The Bear: A Great Success by Jean-Jacques Annaud
Released in 1988 in French theaters, the film The bear by Jean-Jacques Annaud is a film that immerses the viewer in the heart of wild nature. Adapted from the novel The Grizzly King by James Oliver Curwood, the film tells the touching story of an orphaned bear cub, his encounter with an old bear and their survival in a hostile environment.
As well as Babyan entire generation of viewers has been indelibly marked by the beginning of the film, when the little bear sees his mother die before his eyes, following a landslide. Following this traumatic event, the puppy must quickly learn to survive alone.
During his search for food and shelter, he encounters an older male grizzly bear who initially rejects him. However, faced with common dangers and loneliness, a protective and learning relationship develops between them. The initially indifferent grizzly bear gradually becomes a father figure to the cub, teaching him to fish, hunt and avoid danger. Together, they go through the tests and faces many dangers, including two hunters (played by Jack Wallace and Tchéky Karyo) determined to capture the grizzly bear for its skin and claws. One of the most evocative scenes of the film is the face-to-face between one of the hunters and the grizzly bear under the waterfall.
Nominated six times for the César, The bear on the left two statuettes: one for best director and one for best editing.
Nine million viewers at the box office and a big scare
The grizzly bear (named Bart), with an impressive filmography, almost killed Jean-Jacques Annaud on the set. In fact, the director, who had established a special relationship with the imposing animal, took the liberty of entering his enclosure to photograph him. As he stated in his autobiography A life for cinema published in 2018, he confided that he had “crossed the line”, and had transgressed “the rules of territorialization”, because he thought that his friendship with Bart (who died in 2000) was stronger than the rules of nature.
A huge mistake, as the bear pounced on him, visibly annoyed by a reflection of light coming from the director’s camera, and threw the director to the ground, who owes his life only to one detail, as he revealed:
He jumps on me, but he’s so heavy that he slips and has trouble getting up to catch me. He just missed me.
On the ground, the director the reflex of pretending to be dead. A behavior that saved his life.
Upon its release, Jean-Jacques Annaud’s film created a box office event, becoming the the second biggest hit of 1988with more than nine million viewersright behind The Big Blue by Luc Besson (only 60,000 admissions separate the two films).
Source: Cine Serie
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