page_title: The Bear (1988 film)
section_title: Filming
hierarchical_section_title: The Bear (1988 film) / Production / Filming
caption_attribution_description: Gruppo del Sassolungo da Passo Sella
context_page_description: The Bear is a 1988 French adventure drama family film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud and released by TriStar Pictures. Adapted from the novel The Grizzly King by American author James Oliver Curwood, the screenplay was written by Gérard Brach. Set in British Columbia, Canada, the film tells the story of a young orphaned bear cub who befriends an adult male grizzly as two trophy hunters pursue them through the wild.
  Several of the themes explored in the story include orphanhood, peril and protection, and mercy toward and on the behalf of a reformed hunter. Annaud and Brach began planning the story and production in 1981, although filming did not begin until six years later, due to the director's commitment to another project. The Bear was filmed almost entirely in the Italian and Austrian areas of the Dolomites, with live animals—including Bart the Bear, a trained 9-foot tall Kodiak bear—present on location. Notable for its almost complete lack of dialogue and its minimal score, the film was nominated for and won numerous international film awards.
context_section_description: Shot from 13 May to late October 1987, The Bear was filmed almost entirely in the Italian and Austrian areas of the Dolomites. Several additional scenes were also filmed in a Belgian Zoo in early 1988. The crew consisted of 200 individuals. Husband and wife team Tony and Heidi Lüdi served as the film's production designer and art director, respectively, alongside set decorator Bernhard Henrich. In their book, Movie Worlds: Production Design in Film, the Lüdis state that as the film's production designers, they "were constantly faced with the question 'What did you have to do?' To which we answered 'We turned the Alps into British Columbia.'" Cinematographer Philippe Rousselot noted that "the only thing Jean-Jacques was unable to control" while filming in the Bavarian Alps "was the weather: he did not manage to have the clouds take part in pre-production meetings."
  While animatronic bears were used for several of the fighting scenes, live animals—including bears, dogs, horses, and honey bees—were used on location for filming. A trained, 9-foot tall Kodiak bear named Bart played Kaar, while a young female bear named Douce ("Sweet" in English) took on the role of  Youk, with several alternates. Three trainers worked with Bart (including his owner Doug Seus), eleven with the cubs, three with the dogs, and three with the horses. One day during production, Bart injured Annaud while the two posed for photographers; Annaud's wounds, which included claw-marks on his backside, had to be drained with a shunt for two months. In addition to the real bears, there were animatronic bears which were used in specific scenes that were made by Jim Henson's Creature Shop.
caption: Saslonch, a mountain in the Dolomites in South Tyrol, Italy
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