Author of more than 200 educational films, Jean Painlevé weaves a unique link between technological innovations in the field of scientific cinema and avant-garde poetic flights close to Jean Vigo, Serguei Eisenstein, Antonin Artaud and the surrealists.
The filmmaker has dedicated his life to a lush and passionate X-ray of the infinitely small, with a special fondness for aquatic fauna. As a visionary, he makes his singular images vibrate on the most eclectic contemporary music (see details below).
FILMS
The Octopus, 1928The Sea Urchins, 1928
The Daphnia, 1929
Hyas and Stenorinchus, 1929
The Seahorse, 1934
The Vampire, 1945
Sea Urchins, 1954
Shrimp Stories, 1964
The Lovelife of the Octopus, 1967
Liquid Crystals, 1978
Acera or the Witches' Dance, 1978
The Pigeons in the Park, 1982
SUPPLEMENTS
Jean Painlevé or seeing the invisible of Marie-Luce Staïb and Claude Degivray, 1984
The Growth of plants of Dr Jean Comandon, 1929
Jellyfish
Octopus Man, Interview with Professor Sigurd von Boletzky, 2013