Science Is Fiction: The Films of Jean Painlevé [Hardcover]

Andy Masaki Bellows (Author), Marina McDougall (Author), Brigitte Berg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 30, 2000

One of the first to plunge underwater with a camera to bring the subaquatic world to the screen, maverick scientific documentary filmmaker Jean Painlevé (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, Painlevé 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 Bunuel, 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 Liberation interview with Painlevé, stills from Painlevé's most celebrated films laid out in storyboard fashion, and a selection of Painlevé'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 Painlevé's fellow pioneers. The book also includes French film critic Andre Bazin's "Science Film: Accidental Beauty," a review of the 1947 International Association of Science Film festival, organized by Painlevé.

Copublished with Brico Press.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The trouble with scientists monopolizing the investigation of the natural world is that they don't always know what questions to ask. Science Is Fiction: The Films of Jean Painleve explores the work of a man interested in mathematics, art, medicine, and biology, who showed early cinema audiences the alien beauty of the sea and its creatures. Son of a French prime minister, Painleve studied natural science when it was a luxury, but he allied himself with the Surrealists and anarchists who caused such trouble in the 1920s and thereafter. Capable of grossing out Luis Buñuel but also inspiring a pan-European seahorse frenzy through his art, Painleve comes under critical analysis in this volume, which includes his own writings, stills and quotes from his films, notes from contemporaries including Leo Sauvage, and modern appreciations and listings of his work.

The pictures come close to capturing the essence of his magic, but his words are more evocative of his artistic sensibility, one that rejects humanization of nonhuman subjects and tells stories regardless of their potentially shocking or subversive themes. Providing the world with alternative means of examining art, science, and nature, Jean Painleve deserves much wider recognition from everyone he has influenced; Science is Fiction is a mighty leap in the right direction. --Rob Lightner

Review

"With photography as sensual as a Mapplethorpe lily, Painleve's films tell a story in pictures as only film can." - Jenifer Berman, Bookforum --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (May 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262024721
• ISBN-13: 978-0262024723
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,469,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic beautiful book, November 18, 2001

By 

Tosh Berman/TamTam Books - See all my reviews

This review is from: Science Is Fiction: The Films of Jean Painlevé (Paperback)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Science is Fiction was amazing!, January 9, 2007

By 

Lauren "Lauren" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Science Is Fiction: The Films of Jean Painlevé (Paperback)

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.