Microcosmos (Wide Screen) > Reviews > The best documentary of the 90's

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding

Advantages:	A superb documentary .  Amazing .
Disadvantages:	None .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

An epic documentary.

Microcosmos is an award-winning French documentary directed by Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou. It was shot in l'Aveyron, a département of the Midi-Pyrénées region in southern France, named after the Aveyron river.

Microcosmos was the first documentary, back in 1996, to use high-technology camera equipment to capture the infinitely small world of insects.
Nowadays, the same techniques are applied in most TV documentaries concerning insects and animals. However, Microcosmos is a very different brand of documentary, almost devoid of commentary, which gives it a Koyaanisqatsi feel (Godfrey Reggio, 1982).

Nuridsany and Pérennou furnish the bland documentary style with cinematic hand-held and fixed camera works that seem to work towards a narrative and intelligent whole, instead of some up-to-the-minute material girl leaping into focus every minute.

From the first frame, after a very brief off-voice, the camera slowly descends into the grasses, very much like the opening to David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986). The grass bends aside the camera lens... we go deeper still... and finally Microcosmos begins. Wonderful.

You will encounter the most exotic insects ever, as well as some common ones. These are Microcosmos's cast. The list is never-ending:
Beautiful rainbow-coloured butterflies, long-tailed caterpillars, duelling Dung beetles, strange underwater spiders, swallow-tail butterflies, Burgundy snails, stag beetles, ferocious red ants, peacock moths... and many more.

My favourite part (you can't really call this a spoiler of any kind) is when you get a point-of-view camera from inside an ant's nest. Amazing.
You will also come across the accelerated metamorphosis of a mosquito, an astonishing sight, among other mind-blowing things.

Microcosmos is 72 minutes long, split into 21 comprehensive DVD chapters.

There are no extras, for obvious reasons:
- You cannot make a documentary about making a documentary.
- There are no outtakes.
Maybe a commentary by Claude Nuridsany or Marie Pérennou, or both, would of being a nice addition. But it does not matter that much.

In conclusion, Microcosmos is one of the most memorable documentaries of the 90's and ranks among the greatest, such as Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1955) and Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1982).
It should not be missed; a great watch for kids too.

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(Written by myself - no violation, no lifting, no breach of copyright)