Microcosmos: Le peuple de l’herbe Microcosmos
Mikrokosmos – Das Volk der Gräser
Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou
»Allow yourself to be carried off to an unknown world for 24 hours. Experience an adventure on a scale of 1:100. In this world, even the hourglass works faster. An hour becomes a day, a day becomes a season and a season lasts as long as a lifetime.«
– Galatée Films
In one of the most successful cinema documentaries of all times, a piece of grassland turns into a stage, where beetles, spiders and caterpillars play the main parts. Extreme macrophotography allows us to discover insects at eye level and become acquainted with their ecosystem at close proximity. It’s almost as though the viewer shrinks to the size of a microorganism. Green fields look like impenetrable jungles, drops of dew become enormous balloons. Close-ups alternate with long shots (landscapes, skies with cloud formations and brewing storms) and cosmic views of the sun, moon and stars. The skilful use of light and sound make the tiny performers look like creatures in a fantasy thriller. In this bizarre parallel world, even the laws of physics seem to have been overruled: animals dangle upside down or run across water. Welcome to the »people of the grasses«.
»The eyes of the insects that look at us from another world are a magical mirror in which we recognise the strangeness of our own situation.«
– Marie Pérennou and Claude Nuridsany
Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou
Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou share a passion for all forms of life and have collaborated on projects for many years. After studying biology at Pierre et Marie Curie University in Paris in the early 1970s, they decided to pursue a less traditional career. Instead of conventional scientific communications, they have since published non-fiction and photography books, curated exhibitions and made nature documentaries, reaching a wide audience with their observations and research. Their film Microcosmos attracted international attention and won multiple awards, including the Technical Grand Prize in Cannes in 1996.
Films by Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou
La clé des champs 2011 | Genesis 2004 | Les habitants du miroir 1984