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The Octopus
The Octopus
7.7
/10
1,569 Ratings

THE OCTOPUS

La pieuvre

Directed by Jean Painlevé
France, 1928
Documentary, Silent, Short

Synopsis

An octopus slithers over objects on land – a doll, a skull – then oozes along the shore into the sea. It secretes its ink. The camera follows it along rocks into deeper water, watching closely as it breathes.

Synopsis

An octopus slithers over objects on land – a doll, a skull – then oozes along the shore into the sea. It secretes its ink. The camera follows it along rocks into deeper water, watching closely as it breathes.

Our take

Jean Painlevé was unique in that he was at once a visionary experimental filmmaker and a documentarian whose predilection was underwater fauna. By observing the animal marine world, where motion is subjected to different laws, movements take the form of an uncanny dance, bewildering and enigmatic.