WINGED MIGRATION ----------------
French filmmaker Jacques Perrin spent four years traversing the earth's seven continents with five crews using gliders, balloons, helicopters and remote controlled cameras to bring his audience into the midst of a world of "Winged Migration."
This Oscar nominated documentary is a superior technical and artistic achievement in cinematography and one of the most riveting and beautiful nature films ever made. Given a literal bird's eye view, we soar above the earth at heights that scream special effect (none were used) or glide along close enough to an avian companion to see its individual feathers ruffle in the wind.
Perrin begins in the French countryside where he will follow migrations across the globe heading for seasonal food supplies before making the trek back when nature demands. Perrin throws statistics at us via subtitle, identifying species and the distances they traditionally travel (with a tern that actually flies 12,000 miles from the Arctic to Antarctica) accompanied by his flat commentary. But its not the numbers we're hear to marvel at.
The bird's very design for its environment is cause for consideration as we watch a water bird flatten its webbed feet out vertically for landing. A crested species' mating dance is performed with the synchroneity of pairs skaters. The sheer volume of a flock that appears in the distance like a dense, swirling, black, shape shifting cloud is awe-inspiring, as is a shot of geese fill the sky with the density of Escher's famous drawing. The striations and colors of Monument Valley are reflected in the pattern of birds' belly feathers, and as they fly above it, they're mirrored in water which apes the sky they inhabit.
Have you considered the survival of birds which must cross oceans? Perrin finds a gray military vessel in a choppy sea where exhausted birds stop to rest (this scene and much of the chorale-like music and swooping overhead shots recall the British animation "The Snowman"). Distance isn't the only hardship, as we witness a shore bird with a damaged wing surrounded by, then encompassed by crabs. A water fowl is waylaid by a polluted puddle in an Eastern European industrial facility. Penguins are distracted by a predator as its partner sneaks in from the rear and steals their chick. (The director notably cuts away from any gore, instead suggesting the aftermath.)
Perrin slightly weakens his film's impact by adding drama, such as his editing of an avalanche to suggest we've been standing with the birds in its path or his shot of a caged rainforest parrot making its escape that would have required the collusion of the poacher (which also begs the question - do parrots migrate?). Still, one can only admire the man's mastery when he returns to where he began and takes our breath away with an astonishing shot of a songbird hopping towards us through a dense thicket.
"Winged Migration" is an enforced stop to smell the roses, a filmic poem about the majesty that surrounds us every day.
A-
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