SUBLIME CINEMA: EXPERIENTIAL EXCESS AND EMBODIED SPECTATORSHIP IN GODFREY REGGIO’S QATSI TRILOGY by Adam Bagatavicius B.F.A. (honours), Concordia University, 2011 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Film Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2015 © Adam Bagatavicius, 2015 Abstract Certain aesthetic experiences resonate so profoundly that they can trigger extreme psychophysiological and emotional responses in the spectator. In this thesis I will explore how Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi (1982), Powaqqatsi (1988), and Naqoyqatsi (2002) exemplify that the stylistic excess of non-verbal cinema can produce a sublime degree of experiential response by way of embodied spectatorship. I will use the observable elements of special effects, cinematography, and music in each film to locate sublime responses as palpable points of affective rupture where audiovisual stimuli results in psychophysiological emotional responses (visual hapticity, synesthesia, kinesthesia). The broader goal of defining “sublime cinema” is to a) reify how this mode of filmmaking relates to aspects of the Digital Age we are all a part of, and b) work towards an analytical methodology that might be applied to other experimental films in order to gauge at which point audiovisual content becomes fully embodied experience. First I will sketch out the genealogy of Reggio’s filmmaking style, reevaluate Kristin Thompson’s conceptualization of excess in relation to non-narrative cinema, integrate Vivian Sobchack’s research on embodied spectatorship, and unpack the sublime in order to define it cinematically. Second, I will focus on how special effects and cinematographic techniques (slow motion, time lapse, digital manipulation, and camera movement) activate the sublime aspect of an image. Third, I will hone in on the sonic aspect of sublime cinema, and how Philip Glass’ scores propel the image with the aid of biomusicological phenomena (rhythmic entrainment and chills). Lastly, I will discuss how Reggio’s most recent film Visitors (2013) expands on the architecture of sublime cinema by focusing on the reciprocated gaze of its filmed subjects. ii Preface This thesis is original, unpublished, independent work by the author, Adam Bagatavicius. iii Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ii Preface ........................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................1 1.1 From City Symphonies to Spiritual Circuitry .................................................................... 2 1.2 Excess ................................................................................................................................ 7 1.3 Embodied Spectatorship .................................................................................................. 11 1.4 Sublime Methodology ...................................................................................................... 16 1.5 Sublime Cinema ............................................................................................................... 21 1.6 Analysis Structure ............................................................................................................ 26 Chapter 2: Image – “Objects in Mirror are Closer than they Appear” .................................30 2.1 Slow Motion – “Mosquitoes Trapped in Amber” ............................................................ 33 2.2 Time Lapse – “Blurred Lines” ......................................................................................... 43 2.3 Natural Effects – “It Is What It Is” .................................................................................. 48 2.4 Digital Manipulation – “It Is What It Isn’t” ..................................................................... 53 2.5 Camera Movement – “Chasing Cliffhangers” ................................................................. 57 Chapter 3: Music – “Playing with Sonic Sledgehammers” ......................................................67 3.1 Biography – “Through the Looking Glass” ..................................................................... 69 3.2 Aural Excess in Balance – “Reel-to-Reel-to-Reel-to-Reel-to-Reel-to-Reel” .................. 75 3.3 Entrainment – “Earworms in the Key of G” .................................................................... 81 iv 3.4 Chills – “Fever Pitches” ................................................................................................... 89 Chapter 4: Conclusion – “Looking Back” .................................................................................98 4.1 Manifesto – “Looking Forward” .................................................................................... 104 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................109 v Acknowledgements When I came up with the idea for this thesis, I could never have anticipated what a monumental set of challenges were in store. Were it not for the support of the following people, I firmly believe that my brain would have grown legs, leapt out of its cranium, and ran away. Many thanks to: my wonderfully helpful thesis supervisor, Dr. Ernest Mathijs, for keeping me on a set path of vigourous writing; Dr. Lisa Coulthard for being my second reader, and instilling a theoretical rigor into her course material that always pushed me to go further; Dr. Nathan Hesselink for leading the most enriching musicology course I have ever taken, and equipping me with the right tools to assemble the third chapter of this thesis; Richard Payment, wise overlord of the film library, for sharing my zeal in this strange genre of films; Kimberley Monteyne for bringing early cinema to life in a way that spurred invaluable brainstorms for this thesis; Karen Tong, Cam Cronin, and Ian Patton on the administrative side for keeping all of the department’s bridges from catching fire; fellow film studies graduates Claire Davis, Molly Lewis, and Angela Walsh, whose diverse interests refreshed my own scholarly considerations. To my cohort – Whitney Cant, Kevin Hatch, Paula Schneider, and Kelly St-Laurent – you were the best bunch of “Dinosaurs” a Vancouver newcomer could have ever asked for. You encouraged and challenged my ideas with equal productive measure, and I am grateful for the creative community that you offered from the get-go. I would also like to extend heartfelt thanks to those who helped shape some of the ideas contained in this thesis during my time as an undergraduate at Concordia University: Robert Del Tredici, the George Méliès of still photography; Dr. Carole Zucker, an Oracle of Excess; Dr. vi Donato Totaro, Genre Sage; and the late Louis Goyette, amicable Virgil who first introduced me to the many labyrinthine corridors of experimental cinema. It is also important that I mention Heather Cameron – fairy godmother of East Van – for making me feel welcome since the first day I moved here and became her tenant, as well as Mathias Jorgensen: a neighbour that quickly became a comrade in arms who was always willing to be a soundboard for my many thesis and school-related rants. You are a large part of the reason I have been able to call Vancouver home for three years. Every spark in my being is indebted to Marla Schreiber, my Other, for putting up with these long years apart, Stephanie Merulla, my Twin Soul, who fuels my passion from afar, and Tenyjah “Herreure” McKenna, a constant source of manic daydreams. To my parents Linda and David, and sister Christina: you are the most inspiring guardian angels on the planet. Your love and positive influence is more sublime and uplifting than all the nuts and bolts of this thesis, even if they were smelted into the shape of an espresso-dispensing heart. Your generosity is bottomless; my gratitude is boundless. Were it not for the support and stability of these individuals, this thesis would have never made it past the “amorphous hunch” stage. You keep my heart racing, my mind buzzing, my soul stirred, and my body emanating with the infinite recourse of your compassion and wisdom. Without the additional financial support of SSHRC, this thesis would have been written in the utter destitution of dumpster diving and instant coffee mix. Much obliged. Lastly: thanks to those flash-in-the-pan transients whose names I never learnt during some of the most profoundly moving moments of my life, and thanks to you the reader, for bringing these pages to life with your perception. vii Chapter 1: Introduction “The power of these pieces is that you can induce the meaning out of it that it stimulates in yourself. It’s like a trialectic relation between the music, the image, and the viewer. The viewer is active participant, it’s not that we’re trying to go over the head of the viewer, but right into the solar plexus, right