Seasons

"Seasons" (2015 release from France; 97 min.) is a nature documentary that looks at the rise (after the Ice Age) and fall (since the arrival of humans in particular as from the Middle Ages) of the deep forests in Europe. As the movie opens, we get a crash course in how forests grew and expanded in Europe following the 80,000 years of the Ice Age. It's not long before we settle in those deep forests and we get a glimpse and more as to what animal life was (is?) like in the forest. Deer, bison, wolves, owls, foxes, bears, spiders, horses, porcupines, birds of many kinds, all make their appearances.

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from French director Jacques Perrin, best known for his previously acclaimed films "Winged Migration" and "Disney's Oceans". Here he goes in similar territory as in "Winged Migration", in fact there is footage in "Seasons" that follows birds migrating towards the Arctic Circle, and it's as if you are flying along, just unbelievable footage. The first hour of the documentary, focusing on "the golden age of the forest", is absolutely terrific. The footage on the ferocious fight between 2 bears is amazing, as is the chase of several horses by a wolf pack. Wow, just wow. The documentary loses steam when in the last half hour it goes political and addresses the effects of those bad humans on nature in general, and forests in particular. But in the end it's all about the amazing footage that Perrin and his crew were able to garner for this documentary. Please note that the title "Seasons" is a bit misleading as the movie really doesn't focus on the weather-related seasons.

"Seasons" opened last weekend without any pre-release fanfare or buzz at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. If it weren't for Perrin's name being on this, I doubt that I would've paid much attention to this. The Thursday evening screening where I saw this at was attended okay but not great (maybe 10 people in the theater). This documentary is not earth-shattering or even all that revelatory, but I enjoyed it for the footage. Worth checking out if you get a chance, be it in the theater, on Amazon Instant Video or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.

Look, I love nature documentaries, especially the ones from BBC, you can tell there's lots of work put into those productions to make them look the way they do. But then there's also productions like Seasons (2015), where you lean back and enjoy the scenery but soon realize that something's not completely right.

Adding people to this film, or rather actors, really rubbed me the wrong way. There's been good documentaries about humans and nature, like Human Planet (2011) - but here it became obvious pretty quick that there was a director behind the camera, directing not only the humans but also the animals in this film. And then to also try and make it historical with actors dressed like cavemen and farmers only made me squirm with embarrassment. I'm sure this would make a good film to show kids in school how life has been for animals through time, but as a film experience, I only felt awkward once it was over.

The photography and sound is great, amazing - no doubt about it, but it just doesn't matter when you feel that everything's staged, like when the text at the end shows up, that "No animals were harmed", you suddenly wondered why they even showed animals being killed by humans or died by gas. It's good that nobody was harmed or killed, but don't add it to the film at all if it's not real.

I saw this film back in 2015 when it was new and had given it a low rating without explanation, and I couldn't understand why, since I'd forgotten all about the film since. Re-watching it now after 5 years made me realize why, and with this review, I won't forget again.

I didn't pay too much attention when this film started on my screen, but then the seamless flow of this documentary just caught my eyes and I was lost in its beautiful and unpretentious cinematography to the end. It was like reading one of the most beautiful poem, yet at the same time, also like watching a merciless changing of the world, a world that once was so rich and abundant in giving and taking by the nature, a world of nature where a story that only the forest could tell you, a world that was once well-balanced by all the creatures and the plants until we humans appeared, a world then became so unbalanced by our endless desires and appetite to gain more living space from the nature, not just occupied but mindlessly ruined it. We humans are the most vicious and greedy species that bulldozed the nature and turned it into so-called real estates, landlords and property owners. We invented laws to protect what we robbed from the nature, we claimed ownership to the land we developed from the wildness of the nature, and then built property lines by fences and walls, and put up "Private Property-No Trespassing" warning signs all over the world. We are robbers but self-claimed as developers, we destroyed everything in our way and praised the destruction as progress. We polluted the nature, the air, the water, the earth around us, these natural existences were raped by us since day 1 when we appeared and called it as "The beginning of the civilization". We privatized almost everything that we could put our hands on and ruined it as we wished and preferred, and we excused ourselves as civilized citizens of the world of nature, but in fact, we were robbers of the nature.

This "Season" is trying so hard to remind we people to be friend with the nature, but I doubt it's a wishful thinking just like all kinds of prayers that we humans would have to come up with when we kneel at our bedsides or in the church, giving our wishful thinkings to the so-called "God", a non-exist creation for us to be excused or forgiven for all the bad things we did and things we'd like to have or to be realized for free.

This is basically just a bunch of animals freaking out in the forest. And it's one of the most mesmerizing, fascinating, beautiful things you'll ever see.

Then humans come and mess it all up. But you already knew this.

But the way it's told is just gorgeous. Even the most ardent nature-hating right-winger wouldn't be able to argue with the arc of wildlife's struggle to survive in the wake of man as it's told here.

The footage in this film is breathtaking. You'll twist your brain trying to figure out how they got some of it. Mind-blowing. And gorgeous. Simply incredible.

I watched this movie with my grandmother and she was entertained. So was I, but for different reasons. She enjoyed looking at cute animals, while I was bust being impressed at the amazing cinematography. The ways that the filmmakers managed to get all the shots that are in this movie is incredible. Yes, this movie doesn't have much structure other than that there are seasons, but it doesn't need any. If you're a fan of animals and spectacular cinematography, you're going to get a lot out of this move.