A Film By Vivian Ostrovsky
France, 2005, 32 Minutes
Filmsource

From France, the land where poodles enjoy a good croissant: two witty visual treasures with animals at their core. Life by the seaside brings out the romantic adventurer in us all in Vivian Ostrovsky’s wild and wacky vision of the good life: a clumsy penguin wends it way along a rocky path, sharing screen time with a variety of contented pooches, a beached shark, a gorgeously colored Portuguese-speaking parrot – and best of all, a huge tiger taking a romp in the ocean. Nicolas Philibert (TO BE AND TO HAVE) visits Paris’s legendary Museum of Natural History (founded in 1889, renovated and reopened in 1994), recording the painstaking work of artistes who repaint, re-feather, fluff, and retro-fit a menagerie of stuffed specimens, destined to form a grande promenade in the museum’s spectacular new ground floor. Leave it to the French to speculate that the gorilla who no longer fits into his glass cage may have put on some weight.

WHOLE SHOW:
[3 ½ STARS] The most delightful twin bill in town!”
– Jay Carr, amNY

“An international cast of curious creatures in their native habitats stars in this charming Gallic duo of featurettes.”
– Jessica Winter, Village Voice

ANIMALS AND MORE ANIMALS:
“What emerges is less the celebration of an institution than a picture of man’s relationship to nature  that is every bit as beguiling as a Rousseau.”
– Nathan Lee, New York Times

 “Surrealistically thrilling! Fascinates!”
– Jay Carr, amNY
 
“Philibert is most enamored of the museum’s vast collection of unheimlich mammalian heads and grants them many a haunting close-up”
– Jessica Winter, Village Voice

“Just imagine a doc about animals with neither a ponderous voiceover nor an attention-grabbing host.
Or live animals, for that matter. How refreshing!  Dryly Funny!”
 – Elisabeth Vincentelli, Time Out NY

“Delightful… There's a strange primal melancholy to this frozen kingdom that Philibert both respects and finds wryly amusing, especially when specimens are being poked, painted and spruced by human hands.”
— Dennis Harvey, Variety

“An incisive testimony of the human desire, or compulsion, to preserve and document.
Beware: a trip to the local natural history museum may never be quite the same.”
— San Francisco International Film Festival 1995

ICE/SEA:
“Wacky! Recalling experimental film montages of the ’20s and ‘30s. It’s the merriest beach footage since MR. HULOT’S HOLIDAY!”
– Jay Carr, amNY

“A celluloid aperitif for summertime! Fun and free-association. Enjoy those icebergs while they last!”
– Jessica Winter, Village Voice

“Ostrovsky’s film creates a world that defies boundaries, unites hemispheres and reconciles continents.”
— Hoard Magazine