DVD
Science is fiction : 23 films by Jean Painlevé
Edition
Full screen version.
Languages
In French with English subtitles.
Publication Information
[Irvington, NY] : Criterion Collection, [2009]
Physical Description
3 videodiscs (471 min.) : sd., col. & b&w ; 4 3/4 in.
Audience
Not rated.
Summary
The mesmerizing, utterly unclassifiable science films of Jean Painlevé (1902-89) have to be seen to be believed: delightful, surrealist-influenced dream works that are also serious science. The French filmmaker-scientist-inventor had a decades-spanning career in which he created hundreds of short films on subjects ranging from astronomy to pigeons to, most famously, such marine-life marvels as the sea horse and the sea urchin. This definitive three-disc collection brings together the best of these, and also includes the French television series Jean Painlevé Through His Films, rock band Yo La Tengo?s eight-film score The Sounds of Science, and an essay by film scholar Scott MacDonald.
Contents
- Disc one. Popular films: Hyas and Stenorhynchus; Sea urchins; How some jellyfish are born; Liquid crystals; The sea horse; The love life of the octopus; Shrimp stories; ACERA, or The witches' dance; The vampire; Freshwater assassins; Sea ballerinas; Diatoms; Pigeons in the square; The sounds of science: eight films with original score by You La Tengo; Yo La Tengo interview
- Disc two. Early popular silent films: The Octopus; Sea urchins; Daphnia; Silent research films: The stickleback's egg; Experimental treatment of a hemorrhage in a dog; Films for Le Palais de la Découverte: The fourth dimension; The struggle for survival; Voyage to the sky; Similarities between length and speed
- Disc three. Bluebeard.