Bodysong (2003) User Reviews

Joy of discovery

[foxc-2 · 8/10 · 8 December 2006]

As I started to watch this extraordinary film, I found the 30 or 40 graphic birth sequences, a few cut with MTV precision, to be somewhat repetitive, even though the cumulative effect is one of wonder and the "That's-how-we-ALL-started" realization. As the film wandered on, photographically documenting our communal journey through life, the immense variation of sequence (locale, year, style, situation, etc.) gave it rhythm and pace.

The first climax of the film is arresting, as are the rest.

An interesting, if sometimes obvious, musical score of various genres, projects warmly in 5.1.

The snaps of real sex are sandwiched by snips of painful and joyous reality and while the film has a humanist political bent, it is a truly amazing work of art with remarkable archival footage edited like movements of a sonata.

Pictures at an exhibition

[paul2001sw-1 · 6/10 · 18 October 2006]

'Bodysong' is a most unusual film, a collection of moving images of the human body set to music. The film demonstrates all stages of life, and includes some very explicit sexual content. In a loose way, it reminded me of Richard Linklater's film 'Slacker', in that one image follows another with some linkage, but no overall narrative in the classical sense. It's very artfully done, and almost every fragment is visually striking; but for those of us who think in words, it's just a set of pictures, distinctive but slightly lacking in purpose beyond a series of things to look at. In its own way, it's very good; but not quite my thing.

bodysong

[krazy_boi_nat · 8/10 · 12 April 2011]

The intention was to outline the human beings and there life on earth in no more then 90 minutes using tons of documentation footage from all over the world and all over the last century. It starts with a library of video recordings of sperm that has been magnified. The film starts on a collection of old recording from all over the globe and period that takes you on a journey of all of mankind's life, having a baby, learning, getting a job, sex, fighting, conflict, religion, imagination and demise.

Some of the clips are dull and others are mesmerizing, the prime impression is one of being carried along. The film somes up the word sublime for me. It The film is put together well to create the themes to create a universal feeling of what it is to be alive. It does not specific of individuals as such like my final film might. The shows me the idea of what being human is, This has really helped me as I want to show what it is like to live in the town of Eastleigh for my own film. The film is really interesting as all the material has been directed and filmed by others.

the movie of a life time

[rutkins · 16 January 2004]

With all due respect to the person who wrote the first review saying the footage was 'second rate', I think he misses the point. The reason why a lot of the clips aren't well shot or famous is because they are shot by amateurs about amateurs - this is a film about real life, and about a common humanity. Incidentally, there are shots of astronauts and atom bombs, and also some very famous clips, such as the clip from the old film 'the kiss' and the infamous shooting of a Vietnamese man.

The giving birth part of the film was for me rather painful to watch, which surprised me because, having seen Irreversible the week before, I didn't think anything could shock me. Many of the clips were funny, and others moving, but the film was flawed for a number of reasons. Primarily, I was confused by the order in which he tackled the various themes, which instead of going chronologically from birth to death exploring themes in-between, went from birth to death to rebirth, religion, marriage etc.. Also, having spent about 20mins on childhood and the teenage years, he spent no time on the elderly, unless you count the 'death' part.

I also felt that the plinky-plonky music didn't really help much, particularly during the 'sex' sequence. Why is there freaky jazz music going on over the sex part? Why is sex portrayed as some strange, subversive, aggressive part of life? I'll never understand why in 'serious' films hardcore sex attracts aggressive jazz music, when if you watch a hardcore porn movie it always has soft jazz music.

Although there were many parts of the film I enjoyed, it didn't have the coherence or forward thinking approach of similar films such as Koyaanisqatsi.

P.S I don't know why people would walk out of a film like this - it was marked '18' in the UK, so some of the scenes were expected, and all the reviews I read for it clearly stated that it was a series of clips put to music. Besides, it's not that long.

a must-see emotional roller-coaster

[jessewolden · 10/10 · 2 November 2004]

BODYSONG is a must-see emotional roller-coaster build up out of

clips of found footage from all periods of film-making from all over

the world. A cinematic experience in the true sense of the word, using

images and music (a fantastic diverse film score from Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood) to speak to the audience on a gut

and heart level. In a time where the individual is paramount this

intelligent film dares to push you to think about what it means to be

human.

At first the film follows the cycle of life, starting with conception, a

cascade of births, growing up, mating rituals and sex, followed by

violence, destruction, old age, illness and death. Because there is

no voice-over used, the images are incredibly strong. There is no

way to escape the visual, you cannot box it with knowledge and

therefore the less pleasant sides of humanity are straight in your

face. We are all animals driven by procreation and lust for power,

moving in herds and I watching this, am one of them. I think I am

special, but I am not.

Fortunately director Simon Pummell then shows us the redemptive side of humanity: the search for meaning. Through religion and ritual, art, dreams, beliefs and solidarity.

Particularly interesting is the introduction of speech very late in the

film, adding cinematic ally as a positive, the discerning factors

between animal and human: voice and reason.

The film ends upbeat, pulling out into space, leaving the human

species on their planet, with all their smallness and bigness

ticking over, generation after generation.

The Bodysong website delivers finally something very few film

websites do: a meaningful experience in itself and not just a

promotional tool. The website has all the clips used in the film and

it is on the website you can find out what, when and by whom. The

choice for mostly amateur non-fiction footage makes absolute

sense to me as this film speaks about real people. That the

choice is also highly personal (and anyone else making this film

would choose different clips) echo's and underlines the theme of

the film: we are all the same, but different.

Beautiful, moving and experimental...

[mthe · 9/10 · 16 February 2003]

I saw this film at the world premiere in Rotterdam, 3 weeks ago. I didn't know what I was going to see. The only thing I knew was the music was composed by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood. According to the title I thought the film was going to be like an ode to the human body, or something...

It was far from that; a better discription for this film would be: an experimental summary of all the bright and dark sides of life that every human being will encounter during his or her existence... Beautiful and moving it is. This film feels as a strong, videoclip-like story, not as an documentary. Though, the whole film consists completely of archive footage. Every piece of footage of every highlight in the history was used to accomplish a stunning effect. (The director of this film told us, before the film was started, every shot has a story and every story can be found on their interactive website.)This was all superbly guided by a score that, in my opion, sounded very fresh and modern and it harmonized wholly with the visuals as its counterpart.

Nice idea...

[Girolamo · 1/10 · 11 December 2003]

...shame about the film.

Most of the material in "Bodysong" has been used before, elsewhere, and to better effect. Although it begins promisingly enough, with some brilliant footage of the development of unborn children, the film soon degenerates into cheap stock footage which appears to have been rather lazily arranged. By far the most disappointing part is that dealing with love, which the filmmakers "illustrate" through the use of gross-out porn. The subsequent treatment of religion is pretty weak, and the war section, which comes even later, uses footage of atrocities so clumsily that you'll feel as if you're watching a snuff movie.

I'll confess I was misled about the nature of the film. I was made to expect a poetic rendering of the human story told through our successive stages of development. If this film were that, I might've enjoyed it. But it isn't, and I didn't. It's really less a "song" than a twisted scream; I can't imagine anyone sane who'd want to see this shoddily-constructed mishmash of Holocaust victims, hardcore sex and exploding amniotic sacs. Given that it's one of the few films that has ever left me angry about the time and money I wasted on it, I just wish the IMDB system allowed the giving of zero stars.

`Life is truly a fascinatingly beautiful concept of unequalled originality'

[kultur-terror · 10/10 · 5 May 2004]

The documentary genre is renowned for its creative filmic style and original brilliance the creators of said films bring to the screen. In the case of BODYSONG writer/director Simon Pummell in his debut feature is left to delve deep into the realms of his mind where anything and everything is possible. Pummell brings his ferociously honest film to life via the avenue of Jonny Greenwood, from the band 'Radiohead', with his immense musical genius creating a score worthy of the greatest motion picture.

The addresses the common truths throughout all society and more importantly the human race as the name suggests BODY being the overriding theme of the feature. All aspects of life are addressed and recorded vividly with no image censored leaving the spectator with a true sense of wonder and horror about the characteristics of the species depicted on screen. The shear volume of information and constant moving images of 'us' becomes a wanted tedium. Repetition seems to have no grounds when up against some of the most beautiful events that can ever occur for example the explicitly shown growing and birth of a human child and the resultant joy of the given parents. Only the most hardened soul could create disgust when viewing such magnificent beauty. One is truly in love with the idea of the human race and thus finds oneself deeply devoted to such a picture. Common curiosity is above all the true reason for placing yourself into the realms of Pummells' mind. This curiosity is convulsed with images that at the same time will deeply sicken most but also when realised as an entirety or as a 'human' they become less horrifying and more of a pragmatically true representation of the human species as we knew and know it. With all metaphorically decorative elements removed this film is showing you nothing more than human life, love, sex, death but in a way which truly mesmerises the soul. Whilst showing the spectator the standard characteristics of the human species Pummell chooses to show feats of human brilliance from the ignition of paper with pure mental strength to the hilariously exquisite contorting gymnastics of a man and his dog. Everything amazes solely because of the blatant and uncensored truth that is filmed. One cannot find in him a reason to criticise this feature due to its pure brilliance from the filmic techniques to the excellent score but more criticisms of the human race. You may find yourself in total emotional disarray that one human can do such things to another, but the film is 'us' and if we are like this then we must not blame the film for its grotesque frankness. More importantly blame us for giving Pummell the resources and the imagery to work with when creating the picture. The character in this film is humans not one but all and the people playing the species do it with realism and fortitude. Actors unconsciously playing a role that are generic to them, i.e. humans doing what they do best, being human. All the characters in the film have a story they are real people and what makes BODYSONG so unique is that an Internet database was created alongside the film with the background of all the people shown in the feature. One is left with only a few words to persuade others to watch BODYSONG them being, IF YOU ARE HUMAN WATCH THIS FILM.

Really bad!

[Dave_douell · 1/10 · 24 November 2018]

Maybe I'm not sure what the objective was but I think they failed miserably at doing what the description of the movie said. Some parts were good (very few) like the in-utero footage of the developing baby. They chose the worst footage they could find for the childbirth. I worked in labor and delivery for two years and most births are beautiful. These were a gore fest horror movie! The sex part.....Probably the worst! Half of the sex scenes were homosexual men, who knew they represented so much of the population! Plus I thought the movie was more about the cycle of life and I've never heard of two men procreating. I guess the director enjoyed gay sex. All of the footage was awful, it was either clips of things we've seen a thousand times or just unrecognizable garbage. They tried to be too artsy and failed!

An impressive and effective collage of experiences that produces an engaging summation of the human condition

[bob the moo · 19 November 2006]

Opening with footage of sperm fertilising an egg, this film begins a montage of archive footage from different places and times that encompasses the act of birth, growing up, teenage experience, sex, violence, war, spirituality, creativity and death. Having said that it is probably unfair of me to note that it is not wholly successful because when your aim is to sum up the human condition in less than 90 minutes then even attempting it is worthy of credit.

Pummell is credited as writer and director but a massive chunk of credit belongs to those who pulled together this mass of archive footage from all over the world and all over the last century. Pummell groups it together well to establish themes that generally do flow well together to create a general impression of what it is to be alive in overall terms of experience (ie not specific of individuals as such). In doing this the film slightly falters when some clips are dull and others are fascinating but this comes with the territory and the overriding impression is one of being carried along. It is an experimental sort of film and as such will not easily win a mass audience but it does deserve to be seen by many more people than its 150 odd votes on this site suggests have seen it.

Pummell benefits from the skill of those that provide him with his images and although he is "director" it is fair to say that this role is not as it would normally be considered as all of the material has been directed and filmed by others. These others are uncredited as far as I can see but they have captured a great range of footage, some good, others stunning. El-P has called it when he said that this is basically what you need to sit ET down in front of to give him an idea of what being human is. The soundtrack is haunting and well put together to mostly compliment the footage; my favourite being the jazz building to (literally) a climax during the section that depicts the passion and joy of sex.

Overall then a fascinating film that aims for an impossible goal but does a very good job of getting surprisingly close to achieving it. The footage is good and is well used by Pummell to develop themes and threads that combine to sum up the human experience. It is hard to put into words but it is not at all as patronising or arty as that sounds because it is surprisingly accessible and impacting (although you should be prepared for images of graphic sex, violence and births).

what your watching

[davincigreen · 10/10 · 11 April 2006]

brilliant archived footage from all across the world and an original concept plus score by jonny greenwood of radiohead. very humanistic approach to viewing life and it's stages of consciousness. at one point in the film you see a man set a piece of crumpled up paper on fire w/ his mind. lots of birth scenes- FYI for the weak stomached. the dreams section of the film is especially interesting. also, there is an awesome website where you can hear some of the score by greenwood. hope you enjoy it as much as i did. initiates intellectual conversation easily and is a great film for any foreign/experimental film freak. the tribal sequences of war are also especially exhilarating.

Worthy but second-rate footage

[bfinn · 4/10 · 6 December 2003]

The premise of this film is certainly worthy. It's a collage of film archive documentary footage which depicts the complete range of humanity and human experience, starting with birth and going on through various themes (love, war and the like), set to an interesting soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood (the music is in fact by far the best bit).

I expect some people thought this film was wonderful, and I came to it well-disposed myself, but ended up thinking otherwise. Sorry to sound cynical, but given a half-decent film archive, a pair of scissors, a roll of sticky tape and a few days, I could have done quite a bit better myself.

It became apparent after a while that almost all of the footage dated from the 70s or earlier, and it certainly showed. Crackly, poor colour, etc. And it was pretty second-rate footage too.

Lots of shots not particularly well filmed, ranging from the uninteresting to the mildly interesting. The themes were worthy (that word again) enough - people being happy, people being sad, people being shot at, etc. But with a handful of exceptions, you just wouldn't have chosen this particular footage to illustrate the themes. Rather than being inspired by the images, I ended up feeling that I was supposed to be inspired by them, but they just weren't very good.

I couldn't help wondering: given the vast scope of this film - potentially depicting all and any aspect of humanity and human endeavour - was this the best that could be found? Given the billions of hours of film that have ever been shot, was this really the top 83 minutes of all?

I'm afraid not. No moon landings, Beatles, Hiroshimas or other spectacular or memorable imagery here. Working down from the top of the pile of all footage ever taken, you'd find this stuff somewhere in the bottom half - not quite cutting-room floor or home video stuff, but not choice material either. Kind of old, mediocre stuff.

I assume the constraint here was budget. Presumably what happened is that the film-makers paid to use whatever they could find in a cheap archive of old footage. You get what you pay for.

And what you got was basically a load of crackly second-rate old footage on worthy themes cobbled together. Sorry to sound cynical, but that's all this film was.

Incidentally the opening few minutes, which includes (literally) about 30 different slow-motion graphic sequences of childbirth (all also apparently dating from the 1970s), are fairly gross and I'm surprised no-one in the cinema passed out or at least walked out during this.

However, as time wore on various people did get up and leave, and in the end I joined them.

Great concept, flawed delivery

[matthood · 5/10 · 2 January 2004]

I had been really psyched in expectation of seeing this film, but the end experience has left me rather flat. The two major issues of contention I have concern the structure and the much-hyped soundtrack. Although billed as a journey from birth to death the film actually continues past death into a bizarre and ultimately pointless montage of random and arbitrarily selected human activities. Ending the film at death would have been appropriate both in terms of content and time.

My other concern is the soundtrack, which is used to make judgements on what we see, in an otherwise silent film. However this is done inappropriately so that 'womb-time' is depicted in an anti-abortionist almost sacred manner and sex as both crazed and frenzied, whilst death camps are merely romanticised by elevator music! The net result is to depict sex as more unsavoury than the Holocaust! Either let us make up our own minds or treat all human activity with the same contempt.

Nightmare from England

[szm-1 · 1/10 · 12 May 2009]

Boring, quasi intellectual film. If you think that watching films is painless - try Bodysong. It's not even a film. Pummel has cut other document films, and made his own one. Only scenes (without voice or author's comment) and terrible music, and people think that this is real art... I was on this film in cinema long time ago. Now I look and it's high rated (6.7 is to high). I lost my money on this film that day, and lost humor. I think that producer hasn't spent 5 minutes on scenario. "Women are breeding, men are killing each other, people like dancing, and there were also a Nazi on this world, lets show it all". This is whole idea. If some aliens would seen this film, they wouldn't think much, they would just destroy human race, to make something good to world.