Customer Reviews

Bodysong

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a Radiohead fan, so I bought this disc for the audio (the DVD audio is longer than the released soundtrack) and was expecting cheesy boring random newsreel archive images, but actually, the film was very emotionally affecting and interesting. The footage is truly multicultural, which brought into glaring contrast how one-sided movies and TV shows really are.

The vast majority of the images were things I'd never seen before -- this is definitely not your average recognizable newsreel highlights montage (e.g. a man who seems to light paper on fire with his bare hands, a burning pyre with a small child's foot protruding). The images are organized roughly by life stage. The DVD classes the images into these categories:

birth
growth
sex
violence
death
dreams (sport, art, religion, political resistance)

There is no "dialogue" until the end of the film and when it comes, it is almost a shock. The CD soundtrack is a more coherent whole, but the DVD audio makes more sense in the context of the images.

I totoally expected to hate this movie, but I'm almost tempted to call it a perfect summary of humanity. It's not, but it comes pretty close. Well done.

I really wanted to like this film. I really did. As a rule, I have very much enjoyed this sans-narrative style of film-making . . . a montage of mountains of artfully chosen archival footage held only together by a loose theme and the thinnest story arch or "plot" accompanied by thoughtful, creative, compelling music. I also am familiar with and appreciate Johnny Greenwood as a composer/musician.

Some cinema in this genre can reach sublime levels of visual/poetic poignancy - think "Koyaanisqatsi", "Powaqqatsi", "Naqoyqatsi" and "Baraka" if you are familiar with them. Johnny Greenwood's score for "Bodysong" (if occasionally dark and abrasive) certainly doesn't disappoint as far as that goes, but the rest of the film is of rather spotty quality and poorly held together.

Also, while I was entirely prepared to view some shocking imagery (births, deaths, and all manner of human experience and suffering in between) I was not really prepared to be exposed to (what even the filmmaker proudly highlights in the special features to be) re-appropriated archival pornography snippets as well.

Birds do it. Bees do it. Bonobos do it. And, so do we. But the salacious, graphic and slimy nature of much of the scenes in the "Sex" section especially left me feeling like I wish I could "un-see" them. I thought of the explaining I'd have to do if one of my children had wandered into the living room, and was extremely relieved that they had not.

This film may still have it's artistic merits, but I will not be keeping the DVD around to view again. If you like Greenwoods work with Tom York and Radiohead (or his other major score for movie "There Will Be Blood") buy the soundtrack and skip this film. There is nothing in it that is especially enlightening, or ennobling, and certainly nothing about it that makes me feel like I am a better-rounded, broadened human being for having viewed it.

Sadly, I am rather left with the opposite feeling . . . regretting having spent the money . . . and never wanting to see a single frame of it again.

It is an awesome project nothing like any other. It has a impressive compilation of images that have so much in common but at the same time have nothing to do with each other that makes these film an impressive film. The combination between music and images is absolutely impressive; it is a good film to have...

a film so raw, so perfect, so beautiful, with a message and nature so pure. a film of this kind can only be made once.

Magnificent combination of visuals and audio. A must have! Enough said.

I liked the background music by Radiohead lead singer man. I felt like some of the images didnt really come together for a complete story. There were all these experiences you have within a family and a home, then later on you see is the Tienanmen Square thing (kinda bummed there was not the burning monk scene in it ).

This film would have definitely received an NC-17 rating or worse if it went through the MPAA. Just a warning. There are some eye candy moments but just from the lack of cohesiveness, it can get a little overwhelming at times. Some of the scenes are really heavy to watch. You see people getting shot, babies coming out of vajayjays (that went a little overkill, imho), old school porn whatnot. The riot scenes and the masses conglomerating around religious relics were pretty awesome. I dont know, it just seemed as if this was a film you'd send out to space to give aliens an idea of what we're like. If your favorite movie is Elf or something, not for you.