Eat and be eaten

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Movie
German title Eat and be eaten
Original title Bij de beesten af
Country of production Netherlands
original language Dutch
Publishing year 1972
length 104 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Bert Haanstra
script Bert Haanstra, Anton Koolhaas , Gerard Baerends
production Bert Haanstra Films
music Otto Ketting
camera Anton van Munster , Bert Haanstra, Naresh Bedi , William Eddy , Peter Creutzberg
cut Anton Koolhaas
occupation

Eating and being eaten (Bij de beesten af) , in German-speaking Switzerland also under the title Affe und Superaffe - Eating and being eaten , is a Dutch animal film by filmmaker Bert Haanstra from 1972. It was won at the 45th Academy Awards in 1973 for an Academy Award in the category Best documentary nomination, losing to the film Marjoe of Sarah Kernochan and Howard Smith . The film opened on December 21, 1972 in the Netherlands, on November 14, 1973 in the United States and on February 26, 1974 in the Federal Republic of Germany.

content

The film examines the differences and similarities between human and animal behavior. Most of the film focuses on the behavior of various animal species, including chimpanzees, lions, wildebeests, albatrosses, and penguins. The last half an hour is about human behavior, which is often contrasted with animal behavior.

The film begins with a skull of a Zinjanthropus boisei , which asks the question whether it is a human or an animal head. This is followed by a brief evolutionary theoretical overview, which mainly deals with the aspects of camouflage and the predator-prey ratio. Thereafter, observations are shown on the relationship between humans and animals, which is among other things to the eradication of animal species, including quagga , Blue Bock , Cape Lion , Falkland Wolf , Pink-headed duck , great auk and the passenger pigeon , love for pets (up about the death of the animals out) Dressage, animal testing and cruelty to animals at the rodeo are all about. It also deals with the use of tools in animals, with territoriality and competition within the species, with signs and signals, sexuality and attachment, parent-child relationships, group aggression and environmental destruction, which is thematized through residential silos and polluted rivers. Recordings of children burned during the Vietnam War are also shown. At the end of the film it is pointed out that humans run the risk of exterminating themselves due to their aggressive behavior towards their fellow human beings.

background

Haanstra had already compared human and animal behavior in his earlier films such as Zoo (1961). When eating and eating , these similarities are analyzed on a much larger scale. In preparation for this documentary, Haanstra and his camera team traveled around the world from 1970 to 1972, filming animals and people in different continents. Filming locations were among others the Netherlands ( Amsterdam , Apeldoorn , Dolfinarium Harderwijk , Schiermonnikoog ), Federal Republic of Germany ( Stuttgart , Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen ), Faroe Islands , United States of America ( New York City , Washington, DC , Cheyenne , Arizona , Monterey , New Mexico ), Albatross Island , Antarctica , Tanzania ( Gombe National Park , Serengeti ) and India . The well-known Dutch ethologist Gerard Baerends acted as scientific advisor . Other contributors were Jane Goodall , Hugo van Lawick , Jürgen Nicolai , Dick Hillenius and Konrad Lorenz .

criticism

Konrad Lorenz, whose groundbreaking research work on the imprinting of gray geese is shown in the film, remarked: "I've never seen such a good film ... for laypeople it may be terrifying in places".

The film service wrote in 1974: "This film is worth seeing just because of the animal portraits, the dramatic scenes and interesting landscapes."

The lexicon of the international film wrote: "An animal film that conveys observations and theories of behavioral research with fascinating recordings of high image quality [...] In the ironically shown parallel to the animal, however, the mental and emotional characteristics of humans are sometimes neglected."

literature

  • Bernd Lötsch, Peter Weish: Eating and being eaten: Behavior of animals and humans. “School of seeing” by master director Bert Haanstra , Facultas Verlag- und Buchhandels AG, 2003, ISBN 978-3-85076-627-2
  • Ingo Lehmann, Hans Jürgen Wulff: Eating and being eaten In: Animal film: Reclam film genres (Reclam's universal library) , Reclam, Philipp, jun. GmbH, Verlag, 2016, ISBN 978-3-15-019417-1 , pp. 138-144

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernd Lötsch and Peter Weish: Eating and being eaten: Behavior of animals and humans. “School of seeing” by master director Bert Haanstra, Facultas Verlag- und Buchhandels AG, 2003. ISBN 978-3-85076-627-2 , p. 64
  2. ^ Haanstra Retrospective: Quoted from film-dienst, Issue 9, 1974
  3. ↑ Film Lexicon Online