Physicist Amok

I just finished watching Microcosmos at our Rockefeller film series.

There are two bits of narration, one at the beginning, one at the end, both about two sentences long, and both completely unnecessary.

The rest is photage of insects, plants, and other small creatures, but that doesn’t even begin to capture how compelling it is. Vignette after vignette unfolds which hilights — without any narration, just with amazing cinematography of insects in the wild — everything from the effects of surface tension on that scale to insect mating habits.

The sound is as stunning as the sights. Things our size make quite a lot of noise, and a foley pit produced sounds to go with the insects which seem scaled appropriately for our sense. It really adds a lot to the film. On top of that, it has one of the best sound tracks I’ve heard in a long time, in an eclectic mix of 20th century compositional styles.

When I wasn’t entranced by the beauty on the screen or the sound track, my thoughts were all of the form, “I wonder…” This is, in a sense, the intellectual opposite of a nature show. Nature shows explain things and impart answers. At the end of Microcosmos, I have a few hundred questions and burning desire to hit a meadow with a notebook and a couple of sandwiches.

A little digging led me to Spirit of Baraka, which lists a number of other films made in a similar manner. If they are of anywhere near the caliber of Microcosmos, I’ve got some wonderful viewing ahead.