BY LOIS WADSWORTH
Filmmaker Jacques
Perrin with
Eurasian Cranes.
CINEMARK - SPRINGFIELD
PATRIC CHAUVET. SONY PICTURES CLASSICS, 2003
Gateway Mall - Beltline @ Gateway 746-5202 - 8/22-8/28
Digital Sound in ALL Auditoriums
PURCHASE TICKETS ONLINE AT CINEMARK.COM
THE MEDALLION* (PG-
AMERICAN WEDDING*
13)
(R)
Uninterrupted
Dialogue
With the wind.
11:20, 2:05, 4:35, 7:45, 10:15
1:25, 4:05, 7:20, 8:00, 10:00, 10:40
MARCI X* (R)
PIRATES OF THE
CARIBBEAN (PG-13)
1:35, 4:00, 7:10, 9:35
12:10, 3:05, 3:35, 7:00, 7:30,
MY BOSS’S DAUGHTER* 11:40,
10:25 10:50
(PG-13)
12:05, 2:35, 4:55, 7:35, 9:50
LAURA COFT: TOMB
FREDDY VS JASON *(R) RAIDER: CRADLE OF
11:35, 1:30, 2:20, 4:15, 5:00, 7:15, LIFE (PG-13)
7:55, 9:55, 10:35
1:15 4:10, 7:05, 10:05
OPEN RANGE*(R)
SPY KIDS 3-D: GAME
OVER (PG)
11:50, 3:10, 7:00, 10:20
11:10, 1:45, 4:20,
GRIND* (PG-13)
SEABISCUIT (PG-13)
7:25, 10:30
UPTOWN GIRLS* (PG-13)
11:25, 2:10, 4:40, 7:40 10:15
Directed by Jacques
Perrin, with Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats. Narrator,
Jacques Perrin. Written by Perrin and Stephane Durand.
Produced by Perrin and Christophe Barratier. Executive
producer, Jean De Trégomain. Cinematographers, Michael
Benjamin, Sylvie Carcedo-Dreujou, Laurent Charbonnier,
Luc Drion, Laurent Fleutot, Philippe Garguil, Dominique
Gentil, Bernard Lutic, Thierry Machado, Stpéhane Martin,
Fabrice Moindrot, Ernst Sasse, Michael Terrasse, Thierry
Thomas. Composer, Bruno Coulais. Editor, Marie-Joséphe
Yoyotte. Production design, Regis Nicolino. Idea Valentine
Perrin. Sony Pictures Classics, 2003. G. 89 minutes.
J
acques Perrin played many roles to
create this elegant, moving docu-
mentary feature about the wonders
of birds in flight: director, narrator, writer and
producer. In a lengthy filmmaking career that
includes both acting and producing, Perrin
(Microcosmos and Himalaya producer) has
won many awards. But to make this
Academy Award nominee, he assembled five
crews of more than 450 people. The crews in-
cluded 17 pilots, who flew traditional and re-
mote-controlled model gliders, model and
standard helicopters, balloons, delta-wing
gliders and a specially designed ultralight
motorized aircraft that put its awed human
operators in the air with the migrating birds.
Fourteen cinematographers flew next to,
above, below and in front of the birds.
The result is magical.
Perrin: “For 80 million years, birds have
ruled the skies, seas and earth. Each spring,
they fly vast distances. Each fall, they fly
back on the same route. This film is the result
of four years following their amazing
odysseys, in the northern hemisphere and
then the south, species by species, flying over
seas and continents.”
Image, movement and sound make this a
memorable seven-continent excursion into
the specialized world of flight. Silent cam-
eras capture breathtaking pictures, while
recordings of the actual sounds birds make
while flying speak to the intense collabora-
tion between technology, dedicated cine-
matographers and savvy pilots. Amazingly,
the birds accept the winged humans who ac-
company them, often at the dizzying heights
of 10,000 feet.
We learn early that birds migrate, but this
film delivers the information in crystalline,
sensory detail. By the end, the reality of the
birds’ incredible feats is more than fact: It is a
poem, a symphony, a celebration.
[Read this section later if you have not yet
www.eugeneweekly.com
seen the picture.] Even though no special ef-
fects were used, the filmmakers fudged some
shots. James Gorman interviewed Perrin for
The New York Times (4/15/03) and reported
that the scene of Canadian hunters shooting
snow geese was real, but images of falling
birds “were actually birds doing excited acro-
bats as they came in to land.” Gunshots were
added later. In the Eastern European indus-
trial pollution sequence, the filmmakers con-
structed the set where the birds walked
through oil, which was actually colored milk.
Gorman also reported that in the scene of
crabs feeding, they were actually eating a
piece of fish, not a baby chick.
As a film viewer, I appreciate knowing
about tricks of the trade, but knowledge
doesn’t dilute my appreciation for the qual-
ity of Winged Migrations. Purists may object
to any staging and say the film is a nature
feature, not a documentary. Similar contro-
versy has swirled around Edward Curtis’s
magnificent photographs of Native
Americans for years, because he staged
many of the portraits. But in both cases,
nothing that did not occur naturally was
filmed. If Perrin or Curtis staged an artificial
scene, one that never takes place, it would be
different. Curtis documented the end of a
way of life and Perrin the everyday violence
of nature and man, which decimates flocks
of migrating birds. As Perrin makes clear,
migration is about survival.
A renewed appreciation for the avian
creatures who share with us this beautiful
planet requires their names: puffin, guille-
mot, northern gannet, barnacle geese, red-
crowned crane, whooper swan, sandhill
crane, sage grouse, Western grebe, pelican,
wader, Canada geese, snow geese, European
white stork, greylag geese, bald eagle, alba-
tross, penguin, starling, aigrette, darter, ja-
caba, European turtle-dove, Eurasian crane,
flamingo, secretary bird, hornbill, great bus-
tard, black-necked swan, robin, snowy owl,
great Skua, arctic tern, great northern diver,
eider duck, great white pelican, pigeon, bar-
headed geese, Andean condor, jacana, egret,
wood pigeon, macaw, black-headed ibis,
sparrow.
Now playing at the Bijou. Very highest
recommendations.
ew
FINDING NEMO (G)
11:15, 2:30, 5:10
S.W.A.T. (PG-13)
12:35, 3:30, 7:10, 7:50,10:10, 10:50
FREAKY FRIDAY (PG)
11:45, 1:05, 2:25, 3:55, 5:05, 7:05,
9:45
* NO PASSES OR SUPERSAVERS
MOVIES 12 - SPRINGFIELD
Gateway Mall - Beltline @ Gateway 741-1231 - 8/22-8/28
Bargain Shows: $1.50 - Early Bird: $1.00 - Wednesday all shows: $1.00
28 DAYS LATER (R)
A MIGHTY WIND (PG-13)
ANGER MANAGEMENT
(PG-13)
HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE
(PG-13)
BRUCE ALMIGHTY (PG-
13)
LEAGUE OF EXRAORDI-
NARY GENTLEMEN (PG-
13)
11:45, 2:25, 5:05, 7:40, 10:20
12:15, 2:45, 5:00, 7:20, 9:55
12:05, 2:35, 5:10, 7:35, 10:15
11:40, 2:20, 4:50, 7:30, 10:05
WINGED MIGRATION :
12:00, 3:25, 7:20, 10:45
11:25, 2:15, 5:00, 7:45, 10:25
CHICAGO (PG-13)
11:30, 2:05, 4:35, 7:10, 9:45
DADDY DAY CARE (PG)
11:50, 2:00, 4:40, 7:00
9:15
RUGRATS GO WILD (PG)
11:55, 2:30, 4:55, 7:15, 9:40
HOLES (PG)
2 FAST 2 FURIOUS (PG-
13)
11:20, 4:45, 10:10
2:00, 7:25
SCHEDULE FOR 8/22-8/28 • ( ) = FRI – MON EARLY SHOWS
HARVARD CINEMAS
JOHNNY ENGLISH (PG)
12:20, 2:40, 5:15, 7:50, 10:00
3161 W. Harvard • Roseburg • 673-6604
LEGALLY BLOND 2 (PG-
13)
*MEDALLION – R 2:30 4:45 7:00 9:15
*FREDDY VS. JASON – R 2:00 4:20
THE HULK (PG-13)
6:40 9:00
11:35, 2:10, 4:30, 7:05, 9:35
FREAKY FRIDAY - PG 1:50 4:05 6:20
12:25, 3:30, 6:45, 9:50
8:30
STEREO SURROUND SOUND IN ALL AUDITORIUMS
4-DAY ADVANCE TICKET SALES - NO PASSES -NO SUPERSAVERS
SHOWTIMES AVAILABLE AT CINEMARK.COM
ROSEBURG CINEMA 7 1750 NW Hughwood • 673-6604
*MY BOSS’S DAUGHTER PG-13
12:20 2:30 4:40 6:40 8:50
*OPEN RANGE – R 2:20 5:25 8:30
*UPTOWN GIRLS – PG—13 2:00 4:20
6:30 8:40
*GRIND – PG-13 7:00
S.W.A.T. – PG-13 1:45 4:30 9:20
AMERICAN WEDDING – R 7:30 9:40
LARA CROFT TOMB RAIDER: THE
CRADLE OF LIFE – PG-13 1:10 4:10
6:50 9:30
SEABISCUIT – PG-13 12:00 3:00 6:00
THE MEDALLION (PG-13) DIG ★ ✔ (1225 240 500) 730 945
MY BOSS'S DAUGHTER (PG-13) DIG ✔
(1235 250 505) 740
950
FREDDY VS. JASON (R) - ID REQ'D DIG ✔
(1220 245 510)
735 1000
OPEN RANGE (R) - ID REQ'D DIG ✔
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN –
PG-13 12:10 3:10 6:10 9:10
FINDING NEMO – G 12:30 2:50 5:10
www.catheaters.com
(1145 255) 705 1010
UPTOWN GIRLS (PG-13) DIG ✔
(1155 220 445) 720 940
FREAKY FRIDAY (PG) DIG
(1215 230 450) 715 930
SEABISCUIT (PG-13) DIG
(1210 315) 650 955
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN (PG-13) DIG
(1200 305) 700
1005
MARCI X (R) - ID REQ'D DIG ✔
9:00
(1235 255 515) 750 1015
MY BOSS'S DAUGHTER (PG-13) DIG ✔
(1205 230 455) 720
AVALON
C I N E M A
2nd & Jackson • Corvallis
ED!
W
ION
O
T
I
N COND
AIR
945
FREDDY VS. JASON (R) - ID REQ'D DIG ✔
(1220 245 510)
735 1005
GRIND (PG-13) DIG ✔
(1245 305)
UPTOWN GIRLS (PG-13) DIG ✔
(1215 235 450) 705 920
S.W.A.T. (PG-13) DIG
(140 420) 700 940
FREAKY FRIDAY (PG) DIG
PG-13
(1200 220 445) 710 925
AMERICAN WEDDING (R) - ID REQ'D DIG
THE MEDALLION (PG-13) DIG ★
(525) 740 955
(1200 220 415) 730 950
OPEN RANGE (R) - ID REQ'D DIG
(1230 350) 720 1005
SEABISCUIT (PG-13) DIG
(1245 400) 705 1000
WHALE RIDER
“The genius of the movie is the way it sidesteps all of
the obvious cliches of the underlying story and makes
itself fresh, observant, tough and genuinely moving.”
–Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
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PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN (PG-13) DIG
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Times For 8/22 - 8/24
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EUGENE WEEKLY AUGUST 21, 2003 25