Touted as a “docu-encyclopedia,” the latest opus from acclaimed documentarians Martina Parenti and Massimo D’Anolfi points a microscopic lens at a macroscopic subject: the insignificance of humanity in the grand scheme of terrestrial history. Clocking in at an intimidating 206 minutes, Bestiari, Erbari, Lapidari covers an ambitious amount of territory and demands a deep level of engagement from the audience. Divided into three acts – animals, plants, and stones – the film takes a deep dive into the mysteries of these primeval elements. Elements that we as humans largely take for granted.
The first section of the film, Bestiari, surveys the cinematic obsession with capturing animal life. Juxtaposing remarkable archival film with graphic footage of veterinary surgeries, the filmmakers seek to understand why humans have historically been so fixated with the cinematic representation of animal behaviour. While visually arresting, this segment of the film is the least focused of the three, and plays out more like an academic lecture than a cohesive documentary work.
Bestiari is the only segment in which D’Anolfi and Parenti appear on screen, sharing their interpretations of footage in real time. While the device offers an interesting window into their process, it feels like a failed grasp at thematic cohesion. At one point (perhaps in an effort to justify their approach), D’Anolfi describes cinema as a “dispassionate look” – an impartial lens on reality. I couldn’t disagree more. By its very essence the cinematic lens represents the point of view of its operator, and is defined by its limited perspective. It is not at its most powerful when trained dispassionately on a scientific subject in the most “objective” manner possible, but when its potential is stretched to express a point of view at the very limits of its ability.
By contrast, Erbari, owing to its crystal-clear positioning, is the strongest section of the film by far. Shot in Padua’s Orto Botanico, the world’s oldest botanical garden, Erbari evokes a persisting primordiality with a hypnotic mix of new and old footage. Thanks in large part to an absorbing voiceover from Italian botanist Stefano Mancuso, the filmmakers ably communicate the supremacy of plant life on earth, and the futility of the human drive to tame it. Through a deft juxtaposition of images, the life cycle of plants is demonstrated to be something more profound, complex, and long-lasting than that of humans could ever aspire to be. While Erbari makes a powerful argument for the relative insignificance of humankind in the terrestrial space – which feels like it should provide the through line for this entire work – this message feels completely undone in the film’s conclusion.
Where Bestiari suffered from a lack of focus, Lapidari goes too far in the other direction, squeezing itself into a historical narrative that doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the work, like a piece from the wrong puzzle trying to wedge its way into place. Lapidari at first promises to tie the segments together in fascinating fashion, poetically suggesting that fossils – owing to their distinct ability to freeze the lives of both animals and plants in time – might be considered the first form of cinema. Sadly, rather than concluding their thought-provoking exploration with the promised exploration of stone’s power to memorialize the history of the earth in a fashion beyond human capability, Parenti and D’Anolfi instead reach for a conclusion that feels disingenuously tidy, taking a sharp thematic turn into a memorialization of victims of the Holocaust. While undeniably a worthy subject all its own, I was hard pressed to understand how it fit into the larger narrative of the film.
All of this being said, Bestiari, Erbari, Lapidari is an undeniably skilled work from a technical perspective. The assembled archival imagery is absolutely captivating, and D’Anolfi’s cinematography is a pleasure to behold. Unfortunately, the film too often leans on its superior aesthetics to bolster its lack of clear perspective. Ultimately delivering an impressive – if uneven – final product, Parenti and D’Anolfi nonetheless serve up a delectable feast for the eyes and the mind … for those with the patience to sit through it.
Bestiari, Erbari, Lapidari premieres out of competition at the 81st Venice International Film Festival.
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