The Industrialized World Film Analysis

Art is a mechanism by which the artist turns the simple into the phenomenal, the static into the dynamic, the two dimensional into the three dimensional, and can be looked at through the lens of Gestalt psychology--the concept that the work as a whole is different from the sum of its individual parts. Based on the current, Western perception of progress, society can be broken into collections of nations and regions that form pseudo classes or castes--the most distinct being the Emerging Countries and the Western Industrialized nations. Life is not only different from its parts, it is something more, something deeper, something greater than the sum; artists express this depth that would not otherwise be seen through a multitude of media--in …show more content…
Reggio’s film begins in the Emerging Countries. Upbeat music plays while masses of smiling faces appear, followed by women in unique, decorative green and red dresses celebrating and men shouldering bags larger than themselves: a hopeful, jubilant celebration of hard work, tradition, and nature. Quickly the scenes morph into images of the Industrialized World. Sameness scrolls across the screen as a whitewashed, endless building. The music speeds into a warlike beat as old commercials burn, overlapped with flames, which shifts again to a packed stadium, the individual people hardly differentiable, wearing standardized shirts and glum expressions while the fire of the Western countries’ industries consumes the individuality of the developing nations. The stark contrast of the similar stadium shirts with the women’s unique black, green, and red dress is mirrored by the tones of Vivaldi’s “Winter” juxtaposed with “Spring”. Traditionally, “The Four Seasons” begins with “Spring” and follows nature’s order; however, seasons are cyclical. The music infinitely looped connects the end with the beginning, which brings out the contrast between Vivaldi’s interpretations of the seasons that naturally flow into the next. “Winter” has a harsh quality with sharp tones hitting piercing heights and quickly falling and fading--emulating the bitter bluster often associated with the colder, …show more content…
Unlike the Industrialized nations, scenes of the Emerging Countries are clear and crisp where industrialization has not intruded: a sharp image of an Indian woman carrying her daughter--unhindered and unobscured by Western progress--contrasts the blurred scene of two featureless businessmen walking forward. The context of progress, which gives meaning to the clarity of the woman and girl, similarly represents the context of seasons in “The Four Seasons”, which breathes life to Vivaldi’s strings. The same instruments, and many of the same bars, are utilized in Vivaldi’s composition, but slight nuances give way to the feeling of seasons, creating change with unity. The violin comes alive after “Summer” fades as a cool autumn breeze, with a softer, but sharper quality and slower cadence, only to become cutting sheets of snow and ice when “Winter” arrives, which meld back into spurting blossoms with “Spring” with their jolly, full tones. Both artists employ the concept of figure and ground