Bestiaire

Bestiaire is a 2012 Canadian docufiction film directed by noted filmmaker Denis Côté. It’s an unconventional and captivating exploration of our complex relationship with the animal kingdom and a reflective analysis of us as humans, as observers. It focuses its lens on the manifold ways in which human beings relate to, display and contemplate animal life, producing a series of beautifully composed still and moving images that together offer a thought-provoking and unusual examination of life in a Quebec safari park.

Bestiaire does not follow a conventional narrative or story-telling approach; rather, it does not tell any story at all. In the absence of dialogues, protagonists, traditional plotline, or easy messaging, the film blurs the line between documentary and visual art, stitching together a string of observational footage of animals and people in static, tableau-like scenes. This unconventional structure allows the audience to engage with the film purely in terms of its imagery, which ranges from the profoundly peaceful to the strikingly profound.

The film opens in an art class, where a group of students is intensely studying and sketching a taxidermic deer, indicating the roots of human fascination for the animals. The human gaze being a central theme, the film transitions to the Parc Safari in Hemmingford, Quebec as pupils transform into spectators in a completely different environment.

Over 72 minutes of runtime, Côté's camera captures diverse creatures – from zebras, llamas, and bison to monkeys, and lions split up by brief interactions of people who care for the animals, and the onlookers. Striking high-definition shots of animals in enclosures invoke a sense of melancholy, as well as tranquil beauty. The director turns the animal park into a living museum, a place where animals are the object of a perpetual act of looking.

Bestiaire doesn’t intervene, or pass judgment from a moral high ground, it simply watches. This approach seems intent on prompting the audience to consider the ethics and implications of this peculiar human 'hobby' of observing animals as if they were quaint curiosities or ornamental exhibits. Throughout the film, the cyclic nature of the park's everyday operations indicates a routine, giving the scenes an even more potent semblance of a mechanical still-life.

Interestingly, Côté intersperses these sequences with what initially appear to be static images of various animals, a stag, an ostrich, a peacock; but with time, it becomes apparent that these are not still images, as the animals blink or twitch, adding a layer of living reality to the otherwise motionless frames.

Despite the lack of a traditional narrative structure, there is progression in Bestiaire as it moves from observing and depicting animals in captivity, through moments of animal grooming and medical check-ups, to focusing on the people who come to watch them. Even without dialogue, these humans become characters in the documentary, how they react, interact with, and observe the animals takes on significant importance. Their silent presence juxtaposed against the caged animals makes one contemplate the dynamics of spectatorship, freedom, and existence.

Denis Côté's film is one that provokes thought and incites contemplation, one which carries the weight of its silent frames with poignancy and beauty. Bestiaire is a work of minimalist art; it does not rush, and it does not force. Côté's Bestiaire opens space for discussions about captivity, coexistence, observation, and essentially about the way we perceive the world around us—asking us to consider our role as spectators in a world that does not strictly belong to us.

In conclusion, Bestiaire is an innovative and immersive cinematic experience. Côté takes seemingly ordinary scenes from a safari park and manages to encourage profound contemplation from his audience. His film is quietly persuasive, engaging viewers in a visual dialogue about man's subordination of nature and our ambiguous relationship with the animals we share our world with. All of this is done with a restrained elegance that emphasizes the thin line between aesthetics and ethics in our shared being. The movie is certainly a unique cinematic experience, offering more to the viewer than what initially meets the eye.