Il pianeta azzurro (The Blue Planet)

Water.  Water.  Ice.  Water.  Grass.  Bugs.  Frogs.  A couple making out in a field.  Sky.  Clouds.  Harvesting corn.  An evening meal.  People going to bed.  Starry night.  People playing a game or something with a big rock.  Grass.  Sky.  Zzzzzzz.

This film is filled with pretty pictures.  Beautiful pictures, even.  But it provides no context.  No narration.  No interesting juxtapositions (maybe the contrast between the frogs humping and the young couple making kissy-face… but no, not really that interesting, is it?).  No intriguing angles or edits.  No sense of progression, no thematic throughline.  I found the movie on a list of “contemplative cinema” but it’s more “meditative cinema” in the sense that it clears your brain… not fills it.  It’s a screensaver at best.  I’d expect to find it in a new age shop that sells incense and crystals and wind chimes.  A modest display on the counter.  The sign says: “Explore the soothing rhythms of nature,” scrawled on homemade paper.  With little stars and daisies around the edges.  Buy two Windham Hill sampler CD’s and get a free DVD.  Rating: Crap (16)

IMDb