The documentary follows the photographer Vincent Munier and the writer Sylvain Tesson on a mission to catch a glimpse of a rare snow leopard in Tibet.
The documentary “The Velvet Queen” asks viewers to experience solitude in a way that is difficult to achieve in a movie theater. (Another of this week’s releases, “Memoria,” comes closer to the combination of image, sound and pacing it takes to inspire that kind of contemplative state.)
“The Velvet Queen” follows the wildlife photographer Vincent Munier and the writer Sylvain Tesson on a mission in a mountainous region of Tibet. They hope to catch a glimpse of a rare snow leopard. Their journey, with no guarantee of success, requires extreme patience and a disconnection from what Tesson, who narrates, calls the “puppet show of humanity.” At the end, he likens seeing the animal to the Promethean feat of stealing fire.
The movie operates on two basic levels. One is philosophical, as the camera watches two men who are themselves looking through viewfinders experience the sensations of a place where humans rarely disrupt the natural order.
Munier directed “The Velvet Queen” with the wildlife filmmaker Marie Amiguet, whom Tesson includes in a drawing he makes for children in the area, but whose presence generally goes unacknowledged. The end credits note that the film was shot with a small team and that great care was taken not to disturb the animals. Still, the men might not always be quite as alone as the film makes them look.
On another level, “The Velvet Queen” is a wondrous nature documentary. While it’s hard to imagine the film will conclude without a snow leopard, there are other animal stars along the way: wild yaks, Tibetan foxes, bears and the Pallas’s cat, whose cuddliness, to paraphrase Tesson, belies the fact that it might leap at your throat if you tried to pet it.
The Velvet Queen
Not rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In theaters.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
