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16:9 in English: The "Wondrous Truth" of Microcosmos

By BILLY BUDD VERMILLION

Claude Nuridsany’s and Marie Perennou’s 1996 film about insect

life, Microcosmos, poses several problems for prevailing
theories of documentary cinema. If we think of documentaries
as films that present arguments about human affairs or human
history, Microcosmos simply does not fit the category.
Microcosmos also suggests that it is a mistake to think of
documentaries as films that reorganize and compress reality
into narrative form. The film minimizes dialogue and the
presence of human beings in the world being documented,
presenting us with gorgeous images divorced from any context
and organized associatively rather than as a narrative or
argument. The use of time-lapse cinematography and slow
motion, the flattening of space through camera placement and
shallow focus, the chemical manipulation of color (the film
includes almost no digital “tricks”), and the sheer physical
alienness of the creatures we are watching push the film closer
to abstraction and stylization than realism. If the abstraction of
the film separates it from cinema verité, we nonetheless do
seem to recognize something of the real world in the images
presented on screen.

"Fuzzy Boundaries" and "Wondrous Truth"

In his book, Rhetoric and Representation in Nonfiction Film, Carl
Plantinga argues for the necessity for distinguishing between nonfiction
and fiction films, pointing out that not only does categorization have
theoretical and practical use value, it is also central to the way human
beings make sense of the world around them. He writes that there are
no necessary and sufficient conditions, no essential features of a film
that make it a documentary beyond the assertive stance it takes
toward the world it presents and the extratextual indexing, or labeling,
of the film as nonfiction. In general, he points out, people agree on
what to include in the documentary category and what to exclude, but
he also says that “[s]ome categories have fuzzy boundaries.” According
to Plantinga, we are justified in recognizing the category of nonfiction
film even if some films seem stuck somewhere between fiction and
nonfiction, just as we are justified in distinguishing between old and
young people even though “in regard to a 35-, 50-, or 65-year-old, we
are less certain” about where to slot them (p.12).

It is likely that viewers can still determine whether a film is a

documentary or a fiction film even in many cases where the lines
between reality and artifice are blurred, the film does not look like a
typical documentary, or is indeterminately indexed. This is the case
because we can and do apply a number of tests about a film’s veracity
simultaneously whenever we watch one. Though a film’s indexing might
leave us uncertain about its documentary status, we can still apply our
schemata for fictional and avant-garde films, as well as for various sub-
genres of documentary such as the nature film or what Plantinga calls
the “poetic documentary.” If the movie does not seem to clearly fit any Fig. 1. Snails in love.

of these categories, we might ask common-sense questions about the

film and its relationship to the real world such as, “Does this ever
happen?” or “Does this look staged?” Watching a film is not something
that we do passively or without thinking, and we cannot divorce the act
of watching a film from all our other experiences of the world. It strikes
me as perhaps a little too tidy to say that we can only recognize that a
film is about the real world if some extratextual source informs us that
that is the case. Certainly, indexing is important, but I am convinced
that we bring a lot more to bear on the films that we see. This is
precisely the case with Microcosmos, which most viewers can recognize
as being about the real world in spite of its affinities with both fiction
and experimental film and its unclear indexing.

The goal of the film is not so much to teach or to argue through

showing as simply to show. Nuridsany and Perennou (both of whom are
biologists) seem to want us to look at the natural world in a new way, Fig. 2. A thornbush.

or perhaps to see a part of the world that we cannot see with the
unaided human eye. As Nuridsany puts it, the film is “a return to
science-fiction movies: the same exoticism, the same excitement in the
face of the unknown […] However, the difference lies in the fact that we
show the ‘wondrous truth,’ not the wonders conjured up by our
imagination. What we regard as the most banal life forms on our planet
are actually living in a fantastic realm” (quoted in “Cannes 96”). The
film is, then, a project about defamiliarization through abstraction, but
that abstraction is only partially created by the filmmakers—something
of the weirdness of this world is actually out there. Fig. 3. A graphic match. Dew is introduced
into the formal system.

No Argument—No Problem!
In Representing Reality, Bill Nichols claims that one common trait of
documentaries is that they advance arguments about the world (p.
111). Carl Plantinga argues that Nichols places far too much weight on
the idea of argumentation in documentary and this leads him to
overlook a number of key films, including Joris Ivens’ Rain (1929) and
Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi (1982), both of which depict the real
world but make few if any claims about it. These “poetic
documentaries” are organized according to formal principles rather
Fig. 4 . A dewy spider web.
than argumentative or narrative logic (p. 103).

Microcosmos seems to be one of these poetic documentaries. It is

organized episodically and topically, each segment flowing into the next
via associative editing rather than as part of an unfolding argument or
storyline. With no overarching narrative to link parts of the film
together, the filmmakers rely on graphic matches, dissolves, time-lapse
cinematography, and an artificially imposed dawn-to-dawn time frame
to bind segments together. Within this structure, we see several mini-
narratives: a grasshopper is killed and eaten by a spider, two snails
mate sensuously, a dung beetle rolls a ball of fecal matter along the Fig. 5. Dew on a stem.

ground until it gets stuck on a thorn, and a rainstorm plunges an anthill

into chaos. Throughout the entire picture, filmed reality is manipulated
in order to create formal patterns and envelop us in Nuridsany’s
“wondrous truth.” (fig. 1)

Graphic similarity serves as the organizing principle for much of

Microcosmos (fig. 2-3). Early on, images of dew link shots of grass, a
ladybug, and a spider web. A dissolve from another shot of dewy grass
to an image of a bee cleaning its proboscis introduces a new element
into the unfolding formal system. As the sequence continues, we see Fig. 6. Glistening wings.
more images of insects and water as an ant pokes around in a dewdrop
and a droplet of water on a leaf evaporates, and before long we again
see insects cleaning themselves (fig. 4-7). Shortly after this we see
another time-lapse image of a weed coiling around a sapling,
apparently feeling around for a “foothold” and looking very much like
another insect. A shot of an inchworm walking along followed by
another shot of the weed (another graphic match) makes the
connection clear (fig. 8-9).

This sort of visual play is prominent throughout the film. Shortly after Fig. 7. A drop of dew is consumed.
these early sequences, time-lapse images of an unfolding flower are
matched with the curling antennae of a butterfly. After the snails finish
their copulation the camera tracks across intertwined plant stems and
dissolves to what at first appears to be the moon (perhaps to heighten
the sense of romance) but which turns out to be a caterpillar pupa.
Later on, cracks in the earth are matched with a procession of wooly
caterpillars that split off into two lines, eventually merging back into
one like lanes of traffic. During a pheasant’s raid on an anthill we see
an extreme close-up of one of its eyes followed by a shot of the ocular
entranceway to the ants’ lair, shot from within (fig. 10-11). Much later, Fig. 8. An inchworm and ...
after the sun has begun to set, a close-up of furry caterpillars chewing
away on a leaf is matched with a shot that pans across some fernlike
plants.
Besides graphic matches, the camera also frequently pauses on images
of the natural world transformed by lighting or camera placement into
abstract forms. During the snails’ sex scene, their undulating bodies
create interesting S-shaped patterns as they fold together. In a
segment focusing on the child-rearing habits of the Polist wasp, the
screen is at one point taken up entirely by small octagons filled with
larvae. This recalls an earlier shot, a “bee’s-eye view” of the world
rendered as seven-sided shapes. Shots of the glistening, oddly
beautiful mosquito that emerges from the pond just before the movie’s
conclusion, elongated by its own reflection, can be appreciated on Fig. 9. ... the graphic match of a weed in
the subsequent shot.
formal terms alone. The incredibly shallow depth-of-field created by
shooting close-ups of such small animals often results in backgrounds
that are little more than washes of color. At a few different points in the
film the camera moves along with insects as they fly. Taken with a
miniature remote-control helicopter equipped with a tiny camera, the
shots keep the insects in tight focus, but everything around them
becomes hazy. The flowers surrounding a bee as it soars along become
a pastel canvas of purples, blues, and greens, and the bee itself looks
almost superimposed. The same thing happens to the dragonfly we see
zip across the pond and its surrounding flora; again, the background
looks like streaks of color and the insect like animation. In general, Fig. 10. A bird’s eye.

every shot of the film is absurdly beautiful. Insects are carefully lit so
that their carapaces, antennae, wings, and legs practically glow, the
camera moves slowly, almost sensuously, through the underbrush to
capture this hidden world, and the lack of human voices throughout
most of the movie seems to give its images more power.

Abstraction + Fictionalization = Reality?

What is it that this film is asserting about the real world? More
important, how does it do this? Just because some viewers might
Fig. 11. An ocular entranceway.
recognize it as a poetic documentary this does not answer the question
of how the film assures us that its referents exist in the real world. How
can a film be so highly stylized and still retain some connection to pro-
filmic reality? Again, I think prior experience with certain types of
documentary, along with our understanding of how the world works can
point us in the direction of an answer.

Throughout Microcosmos, the film’s cinematographers play with

physical reality in order to call our attention to things we would be
unable to recognize in natural time and to heighten the beauty and Fig. 12. Time-lapse photography: the sun
strangeness of the insect universe. Early on in the film, at the end of sets.
the segment on insect flight, we watch a ladybug waddle across the
ground, scramble over a shell, and walk into some grass. We witness
the insect struggle to maintain balance on a thin blade of grass, flutter
its wings and twist its body around, taking off into the air. After this,
we again see the ladybug at normal speed as it starts to eat some
aphids and eventually gets pushed off a leaf by the ants that are
guarding the smaller insects for the honeydew they produce. Not only
does slow-motion transform the movements of an otherwise ungainly
little creature into a thing of beauty, but it also permits us to study the
way the ladybug’s outer wings remain static as its longer, iridescent Fig. 13. Raindrops fall like bombs.
inner wings flap forward and back. Similarly, time-lapse images of
flowers opening or closing and jump-cuts showing us a larval wasp
sealing itself up with its own secretions give us access to things we
could not see with the unaided human eye (fig. 12).

Sometimes, the manipulation of temporal reality in Microcosmos is

pursued for dramatic reasons. After we see a group of ants gathered
around a puddle like lions at an African watering hole, they begin to
pick up seeds, husks, bits of flowers, and other comestibles and carry
them back toward their anthill. They move at a rapid pace as Bruno
Calais’ music picks up the pace on the sound track. As the ants move
underneath the dead stalk of a plant the image shifts into fast-motion
and we watch them race across the screen. During the film’s rainstorm
sequence, drops of water fall from the sky in slow-motion (fig. 13). The
sound effects are also slowed and amplified, here, so that each
raindrop sounds like a bomb striking the earth. As the rainfall hits the
surface of a pond, we see a water strider twist and turn in a desperate
effort to maintain its balance on the disturbed surface of the water. The
raindrops smack against the backsides of a beetle and the body of a
frog, churning dirt into mud that nearly buries one hapless insect. A
dandelion is blown to pieces and a ladybug is sent hurtling into the air.

The filmmakers seem to be encouraging us to respond emotionally to

such scenes. Our emotional reactions have to be understood in relation
to the broader goals of the film, however. As Nuridsany’s statements
about their intentions imply, the directors wanted to give us a sense of
the insects’ experience of the world. Though insects, as invertebrates,
almost certainly do not have emotions, speeded-up and slowed-down
imagery might also be seen as an attempt to make us think about the
experience of time and physical reality at such a small scale. This would
not involve imagining a world so much as imagining the experiences of
creatures that we believe exist in our world. Moreover, these scenes of
temporal distortion do not make up the entirety of the movie; most of
the images we see were shot at twenty-four frames per second. It
would be a serious mistake to take a few isolated shots out of the
whole film and use them to prove that the movie does not bear any
indexical connection to reality.

Viewers familiar with nature documentaries probably would not * For an overview of these misconceptions,

consider the use of slow-motion and fast-motion, the staging of scenes, see Carroll, “Fiction, Non-Fiction, and the
Film of Presumptive Assertion,” in Richard
or even the narrativization of animal life all that odd. All of these things
Allen and Murray Smith, eds. Film Theory
have been going on for quite some time in films made for theatrical
and Philosophy (New York: Oxford
release, the science classroom, PBS, the Discovery Channel, and other University Press, 1997), pp. 173-202,
outlets. Some critics of nature documentaries have viewed such “From Real to Reel: Entangled in Nonfiction
techniques as a stigma on the genre. However, this sort of objection Film,” in Theorizing the Moving Image
just seems to reformulate the misconceptions about the differences (New York: Cambridge University Press,
between fiction and nonfiction that Noël Carroll has addressed in 1996), pp. 224-252, and “Nonfiction Film
and Postmodernist Skepticism,” in David
several essays, and it may even rely on a misunderstanding about
Bordwell and Noël Caroll, eds. Post-Theory:
documentary that comes out of writings about cinema verité which
Reconstructing Film Studies (Madison:
stress the “unmediated” capturing of pro-filmic reality.*
University of Wisconsin Press, 1996), pp.
283-306.
Perhaps a better approach to thinking about stylization and its
relationship to assertion can be found in the writings of those who
actually make nature documentaries. In 1946, filmmaker Oliver Pike
recommended the use of time-lapse and slow-motion cinematography
in his memoir/manual, Nature and My Cine Camera. “Slow-motion *Perhaps because of the influence of
cinematography,” Pike writes, “will reveal many of the hidden secrets cinema verité style on documentary theory,
of nature. The actions of birds when in flight, the movements of few film scholars have addressed the
mammals while running or walking are nowadays better understood, revelatory possibilities of toying with reality

thanks to these means” (p. 198). Time-lapse cinematography, he in this way. Interestingly, Rudolf Arnheim,
writing before the rise of verité, did discuss
points out, also reveals “hidden secrets” about such facets of the world
manipulative cinematographic techniques
as plant growth. Not only do these devices render the world beautiful,
in nonfiction films. In his discussion of I. G.
according to Pike, they also permit scientific understanding.* When a
Farben’s Miracle of Flowers in Film as Art,
film utilizes these techniques it does not imply a radical separation Arnheim pointed out that “accelerated
between referent and representation. A shot of an insect in slow- motion” allowed the filmmaker to show
motion is still a shot of an insect. Other filmmakers, like Christopher “that plants have expressive gestures,
Parsons and Andrew Langley, have made compelling arguments about which we do not see because they are too

the utility of controlled conditions and artificial sets in making macro- slow for our minds but which become
visible in accelerated pictures” (p. 115).
cinematographic films, and have pointed out that it is precisely such
Classical film theory has not enjoyed a
alterations of nature that allow us to more fully understand insect
privileged place in documentary studies,
behavior. The depth-of-field problems of macro-cinematography force however, and most discussions of such
filmmakers hoping to achieve legible images to use a lot of light. Sets techniques have occurred in books and
with bright lights and heat filters (to prevent the insects from essays written by filmmakers rather than
undergoing too much stress) are required for a movie like Microcosmos, academics.

and their use is less an impediment to the real than our only means of
accessing it.

Though these writers are discussing the relationship between the

filmmaker and pro-filmic reality, we can re-articulate their points as
statements about the viewer and the documentary film text. Each of
these arguments suggests ways of approaching a poetic nature
documentary like Microcosmos in terms of schemata about other texts
and the real world. If viewers have seen other nature documentaries, it
seems unlikely that they would necessarily presume that stylization
prohibits films from taking an assertoric stance. Since macro-
cinematographic films by necessity have to use a shallow depth-of-
field, artificial lighting, and studio sets, and since many nature films
make use of devices like slow-motion and time-lapse cinematography,
viewers familiar with this sort of cinema would probably consider the
use of these techniques in Microcosmos in relation to these generic
norms. Perhaps abstraction is taken to an extreme in Microcosmos for
poetic reasons, but insects and plants are still usually recognizable as
such. A degree of artificiality in macro-cinema, moreover, falls within
accepted conventions of filmmaking.

The points these authors make about filmmakers’ inability to truly

control animal behavior are instructive. If we apply schemata drawn
from other texts to the films we watch, we also test hypotheses about
the world we inhabit. I think we believe in the existence of these
insects partly because we know that invertebrates are incapable of
performing roles, unlike human actors. Even though the credits of this
film include a “cast list,” we surely still assume that these lifeforms
cannot act like anything other than what they are. Insects might act a
certain way because the filmmakers chase them with shadows or
withhold food from them for a certain period of time in order to make
them hungry, but those behaviors are probably not going to be very
different from behaviors caused by some configuration of similar but
naturally occurring circumstances. Maybe the film does construct some
composite creatures through editing, and perhaps at these moments
we are imagining that these creatures are unitary beings. Even if that is
the case, the overarching stance of the film might be said to be
assertoric, since we nevertheless believe that all the beasts we see
crawling around on the movie screen are living things that exist
somewhere in the world and at least performed those actions shown in
individual shots.

Coda: On Indexing
The indexing of Microcosmos leaves it somewhat muddy as to whether
the film should be considered a documentary or something else.
Variety’s review of the film does refer to it as a “feature documentary
about a day in the life of the bug universe,” but it also includes a
comparison to the fiction film Babe. Moreover, the reviewer claims that
Nuridsany and Perennou “have made their docu into something much
more interesting than a standard nature piece by turning the bugs into
larger-than-life characters whose quirks, pastimes, and relationships Fig. 14. The DVD menu features cute,
are never less than riveting” and that “this all-natural ensemble piece childlike drawings of ladybugs.

delivers more dramatic punch than many a human pic” (Kelly 33).
Nuridsany himself stated that “it’s not a documentary; it’s a true and
fantastic tale” (quoted in Calhoun, p. 72). And Michael X. Ferraro says
that the movie belongs in a “non-specific realm that bridges narrative
and scientific filmmaking” (p. 80). Microcosmos’s tag line was “It’s
Jurassic Park in Your Own Backyard,” and the video cassette box has a
picture of a grasshopper wearing sunglasses on its cover, suggesting
that it is a children’s film (fig. 14).

Because of this uncertain indexing, it seems as if we might be justified

in calling the film something besides a documentary. But if we did this,
viewers would not accept the film’s intended assertoric stance, and the
filmmakers’ goal to get us to think about the real world in a new way
might be compromised. This is why I think we need to consider the
possibility that we test films against our knowledge of both other films
and the real world in addition to taking up Noël Carroll’s suggestion
that we examine the intentions of “creators, producers, and
distributors, etc.” when we decide whether to call a film a documentary
or a work of fiction (“From Real to Reel,” p. 232). Even if someone
decided to call Microcosmos fiction, it would not suddenly become a
fiction film. It would remain a documentary because it retains
something of the “wondrous truth” in its content and because viewers
come to the film with knowledge about other films and the wider world.

Facts Udskriv denne artikel

Works Cited Gem/åben denne artikel

Arnheim, Rudolf. Film as Art. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957. som PDF
Calhoun, John. “Macro Cinema,” I.D. 44 (September/October 1997).

“Cannes 96—Films: Microcosmos,” The Film Festivals Server 1996. (more) March 15, Gem/åben hele nummeret

2007. som PDF

Carroll, Noël. “Fiction, Non-Fiction, and the Film of Presumptive Assertion,” in Richard
Allen and Murray Smith, eds. Film Theory and Philosophy.New York: Oxford University
Press, 1997. 173-202.

Carroll, Noël. “From Real to Reel: Entangled in Nonfiction Film,” in Theorizing the
Moving Image. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 224-252.

Carroll, Noël. “Nonfiction Film and Postmodernist Skepticism,” in David Bordwell and
Noël Carroll, eds. Post-Theory. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996. 283-306.

Ferraro, Michael X. “Angles on Insects,” American Cinematographer 78:1 (January

1997).

Kelly, Brendan. Review of Microcosmos, Variety, May 20, 1996.

 Langley, Andrew. The Making of The Living Planet. London: Allen and Unwin, 1985.

Nichols, Bill. Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary. Bloomington:

Indiana University Press, 1991.

Parsons, Christopher. Making Wildlife Movies.Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1971.

Pike, Oliver. Nature and My Cine Camera. London: Focal Press, 1946.

Plantinga, Carl. Rhetoric and Representation in Nonfiction Film. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1997.

16:9 - april 2007 - 5. årgang - nummer 21

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