User Reviews

This movie is a quiet and meditative work of art. At first I thought it would be something like a school movie about evolution, but it turned out as a work of plainly contemplative (at some points almost voyeuristique) piece of art. The movie will disappoint people who expect a plot line. It comes rather along like a slideshow, intriguingly framed by Bruno Coulais' experimental soundtrack (which, however, gets out of hand at the end). Beautiful colourful macro pictures. The movie's best actor, the mudskipper, almost gives you the impression that you are being watched by the movie. A joyful avantgarde experience. For those who enjoy little offstream movies.

a simple story ties together beautifully-filmed vignettes about birth, life, love, battle and death.

shot in iceland, madagascar, the galapagos islands and in the producers' own labs, the film features spectacular and surprising detail about nearly-prehistoric animals.

this film is suitable for young children wanting to learn about life, as well as for adults looking for visual proof of natural diversity. I enjoyed it greatly for its colour, its details and the stunning actions that it depicts.

I will never look at a rattlesnake quite the same way again...

Clearly not everyone will like this film. It is very different from Microcosmos and Winged Migration in that it doesn't have enough imagery to woo the viewer, but adds some sort of narrative unlike the first two films.

Unfortunately, the narrative is extremely simplistic and not creative or beautiful enough to hide the fact. It consists of a Negro elder somewhere in Africa, who in rather accessible, but very simplistic language explains that Earth emerged, cooled down, life evolved, organisms have sex and this is how he came to this world. This might be interesting to children or people not familiar with science and nature documentaries, but for a refined viewer such narrative doesn't offer anything compelling.

Unfortunately, there isn't much in the film for them. The visuals, while pretty, are not original at all (some molten lava, some birds, some insects, etc.). We have indeed seen most of it in countless other documentaries, which was not the case with visually revolutionary Microcosmos and Winged Migration. There are some funny scenes that usually involve anthropomorphic behaviour from animals - perhaps revealing the intention to target this film towards kids. :) If you go to see this movie, please don't expect to see anything deep, don't expect to see but most cursory description of genesis and don't expect visual breakthroughs. It's just a nice small movie with pretty pictures and some funny moments.

This film boldly undertakes to tell the story of life from the Big Bang to the variety of species that we know today. And the history lesson becomes a fairy tale.

Genesis asks that you leave aside everything you know about yourself, and think of your body as the substance that makes up the universe, your life as the energy that sparkled up the Big Bang, your projects as a shape, a limited space of organized chaos, resisting the deterioration of time.

The film is breath-taking and captivating from the opening sequence to the last shot. Every image of the film is carefully selected and placed in a sequence: swirling dirt becomes a galaxy; rings of water float on the sound of the mating dance. The technological prowess of the filming is staggering, but does not surpass the ingenuity of the editing, and camera movements: shot in his apparent loneliness, the insect looks like a genius, solving obstacles one after the other. Human meaning is attached to all images shown, from the fish pretending to be daydreaming while baiting its prey, to the crawling crab signaling to a rival. The story of the earth is told by the reality of those jungles and tropical beaches, that we know so little about: swimming frogs start to hop; the giant tortoise becomes a dinosaur.

If you think this is going to be some kind of Discovery Channel show, think again and surprise yourself.

This is a documentary that covers from the Big Bang through the evolution and life cycles of complex animals. That alone wouldn't make Genesis very unique--there are tens of documentaries, most made for television, which cover all or some of the same material.

However, one of the unique aspects of Genesis is that it features "narration" by Sotigui Kouyaté, a veteran West African actor. Kouyaté appears on camera often, in a part that seems halfway between a dramatic monologue and the traditional hosting of such documentaries, usually by academics of some stripe. The text that Kouyaté reads, which was written by directors Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou, is much more poetic and philosophical than the narration that normally accompanies this type of documentary. That has benefits, and Kouyaté tends to come across as a less manic human counterpart to The Lion King's (1994) Rafiki, but it also has problems if you read the film strictly as a documentary, as a lot of the scientific information and philosophical ideas are either incorrect or not very well thought out.

However, when covering such a wide swathe of existence, you can hardly expect narration to bog down in fine-grained, sometimes controversial points, and as suggested by the Rafiki comparison, I think it's not quite right to read Genesis strictly as a documentary. Nuridsany and Pérennou shoot for and achieve a film that very effectively conveys an intuitive understanding of holistic or panentheistic philosophical and spiritual views and shows how well they can mesh with current scientific understanding.

But aside from the above, and that is important and subtle material, what really gives Genesis an edge and what makes it crucial viewing to anyone with an interest in these kinds of documentaries is the fantastic cinematography. Other than another film from the same team, Microcosmos: Le peuple de l'herbe (1996), I don't think I've ever seen footage of animals shot as well as this, and I've only rarely seen footage of geology and inanimate objects shoot as well as this. The cinematography features amazing close-ups, crisp images, seamless time-lapse photography, impressive footage (you'll often wonder how they could have obtained some of these shots), and often-brilliant editing. At times the film resembles a collage of abstract artwork as much as a documentary, and the editing helps make the holistic/panentheistic view clear.

Long sections of the film are narration-free. Instead, the cinematography is accompanied by music, so at times, Genesis almost resembles the Godfrey Reggio/Philip Glass film Anima Mundi (1992). At least at one point, the music actually sounds Glass-like. The only slightly distracting element of the soundtrack is that Nuridsany and Pérennou decided to add foley sound effects to many scenes. Occasionally they enhance the visuals, but sometimes they're overdone.

I caught this movie by accident on a long night. I am so glad that I did. I have to admit that I thought the narrator was a wizened old medicine man, not an actor. I TRULY did believe him. His voice is soft and melodic and based on the above review I learned he is an actor. The cinematography is stunning. How they get cameras in certain places I will never know. What pleased me the most was that their is barely any talking during the scenes. The narration is during breaks not OVER the cinematography. The visuals are crisp and clear and a joy to behold. I am truly trying to get my children to watch this from start to finish, I snagged one during the snake and egg scene, which I will not spoil for you, but which is AMAZING. Do yourself and your family a HUGE favor and try to catch this wonderful, wonderful film/documentary. From start to finish it is a joy.

This effort by the team that brought us "Microcosmos" can't hold a candle to that film.

While the visuals are attractive, they lack the originality and surprise that made "Microcosmos" the wonder that it is. In fact, there isn't a single substantial bit of footage in this film that isn't much like images one might see in nature documentaries from many other sources. These are woven together by a narrative that clearly wasn't written by the griot who tells the "story," but are instead words put into his mouth in a script written by others. The net effect of this leaves one all too often that one is watching stock footage that's been cobbled together.

In the effort to describe everything and anything, this film sacrifices any depth whatsoever. We get, instead, an overly broad and utterly superficial ramble that comes off lacking any sincerity at all. The makers of "Genesis" would have done much better to have focused on one or two aspects of their overly-ambitious "story" rather than sacrificing the wonder and detail that gave "Microcosmos" its unique charm.

The problem isn't that "Genesis" isn't like a Discovery Channel documentary. To the contrary, the problem is precisely that it IS so much like one, but it doesn't have as much depth. Aside from a few pretty pictures, "Genesis" is a disappointment.

Just like the Director did some ago in Microcosmos. This is a project in which we can see the advances of film-making, the one that can show us images that we had never seen before. Amazing! Beautiful! This film is not for any public. If you are a blockbuster addict, don't even think about watching it.

Even though I don't speak French and I watched without subtitles, I enjoyed every single and beautiful image. From the crystallization of Vitamin C through and electronic microscope, to the sea horses love dance, from the amazing life of the walking fish to the love parakeets, from the beautiful dance of Jellyfish to the lava rivers, every single image is filled with color, life, joy and some kind of mystery.

Julio Acosta

Yes, the visuals are dazzling. The pacing and camera stance are almost Kubrickian, which alone reminds us that we are seeing a movie, and not a Discovery channel feature.

There are three narratives at work here, the visuals, our collective knowledge of science/nature that we have before experiencing these visuals, and the narration. Of these, the narration is the weakest link, nearly broken when we get to the conflation of biology with poetic 'love'. That is before...

...we get to Entropy. Movies themselves are a kind of struggle against entropy. Starting with a flood of chaotic images (elements), the movie's task is to go against the flow and try to impose a higher state of order -- a sort of life of its own in the viewer's mind. Through this device of self-reference, we are given the target criterion with which we judge the movie's quality: does the new order in your mind hold up against degradation?

I would say yes. Not only visually, but narratively -- by looking at ourselves from outside ourselves, the trap of melodrama is avoided.

Watch this and pay attention to the sight of a drop of milk dissolving in water, or the smoke rings...these are inherently cinematic notions: notions that belong with us among the tribe of the living.

Genesis is one of the most fascinating and relevant documentaries I have watched in my lifetime. As its title suggests, it is an account of the beginning of everything, but focuses most especially on the nature of life on our planet. It is an epiphany to watch for the first time, much like Powers Of Ten, another brilliant documentary. The truths contained in this film and the fashion in which they are masterfully woven into a much broader, overall picture are compelling, the imagery is mesmerizing, and for anyone who is truly interested in the essence and mannerisms of life as we know it, this film is an excellent introduction to a fuller, more complete understanding.

This is a beautifully conceived, artistic myth about origin and cycle of life as told by an African storyteller in beautifully enunciated French (English subtitles). His myth is illustrated with nature photography that is both appropriate for the particular thought and, simultaneously, of great beauty. Over six years of patient work assembled this material by the co-directors who are also professional biologists. As a consequence, their myth rests solidly in modern science. Their venues range from Iceland (the opening shots) to Madagascar (for the brilliantly colored shots of marine life). This wonderfully conceived film is underpinned by an original score which complements the photography and is wonderfully innovative. I hope a video becomes available.

I was getting the speakers in my car upgraded when the salesman showed me their new HD TVs and the super speaker systems. He used LOTR to demonstrate how you hear the smallest sounds. I wish he would have used this film. I would have bought a system right away. Even on my normal TV with build in stereo the sights and sounds were nothing short of spectacular.

I am not just talking about the music, which was incredibly beautiful, but the sounds of the life forms in the film. They really enhanced the small creatures with close up camera work and realistic sound. Looking at a lizard, you could imagine a dinosaur with any effort at all.

Anyone who watched the Discovery Channel on occasion, especially if you have been watch Planet earth - and I hope you have - has seen some incredible things, but I have not seen anything as incredible as this.

We science geeks know that the atoms in Hitler or Ghengis Khan could be floating around in our bodies right now, but anyone will enjoy seeing the story of life and death with all the drama and excitement that this film has.

If you get Showtime (I don't) then tune in as it is currently playing.

I was stunned by the images in Genesis. They can be beautiful, or powerful, even emotional. I have to say the fishes-out-of-water were my favorite animal here. And the seahorse part...well, I'll just go past that.

Genesis is narrated by Sotigui Kouyaté, an old man who looks like an ancient storyteller. Genesis has solidly atheistic views, but how many documentaries don't? That shouldn't keep religious folks from seeing this marvelous film.

I got more than I expected when I checked out Genesis in my local library. And besides the agonizingly boring seahorse mating scene, I have no qualms about the movie. 9/10.