The pairings of the animals

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Movie
German title The pairings of the animals
Original title Birds Do It, Bees Do It
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1974
length 89 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Nicolas Noxon , Irwin Rosten
script Nicolas Noxon
production Ronox Productions and Wolper Productions
music Gerald Fried
camera Albert Kihn , David F. Oyster
cut Bea Dennis, James T. Heckert, Peter C. Johnson, Bert Lovitt, Chuck Montgomery
occupation

The pairings of animals ( Birds Do It, Bees Do It ) is an American documentary film was made in 1974. Produced he of Nicolas Noxon , a frequent contributor to the early television specials of the National Geographic Society , and Irwin Rosten in cooperation with Wolper Productions . Actor Lee Bergere acted as narrator . The world premiere was on May 14, 1974 at the Cannes International Film Festival , where the film was out of competition. The cinema release in the United States was on June 7, 1974 and in the Federal Republic of Germany on June 27, 1975. In the credits, Bobby Short sings the Cole Porter song Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love) , in which the eponymous line Birds Do It, Bees Do It occurs.

action

This documentation deals with sexuality in the animal kingdom and raises the question of whether humans can or should control animal breeding. Is shown u. a. the Kopulations-, courtship and reproductive behavior of elephants , chimpanzees , trout , baboons , rhinoceroses , Uganda kob , lions , frigate birds , weaver birds , Real lizards , snails , frogs , Steller sea lions , house mice , Galapagos giant tortoises , praying mantises , tube aphids , dragonflies , grasshoppers , water fleas , spiders as well as mating dances of mugwort chickens , peacocks and racing divers , the breeding season in flamingos and pelicans, the birth of a bison calf , the path of a kangaroo - fetus in the mother's pouch, the carcass of a dead mouse that decomposes fly larvae the opening of flowers in macro photography and pollination by bees, the fight between a tarantula and the wasp species Pepsis grossa , which the tarantula uses as a host for its own offspring, breeding bulls at the insemination station, breeding cows, which the fertilized egg cells from the uterus taken to other cows planting, laying hens in the battery as well as the rearing of chicks in the incubator, vaccination of chicks and the severing of wings. The end of the film is about artificial insemination, in which the growth of a mouse fetus during in vitro fertilization is shown.

Camera work

In addition to the main cameramen Albert Kihn and David F. Oyster were u. a. Heinz Sielmann , Helmuth Barth , Hugo van Lawick , Anton van Munster , Norman Bean , Erik Daarstad , M. Philip Kahl and Ken Middleham were involved in certain film sequences. George D. Dodge was responsible for the special photography.

Age classification in the USA and Germany

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) initially rated the film with an “R” (Restricted, no one under the age of 17 admitted), whereas Wolper Productions appealed and instead applied for a “PG” (Parental Guidance). The incumbent chairman of the MPAA ratings, Albert E. Van Schmus, declined to take back the "R" rating unless producers made eight cuts. Wolper's appeal was denied on August 8, 1974. The required deletions included recordings of the penis representation after mating in the baboon sequence, recordings of the erect penis and penetration in the rhino sequence, two recordings of a male chimpanzee with an erect penis, a sequence of a stud bull climbing an artificial cow back, to get semen for artificial insemination, two additional shots of the bull with an erect penis and a close-up of an erect elephant penis and the penetration. However, after Richard D. Heffner succeeded former MPAA chairman Aaron Stern and Van Schmus became his deputy, Heffner overturned the appeal committee's decision and gave Wolper a "PG" on the condition that the company only had a 10 to 15 second makes permanent shortening in the elephant sequence. Wolper later advertised with the slogan “So real it will never be shown on TV. Watch it with your children ". In the Federal Republic of Germany the voluntary self-regulation of the film industry decided for a release from 6 years. The film received the rating “valuable” from the German Film Evaluation Office .

Award nominations

The pairings of animals received a nomination in the category Best Documentation at the 32nd Golden Globe Awards in 1975 , but could not prevail against the South African production The Funny World of Animals . At the 48th Annual Academy Awards in 1976, Gerald Fried's score received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score , but lost to music by John Williams from the movie Jaws .

criticism

The Lexicon of International Films wrote:

"The documentary, which is mainly informative in its image section, also has a serious character thanks to its factual commentary."

literature

  • Cynthia Criss: Watching Wildlife. University of Minnesota Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8166-4547-7 , pp. 241-242
  • Stephen Vaughn: Freedom and Entertainment: Rating the Movies in an Age of New Media. Cambridge University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-521-85258-7 , p. 47
  • David Bowes: Trail Mix: A Writing Life Enhanced by Attention Deficit Disorder. Author House, 2009, ISBN 978-1-43892-576-9 , pp. 279-280

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The pairings of animals. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 31, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used