`MICROCOSMOS' BEAUTIFIES BUGS AS NEVER BEFORE.

Byline: Janet Maslin The New York Times

In a French meadow, showing off lots of leg and twitching antennae, a hot new crop of movie stars is ready for those close-ups, Mr. DeMille. Bugs are amazingly beautiful in ``Microcosmos,'' a rapt, witty nature documentary that uses high-powered lenses to invade their fractious world.

Photographed with terrific patience and agility, this quick, captivating film offers a taste of the exotic to viewers of any stripe (or spot). And it's a breathtaking reminder that Mother Nature remains the greatest special effects wizard of all.

The makers of ``Microcosmos,'' Claude Nuridsany and Marie Perennou, take an unusually hands-on approach to their material. Not content merely to let the spiders spin and the bees buzz (though both of these activities are spectacularly shown), they also play with anthropomorphism wherever it can be found.

Heightened sound effects and nimble editing help shape the film into something other than a passive view. So, when two stag beetles fight, they duke it out like antagonists in a Hollywood action film. Ladybugs falter comically as they take off from a leaf. The oozing, slow-motion embrace of two Burgundy snails is presented as grand opera, with passions aflame.

Even when the film makes a row of backlit caterpillars look like Busby Berkeley chorines, or when it makes the loud pecks of a pheasant sound like the stomping of Godzilla, the authentic mystery of ``Microcosmos'' is not in question. Much of what the filmmakers capture is well beyond the realm of the familiar.

Unless the viewer has ever been inside an anthill, ``Microcosmos'' is sure to reveal a strange and transfixing secret universe, one in which even the physics of splashing raindrops looks suddenly new.

The film occasionally pauses for a long shot of the landscape, as if to guarantee that when the camera (like that in ``Blue Velvet'') moves deeply into its lawn-level view of the world, it has not actually left planet Earth.

Among the many highlights here are twirling vines, bursting poppies, fat little larvae that are photographed as they hatch and caterpillars moving with the lumbering locomotion of a railroad train. The camera does an extraordinary job of following a dragonfly in flight and of watching several creatures snare and devour their prey.

At this magnification, even beads of water behave interestingly, and ``Microcosmos'' captures all of these sights in rich, radiant color. The night photography that concludes this day in the meadow is especially impressive.

It's a great credit to the filmmakers' silent storytelling that ``Microcosmos'' unfolds almost wordlessly, with only a sentence or two of narration.

Despite its G rating, ``Microcosmos'' deals frankly with the natural world's realities of life, love and dinnertime. But for any child who enjoys the sight of a good-looking insect, it's a must.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Microcosmos'' (G).

The stars: Narrated by Kristin Scott Thomas.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Claude Nuridsany and Marie Perennou. Produced by Galatee Films, Jacques Perrin, Christophe Barratier and Yvette Mallet.

Playing: Nuart, West Los Angeles.

Our rating: Two Stars.

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Photo

Photo: In ``Microcosmos,'' the principal players literallyare captured in a completely different light - and spectacular magnification.