It's tempting to call Denis Cote's Bestiaire "contemplative." Its unscored 72 minutes of footage — of animals, caretakers and patrons at Quebec's Parc Safari — certainly leave a lot of room for thought.
But the film doesn't do much of the thinking for you; it juxtaposes images, frames small processes and repetitive actions, but provides very little narrative or even context. The droning pace of the images and natural sounds is defiantly mundane. There's none of the bedazzled majesty of an IMAX nature film, nor the visceral brusqueness of a politicized document of animal cruelty.
Bestiaire is simply a long, steady stare into the faces of several animals and people. Composed mostly of static shots set in and around the Parc's animal habitats, the film takes its time capturing the rhythms of animal life in captivity. The camera appears to catch the attention of various creatures, and we watch them glare and sniffle and tramp through snow as if we were present. In other scenes, the animals are more active, as with a sequence where zebras gallop frantically around their enclosure.
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Director Denis Cote considers the park's human occupants — keepers and patrons alike — with the same cool reserve, highlighting the repetitiveness of their routines.