Written & Directed: Simon Pummell
Studio: Film 4 (UK)/Eclectic DVD Distribution
Video: 4:3 color and B&W
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, DD 2.0
No Regional Coding
Extras: Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead) interview on composing the score, Short films by Simon Pummell with his own introductions
Length: 78 minutes
Rating: ****
Bodysong is in the category of those thoughtful narration/dialog-less
artistic features such as Koyaanisqatsi, Chronos and Baraka. But
completely different. Instead of being specially shot in often
amazing widescreen images it uses mostly stock footage, home movies and
often rather poor quality B&W material. But since it spans a
century of cinema it’s understandable some of the footage would look
dated. The impact of the editing of the various moving images and
their being presented next to other moving images which then relate to
them illustrates some of Eisenstein’s theories about film editing to
the hilt. The final result is hard-hitting, compelling and
extraordinary in every way. One observer said the filmmaker’s last name
was very appropriate, because after seeing his film you may feel
pummelled. The director wants the viewer to be moved but not
necessarily to feel good at the end of the film.
The very poetic collage of thousands of moving images from around the
world and going back to Edison is basically the story of human life on
earth. It is divided into several categories: Love, Sex,
Violence, Death, Dreams. In comments by Pummell in the extras it
appears that this – his first feature – developed out of filming his
own child’s birth. (Back when I was dabbling in experimental films, it
seemed every other filmmaker I knew was making birthing films.) He
secured other footage of births, including a quite amazing record of a
birth in water used in Bodysong. One sequence which blew me away was
closeups of the faces of not-yet-born inside the womb using 4D
Ultrasound technology; they look like wizened old men’s faces.
Microscopy of blood cells, sperm, cells multiplying etc. are also
presented. Eventually Pummell moved on from people being born to people
eating, people worshipping, people playing, people growing up, people
dying, and people senselessly killing each other. The film carries no
rating, and that’s a good thing, for it has some pretty graphic scenes.
Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead created an ambient, often dissonant
background of sounds to accompany Bodysong, and is interviewed in the
extras. He probably got into this sort of thing via Radiohead’s DVD of
a couple years ago, The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth of All Time. But
their 24 short films in that one were intended to match up with
the already-recorded soundtracks, and with Bodysong Greenwood was
working in reverse fashion from that. The weirdness quotient of both
some of the images and some of the sounds are however similar between
the two DVDs. Bodysong has been shown successfully at many
international film festivals and won awards at the British Independent
Film Festival and elsewhere.
It is not only a film but also a website which is not just a
promotional tool for the feature but an informational databank.
This ameliorates some of the frustration during viewing of the film
when you are thinking “What was that I just saw briefly?” At www.bodysong.com
you can view a series of dozens of flying stills – one for each scene
in the film – coming at you from infinity. You select what part
of the film they come from by sliding your cursor along a
timeline. When you seek more information on a particular scene
you click on the image and a page comes up with details on that one
scene. For example the scene on the water pool birthing described the
process promulgated by a French doctor, which has been so far used by
only six couples in the U.S. The mother is encouraged to catch
the baby as it comes out (without involvement of medical personnel) and
it spends a couple minutes entirely under water – “between two worlds”
– before it is brought out for its first breath. (The mother is also
encouraged to sing during the water birth – good vibrations for
the baby you see.) If one took the time to go thru all the images that
you wonder about on first viewing and read the descriptions, the second
viewing of Bodysong would be a 100% deeper experience. (But
you may want to hit the Mute button on your keyboard to turn off the
eventually grating ambient sounds.)
– John Sunier
