If you are asked the question "what is your favourite movie", you will most likely have an answer primed and ready even if it is not the exact truth. Just an easy truth, a film which people will recognise and think to themselves "ah, yep. That's supposed to be a good one so fair enough, reasonable answer." There's any number of reasons for a film being your favourite too. It could be who stars in it and their performance; maybe the specific director and their authorial vision; possibly the screenplay or the film's setting. All valid and acceptable reasons, and reasons which will be in the head of both the person being asked and the hypothetical asker of the original question. It suddenly becomes difficult when you are asked this humble question and your initial response is a film that, firstly, no one has heard of and, secondly, lacks almost all of the suggested aspects which often make a film a favourite. My favourite film is Koyaanisqatsi.
Directed by Godfrey Reggio and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, Koyaanisqatsi is an experimental documentary, however it could best be described as an extended montage sequence. This ranges from showing slow motion footage of serene landscapes with wisps of high-altitude air trailing over their ridges, to impossibly fast images of cars careening down motorways, dyeing their pathways with crimson neon light. As previously mentioned, Koyaanisqatsi has no performers, no dialogue, no characters, and (almost) no text indicating what to make of it all. In place of these often-thought essential elements is a mesmerising score by Philip Glass, a score that has cropped up over the years in places ranging from Watchmen (Snyder, 2009) to the latest season of Stranger Things (Duffer, 2022). Despite the lack of traditional filmmaking elements, Koyaanisqatsi does, in some ways, have a narrative that can be understood. Rather than being expressly spelled out for the audience, it is instead shown through the increase in the film's tempo in the edit, visuals, and score. The overall gist is this: the human race has had an incredible impact on the planet; consumerism is vast and out of control; the way we live is not sustainable. This is reflected in the film's name as it is a translation from the Hopi language to "life out of balance". This message is the only indication of a narrative cue as it appears as a title card at film's conclusion, a sobering moment of pause from the reflected madness of our own world.
Maybe this ambiguity is why Koyaanisqatsi will always be my favourite film. You are strapped in, observing the world through a hyper-real lens, but the themes of the film are never verbally expressed. You are tasked with decoding the information in order to make sense of what is happening in front of you. It's like an illusionist putting you under a heavy spell, setting in an unwavering fixation. To a greater extent, all films play this trick on the audience, but few others place this degree of importance on the device. Consistently now films underestimate the intelligence and cine-literacy of the audience. So many filmmaking techniques have become so common place our brains automatically understand them. Consider the flashback for example. Any reasonably competent filmmaker can include a flashback, an inherently complicated device if one were to spell it out in detail, with little confusion. Not everything has to be spelled out; some of the satisfaction is in the uncovering of meaning. Why else would a whole academic pursuit be devoted to understanding the power, artistic and otherwise, of film as a medium? That is why when a film such as Koyaanisqatsi which really prioritises the audience's own intuition, it stands out from the crowd.
On a less cerebral note, Koyaanisqatsi is satisfying in the extreme. Being fixated to the flashing lights streaking past at a hundred miles per hour and seeing the tens of thousands of people speed by like ants is nothing short mesmerising. The sheer marvel of seeing the technological feat of distorting the video playback speed is an attractive factor in itself. Knowing that each microscopic dot of colour is a human being incased within a machine is quite extraordinary. It is impossible to visualise the enormity of scale when considering the human race, but Koyaanisqatsi puts it somewhat in perspective by putting it in motion in one of the busiest cities on earth: New York City. The camera is often positioned over busy highways or junctions but also at street levels in subway exits and outside bustling street corners. This allows the audience to have a fractional glimpse of the scale of the amount of activity and energy present in New York City whilst never deviating from the understanding that what we are seeing are fellow human beings. You are left to both reel and marvel at our species' expansion and the creations which have made it possible. Is this right? Is this out of balance?
As a side note, at the time of writing this, the full film is available for free viewing online. the only caveat is that at around the 47 minute mark the video crashes. If you reload the page and scrub past that point by a few seconds the problem is resolved. I have left the link below.
https://watchdocumentaries.com/koyaanisqatsi/
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