Seasons: From beasts to bees, or the lack thereof

Seasons turn one after another, in cycles and through time, and along the way everything changes. The new film by Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud, Le Saisons (Seasons) is a beautiful homage to nature and the changes earthly creatures have seen. As beautiful as the film is, and it is stunning and inspiring, it makes one thing clear—of all the animals on earth, it is the Homo sapiens species that is the most invasive.

Perrin and Cluzaud are the dynamic duo of documentary filmmaking with complementary films to Le Saisons like Winged Migration, and Oceans. This particular body of work takes a close look at nature from land, sky and water. Le Saisons, the latest of the three, took almost half a decade to film and is on par with cinematic elegance of the previous two.

Le Saisons opens up with a shot of an icy landscape and moves to close-ups of living mounds of snow that upon shaking reveal muskox underneath, the sequence beautifully establishes the beginning of the timeline. As the seasons change and propel sequences along the set timeline, the landscape and its inhabitants change. From glacial conditions emerges a forest rich with diversity and lifecycles. The harmony in the forest is sustained until human beings establish dominance. Their dominance precipitates the transformation of the land and of the animals, from wolves to dogs, wild boars to pigs; and their own metamorphoses from hunters and gatherers to builders and demigods over the forest.

Perrin is not just a director, he’s an auteur who brings to his work the full breadth of his career experience––actor, writer, director and producer. If viewers have seen Winged Migration or Oceans, they will recognize the clear and crisp vision developed in Le Saisons. There is extensive footage of animals—from great beasts to bees—that is intimate and close. The dynamic filmmaking duo has perfected the craft of filming in nature, from camouflage to inventing devices and camera carriers that run or fly side-by-side with the beasts and bees. For the most part, the subjects of Le Saisons seem to be oblivious to the hidden cameras and stalker filmmakers, except for that one fox that cautiously breaks the fourth wall as if on cue. Knowing the time, patience and resources that it takes to record nature, the money shots delivered one after another by Perrin and Cluzaud are truly impressive.

The expert editing in Le Saisons delivers an interconnected narrative arc. The narration in the film is limited and temperate, this isn’t to say that it’s devoid of a message, but when there is a message to be delivered, it is done so in a clear and straight-forward way. The combination of the editing and moderate narration helps Le Saisons avoid the pitfalls of over anthropomorphizing the animals or projecting an omnipotent personae like in documentaries like March of the Penguins. In other words, Morgan Freeman doesn’t play God in this one.

As the seasons continue to change, bringing the forest closer in time to today’s world, parts of it give way to deforestation, thus displacing wildlife and making them into refugees for the sake of industry and progress. The filmmakers are optimists, providing context for the changes and acknowledging the nature’s adaptive powers. Viewers are left with a sense of optimism, but more importantly, a sense of responsibility.

Showtimes:

- Art House-

Monday, 2/6

5:30 pm

Run time: 1:37 h

Movie Rating: PG. for thematic elements and related images