, there is a sadly valid pessimism that pervades the three films – humankind’s relationship to nature and technology is out of balance. Not retreading old ground, Reggio and his team now look at facades – those of people, man-made structures, animals and trees. To reveal something hidden, the camera attempts to penetrate the surface, to unfortunately middling effect.
Reggio’s not-so-secret weapon is composer Philip Glass. The master musician slam-dunks another aural winner – the cavalcade of black and white imagery may have lost their appeal sans the Glass touch.
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Opening on a gorilla slowly coming into view, it is such an arresting image – why? One is not quite sure, the sheer latent physical power perhaps? Or just like so much of the filmmaker’s work, it bewitches to try and make you think. Then we see a building, the lens taking us to a sculpture of a globe, and post-title (engraved in stone) - a young woman. Sublime scoring lulls us into a relaxed state. If you’re a fan of Glass, the parade of compositions will be an 87-minute glorified art installation made easy to swallow; if not, tedium will set in.
Music videos come to mind watching VISITORS. Firstly, Michael Jackson’s ‘Black Or White’ – the mixture of demographics, a celebration of the variety of humanity. Faces looking at the camera, looking directly at the audience (at one point we watch a cinema audience watching one of the vignettes), are meant to convey, and inspire in us, emotion, perhaps? If so, the expressions are too fixed, too similar – the look of questioning/accusation is a running motif – and do not create much self soul-searching. Arguably equally artificial, Jonathan Glazer’s music video for Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, ‘Into My Arms’, has a similar palate and interest in human emotion, but more captivating thanks to the turbulence. And that is the major problem with VISITORS, its opacity does not cause ambiguity, rather inscrutability.
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Vivacity comes via three methods:
- Entrancing music,
- Meticulous framing, and
- Artful slow-motion.
Mild melancholy is achieved through the recurring sight of a rundown fairground. Almost apocalyptic, the juxtaposition of a tree-filled swamp is as if nature is reclaiming. This analysis could of course be allegorical claptrap – your guess is as valid as anyone’s as to what VISITORS is actually concerning. There is no bile to Reggio’s work, but the movie weirdly reminds of the poster advertisement for a long forgotten video game, showing a plethora of people eyeballing the viewer angrily, containing the strapline, “Everyone hates you.”
Immersive yes, frustrating too.
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