'Visitors': The images-only movie is, for better or for worse, completely original
Remember all those 鈥淨atsi鈥� movies 鈥� 鈥淜oyaanisqatsi,鈥� 鈥淧owaqqatsi,鈥� and 鈥淣aqoyqatsi鈥�? Aren鈥檛 you impressed that I spelled them correctly? Would you know the difference?
Godfrey Reggio, who directed those films, has come back after a 10-year hiatus with 鈥淰isitors,鈥� a movie that is as glacially slow as most of those earlier films were lickety-split. Shot in gleaming black and white and projected in ultrahigh resolution, with a score by Philip Glass, 鈥淰isitors鈥� is an art film about 鈥� well, I鈥檓 not sure what it鈥檚 about. There鈥檚 no narrative, just a lot of linkages of imagery. Human hands, rapt faces looking at us from primordial depths, you name it. (I saw the film at the Toronto film festival with 66 members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in the pit.)
I鈥檝e never been able to figure out if Reggio is an artist or a con artist. Perhaps, in some ways, he鈥檚 both. He has claimed in interviews that he intended to make a movie about 鈥渢he wonders of the universe.鈥� Whatever he鈥檚 made, for better or worse, I鈥檝e never seen anything quite like it. Grade: B (Unrated.)
