1 year ago
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A dramatic scene from a 1988 film The Bear showing a chase sequence between a lioness and a bear cub is viral with false claims that it has been nominated recently for the Guinness Book of World Records.
BOOM reached out to Guinness World Records PR team who confirmed to us that the video has not been nominated for any records or does not hold a title of the Guinness World Records. We also found that the footage circulating on social media is from a 1988 French film The Bear showing a lioness chase a bear cub across a hilly terrain. The film is directed by Oscar winning filmmaker Jean-Jacques Annaud.
The video has been captioned in English on Facebook as, “This Video is nominated for Guinness book of
World Records. Amazing Effort by the videographer”
The video is also circulating on social media with a caption in Malayalam which translates to: Video nominated for Guinness Book of World Records! The skill and effort of the videographer is amazing. Brave mother.
(Original caption in Malayalam: ഗിന്നസ് ബുക്ക് ഓഫ് വേൾഡ് റെക്കോർഡിലേക്ക് നാമനിർദ്ദേശം ചെയ്യപ്പെട്ട വീഡിയോ! വീഡിയോഗ്രാഫറുടെ കഴിവും പരിശ്രമവും അദ്ഭുതകരം തന്നെ ധീര മാതാവ്.)
Watch two such posts here and here.
The video was also received on BOOM's Helpline number (+917700906588) for verification.
Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search on keyframes of the video which led us to a Vietnamese article published in 2020.
The report stated that the video is from a French film titled 'The Bear' (1988), directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud.
Upon keywords search, we found an extended clip of 3.54 minutes duration which was uploaded on YouTube on October 31, 2007. The video was titled as, “L'Ours (1988) - the cougar scene”.
According to IMDb, Oscar winning filmmaker Annaud directed The Bear (L'ours: in French), which is originally an adaptation of James Oliver Curwood’s novel, The Grizzly King. The story revolves around an orphan bear cub befriending an adult male bear and their clever escape from the human hunters.
The entry on IMDb shows the film was cinematographed by Phillippe Rousselot. Rousselot's work on The Bear was nominated for several awards such as the Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards and American Society of Cinematographers for its cinematography.
Further BOOM reached out to Guinness’ press center. Alina Polianskaya, from Guinness World Records PR team, told us on email, "This video is not related to a Guinness World Records title."
According to Annaud’s website, the film was shot entirely on location in Dolomites (Italy), Germany, Canada and Austria. The site also mentions that apart from bear trainers, modern techniques such as animation, special effects were used in the film. The site also does not mention if it was nominated for the Guiness World Records for its cinematography.
A video uploaded on YouTube on June 24, 2021 shows the filming process of The Bear / L'ours . In this, we were able to identify Annaud and Rousselot with other crew members filming the scene for the movie.
