This is one of the strangest films I have ever seen. I'm not sure it even qualifies as a film in the traditional sense. Could it be classed as one of the very few silent colour films? Whatever it is, I was impressed. It's like flicking through a Technicolor encyclopaedia.
Developing themes from his earlier 'Baraka', Ron Fricke's documentary uses 70mm film to show mostly a series of still images, with some motion shots. Entirely wordless, except for an Enya-esque soundtrack, 'Samsara' (Sanskrit for 'cycle of worldly existence') is more accessible than Terrence Malick's 'The Tree of Life', which it resembles pictorially and, to a lesser extent, conceptually.
Wikipedia describes this film as having no narrative. I think that's wrong. The heterogeneous images of various cultures and vistas, culled over five years from 25 countries, from America to China, Israel to Indonesia, aren't random. They link to form a point: that the world is wonderful, horrible, spectacular, confusing and beautiful – and will be ad infinitum.
The first half contains scenes of the natural world, while the second half deals (with more than a hint of a religious bent) with man and all that he does to undo nature. I was struck particularly by the 'consumption' sequences, showing the mass-slaughtering of animals followed by shots of people happily devouring them as junk food.
At 102 minutes this is Fricke's longest feature, and I did feel it was overlong. No impact would have been lost if this was as short as his other films. The frequent use of time-lapse photography was a noticeable distraction, for no other reason than the images remained more or less constant throughout the jumps.
The way people and landmarks are filmed is interesting. The camera gazes at subjects, and captures landmarks at uncommon angles. It's as if we're discovering these spectacles for the first time. I'm sure I haven't quite conveyed my point, but if you see this visual feast, you'll see what I'm trying to say.
www.moseleyb13.com
Developing themes from his earlier 'Baraka', Ron Fricke's documentary uses 70mm film to show mostly a series of still images, with some motion shots. Entirely wordless, except for an Enya-esque soundtrack, 'Samsara' (Sanskrit for 'cycle of worldly existence') is more accessible than Terrence Malick's 'The Tree of Life', which it resembles pictorially and, to a lesser extent, conceptually.
Wikipedia describes this film as having no narrative. I think that's wrong. The heterogeneous images of various cultures and vistas, culled over five years from 25 countries, from America to China, Israel to Indonesia, aren't random. They link to form a point: that the world is wonderful, horrible, spectacular, confusing and beautiful – and will be ad infinitum.
The first half contains scenes of the natural world, while the second half deals (with more than a hint of a religious bent) with man and all that he does to undo nature. I was struck particularly by the 'consumption' sequences, showing the mass-slaughtering of animals followed by shots of people happily devouring them as junk food.
At 102 minutes this is Fricke's longest feature, and I did feel it was overlong. No impact would have been lost if this was as short as his other films. The frequent use of time-lapse photography was a noticeable distraction, for no other reason than the images remained more or less constant throughout the jumps.
The way people and landmarks are filmed is interesting. The camera gazes at subjects, and captures landmarks at uncommon angles. It's as if we're discovering these spectacles for the first time. I'm sure I haven't quite conveyed my point, but if you see this visual feast, you'll see what I'm trying to say.
www.moseleyb13.com