Pigeons of the Square
Jean Painlevé France, 1982
Jean Painlevé sits with children in a Parisian park talking about pigeons. First their physical appearance (eye, wings and tail, and color) and their varieties.
Jean Painlevé sits with children in a Parisian park talking about pigeons. First their physical appearance (eye, wings and tail, and color) and their varieties.
In mud flats along the coast of Brittany we watch acera, small ball-shaped mollusks that are about two inches in diameter. They rest in mud; then, in water, they dance, their skirt-like hood spreading like a dervish’s cassock. They spin and spin.
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.
After a comic introduction, we look closely at a shrimp. Eyes on stilts, color patterns, pinchered walking feet, a rostrum. We watch shrimp eat using a strong claw and a fine one; we watch digestion. After eating, shrimp clean themselves.
At the Roscoff Marine Biology station in Brittany, a clump of algae reveals polyps, stomachs with limbs, limbs with buds, buds with poison cells…
Alexander Calder created and performed one of the most important and beloved works, his miniature circus (1926-1931). More than twenty years later Jean Painleve made Le Grande Cirque Calder 1927, begun in 1953 and completed in 1955.
In a freshwater pond, various aquatic creatures try to eat others in order to avoid being eaten themselves.
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.
We begin on planet Earth, with a demonstration of measuring distances using triangulation. Then, an imaginary voyage begins from earth to the moon…
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.
Painlevé’s first film on animal behavior, focusing on the Hermit Crab. On this film we see the Hermit Crab trying to find shelter.
This film is about three animals: Hyas, Macropodia and great fan worms – two crustaceans and one worm. They all present surprising, spectacular plumage.
A close-up look at sand urchins and rock urchins. At the seashore, Jean Painlevé digs up a sand urchin. We look closely…
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.