The Pulse [Koyaanisqatsi]

Film fragment.
Is a 1982 film directed by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by Philip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke.
The film consists primarily of slow motion and time-lapse footage of cities and many natural landscapes across the United States. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and music.
The film is the first in the Qatsi trilogy of films: it is followed by Powaqqatsi (1988) and Naqoyqatsi (2002). The trilogy depicts different aspects of the relationship between humans, nature, and technology.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koyaanis...

[@binghamguevara6814]

the greatest film of the '80s

[@charleswinkler5998]

or ever, really.

[@binghamguevara6814]

@@charleswinkler5998 2001 space odyssey beats it. Best film of the '60s.

[@binghamguevara6814]

Apocalypse Now best of the ‘70s. Gave me the same cathartic felling that 2001and Qatsi gave.

[@buckreavers9461]

@@binghamguevara6814 Apocalypse Now truly is the greatest anti war film and best film in general…. I get chills just hearing it’s name.

[@hugmank6343]

​@@buckreavers9461the battle of Algiers exists

[@boyracer3000]

This beautifully depicts the feeling of being close to civilization, and yet so far away.

[@EphemeralProductions]

3:05. One of my absolute fave shots of the whole movie.

[@binghamguevara6814]

Sums up the whole movie. Man-made objects eclipsing nature.

[@djcorvette8375]

this movie changed me. forever

[@DavidMoreno-bn9tg]

A mí me curó el estreñimiento.

[@kangarht]

love how in the beginning the buildings looks like alien spaceships on an alien planet

[@codenamebeats]

Beautiful and haunting at the same time

[@patriciaespejorussi4350]

Ten years ago and for twice, I had this sensation, being awake and feeling everything about me was passing too fast. It was an awful expirience , I must indicate I am not a drug or an alcohol consumer

[@numptification]

Try Googling depersonalisation disorder.

[@SiliconBong]

There's a plethora of sensations, from being acutely aware of one's blood curculation to the very small variations in stillness due to the heartbeat, this film brings about in me.

[@davepowell7168]

I feel the opposite, the rest of the world is slow and l age faster every day 😮

[@Takeshi357]

3:56 finest bass drop in history

[@citizenshipp4152]

The godfather of bass drops; recorded pre-1982.

[@MrJack1992]

A true SIM city experience or the modern era of civilization.

[@shortycareface9678]

This movie always brightens my mood when I feel down

[@iriverriver]

Really??? Not sure if that was the intent

[@barkerbiz]

No mobile phones where hurt in the making of this movie.

[@Waybelowaverage494]

no idea if anyone’s ever seen akira here but this has such a similar message as akira while being entirely different... love that vintage “be afraid of the technological Tower of Babel” energies

[@Arjibi]

3:36 is actual MADE IN HEAVEN

[@CustomVoiceArts]

Now during this pandemic the pulse has flat lined.

[@avidnongetit8710]

No it Hasn't! Americans are DYING faster and in greater BULK than ever before... Think? Why? Why are we choosing to kill ourselves via DENIAL..?

[@CustomVoiceArts]

@avid Non Your miss understanding my words. I wrote this during the global lockdown. The video is showing the world moving at a frantic nonstop pace. When the lockdown happened the world came to a standstill. Hence the global fast-paced world came to a flat line. To clarify even further I used the word flat-line as a medical term meaning no-pulse (death) .

[@Bushmaster1954]

I just love this scene!

[@Doug_Gissendanner]

IFC's Night Flight brought me here, but can't find the Brian Eno song they were playing during the show. Still very existential feels from creation

[@saw76]

Один из лучших фильмов 20-го века..

[@heposlis2409]

Well those cars in lanes truley look like blood vessels and town as hearth with beating pulse City as a living organism Interesting approach

[@avidnongetit8710]

He wasn't "approaching" Anything.. your visual reference is yours. Millions of people don't see that... This is a philosophy of Cancer to me... Did you see that?...

[@enzobuso5933]

@@avidnongetit8710 why do you think that? I feel like he would've found another to express this if it was the case. Cancer is something that grows, spiraling out of control, and while this kind of happens here, and while that kind of happens here, everything is in order. Cars stop at red lights and pedestrian cross, just like It's supposed to.

[@themarcopirroarchive]

When I first saw this sequence in 1984 it changed my life

[@JohnGottschalk]

What was your life before and how was it different after?

[@themarcopirroarchive]

@@JohnGottschalk it suddenly made me realize that art wasn’t restricted to galleries and theatres but that it could be created from seemingly mundane things…like the cityscapes in the movie…it also prompted me to move into a visual arts based career..

[@Kazilikaya]

This section of the movie shows how glorious and amazing civilization is!

[@AshleyPomeroy]

It's ironic - the director wanted it to show how modern civilisation is hurrying towards oblivion, but it looks incredible.

[@george5954]

Depends on your interpretation/outlook on the world. After the beautiful first act, with all the uncontrolled nature roaming free, for me, civilisation definitely works as a villain once it's introduced. Personally, in this scene I see nature (represented in the sun/moon/sky) desperately trying to break through into the landscape but is being suffocated by giant buildings, unnatural terrain, and a suddenly sprawling population. It also just shows the impressiveness of humankind, that these man-made objects can rival or even eclipse these cosmic objects. And, while impressive, it also feels threatening. That these towers that touch the sky shouldn't be here, and how things can easily get out of control from here. But I totally understand how it could inspire you and make you think it's glorious too

[@MrTedclayton]

@@yourwitsaboutyou I don't think it's about being defeated but rather a choice point.

[@iriverriver]

Hmm

[@signodeinterrogacion8361]

My personal take on this glorious scene is the feeling of being human in a place that's deeply inhumane. The fact that some of the early shots of the buildings are a time lapse and yet that is almost unnoticeable just because they are devoid of our dynamism, of our humanity. This film is for me about a species that's in dire need of connection and belonging yet chooses to live in cheap yet innately inhumane places that seem to be made for anything but breathing beings. I know that's quite a specific takeaway but as someone that's incredibly interested in urbanism and in the sense of place it was the reason I resonated with Koyaanisqatsi.

[@dutchflats]

Amazing! Totally reminds me of blood pumping through a living being, so cool!

[@scatpack_shon8760]

music is fire

[@visualsforyou7120]

The soundtrack that starts at 3:37 is in Stranger Things Season 3, but slowed down. I found that out coincidentally because I didn't even know about Koyaanisqatsi when watching the show.

[@ericallerat1342]

Actually in ST3, another philip glass' piece was used and look quite like the same as here : kzbin.info/www/bejne/poWpnXVtgNZmaqM (around 2:10)

[@highstimulation2497]

did you know, he did some of the music in the film CANDYMAN (and the truman show!) and had a few shorts on Sesame Street in the 70s. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eavNloWOn5V_jpo

[@jackpeterson6670]

You probably know it, but didnt write it, since the season wasnt out 3 years ago but in the last episode "prophecies" playes

[@TrolololololololoMan]

There they are.

[@ingefranz2013]

The music IS mystical

[@user-bl9hh1xm9w]

Tzimi's Panousis's Live Show Backround Projections from his 80s & Post-80s Period brought me here!!!

[@heisteg]

pure humans!

[@binghamguevara6814]

The Twin Towers look like the Triplet Towers in the second and third shots. I wonder how they did that? Also if that was the effect Reggio and Frickie wanted to create?

[@bryson217]

The first shot is certainly the former World Trade Center. I believe (but can’t be completely certain) that the 2nd and 3rd are the Avenue of the Americas office complex in midtown Manhattan. The 4th I think is also one of the Twin Towers. Near the end of the film there is a scene in one of the lobbies with people filing into the elevators. So clearly they had been filming downtown.

[@citizenshipp4152]

@@bryson217 I've never been entirely certain if the World Trade Center buildings actually appear in Koyaanisqatsi. The 2 skyscrapers in the opening seconds of this sequence ("The Pulse") do not appear to have the same cladding as the WTC structures. And although wikipedia is not the ultimate authority on all things, Koyaanisqatsi does not appear on the list of films (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Center_in_film) that purportedly feature the iconic buildings.

[@Paolo8772]

@@citizenshipp4152 It's The Grid, not The Pulse.

[@citizenshipp4152]

I stand corrected. You're right, this composition is, in fact, titled "The Grid." (Make sure to correct Carneiro REC, as they are calling this video "The Pulse." Their video, not mine.)@@Paolo8772

[@misfitstargazer9695]

❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@Despotic_Waffle]

so this is what all those city building games based their soundtracks off of

[@TheAbderaman]

i wish if i was 20 in the early 80s in the US

[@ThirdEye105]

This film shows the Metropolis and the Earth as modified by Human actions. It looks like the flow in an Electronic Circuit :) its real but also seems comical.

[@Gandalf22476]

These are the people that built the age we live in.

[@hinkhall5291]

Boomers are the greatest generation of all.

[@enzobuso5933]

Can you blame them? Looking from another perspective (especially at their time) this must've been absolutely marvelous. All this new tech allows us to do so many great things. Especially after ww2

[@sofarooomy]

Пульс, вауу 😭

[@gabrielgolden4336]

Look ma, no sequencers!

[@DavidMoreno-bn9tg]

This movie is only for people whose feet hurt quite a lot 24/7.

[@nya55155]

3:02 this scene always bothers me because the film is shot in such a natural way and the moon looks like cgi which ruins the mood. unless it’s some cinematographic technique i don’t know of? someone help

[@kevinslater4126]

We have learned nothing

[@krapulaaudet1927]

people only learn once its too late

[@bradbailey5481]

Bruh what should we learn?

[@enzobuso5933]

@@bradbailey5481 that maybe we aren't that greater than nature and the tech we bear. It's becoming bigger than us, maybe that's the problem. We don't, can't live with this technology, it kills us and makes us all the same

[@davepowell7168]

Perhaps you aren't looking hard enough or are referring to personal experience. I wish you well with our studies 🎉

[@goksutekin4138]

time lapse

[@matthewpaanotorres7309]

This is my favorite part of the film.

[@avidnongetit8710]

We should do a compilation video of the last 6 presidents using videos from as many sequential days of them in office from beginning of each term to end then next president watching the Horrific aging which occurs--- Only there's NO special effects.. just 4/8 years in office.... Then juxtaposed with highschool students from freshman to senior year.. showing hundreds of kids grow up naturally Bet it's mind blowing....?? Maybe??

[@Pleppit]

Sounds an awful lot like the Akira soundtrack when the choir jumps in.

[@djcorvette8375]

Which came out first?

[@Pleppit]

@@djcorvette8375 Koyanisqatsi

[@Paolo8772]

Why are you calling this The Pulse? This is the beginning of The Grid, not The Pulse.

[@renzo6490]

I don't want to live in a machine high off the ground. Storage units for the living! I prefer buildings and neighborhoods built to human scale.I like to be near the earth.I prefer a garden to a window box on a balcony 30 stories in the air. I want to see a tree outside my window not the grid pattern of another building.I like personal features like alcoves and window seats and double hung windows that open . I like to see evidence of human craftsmanship. Let the corporations build their towers downtown and let the corporate workers populate those soulless, angular prisons. Give me two squashy armchairs in front of a real fireplace. The modern architectural style typified by works of Mies van de Rohe and Le Corbusier, the so called International style, has been proven bankrupt and unworkable as living spaces. The designs work well on paper but that is as far as they should ever go.

[@MrSpadeofAce]

4:53 is that the twin towers?

[@bryson217]

That’s City National Plaza in downtown LA. The Twin Towers are however the two buildings at the opening of this clip.

[@TheAbderaman]

at the begining yes it is the only appearence of the camplex on this movie the next scene are the X Y Z buildings 1250 avenue of the americas

[@VoteWithABullet]

1:14 that green haze from the old mercury street lights.