Science Is Fiction: The Films of Jean Painlev?

By Andy Masaki Bellows

Book Overview

The first book on pioneering French filmmaker Jean Painlev , the father of science cinema.

One of the first to plunge underwater with a camera to bring the subaquatic world to the screen, maverick scientific documentary filmmaker Jean Painlev (1902-1989) captured the throes of a male seahorse giving birth, the geometric choreography of crystal formation, and the mating habits of hermaphrodite mollusks. In a lifetime spanning nearly the history of cinema itself, Painlev made over 200 films, including The Seahorse, Freshwater Assassins, The Vampire, and The Love Life of the Octopus. His lyrical and instructive animal behavior films set to avant-garde scores were much admired by Surrealist contemporaries such as Antonin Artaud, Luis Bu uel, and Jean Vigo.

Science Is Fiction includes Marina McDougall's historically informative "Hybrid Roots," Brigitte Berg's heavily illustrated biographical essay "Contradictory Forces," art critic Ralph Rugoff's "Fluid Mechanics," a Lib ration interview with Painlev , stills from Painlev 's most celebrated films laid out in storyboard fashion, and a selection of Painlev 's writings appearing for the first time in English. The latter include "Neo-Zoological Drama," a playful romp on the behavior of Turbellaria, or flatworms; "Mysteries and Miracles of Nature," an idiosyncratic catalog of unusual animal behavior; and "Scientific Film," a discussion of science films that pays homage to Painlev 's fellow pioneers. The book also includes French film critic Andr Bazin's "Science Film: Accidental Beauty," a review of the 1947 International Association of Science Film festival, organized by Painlev .

Copublished with Brico Press.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262523183
• ISBN13: 9780262523189
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Mit Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Science is Fiction was amazing!

Science is Fiction was amazing! If you like Painleve you'll like the book. It's filled with so many interesting essays, and I found the interview with Painleve to be particularly interesting and entertaining.

Fantastic beautiful book

Science is Fiction: The Films of Jean Painleve, edited by Andy Masaki Bellows and Marina McDougall with Brigitte Berg, exposes the reader to the odd and beautiful films of Jean Painlevé (1902-1989), who was both an artist and a scientist. These professions do not often mix, but in Painlevé's case, his scientific side made his film work stronger and stranger. He was the first to photograph sea creatures underwater, and he was also involved with surrealist artists like André Breton, Antonin Artaud, and film giant Georges Franju, in addition to his racecar driving pursuits. The images in his films are a combination of classroom science instruction and dance. Painlevé was focused on aesthetics as well as scientific commentary in his films. According to this book, his two masterpieces are L'Hippocampe ("The Seahorse") and Le Vampire ("The Vampire"). L'Hippocampe (1934) is about the mating process between the male and female seahorse: The viewer sees a female laying eggs into the abdomen of a male, where he fertilizes them. To Painlevé, this represented the perfect relationship between the sexes. On a darker note, Le Vampire (1945) is a film that lends a political flavor to the behavior of vampire bats. The film stills displayed in the book are quite creepy. In one scene, as a bat falls asleep, it extends one of its wings in a Nazi-like salute. Painlevé didn't believe that there was a separation between science and art. Throughout his life he founded a series of movie clubs as well as film schools. This lavishly designed book by designer Jean Wilcox is a perfect complement to the aesthetics of Painlevé. It is a book fetishist's dream date. Very rarely in this business does one see such a perfect combination of content, text, and design. Imagine the film viewer who went to see one of Painlevé's films expecting a dry documentary, but instead encountering a strange and poetic way of looking at the world.