Visitors, film review: Exquisitely shot but heavily demanding

(U) Godfrey Reggio, 87 mins

Geoffrey Macnab
Thursday 03 April 2014 18:37 EDT
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Producer Jon Kane, director Godfrey Reggio and producer Lawrence Taub attend the 'Visitors' Post-Screening Dinner at last year's Toronto International Film Festival
Producer Jon Kane, director Godfrey Reggio and producer Lawrence Taub attend the 'Visitors' Post-Screening Dinner at last year's Toronto International Film Festival (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images)

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The latest collaboration between Godfrey Reggio and the composer Philip Glass is exquisitely shot but heavily demanding. Its main subject is the human face.

The film largely consists of close-ups of people (or apes) staring at the camera in quizzical and hostile fashion, intercut with shots of skyscrapers, swamp land and empty fairgrounds.

For all its beauty – and in spite of Glass's majestic music – the effect is bewildering.

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