
The movie “Nocturnes” starts by allowing only a few moving moths to light up a very dark sky as they spread their wings, and alongside the muffles, you can hear the muscles of the day playing out but only very crudely. All that the listeners are forced to hear are the brazen beats of insects, the agitated wings opening and closing in an endless stream.
The background buzz starts to fade away with time in the movie, so let’s try to pay closer attention to what’s still audible: the noise of fluttering which blends in perfectly with the visuals, becomes a constant in the rhythm of the film, be it various mismatched patterned broken mosaic moths, scientists at a moth laboratory or a blend of mountains that the moths used to roam. In bits and pieces, there might be the spritzy resonance of indistinct music to better mesh with the general feeling of interstellar oneness with the moth and the environment, but moths will still prevail. With a persistent starting focus on the evolution of Moths to later morphing into humans, and finally deeply explaining climate change through the details of the film, we are directed to the last then strongest motif of the film, both hearts.
Loudspeakers and intermittent bursts of light, as well as a straight documentary, are integral parts of Nocturnes, which is portrayed as a work affording a deeper understanding of science. The narrative revolves around two scientists carrying out research on moths in a more liberal area of Northeastern India situated close to Bhutan. It follows scientist Mansi and her native aide Bicki in their traditional moth research which involves Bicki making a vertical cloth pole under the cover of darkness and using spotlights to scorch it to attract the moths and then Mansi wades through the bolder contents perched on it and the flying ones including warm body needed moths that hovered stationary. The staff describes the insects pasted on the pieces of cloth and compares them with terms they already have in their vocabularies while sometimes reporting the existence of an altogether different species.
Mostly, it is a visual experience like the documentary “Microcosmos” or the movies by Godfrey Reggio which are more imagistic and surrealistic, “Koyaanisqatsi”. Filmmakers Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan synchronize with the sound movement of what is referred to as slow cinema or further goes back to the Direct Cinema movement of 50 years ago, such as Salesman and Gimme Shelter, where a moth was thrown onto the wall instead, and a more real-life perspective was adapted by the filmmakers, generally eschewing music and instead relying on sounds that existed in the setting.
All these affiliations as well as influences alongside others are integrated into a specific although in some ways jagged and incomplete segregated film that would appeal to different viewers differently and illicit conversations about the film’s style and the mode it was made in. Some of the conversations between the scientists are quite banal and “scholarly” and seem quite spontaneous and loquacious with an adequate amount of stuttering and non-precise language whereas, at other moments, they are seemingly sitting about in shots, talking in a very slow manner with long appears in between. Is this a documentary made with fictional characteristics? The tone and delivery seem to be staged more often than not which is not a problem, however, it contradicts the naturalistic tendencies shown in the other situations.
The fact that “Nocturnes” deliberately sets out to delay structural environmental aspects of the film in my opinion places it in a rudimentary form of a nature or wildlife film, which tempts its audiences with a promise of aesthetics at the beginning while placing the misery of the story at the end so as not to make the audience feel depressed. (Something about the overall shape of the film felt “off” to me, and I cannot make up my mind as to whether it was too long or too short, but it appears that I am in the minority as far as this aspect of the movie is concerned, unlike most film critics.)
I assume this is something we will all concur on, that the picture is both visually and audibly exceptional. In this film alone I would give the cinematography and the sound designers an award of some sort, however, due to the unfortunate reality where the entertainment industry, some regard documentaries as not fully “authentic film”. “Nocturnes” works best in a dark theater or a dark room in your house with a good speaker or any form of headphones that would enhance the purely sensory features of the experience.
The movie’s physical or visceral aspects might be implanted in your mind and transform your perception of these creatures, that’s how it affected me. I haven’t killed moths in ages, and let them outside instead, However, if there are moths that fly close to me, I still bat them away. But from now on, I’m going to let them fly on me and sit on all parts of my body unless, of course, I’m wearing wool, as they aren’t hurting people but are quite beautiful.
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