Microcosmos (Le Peuple de L'herbe) is a 1996 French nature documentary co-directed by Claude Nuridsany, Marie Pérennou which takes us into the world of insects.
To capture these aliens worlds in meadows and ponds Microcosmos uses special macro lenses to provide amazing close-up shots as well as time-lapse photography. We see a lot of this kind of work in newer nature documentaries such as the 2017 "Attenborough and the Empire of the Ants" but back in the mid-nineties, it was a rarity to see insects in such detail.
Even today the documentary retains all of its originality and the macro photography is still unrivalled, coming across more like artwork which it is. The film features bees collecting nectar, snails mating, ladybugs, caterpillars, spiders and many other bugs. All of this took a decade to plan and more than 3 years to shoot, so just from a technical standpoint, it is an amazing achievement.
The Microcosmos documentary was originally narrated in French by Jacques Perrin, but an English version was also made by British actress Kristin Scott Thomas.