Danse des primates au Muséum d’Histoires Naturelles 1999

Directed by Dominik Lange

This film is composed of a series of very short shots. The two principal motifs are human and vegetal, with a few animals briefly glimpsed in passing. The primates of the title (for once, this film has a title, and an insistent one at that) are the men, women and children who visit the museum. A man, a woman, a family with children detach themselves from their surroundings; their images are reworked, re-framed and edited so that they become intermingled with a series of luminous wide shots of vegetation. In this air-conditioned location, the film-maker has managed to give a certain luxuriance to the surrounding nature; the human visitors, in turn, reclaim something of their cosmic dimension from dubious civilization.