Reviews

I find that the stunning footage in this movie has been undercut substantially by flat editing and an unnecessary amount of musical scoring. Nearly every time a bird does something uniquely idiosyncratic or unscripted, it cuts to something else. Even the exceptions to this, like the broken-winged bird attacked by crabs, are manicured and hurried. The music also has a cheese-inflected, excessively telegraphed quality which usually gets in the way of the actual bird sounds; the natural sounds and images are fascinating, and needn't be embellished.

Likewise, the narration is occasionally useful but generally not welcomed. Even though I was surprised to be disappointed with this movie, I'll likely watch it at least once more before returning. Several parts could use repeated viewing, among which for me the penguins stand out especially. The fact that nearly all of this was staged, and did not document actual migrations, takes away

relatively little in itself for me...however, the over-weening sensibility has lead to an excessively mannered product. They may have done well to allow someone

with more personal distance form the production phase in on the editing... A small film which will never have as many fans as this one is "Kestrel's Eye", following one family of birds over a period of several months. In this film the camera lingers over several key moments (i.e., eggs hatching) in a way that

allows a more nuanced and engaging kind of storytelling.

Francis Bacon himself was perhaps even more fascinating than his paintings...or at very least he was an amazing presence and a great raconteur. He gets progressively more drunk as the principal interview proceeds; a man who was already brutally honest reaches inspired levels of candor befitting the finest of Irish alcoholics. This is interpolated with many deftly executed segments of a more purely art critical nature. Highly recommended to anyone wanting more of Bacon and his art.

Paradjanov made four films for which he is best known: Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors and Color Of Pomegranates in the sixties; Legend Of Surami Fortress and Ashik Kerib in the eighties. In case you don't already know, between the sixties and the eighties he spent over a decade in a Soviet prison. I find this to be the strongest and most hypnotic one of the bunch, made soon after his release. One should take advantage of any opportunity to see these on the big screen.