User Reviews

Microcosmos is a magnificent journey, an experience to explore a world full of details and wonder. After watching this "documentary" you would never see another insect in the same way as before.

If you read some comments complaining about the little-to-non-existent narration is because they fail to understand this "documentary" is not about getting the facts straight. It is an experience and as such it is to be lived not to be told.

Sit on the grass, observe, and paint the daughter of the dragonfly.

This is a French-made nature film that features a lot of closeup photography. Much of that footage is amazing stuff. How they got closeups that sharp on these insects is a tribute to the camera lenses available today and the expertise and patience of the photographers.

Some of the shots are so close that, at first, you don't know what insect you're seeing. Other insects are not familiar ones you'd recognize, anyway. Some are really strange-looking.

The colors, the wild shapes and actions of these creatures all make a for a fascinating movie in parts, one that literally all ages should enjoy, as the cliché goes. I found, however, that with no dialog, it was tough to watch more than 30 minutes at one time. You might want to break this up into two or three segments. There is sound, however: the sound these insects make. With the camera-work, it makes you feel as if you, too, were a small object on the ground listening to these strange sounds.

Obviously, this is a unique film and highly recommended.

This film gives an incredible account of insects and other little creatures many of which are known to home gardeners who are continually fighting a battle against them. But here we see the insect life in all its intriguing detail and wondrous colour. The photography is superb. It's a pity more attention was not given to the sound which comes and goes in an unpredictable fashion. There is very little commentary so one must just accept the beauty of each particular shot. One does not have to be a zoologist to enjoy this strange world the inhabiatnts of which outnumber humans on planet earth.

There is some sound e.g. the flutter of wings and the buzzing of bees but much of the film is silent as one might expect in a world of insects. Music accompanies some of the scenes adding a degree of drama. Two slimy snails are seen touching and fondling each other indicating unmistakably that foreplay has begun and sexual union will follow as the choral music climaxes. The photographers must have a rare patience to record such intimate and detailed incidents.

The film is not without its humorous moments. I thought the caterpillars marching in single file were an absolute gem and evoked genuine laughter. Fascinating too was Mr. Spider working at lightning speed as he wrapped in a shroud his most unfortunate victim.

I found it even more enjoyable on second viewing.

The technology of the human race has finally let us truly see the marvels of what lies beneath our feet every day. I don't know how a documentary on insects could ever succeed with out some guy's deep soothing voice come in to tell us what the heck was going on but this movie proved that it can defiantly be done. Micro Cosmos actually make me feel small for not realizing what happens in the real world of insects. If you thought "A Bugs Life" was cool in terms of the technical aspects, after watching this, you will know where they got they're ideas from. I have no interest in bugs, but if youre ready to be enlightened; this will do it for you.

I saw the Winged Migration before this one and I though that was the most beautiful and amazing films ever made. I never though I would be proved wrong soon. Microcosmos has everything Winged Migration has, such as amazing cinematography, beautiful music and the best studio ever, our planet, it also has something more - the whole new world to show that most people don't realise exists. "Look at your feet, this funny world." starts the beautiful song while the opening credits roll and we are treated to a beautiful flight through the clouds. The camera pans down, to the forest and then lower still. Thus starts the most amazing journey you ever saw on film and for the next hour you can't take your eyes of the screen.

Palm trees, anakondas, space aliens... Grass and insects actully, but shown in the way you never thought possible. Who would have known that the sight of two snails making tender love is so cute and lovely, that spiders are so scary, dung-beetles are so funny and waterdrops so heavy? Watch how grass grows, flowers open in the morning, insects eat plants, plants eat insects, insects make love to other insects, plants and vice versa, chrysalis change into butterfly, etc., etc. And did I mention tender snail lovemaking? :)

There is whole new world under our feet. Everything so small and so amazingly beautiful at the same time. Don't let it stay unnoticed. Go and watch this film immediately (and see Winged Migration as well).

"Microcosmos" is definitely one of the best animal documentary movies ever made! It's not about the most bizarre and exotic animals somewhere in Africa, but shows the all-day life of tiny insects like flies, spiders, bugs, ants, frogs, worms and snails in a French forest. There are nearly no comments, but well-chosen classical music adds a fascinating rhythm, dynamics and atmosphere to the stunning pictures... the French filmmakers just don't watch the tiny animals like scientists, but point out the beauty of their appearances, movements, actions and searches for food. Every single insect appears like painted from an artist and is shown in full close-up so that you can discover many new sides about the small animals somewhere in your own garden... and if you've watched a really romantic love scene by two snails know what "natural beauty" really means... highly recommended!

Amazing. There must have been millions of hours of footage shot to obtain these perfect sequences of magnified nature. Each segment was fascinating, beautiful, in some cases strangely emotional.

My jaw was literally dropped through much of this film. I even found myself wowing like a hippy and chuckling like Butthead many times. There were even some moments that I almost said, "No, that's not realistic. They made that up."

The soundtrack was almost non-existent, so you appreciated it more when the haunting music worked its way into a scene. The sound quality of the actual critters was very good as well. There is nearly no narrative or narration throughout the film -and that would be my only criticism -there should have been NONE. The movie was spectacular with no commentary, and the human voice for a brief moment in the beginning and end detracted from the alien environment.

This movie was not a documentary, it was just fine filmmaking that would only fall into the genre of "mind-f---".

The film shows some amazing pictures, the one thing it is missing is some narration that would help people understand the things they see. At least, naming the insects would be nice. Also without narration many very interesting events portrayed are likely to be either missed or misunderstood (eg a very funny shot of orchid attracting a drone by looking like a young bee queen, and many other things too).

Thoroughly enjoyable film, although I did at least in the beginning want more explanation. I wanted to know what that particular spider (or other creature) was called. I wanted to hear things like "Lucky catch. Sometimes a spider will sit for days without a meal." (I don't really know if that's the case.) Little bits of information like that would have been welcome.

But then I became absorbed and realized that it was enough just to observe and learn what was available visually. The use of music to tell the story was not perfect, but good enough. I apparently do not enjoy snail mating as much as the film-makers though, because they chose absolutely beautiful music and it went on entirely too long. Strange.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy this one and I would watch it again. It turns out that when you know more about them and can see their beauty this tiny creatures don't seem so creepy any more.

The stunning images are not what make it a masterpiece, rather it is its poetry which conveys the sheer beauty of life.

This movie is a religious experience.

Microcosmos is a fascinating if not a false movie. There is some wonderful camera work that is supposed to be natural but sometimes is quite obviously done in a studio. It really is hypnotic in parts but the put in sound affects can be a little irritating. overall it was good .7 out of 10

It was undeniably beautiful. Take a meadow in France that appears to consist of nothing but grass, and show us what wonders there are to be seen if you lower your eyes and look at the very very small...

Insects (and arachnids and teensy molluscs) offer a possible advantage over, say, lions; in that with insects, cinematography really comes into its own. If you want to show a lion catching an antelope then you have to point your camera at a likely spot and wait and wait and wait until the event occurs; and when it does, chances are that the lighting is at its worst, the background is less than ideal and you would have got a better view from somewhere else. The world of the tiny gives the fellow with the camera much more control, much more room to manoeuvre. It's much easier to hit upon the perfect angle from which to show the spider eating the grasshopper. I don't know if this is true; but it's one possible explanation for why the shots are so gorgeous, and why we feel we were given the best possible seats.

But if you find yourself asking, "What the hell was going on?" - well, you shouldn't have to ask. You should have been told. One of the reasons (I hope) for watching what is after all a documentary, is to find out WHAT GOES ON in an ordinary meadow; and if the producer thought that a human voice would destroy the sibylline loveliness of it all, that's just too bad - film-making isn't all pretty pictures. If you don't want David Attenborough doing the talking (although frankly, I don't see why you wouldn't), then find someone else or some other style of narration; or, perhaps, take more care to arrange the images so that the images themselves tell the story. I'm sure it could have been done. As it was I got the impression that we were shown ants getting hit by raindrops until they thought we must be tired of ants - and then we were shown something else.

I don't want to carp too much. The makers could well retort that books, rather than films, are ideally suited to explanation, and that they had simply made a film for us to watch AFTER we had read the relevant books. Perhaps they have a point. At any rate, we may remain in the dark, but we have a wonderful view.

The second time I watched this I started wondering whether there was any difference between this and the 'cute' anthropomorphic Disney films I own on Super 8. Take away forty years of lens technology and you're left with "Sloth vs. Jaguar", right? Well not quite - for one thing it's erotic, thanks in part but not entirely to the enhanced capacity for intimacy that those lenses provide. For another, it's got a bit of a structure, and it aims for mystery. Also, it confines the stupid voice-over to the bookends, not that I wouldn't rather that they dispatched it entirely, which goes double for the sporadic John Villiamsisms of the soundtrack. While I eventually stopped suspecting CGI, I do not doubt that some of it was staged, including one of my favourite scenes, the dung beetle rolling the dirt ball. Still, there's a lot of beauty in here, and even some small portion of the 'mystery' is justified by the content. We'd been waiting to see some of these facts of life first-hand for a long, long time.

I was very disappointed with this film. I watched it on TV, was waiting for it for a week when they announced it. Somebody compared this work with David Attenborough's, but in this movie you won't learn much about the fascinating life of bugs. All you see is some beautiful images of nature, accompanied by nice music, and it becomes pretty boring after an hour. I think it could be compared with those whale songs recorded on audio CD, personally, I prefer real music. This is like watching a football match without the commentary. I don't know much about movie photography, techniques or editing, all I can say that it seems perfect to me. So if you want to learn more about nature, go with Attenborough, this is not what you are looking for. It is a bit unusual tough, it gives it that "must see" component:).

An almost unanswerable question is asked a lot these days by a lot of different people: why are bugs so scary? There are, of course, many theories. Some think it has to do with your subliminal mind telling you to be disgusted by them since they often carry diseases. Others say it's because bugs are about as different from humans as you can get: they have skeletons on the outside of their bodies, have more than two legs, and can have hundreds of eyes. Whatever the reason, this movie shows viewers that the world of insects and arachnids can resemble science fiction. This isn't really a "movie" in the traditional sense, as it doesn't have a storyline. It does however feature a narrator, but he has very few lines of dialogue. For most of the experience, you're just watching the bugs go about their day, and the lack of a voice allows you to fully immerse yourself in what's being displayed. A whole assortment of bugs are shown, such as spiders, ants, praying mantises, butterflies, bees, and dragonflies. Snails also make an apperance, since the movie isn't just about bugs, even though they are its primary focus. The camera shots in this movie are all amazing as well, most of it being done with a macro lens to make miniscule objects seem enormous. It takes so much patience to set up a camera and record bugs because the slightest move will scare them away. Aside from all that, there's not much else to comment on. There's no talking for most of the movie but not too bad a loss considering how good everything else looks. Even if you don't like bugs, this movie will demonstrate how intelligent and social they are, and how they are often critical to the well being of an ecosystem.

This film is original, they didn't base it on any book or film or anything. The characters are very believable because they are real and bugs cannot act. There was special effects used such as speeding up time to make the bugs go faster, apart from that no other special effects were used. It is arty because it's got special effects that don't affect the story.

The story showed bugs living there every day lives. I didn't really enjoy the film, especially as it was so long for a film with no narrative. The film is non-narrative cinema. The film hasn't got a soundtrack because all the way through it there is sounds like birds, water, etc.

So many movies we view are about money, drugs, cars, corruption, violence, etc. This movie provides major relief from these common themes, as well as a great visual education of what we cannot see without a serious microscope!!! It is certainly a movie worth viewing, especially if you are partial to wildlife doco style films. This movie definitely rates along with other great visual/educational movies such as deep blue.

There is little narration, but the sound effects of the bugs themselves within their environment, accompanied by the soundtrack works well. It is a somewhat relaxing movie, but portrays so many creatures and settings that are quite awesome. The cinematography, intense colours, great lighting, and the actual animals activities are simply fascinating.

If you really need a story line, or girls/boys and fast cars to be entertained, then this is not the movie for you :) there are however, scenes of bugs being somewhat raunchy..

"Beyond anything we could imagine, yet almost beneath our notice." An exquisite film, painfully beautiful. It's relatively easy to find beauty in the majestic Grand Tetons, Monument Valley, or the brooding giants of a Big Tree forest. This film finds incredible beauty unnoticed at our feet.

Ants drinking raindrops, or clustered around a tiny puddle -- then sharing back at the nest.

Caterpillars marching in close formation.

Ladybugs as the voracious predators they are. Ants protecting their aphids from the ladybug. Ants drinking the nectar exuded by the aphids they farm.

Two snails locked in loving embrace.

Alien-looking mantids suddenly taking notice of the camera.

Beetles in extended combat. We are not shown why.

A mosquito emerging from pupa. A butterfly also. A caterpillar hatching from an egg -- then eating the shell.

Winged ants crowding out of the nest for their nuptial flight.

Caterpillars in weird diversity, one with two horns on its posterior that extrude and retract bright red filaments. What /are/ they?

The film is almost entirely visual. There are only a few seconds of voice-over at beginning and end, and the soundtrack is very low-key, for the most part, of the natural sounds of the action. Occasional light touches of music or choral voices nicely complement the photography.

I was struck by the cleanliness! Bugs cleaning, cleaning, cleaning! Even an earthworm emerging from burrow glistens in pristine translucent beauty. After viewing this film, how could anyone say that bugs are dirty?

If you know the documentary "Le peuple migrateur" (or "Winged Migration" in Enlgish) and you loved it, than you also must give "Microcosmos: Le peuple de l'herbe" a try. It's not exactly the same of course, but you'll certainly recognize the same style of images and narration and the idea behind it.

This time it isn't about birds, but about insects. I know, many people don't like those creepy little creatures and to be honest, neither do I, but why shouldn't you try to get to know them a little bit better? Indeed, there's no reason why not, except for when you are terrified to even watch them on a TV-screen of course. And when you watch this documentary, I can assure you that it will surprise you, because this is the first time anybody has ever watched and portrayed these little animals in such a magnificent way. You are really able to penetrate their world and to see that meadow, pond or garden in which they live as one giant universe, their world.

I'm not saying that I started to love insects after seeing this movie, but I certainly learned to see them in a different perspective. I guess that they'll never be my favorites, but that doesn't mean of course that this documentary isn't nice to watch. The fact that everything was shot in close-up, sometimes even with time-laps camera's, just to show every little detail, makes this a very interesting view on their little world that we know so little of. I give this movie a 7/10.

This one has it all! It's a Comedy, Action, Romance, Adventure,

Horror, Drama, Musical, and even has a little Porn thrown in for

good measure (insect and mollusc porn that is)! Beautifully shot

almost completely in extreme close-ups, MicroCosmos takes us

through "a day in the life" of the small inhabitants of an anywhere- on-Earth grassy meadow (although some of the film was clearly

shot in a studio environment).

This is one of the few films I can watch over and over again due to

the mesmerising nature of the subjects, whether they are insects,

molluscs, arachnids, amphibians, birds, or even plant-life; every

aspect of their existence and interaction is utterly engrossing! (Pun

intended.) The cinematography is quite possibly the BEST I've ever

seen, and between 2 years of equipment design and 3 years of

shooting (not to mention 15 years of research!), I suppose that

perfection is the natural outcome.

One aspect I found deliciously refreshing is the lack of narration,

and sometimes sparse musical soundtrack. Whereas most

documentaries saturate the viewer with facts, names and near

step-for-step action guides, this one just lets you WATCH; the

result being that you feel like that curious viewer in a meadow of

your childhood once again. Magic exists once again! My only

minor complaint is that I'd have liked it to have been longer.

9/10. Truly makes you marvel at the diversity and WONDER of

Nature!

Kudos to the filmmaker for the effort and patience to film our planet's smaller creatures. He lets our eyes peer into a fascinating world. Our ears are another matter. When an underwater spider grabs a bubble of air from above the surface, does it really make a popping sound? I think not.

I'm amazed in the contrast between what an audience demands visually in a movie and what it tolerates aurally, even in a documentary, which is supposedly about real life. I once attended a lecture from David Attenborough who was promoting a documentary on plants. He got rather melodramatic in answering a question about the sounds used in making his work. Their creed seems to be if it's moving, some sort of sound has to accompany it.

Explosions in space, bird songs from the wrong continent, squealing tires on dirt; common examples of glaring errors that viewers simply ignore because they are heard and not seen.

A film that exceeded my already very high expectations of it ... utterly wondrous. It puts into perspective (and shames) the painfully obvious digital fx found in blockbusters such as Jurassic Park, Titanic, Matrix etc.

Nothing artificial can come close to this jaw dropping reality.

Microcosmos is a film directed by Claude Nuridsany and Marie Perenndu. It was released in 1996 and non-narrative cinema.

There is no plot synopsis as it's non-narrative cinema but it basically consists of close-ups of bugs. The film isn't adapted from fiction or drama it's purely based on an original idea.

The characters are believable because there aren't any unreal bugs that appear. The cast can't be judged because no actors appear in at all in Microcosmos.

The film is meant to come across as 'arty', and could to the right people but certainly not to me as i'm just not interested in watching bugs for hours.

The theme of the film is bugs. Its made up of short clips, of mainly insects involved in everyday life. These clips are well developed and put together. These clips are shot in appropriate settings.

The cinematography is effective and the film makes good use of shadow eg. When the caterpillar was the other side of a leaf you could see the shadow of it's body but when you actually saw it, it had spines coming out.

The music used in the film is appropriate but isn't to my taste.

Camera angles are used effectively, they mostly consist of close-ups. But different camera angles were used, looking up at a bird from and ants point of view made it look imposing.

There are no special effects used.

The film does contain shots of snails mating, which aren't really necessary.

Overall i didn't enjoy Microcosmos because i'm not really into nature but if you were the right kind of person you could love this film.