Aquarela. (PG.)
Directed by Victor Kossakovsky. 89 mins.
This song of ice and water is a work that embraces wonder and tedium. It covers the globe documenting the savage power of the liquid element from the roaring ocean wave to stunning waterfalls, majestic glaciers and brutal hurricanes. Or it's just a bunch of scenes stuck together.
It all looks startling, shot in the accelerated 96fps frame ratio: the one you thought looked ugly and fake in the first Hobbit and wouldn't have liked in Gemini Man if you'd seen it. Here though you don't notice it specifically, you just marvel at how good the cinematography is. But it isn't the visuals that get you, it's the sounds. The noise of glacier ice splitting is almost sickening.
This is a wonderful collection of footage - and hats off all round for all the sterling work that went into capturing it – but it is only a wonderful collection of footage. It was bold for Kossakovsky not to include any narration or any captions to explain where we are or what is happening, but the result is something slightly banal. It doesn't have much to offer beyond, wow, look at that. Surely it is more human to want to find out a little more about what we are being seen, to invest something more than a gawp. As it stands it's like watching someone extreme holiday videos, but without them there to explain what you are looking at. It ain't no Koyaanisqatsi.
Directed by Victor Kossakovsky. 89 mins.
This song of ice and water is a work that embraces wonder and tedium. It covers the globe documenting the savage power of the liquid element from the roaring ocean wave to stunning waterfalls, majestic glaciers and brutal hurricanes. Or it's just a bunch of scenes stuck together.
It all looks startling, shot in the accelerated 96fps frame ratio: the one you thought looked ugly and fake in the first Hobbit and wouldn't have liked in Gemini Man if you'd seen it. Here though you don't notice it specifically, you just marvel at how good the cinematography is. But it isn't the visuals that get you, it's the sounds. The noise of glacier ice splitting is almost sickening.
This is a wonderful collection of footage - and hats off all round for all the sterling work that went into capturing it – but it is only a wonderful collection of footage. It was bold for Kossakovsky not to include any narration or any captions to explain where we are or what is happening, but the result is something slightly banal. It doesn't have much to offer beyond, wow, look at that. Surely it is more human to want to find out a little more about what we are being seen, to invest something more than a gawp. As it stands it's like watching someone extreme holiday videos, but without them there to explain what you are looking at. It ain't no Koyaanisqatsi.
