“The wonders never cease in this superb anthology,” the New York Times’s Dave Kehr writes about the new Criterion three-disc set Science Is Fiction: 23 Films by Jean Painlevé. Lovers of Jacques Cousteau and, more recently, the high-tech nature docs Planet Earth and Blue Planet might not know it, but those glorious visions of marine life owe a debt to the pioneering work of Jean Painlevé. A scientist, inventor, and filmmaker with serious Dada issues, Painlevé took his camera underwater as early as the 1920s, and for six decades made daring and creative shorts about the creatures found there (and elsewhere). Hardly aloof field guides, Painlevé’s visually astonishing works find the wonder, beauty, eroticism, and savagery in such oddball beings as starfish, octopuses, sea horses, and jellyfish.
Painlevé’s films are as imaginative as they are scientific, and he continues to inspire artists today. Among his biggest fans is the band Yo La Tengo, which composed a ninety-minute soundscape for eight of his films, titled The Sounds of Science (originally commissioned by the San Francisco Film Festival and later performed live at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater). You can hear that score on the new Criterion edition of these magical films, which also includes an eight-part French TV series about Painlevé’s life and work.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-04-22 05:07 am (UTC)