Koyaanisqatsi Koyaanisqatsi, sometimes titled Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance, was directed by American director Godfrey Reggio. The film deals with the relationship between man and nature entirely through the contrast between music and images. The tone of each scene relies solely on composer Philip Glass's score to support what is shown on screen and give meaning to what is happening. Since there are no conventional story ideas or dialogue, the film gets its message from the tone of the music and the imagery. Glass uses tonality, tempo and instrumentation to great effect, using instruments to mimic everyday things in the city such as car horns and using tonality to subtly change how the viewer interprets the cinematography. The vast majority of the sound used in the film is non-diegetic, especially the sound and musical ideas, which it is safe to assume do not take place in the realm of the film. In a film where music is necessary to denote the messages the film is dictating, there is obviously a lot of music to analyze: in fact, the music flows almost constantly throughout the film without very much foley, so I have chosen what I consider the key and most important scenes of the film and I will give my interpretation of the film, writing a detailed conclusion on what I believe the film is. "Main/Opening Theme - "Koyannisqatsi" The opening theme consists of a sinister-sounding, descending organ phrase composed of the notes A, A#, B#, D, E, E#. The notes are played in the lower register and they sound similar to gothic church music. The phrase sets the initial tone of the film as heartbreaking and depressing. The descending music...... center of the card ......cheerful and the scenes of human creations are accompanied by almost biblical-sounding rhapsodies. Ultimately, it is difficult to draw a conclusion from the overall message of the film. On the one hand the film seems to praise the man's achievements, on the other one could see the ending of the film as something negative. The inevitable failure of man. A conclusion that almost erases man's greatest achievements, praised earlier in the film. I personally think the film ends on a bad note. The credits strangely force the viewer to connect the destruction seen in the film to their own life, using familiar and banal sounds that make a film seem anything but much more real. Bibliography: Books: Chion, Michel. (1994) Audiovision: sound on the screen. Dickinson, Kay. Film music The Film Reader. Websites: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085809/board