Visitors

What the film “Samsara” is to color, “Visitors” is to black and white cinematography! I’ve always felt that black and white photography flattened worlds and shallowed landscapes. This film proved me wrong. The score is gorgeous and captivating and the shots in this film both comfort and disturb. Any lover of the non-verbal documentary NEEDS to see this film! Its brilliant! If you’re having trouble with the message of the film its truly in the title. It poses a sort of voyeuristic gospel into the soul. This film is a well of inspiration I see myself returning to for years to come.

I love Koyaanisqatsi & Powaqqatsi, There are around the top of my list. Naqoyqatsi is pretty bad, a computer graphics mayhem. All three movies are previous collaborations between Reggio and Philip Glass. Visitors, I expected, to be well up there with the other two masterpieces. Well, sorry to say it is a drag to watch. The photography is excellent, among the best I have seen, but you can’t base a movie on that. Taking closeup shots of faces is interesting the first 10 minutes or so, but after more than 30 minutes you become tired of it. Koyaanisqatsi deals about nature, the urbanity and then chaos. Visitors does not make a point, it just plashes nice slow-motion captures either way. It is more an video-art installation than a movie. And really, Glass can’t really do much here, the movie is dull, the music is dull too. Not much to work with. Such a pity really…such a pain.