Manufactured Poetry
Added 7/16/2009
The Poetry of Industry is nothing new (See Koyaanisqatsi) but it has never been shown with the force or insight of MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES. The footage featured in this film is both awesome and frightening to behold. It really makes you think about the ways we change the landscape of the earth to fit our needs and wants. This movie stayed with me for days. The DVD extra's were plentiful and thought provoking as well.
Diana Mercer is the co-author of Your Divorce Advisor and her company is [...]
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Robert Polidori meets Naomi Klein meets 60 minutes
Added 7/11/2009
A Canadian photographer shows you the dehumanization behind the Chinese economic miracle, like any industrialization process (remember Germinal by Zola in the 19th century?),the absurdity of waste yet its beauty, the merry-go-round of globalization. The movie is sometimes a little slow but maybe you want it to finish faster so that you can go back to your way of consumming as usual. It will be hard to discard your cellphone without a thought, or turn on your engine to go and buy bread, the images will hover above your shoulder and haunt you like a gardian angel warning you "do not do it!".
Two of the most amazing scenes besides the opening one are: the destruction by its own dwellers of the houses that will be flooded by the building of the Big Dam and the dismantling of the old oil tankers in Bnagladesh. I recommend this movie as a lesson of happy sobriety.
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creating beauty out of the mundane
Added 7/4/2009
Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer who makes art out of the least "artful" objects imaginable. Everyday items such as crates, boxes, metal containers, etc. - items which most of us perceive as utilitarian at best and dismiss as being utterly without aesthetic merit - are instead converted into glorious objects d`art by Burtynsky`s camera. He achieves this result by focusing on the recurring colors and geometric patterns that are apparently ever present in the industrialized world - for those perceptive enough to spot them, that is. Even heaps of compacted trash can become objects of beauty when seen through Burtynsky's lens (but didn`t we already know that from "Wall-E"?). He is particularly interested in photographing areas like mines and shipyards where Man has already made incursions into nature - which may explain why at times even the people in his pictures (i.e. the workers in those places), with their uniform clothing and robotic movements, become part of the industrial landscape.
"Manufactured Landscapes," a documentary about Burtynsky's work, has much of the feel of a "Koyaanisqatsi" about it as it dazzles us with its richly variegated kaleidoscope of images and patterns. Indeed, director Jennifer Baichwal and cinematographer Peter Mettler capture the essence of the original photos in purely cinematic terms, as their own camera records Burtynsky and his assistant running photo shoots at a factory in China, a dockyard in Bangladesh, and the construction site at the massive Three Rivers Gorge Dam project in China. With their fluid camerawork, the filmmakers match point-for-point the beauty of Burtynsky's images. In fact, the movie opens with a stunning eight-minute-long tracking shot of a Chinese factory in which hundreds of similarly dressed workers toil away in perfectly symmetrical and color-coordinated rows.
The movie does less well when Burtynsky gets around to articulating the "themes" of his work, which, quite frankly, come out sounding confused, contradictory and decidedly half-baked at best. But it is as a purely aesthetic experience, highlighting image and form, that "Manufactured Landscapes" resonates most. In the case of Burtynsky, perhaps, a picture really IS worth a thousand words.
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Brilliant, contemplative, thought provoking
Added 6/19/2009
This is a fascinating documentary symphony composed by Edward Burtynsky working in large format photography mixing urban and industrial images in a melange of spoiled nature, human effort, movement between black and white and color. The shots of the ship salvage yards of Chittabong, Bangladesh , the Shanghai cityscape and the Three Gorges Dam leave one awash in contemplation and wonder; alone with your thoughts about Earth's future and your children.
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Excellent Film
Added 4/14/2009
I am shocked by a previous review claiming that this film portrayed something "beautiful". The images in this film were hideous and horrifying -- streets filled with military-style formations of uniformed sweatshop workers, industrial wastelands, throwaway cities, and exploited people wading in sludge to clean out old oil tankers -- jobs and living conditions that most Americans sitting on their couch and watching this film don't allow themselves to consider ... and I am pretty certain that was what the person who filmed it intended to show.
This film does a great job showing the human and ecological price paid for gadgets and conveniences which seem to magically reappear on store shelves. If you've ever wondered where this stuff comes from ("Made in China") and how it affects people ... then you might do well by watching this.
But unless you are psychotic/sadistic, you will see nothing "beautiful" here -- just sickening images of the waste, misery, and exploitation that techno-industrial civilization is founded upon.
Highly recommended.
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Manufactured Poetry
Added 7/16/2009
The Poetry of Industry is nothing new (See Koyaanisqatsi) but it has never been shown with the force or insight of MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES. The footage featured in this film is both awesome and frightening to behold. It really makes you think about the ways we change the landscape of the earth to fit our needs and wants. This movie stayed with me for days. The DVD extra's were plentiful and thought provoking as well.
Diana Mercer is the co-author of Your Divorce Advisor and her company is [...]
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Robert Polidori meets Naomi Klein meets 60 minutes
Added 7/11/2009
A Canadian photographer shows you the dehumanization behind the Chinese economic miracle, like any industrialization process (remember Germinal by Zola in the 19th century?),the absurdity of waste yet its beauty, the merry-go-round of globalization. The movie is sometimes a little slow but maybe you want it to finish faster so that you can go back to your way of consumming as usual. It will be hard to discard your cellphone without a thought, or turn on your engine to go and buy bread, the images will hover above your shoulder and haunt you like a gardian angel warning you "do not do it!".
Two of the most amazing scenes besides the opening one are: the destruction by its own dwellers of the houses that will be flooded by the building of the Big Dam and the dismantling of the old oil tankers in Bnagladesh. I recommend this movie as a lesson of happy sobriety.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
creating beauty out of the mundane
Added 7/4/2009
Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer who makes art out of the least "artful" objects imaginable. Everyday items such as crates, boxes, metal containers, etc. - items which most of us perceive as utilitarian at best and dismiss as being utterly without aesthetic merit - are instead converted into glorious objects d`art by Burtynsky`s camera. He achieves this result by focusing on the recurring colors and geometric patterns that are apparently ever present in the industrialized world - for those perceptive enough to spot them, that is. Even heaps of compacted trash can become objects of beauty when seen through Burtynsky's lens (but didn`t we already know that from "Wall-E"?). He is particularly interested in photographing areas like mines and shipyards where Man has already made incursions into nature - which may explain why at times even the people in his pictures (i.e. the workers in those places), with their uniform clothing and robotic movements, become part of the industrial landscape.
"Manufactured Landscapes," a documentary about Burtynsky's work, has much of the feel of a "Koyaanisqatsi" about it as it dazzles us with its richly variegated kaleidoscope of images and patterns. Indeed, director Jennifer Baichwal and cinematographer Peter Mettler capture the essence of the original photos in purely cinematic terms, as their own camera records Burtynsky and his assistant running photo shoots at a factory in China, a dockyard in Bangladesh, and the construction site at the massive Three Rivers Gorge Dam project in China. With their fluid camerawork, the filmmakers match point-for-point the beauty of Burtynsky's images. In fact, the movie opens with a stunning eight-minute-long tracking shot of a Chinese factory in which hundreds of similarly dressed workers toil away in perfectly symmetrical and color-coordinated rows.
The movie does less well when Burtynsky gets around to articulating the "themes" of his work, which, quite frankly, come out sounding confused, contradictory and decidedly half-baked at best. But it is as a purely aesthetic experience, highlighting image and form, that "Manufactured Landscapes" resonates most. In the case of Burtynsky, perhaps, a picture really IS worth a thousand words.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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