The Hungry Lion Throws Itself on the Antelope

~ Henri Rousseau, 1905

This is they way the jungle habitat of the lion looked a hundred years ago – or at least, it is the way the artist imagined it to be, based on descriptions of those who had been there, and illustrated books.

This is a delightful short movie about lions, who are as playful as domesticated kittens.  But it is bizarre bordering on freakish that the filmmakers can sit around the campfire chortling at the images their robotic camera has recorded without, apparently, noticing that just about everything other than the lions is dead.  I couldn’t watch it without being shocked at how oblivious they are to the bare and fallen trees – even the one that retains some leaves has bark peeling off the trunk.  But then, pollution is killing trees everywhere, and hardly anybody sees it, which is equally unsettling.