Microcosmos Review

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.

by Neil Jeffries |
Published on
Release Date:

01 Jan 1996

Running Time:

73 minutes

Certificate:

U

Original Title:

Microcosmos

It's a rare film that can boast a cast of thousands, none of whom can speak or act. But this everyday chronicle of life, sex and death can do just that.

It follows a day in the life of a French meadow: a thistle bursting into flower; a bee hovering over a clutch of poppies; an ant tickling aphids who produce a drink in return. Though a film of exquisite beauty, there is a sense that it might have been more.

Nevertheless, even with its sparcity of incidental music (long periods pass in relative silence) rarely have so many remarkable and eminently watchable scenes been crammed into just 73 minutes.

Beautiful and original.
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