This program surveys the most incredible of all Painleve's films including:
mathusalem (1926 )
Painlevé's earliest completed film. Among its cast, Antonin Artaud appears in the unlikely role of a bishop! (10 mins)
the sea horse (1934)
Painlevé's most celebrated underwater documentary testifies to the delicate charm of this curious critter. Submarine surrealism, with dramatic footage of a pregnant male seahorse giving birth. (14 mins)
the fourth dimension (1937)
A rare showing of this visual extravaganza, with stunning special effects by Achilles Pierre Dufour. Like few others, this film demonstrates cinema's unique powers to illustrate - simply - some otherwise bewildering scientific theories. (10 mins)
bluebeard (1938)
A gorgeous Gasparcolour recreation of this classic fairy tale. Painlevé's solitary claymation (animated over 3 years by Rene Bertrand and his children), restored in 1995, is a transport of whimsy to rival contemporary works from the Disney Studio. (13 mins)
the vampire (1939-45)
A genial, proto-noir exploration of the vampire as biological archetype. Enlivened by a jaunty Duke Ellington soundtrack, this film is Painlevé's cheerfully morbid allegory for nazism! (9 mins)
love life of the octopus (1965)
The fluid grace of an eight-arm embrace, the silken glance of an inscrutably bulbous eye ... Among the most magical films ever made, this is Painlevé's affectionate portrait of another anomalous sea-creature. The startling soundtrack is by electronic music pioneer, Pierre Henry. (13 mins)
phase transformation in liquid crystals (1976)
Lysergic choreography of light and colour; a delirious abstraction created by microcinematography... (6 mins)
This screening will be introduced by Brigitte Berg, The Directrice of Les Documents Cinematographiques (Painlevé's Paris Archive), and co-editor of the principal study of Jean Painleve's life and work, Science is Fiction: The Films of Jean Painlevé
Ms Berg has previously screened this program for the Cannes Film Festival, and the Museum of Modern Art (New York)
