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Microcosmos
A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching.
Release : | 1996 |
Rating : | 7.9 |
Studio : | Miramax, France 2 Cinéma, Canal+, |
Crew : | Aerial Camera, Aerial Camera, |
Cast : | Jacques Perrin |
Genre : | Documentary |
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Rating: 7.2
Reviews
Redundant and unnecessary.
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
The word 'insect' in the minds of most people brings about images of destructive, disease-carrying 'bugs', flies, maggots, cockroaches. But if Microcomos does anything, it reminds me that there are hundreds of thousands of constructive insects that are simply beautiful.The directors of this film spent a number of years using microscopic cameras to capture breathtaking images of hundreds of insects in their natural habitat (in this case, a meadow in France). They select just the right music for a scene in which a pheasant who attacks and ant colony. Two snails seem locked in some time of embrace, a ladybug tries to take off but has a little trouble getting off the ground.'Microcosmos' fits the category of a documentary. But depending on how you take the behavior of these amazing creatures its a love story (two snails who seem deeply in love), a war movie (two beetles lock in moral struggle), a child-birth film (several insects giving birth), a disaster movie (a rainstorm in which the drops seem like a meteor storm) and a monster movie (a pheasant that attacks an ant colony). I sometimes felt like and interloper peering down into their lives in their most intimate moments.I saw a movie a few years back called 'The Scent of Green Papaya' which contained a scene of a curious little girl squatted down on the ground smiling as she watched a colony of ants at work. I wondered about that and when I saw 'Microcosmos' I felt that I had a ringside seat at what had captivated her.
I'm all for innovation and creativity. Quite happy with weird films. But this is just a film of bugs coming and going, going about their normal daily business. Yes, of course they're nicely photographed, and the flowers they visit have lovely bright colours. But it's not really a film, is it?I tried with Microcosmos. At first, I though I was waiting for the dialogue to kick in. But no. And then, I thought the beetle activity would form into a plot - maybe it does, but I simply couldn't get it. I think it was this belief - that it would somehow form itself into a story - that kept me from walking out. But when it finally ended I was none the wiser, and wished I hadn't bothered.
I am still not sure if it is counted as a documentary or film, but this does not matter. I always liked nature so this movie is near to my spirits. I wished to see it as 3D but I think that such a release has not come up yet. The movie does not need any comment or subtitles. Just watch it. Keep on and you will learn who you are and where you live. The documentary is about everything, although it focused mainly on insects. You can imagine what just an innocent step in microcosmos can cause. All these little cuties and monsters have their own world and microcosmos maps it with a mild sight. French are great at such documentaries and this can be seen as a kind of conclusion. Beautiful shots, I can imagine setting the camera for hours, waiting for proceeding of an ant and then show all that crusade during several seconds. Maybe it seems that this kind of movie does not need any screenplay, but I do not agree with it. When you watch it, you find out it made some sense. Insects also behave according to schedules and needs. Actually, there is no point in describing the movie here, you must see it and you will want more to see. Beautiful beauty.
"Beyond anything we could imagine, yet almost beneath our notice." An exquisite film, painfully beautiful. It's relatively easy to find beauty in the majestic Grand Tetons, Monument Valley, or the brooding giants of a Big Tree forest. This film finds incredible beauty unnoticed at our feet.Ants drinking raindrops, or clustered around a tiny puddle -- then sharing back at the nest.Caterpillars marching in close formation.Ladybugs as the voracious predators they are. Ants protecting their aphids from the ladybug. Ants drinking the nectar exuded by the aphids they farm.Two snails locked in loving embrace.Alien-looking mantids suddenly taking notice of the camera.Beetles in extended combat. We are not shown why.A mosquito emerging from pupa. A butterfly also. A caterpillar hatching from an egg -- then eating the shell.Winged ants crowding out of the nest for their nuptial flight.Caterpillars in weird diversity, one with two horns on its posterior that extrude and retract bright red filaments. What /are/ they?The film is almost entirely visual. There are only a few seconds of voice-over at beginning and end, and the soundtrack is very low-key, for the most part, of the natural sounds of the action. Occasional light touches of music or choral voices nicely complement the photography.I was struck by the cleanliness! Bugs cleaning, cleaning, cleaning! Even an earthworm emerging from burrow glistens in pristine translucent beauty. After viewing this film, how could anyone say that bugs are dirty?