directed by Jacques Perrin (1996)
I tend to gravitate to movies and books that explore the darker side of life, but every once and a while I just want to relax with something that makes the world seem wonderful and awe inspiring. The French documentary MicroCosmos is such a film.
I remember the movie making quite a splash with it’s amazing technology that manages to capture the most intimate daily moments of insects and thier surroundings. We follow a bee as it polluantes, we are up close and personal with mating snails, we see a drop of rain bounce a lady bug from her leaf and we are mesmerized by it all.
It makes one see the world in a way we’ve never seen it before. We thought it was great that it was shot in what Jim called “just some French countryside” and not some totally exotic local, making the somewhat familiar magical.
The film is mostly set to music, bookended with minimal narration. Funnily, and probably acurrately, the French felt this would be a tough sell with Americans and tried to tie it to Jurassic Park to gain an audience.
Like most things I watch these days, this is available streaming on netflix and looks amazing in HD.