Samsara

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Laura G Just like their first film, Baraka just a gorgeous snapshot of humanity and nature once again should’ve won so many awards Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/16/24 Full Review Pantera O "I want my ball back, thanks" En el planeta tierra existe una especie inusual, donde se desarrolla un increíble drama. Magnifica. Sensorial. Poética. Hay una gran diferencia sobre la selección musical en comparación a la primera, esta vez mas adecuada. Imagenes con una alta calidad visual, dejando que hablen por si mismas a traves del montaje, jugando bien con el ambiente. La explotación de los recursos naturales. La corrupción del ser humano. El consumismo. La injusticia social. Sería mas enriquecedor para el argumento elegir culturas que no solo sean parte del medio oriente, Una experiencia que pone a volar los sentidos, retratando la demencia de la humanidad. ¿Alguien quiere drogarse? Estamos locos x2 Técnica: 9.3 Expresión: 7.2 Efecto: 8.0 Experiencia: 7.5 Calificación: 8.0/10 Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 08/08/24 Full Review Ryan N A spiritual experience. The best thing you can watch if you are on a hero’s journey. Iykyk and the makers of this film definitely know. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 06/15/24 Full Review Sachin E Great visuals, but the film is a mess. There is no structure at all, just random visuals. This is literally National Geographic gone bonkers. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 10/29/23 Full Review Matthew B Samsara took four years to make, and was filmed across five continents. Characteristically the title is taken from a Buddhist word used to describe the continuous flow of birth, life and death. The term signifies the impermanence of our material life compared to the benefits of a spiritual everlasting existence. It fits into Fricke's vision that favours the ethereal over the material. Structurally the film follows the same pattern as Baraka, but with an added emphasis on the contrast between the slow and meditative worlds found in other cultures, and the fast-moving materialistic values of capitalism with its emphasis on consumerism and automation over slow reflection and compassionate humanity. Fricke claims not to be stating a message, but his philosophy is clear from the way that he lays out his movies. I will say more on this later. Fricke shows us images of nature and an older world together. This is the world of religious ecstasy and art, and the structures that Fricke chooses are brilliantly colourful and aesthetically pleasing. Children and monks work painstakingly on creating an artistic work from coloured grains of sand that they sweep away. The camera dwells on paintings in cathedrals, on chandeliers, and on stained glass windows. By contrast the western world is a place where traffic crowds the streets, even at night. People live in skyscrapers. Even while exercising they play on phones and tablets, unable to take time to relax and contemplate. The artwork seen here is different. It is the inmates of a prison performing a dance, or the carefully choreographed military marches that indicate our celebration of belligerence. In one of the more remarkable scenes, a man is dressed as a business executive. He begins to cover his face in green lotion and powder, forming hideous shapes. He seems like the embodiment of the tortured soul of the company man. We visit the sweatshops, the employees dressed in the same high-visibility yellow or pink uniforms, as they crowd into busy rooms. Their work is repetitive and homogenised, divorced from any feeling. Hens are gathered and trapped by a machine with blade-like propellers. Cattle rotate on a large circular milking machine that looks like a device from a James Bond movie. Piglets suckle from a large sow that hardly has room to stand up in her tiny prison. The bodies of gutted animals hang from a conveyor belt. Sex too is reduced to a commodity, as the lines of headless sex dolls and a gathering of pole dancing sex workers indicate. The process of preparing and eating meals in fast food joints is shown. After the images of animal cruelty required to get the items on our plate, perhaps some viewers may not feel as hungry as they did. Meanwhile the poor are exploited or neglected. Men transport rocks from a toxic mining area, their shoulders covered in weals from the heavy weights they lift. The poor pick from rubbish tips while the rich are buried in coffins shaped like fish or aeroplanes. Shanty towns contrast with the layered high rise luxury apartments, many of them containing a swimming pool. Fricke shows us a society that is obsessed with guns. One man is buried in a coffin shaped like a gun. Ammunition is mass-produced. This is contrasted with a disfigured veteran standing in a military graveyard where the headstones can be seen stretching out behind him. Fricke returns to showing a better life outside our culture. The film ends with same images with which it began, albeit moving to another stage of development. The circular pattern of life, birth and death (Samsara) continues. The film creates a sense of awe for our planet, and our achievements as a race, even while identifying human failings. I wrote a longer appreciation of Ron Fricke's movies on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2021/08/29/three-films-by-ron-fricke-chronos-baraka-and-samsara/ Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/18/23 Full Review Dave S Samsara alternates equally between inspirational, jaw-dropping images and shots that are almost certain to induce tears of despair. Ron Fricke's film is nothing more than a series of images, some done in time lapse, some in slow motion, and many simply stationary. The movie seems to be an indictment of mankind's impact on the natural world, but it's almost certain that viewers will draw their own conclusions based on their own experiences. While most of the images captured transition nicely and logically into the next shot, there are times when the connection between the images is a little more tenuous, which tends to confuse the message. Regardless, Samsara is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful films ever made and should be seen for that reason alone. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 12/10/24 Full Review Read all reviews

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