Anima Mundi

Amazon.com

Director Godrey Reggio presents a vibrant, visually compelling look at the animal kingdom in Anima Mundi, a 1991 short film that fits nicely between two other movies featuring the music of minimalist composer Philip Glass. 1983's Koyaanisqatsi and 1988's Powaqqatsi focused on the urban and physical realms of the planet, speeding up our view of the wonders of the world, and managing to find art in the heart of the city's interconnecting freeways and overpopulated spaces. But as Anima Mundi states in its epitaph, "the breath, the life, the spirit, the soul of the world" embodies a more mysterious existence, from sea to mountain top. There is such beauty and grace in the movement and exoticism of animals that this 30-minute short serves as a cautionary reminder by celebrating everything we, as humans with our omnipotent sense of superiority, seem intent on destroying over time. "The world is indeed a living being, endowed with a soul and intelligence," wrote Plato, and Anima Mundi is glorious, gorgeous visual proof of that maxim. --Paula Nechak

Customer Reviews:

A feast for the eyes and ears............2007-04-14

This video is truly a work of art both visually and musically. The photography is top-notch and the visual images are well-coordinated with constant stream of beautiful images. I don't know if the video was updated since some other reviewers wrote their reviews, but I play my version on an HDTV with an upper end DVD and I don't find it a "negative experience" at all. While the video quality is not HDTV, it still very aesthetically pleasing. I imagine it would be spectacular in a theatre, but it is still very impressive in my living room.

There is no talking in this video and it is very much felt experience to watch it. There are many interesting animals, magnified protists, algae, etc. There are also kelp forests, many sea creatures, a live volcano and many ocean pictures.

As is pointed out in the editorial reviews, Anima Mundi means world soul. This video tries to capture a sense of this and it succeeds marvelously. If you are looking for a documentary, this is not it, but it never was positioned this way in the market.

You can get more information on the Anima Mundi as a concept on the Internet. There is at least one terrapsychology website that can go into more detail on what this term means and what this video is trying to convey. I think it's great for anyone, but it would make a particularly good classroom video and it's just the right length for this purpose.

Not what I had hoped........2007-03-20

With director Godfrey Reggio at the helm - and with a 30 minute running time - I was expecting to be overwhelmed by the might and majesty of the animal kingdom packed into a half-hour package.

Unfortunately, I find a less-than lackluster video transfer by the Richard Diercks Company, Inc. -likely from the source material for the videocassette- with resolution equal to s-vhs. The image is slightly 'jerky' due to it being shot in 24fps and increased to 30fps. Add to the list of flaws: muted colors, poor contrast and a purplish line on the far left side of the screen.

Still, I could have been 'wowed' by stellar cinematography but alas, much of what is shown onscreen is stock footage. Some of the slow motion scenes are nicely done but others (again, stock footage?) were shot at standard speed and frames were duplicated to replicate slow motion. Personally, I find the technique distracting.

However, being the animal lover that I am I was moved by many of the shots in the film. The soundtrack is a typical, yet pleasing Philip Glass score and complements the images onscreen.

With all the problems I have with this product, I do hope it will be remastered from the original source material for an HD-DVD release.

Cheers.

the animal kingdom.......2007-01-30

Yes, it's directed by Godfrey Reggio, no, it's not like the hopelessly overrated Koyaanisqatsi but with animals, but it is a beautifully filmed, meditative close up of animals in the wild. As others have noted, the running time is quite short.

amazing.......2005-08-15

A gorgeous treatise on the beauty of the living earth, Godfrey Reggio's "Anima Mundi" is the absolute opposite of his more famous "Koyaanisqatsi." With Philip Glass again providing the score (this time a more animated, globalistic affair than his highly minimalist work for "Koyaanisqatsi") over an otherwise silent parade of spellbinding images of life and earth, this movie is a moving experience that plays out in under half an hour. Previous reviewers have panned the video quality and while it's not exactly plasma-screen-good, it's certainly sufficient enough to make this a worthy buy.

poor quality hurts this film.......2003-06-12

This film is good, its not the best though because at thirty minutes it really cuts its self short. Sure its a short film, but the subject matter it is trying to deal with just can't be properly covered in thirty minutes. Even so its worth a watching,
but too bad the DVD is poor in the visual quality. Glass is great with the music, as usual. The film Microcosmos and the film Baraka are actually better films in dealing with nature.
Check them out too.

LANGUAGE OF DREAMS: BIRDS & FLYING CREATURES 2

Average customer rating:

LANGUAGE OF DREAMS: BIRDS & FLYING CREATURES 2

Manufacturer: TMW MEDIA GROUP, INC
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

amazon.com

Amplifies a multitude of winged creatures and explores personal and cultural associations and possible interpretations and meanings of the winged creatures in our dreams.

LANGUAGE OF DREAMS: BIRDS & FLYING CREATURES # 1.

Average customer rating:

LANGUAGE OF DREAMS: BIRDS & FLYING CREATURES # 1.

Manufacturer: TMW MEDIA GROUP, INC
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

amazon.com

A sensitive and expansive lecture on the archetypal meanings of birds, insects and other flying creatures. Using beautiful imagery to illustrate stories, myths and dreams this video demonstrates the significance of these flying denizens in our night jour

LANGUAGE OF DREAMS: CARS, BIKES, TRAINS & OTHER VEHICLES OF TRANSPORTATION IN DREAMS

Average customer rating:

LANGUAGE OF DREAMS: CARS, BIKES, TRAINS & OTHER VEHICLES OF TRANSPORTATION IN DREAMS
Starring: Elizabeth Strahan (facilitator)
Manufacturer: TMW MEDIA GROUP, INC
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

amazon.com

Analyzes what it means when you dream of driving or being driven in a car, bus or train. Learn what it means when you lose your car in a dream and what the kind of vehicle you are traveling in or on means. Host Elizabeth Strahan looks at issues around transportation in dreams.

Average customer rating:

Soul Keeper
Starring: Soul Keeper (Prendimi L'anima)
Manufacturer: Msi Music
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Average customer rating:

A strange and beautiful film

Anima
Starring: George Bartenieff , Jacqueline Bertrand , Bray Poor , Geoffrey Cantor , and Mark Mineart
Director: Craig Richardson
Manufacturer: Vanguard Cinema
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Crime & Criminals | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

( A ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00005NB9P
Release Date: 2001-10-23

Customer Reviews:

A strange and beautiful film.......2001-12-01

This is not your typical movie--taxidermy, nazis, and, most of all, a love story of an elderly married couple. Give it a try if you like European or unusual American films.

Average customer rating:

Exceptional Film
The Soul Keeper

L' Ame en Jeu / The Soul Keeper

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B000ECGZKS

Product Description

Seduced by Jung, killed by hate, redeemed by history. In 1905 a 19-year-old Russian girl suffering from severe hysteria is admitted into a psychiatric hospital in Zurich. A young doctor, Carl Gustav Jung, takes her under his care and for the first time experiments with the psychoanalytical method of his teacher, Sigmund Freud. Based on recently exposed secret correspondence between Jung, Freud and Sabina Spielrein, this true story begins with the Spielrein's healing, closely related to her passionate love affair with Jung, followed by her return to post-revolutionary Russia ? where she became a psychoanalyst herself founding the famous White School ? and her sudden death in 1942, the victim of Nazi violence. The investigation of this story becomes an essential component of the film via two modern researchers, Marie, a young French scholar, and Fraser, a historian from Glasgow, who follow Sabina's life from Zurich to Moscow to Rostow, leading to the discovery of missing portions of the original correspondence. And since any exploration of others' lives inevitably leads to delving into one's own self, the two stories then finally interweave and are swept away in the passionate journey.

Customer Reviews:

Exceptional Film.......2006-04-22

I enjoyed this film, for one because I like Craig Ferguson and he is in it. But even if he weren't I would have loved it, it is so moving. Anyone who has had been in therapy, will realize the practice wouldn't have been as widely used if people like this man Carl Jung hadn't lived and worked with people like this young woman. It has its sad parts, but entertaining for those of us who like to think about life. Realize how experiences we have had and will have or see will affect our lives, we are the sum of all of our experiences in the end. Good..Bad or indifferent we are who we are because of these.

The Soul Keeper.......2006-03-17

This is the fascinating story of Sabina Spielrein told as a story within a story. Two modern day researchers hunt for the truth about history's first female psychoanalist and her fate. In 1907,her Russian family commits her to a Swiss mental asylum for her eratic and delusional behavior. The early 20th century was still a barbaric place for the mentally ill. In an age before drug therapy, they were at times cruelly restrained, repeatedly doused with ice water, recieved repeated electro-shock therapy and subjected to other various inhumane treatments in an effort to "cure" them. Sabina willed herself to die partially as a punishment for her parent's abandoning her there. Carl Gustav Jung manages to penetrate her shell and literally saves her from herself. But can he save himself from Sabina? A young protege of Sigmund Freud, he was the first to try "the talking cure" with her and she is purportedly the first person he cured in this manner. In a brand new field, with few safe guards in place for either the patient or the doctor, the two become so entwined emotionally, that they fall hopelessly and helplessly in love. As Jung is pulled further and further under by Sabina's all engulfing love, he must beg her to save him by letting go. At his urging, the brilliant young Sabina attends and graduates from medical school then becomes a psychotherapist as well. Ahead of her time in thought and action, she moves back to Lenin's Russia with her husband and young family to open "The White Nursery." The first school based on psychoanalysis and freedom of thought and expression. It is from her letters to both Freud and Jung, that continued throughout her brief life, her diaries and the Soviet Archives that her story is taken. Though known from her letters, it was not until the fall of the Soviet Union that it was discovered what had become of her in World WarII. It has only been recently that it has been noted that she made significant and largely unrecognized, contributions to both Freud's and Jung's work. Iain Glen is perfect as the conflicted and passionate Jung and Emilia Fox is mesmerizing as the insane to brilliant Sabina. This is a haunting tale that will stay with you long after the end credits roll. Well worth watching.

Average customer rating:

LANGUAGE OF DREAMS: SNAKES IN DREAMS.

Manufacturer: TMW MEDIA GROUP, INC
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

amazon.com

Elaborate the imagery and archetypal association of the snake in dreams. Dreams of snakes may frighten or fascinate and lead us to a journey of consciousness. This idea is explored in a lecture accompanied by intriguing images.

Average customer rating:

LANGUAGE OF DREAMS: MEN IN MEN'S DREAMS
Starring: Elizabeth Strahan (facilitator)
Manufacturer: TMW MEDIA GROUP, INC
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

amazon.com

Presents a positive way to encounter same-sex figures in your dreams. Find your personal identity as a man through building a relationship to the masculine principle in your dreams.

LANGUAGE OF DREAMS: WOMEN IN MEN'S DREAMS.

Average customer rating:

LANGUAGE OF DREAMS: WOMEN IN MEN'S DREAMS.

Manufacturer: TMW MEDIA GROUP, INC
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

amazon.com

Teaches you how to improve your personal relationships by becoming conscious of your relationship with the inner womean. Learn to know your soul.

DVD:

DVD

DVD