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Bestiaire

Canada, France

2012

72 Min
Color
1.78:1
None
  • Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
  • 1
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DIR Denis Côté

PROD Sylvain Corbeil, Denis Côté

SCR Denis Côté

DP Vincent Biron

ED Nicolas Roy

SOUND Frédéric Cloutier

Sundance (New Frontier), Berlinale (Forum), BAFICI (Cine del futuro), Toronto (Wavelengths)

Synopsis

A popular sensation in medieval Europe, bestiaries were catalogs of beasts featuring exotic animal illustrations, zoological wisdom, and ancient legends. Denis Côté’s startling Bestiaire unfolds like a filmic picture book where both humans and animals are on display. As we observe them, they also observe us and one another, invoking the Hindu idea of darshan: a mutual beholding that initiates a shift in consciousness.

Fascinating, beguiling creatures like buffalo, hyenas, zookeepers, zebras, taxidermists, rhinos, and ostriches silently inhabit uncluttered, beautifully composed frames of a locked-off camera, conducting curious affairs in holding pens and fields. Their unself-consciousness before the camera’s eye renders them equally objectified. Whether we anthropomorphize, poeticize, abstract, or judge them is up to us. Côté invites his audience to reflect on control and power as lions rattle cages, a taxidermist recreates a duck, and artists copy a stuffed deer. Using the film form to challenge the very notion of representation, Bestiaire is an elegant, bewitching meditation on the nature of sentience and the boundaries between nature and “civilization.” –Sundance Film Festival

Director

Original

Denis Côté

Denis Côté (November 16, 1973 in Perth-Andover, New Brunswick in Canada) is a filmmaker and producer in Quebec, home Brayonne. Independent filmmaker, he is often considered one of the leaders of the new Quebec cinema, terms for his part he denies.

Cinephile, he studied cinema at Ahuntsic College in Montreal and founded nihilproductions (not to be confused with Aes-Nihil Productions) around 1994. Very active, he turns fifteen short films, including Kosovolove (2000) and La sphatte (2003). Meanwhile, he is a journalist in radio theater, cinema desk editor for the weekly Montreal cultural ICI from 1999 to 2005 and vice president of the Quebec Association of Film Critics (AQCC).

In 2005, his first feature, Drifting States, won the Golden Leopard (video) at the Locarno International Film Festival and the Grand Prix Indie Vision International Festival Jeonju, Korea. In November 2007, the film is one of ten selected by the Cahiers du Cinema in programming A Weekend of unpublished… read more

Wall

Displaying 4 of 6 wall posts.
Picture of Ciprian David

Ciprian David

4May13

a film almost deprived of emotionality. the first half of the film features one of the most violent cameras I ever saw - not about showing everything, but about forcibly holding the animal in spaces it doesn't belong, for us to see.

Elisabeth Maurer likes this

Picture of msmichel

msmichel

1May13

Cote has made a wonderful reflective, observational, dialogue free examination of our relationship with captive nature and wild beasts. Using the concept of 'the bestiarie' as a launching point Cote had access to a zoo/amusement park in southern Quebec (Parc Safari) and follows the workings there through three seasons. Our gaze is often reflected back and the silence speaks volumes. Cote continues to surprise.

Picture of sadie

sadie

28Feb13

This was like my first acid experience. I cried a LOT.

Ferah and 3 others like this

micah van hove, Aaron Garrett, David Grillo

Picture of Natasha Subramaniam

Natasha Subramaniam

24Jun12

So stunning and profound-- so restrained, rigorous, and full of respect for his subjects. I was more than moved, this film is such an important contribution to cinema. It was with a heavy heart that I left the theatre- this is best film I have seen this year.

msmichel and 2 others like this

David Grillo, Jimmy B.

Related Films

Fans

Displaying 5 of 38 fans.

Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
W184

TIFF 2012. Wavelengths (P)review: Part Two – The Features

By Michael Sicinski on September 11, 2012

An evaluation of the feature films programmed in TIFF’s Wavelengths section.

read article
W184

Berlinale 2012. Denis Côté's "Bestiaire"

By David Hudson on February 10, 2012

One of the highlights in the Forum lineup this year.

read article
W184

Berlinale 2012. Forum Lineup

By David Hudson on January 19, 2012

New work by Denis Côté, Rodrigo Plá, So Yong Kim, Thomas Heise, Heinz Emigholz, Philip Scheffner and more.

read article

Lists

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Reviews

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On Denis Côté's BESTIAIRE

By Mark Di Giovann​i on April 17, 2013

What would John Berger have to say about the Internet phenomenon of lolcats and other animal-related memes? Our penchant for humorous image macros featuring animals has become so widespread that, in…  read review

Forum

Displaying 0 discussion topics.