Film series accompanying the natural history exhibition: Heart of Oak

Cankarjev dom Cinema Film series accompanying the natural history exhibition: Heart of Oak

Le chene
France, 2022, 80'
By Laurent Charbonnier, Michel Seydoux

A 200-year-old oak tree and the surrounding riverside provide the setting for this natural history documentary that celebrates the diversity of forest flora and fauna. In eighty minutes, the film shows how this majestic tree welcomes, feeds and protects its vibrant community, season after season, its occupants comprising squirrels, woodpeckers, barnacle lichen, owls, jays, ants and field mice... Through the use of micro-cameras, the directors follow them into the smallest tree nooks or ground burrows, capturing the unusual choreography of their movement to the accompaniment of a playful blend of music genres. A spectacular symphony of forest life.

We chose to tell a naturalistic story, while letting the public wander in their own imagination, without voiceover narration. Also, a sound universe is orchestrated on the screen. When Laurent Charbonnier films a blue tit, sound engineers intervene to find the cry of other blue tits at the same time. We were vigilant that there was the right sound at the right time, so that the atmosphere was exact. Sound engineers record the sounds of nature. Then the sound effects technician synchronizes them. For the paw of the oak weevil on the branch or the boar which rubs itself on the trunk, these are sound effects.

Michel Seydoux