While the wonders of 3D and IMAX are currently the latest toys being embraced by filmmakers looking to immerse audiences in the worlds they conjure up for the big screen, some directors realize that beautifully composed images, presented in the best possible quality, can speak more volumes that the latest gadgets. Ron Fricke, the helmer behind the acclaimed short "Chronos" and the celebrated feature length "Baraka" (and an editor on "Koyaanisqatsi") knows more than anyone the power that a single frame can bring. And returning with his first feature film in two decades, he hasn't lost a beat.
A brief, yet no less stunning trailer has landed for his upcoming "Samsara," and it proudly boasts the fact that it was shot in 70mm. And with good reason. This teaser for the film is not short on images that would make Terrence Malick weep, in a film that evocatively explores links between humanity and nature, and plain awe within our world. Our own Katie Walsh reviewed the film earlier this year at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and had nothing but praise: "The film itself is a rare artifact, due to the technical ability and will the filmmakers had to have to capture these images. You can't simply go out and recreate it. And while one can discuss the technical prowess of these shocking and beautiful images, it doesn't do justice to the spiritual cinematic power of this work. Scenes of worshippers at Mecca, or the moon traveling across a desert sky, or workers in a chicken factory are unlike anything you will ever see, yes, and they are visually dazzling, but that does not speak to the emotional power imbued within each frame. Fricke knows that for all of his computerized camera movements and time-lapse photography, sometimes resting on a close up of a Filipino inmate's eyes, a young African mother and child, or the single tear of a geisha slipping down her cheek is more emotionally powerful than anything technologically dazzling."
So in short, do what you can see this on the big screen. Oscilloscope Laboratories will release "Samsara" into theaters on August 24th. Watch below or in HD at Apple.
I kind of agree with WRT. I think it is stunning to look at, but there's amazing visuals like this all over Vimeo being posted by out-of-work DPs making a reel on their own. Plus, we already have the Koyaanisqatsi trilogy for meditating on the link between nature and technology with documentary footage… Jussayin, this isn't the most relevant idea on the planet anymore.
Looks like a glorified Vimeo video, and 70mm's overrated. Has anyone ever heard of The Family of Man? This IS schlock — mystical non-narrative cheese. To invoke it alongside Malick is an insult to the narrative dramas at the heart of Malick's films
YES! I love 70MM. It was and is the perfect film process and still far and way usperior to anything that can come up with today. How nice to see that it isn't dead yet
Incredible movie and bravo to Oscilloscope for picking-it-up… but they really need a toned-down version of that logo. It makes all these cerebral prestige pictures they release look inappropriately schlocky.