Mark Dion.Science Is Fiction: The Films of Jean Painleve, edited by Andy Masaki Bellows and Marina McDougall with Brigitte Berg (MIT MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press), rescues from history's editing-room floor the delightful scientific documentaries of French filmmaker Jean Painleve (1902-89) Octopi oc·to·pi n. A plural of octopus. , water fleas, and vampire bats are just a few of the stars of Painleves 200-plus film studies. His lyrical approach to science enraptured en·rap·ture tr.v. en·rap·tured, en·rap·tur·ing, en·rap·tures To fill with rapture or delight. en·rap his Surrealist contemporaries, hut Painleve was no common egghead; he raced cars professionally, participated in the Resistance, played poker with the Surrealists, enjoyed the tribulations of a field-working marine biologist marine biologist specialist in the biology of marine life. , and even got to direct Artaud. His films are discourses on the uncanny essence of nature: male seahorses giving birth, crustaceans decorating themselves with living camouflage, mollusks locomoting with a flamenco dance. Each film is as fantastical as it is factual. Mark Dion is an artist who lives and works in Pennsylvania. |
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