Seasons
(2015/Music Box DVD)
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: A Film: A-
After
the last ice age, the snow melted and Europe became an ocean of
forests and trees. It was a paradise and utopia for animals of
all types, shapes and sizes. As the ice disappeared new life brought
untold beauty to the land, but after centuries the animals faced
another danger even greater than the last ice age ...man.
Jacques
Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud creates a retelling of nature and Europe's
forest through the ages with Seasons (2016). It has amazing
and beautiful footage of animals, how they lived and died in a lush
forest. As man appeared and went from hunters and gatherers to
farming, they destroyed the land and over hunting animals for sport.
With the industrial age, many animals disappeared or lost their
homes. This film is to remind people of what we are losing in nature
with modernization of man and it's society.
This
was and is a beautiful film, almost as good a BBC's nature films, but
watching it was like watching the forest change through the ages in a
few minutes what normally take centuries. There was only a few
poetic lines (in French) about animals and forest and while the
picture and music was beautiful and moving, it felt like it was an
excuse to how Europe lost most of it large animals and nature.
Rather than showing the respect for nature, it symbolized MORE of
mankind's disrespect and ignorance for nature in a much-necessary
way.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image and lossy Dolby Digital 5.1
sound (this was a Dolby Atmos theatrical 11.1 release originally)
look and sound as good as they possibly can in the format, but a
Blu-ray would be nice. Extras
includes the Making of
Seasons, a discussion
with the filmmakers, a Behind the Scenes featurette, orchestra
featurette, animated gallery and trailers.
-
Ricky Chiang
