Jean Painlevé facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jean Painlevé
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| Born | 20 November 1902 7th arrondissement of Paris, France
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| Died | 2 July 1989 (aged 86) Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
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| Occupation | Photographer filmmaker |
| Years active | 1927–1982 |
| Partner(s) | Geneviève Hamon |
Jean Painlevé (born November 20, 1902 – died July 2, 1989) was a talented photographer and filmmaker from France. He was especially known for his amazing films about animals that live underwater. His father, Paul Painlevé, was a famous mathematician and even served as the Prime Minister of France twice.
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Jean Painlevé's Early Life
Just a few days after Jean was born, his mother, Marguerite Petit de Villeneuve, sadly passed away. Jean was an only child, and his father's sister, Marie, who was a widow, raised him.
Jean was not a very focused student at the Lycée Louis Le Grand school. He often skipped classes to visit the Jardin d'Acclimatation, a park where he helped the guards take care of the animals. He later wrote that his classmates didn't like him because he was different. He made a few friends, though, including future film critic Georges Altman.
Jean's Education and Studies
Jean Painlevé originally planned to study at a famous engineering school called École Polytechnique. However, he found mathematics very difficult and decided to change his path. He later said he wished math was taught like a language, not a mystery!
Instead, he started studying medicine. But after two years, he left because he disagreed with how a professor treated a patient. He then turned to biology and joined a lab at the Sorbonne to study comparative anatomy and histology.
Jean's Personal Life
While studying biology, Jean often visited the Station biologique de Roscoff, a marine biology station. There, he met three sisters: Viviane, Geneviève ("Ginette"), and Maryvonne Hamon. Their parents, Augustin and Henriette Hamon, were known for translating the works of writer George Bernard Shaw and were also active anarchists. Ginette became Jean's partner in both work and life.
The Hamon family's home in Brittany, France, became like a second home for Jean. It was called "Ty an Diaoul" by some locals, which meant "House of the Devil," because of their unusual lifestyle for the time.
Jean's Political Ideas
Jean Painlevé was interested in politics from a young age. In 1918, he helped create a student union at his school that was linked to an anarchist group. He even handed out flyers asking people to join. In 1920, he left that group to join the "Communist Students" union.
The Hamon family greatly influenced Jean's political views and his general outlook on life. They believed in raising their children with altruistic (unselfish) and anarchist principles. They were open-minded, even about Jean and Ginette living together without being married, which was unusual in Catholic France at the time.
The Hamons encouraged not only young scientists but also young artists with new and sometimes controversial ideas to visit their home. This allowed Jean to meet many interesting people, including Alexander Calder and Pierre Prévert.
Jean's Connection to Surrealism
Through his friends Prévert and Jacques-Alain Boiffard, Jean Painlevé connected with the Surrealist art movement. He started working with a magazine called Surrealisme. In 1924, he wrote an article for the magazine titled "Example of Surrealism: Cinema."
In this article, Jean shared his ideas about filmmaking. He believed that by recording real life and adding imagination and special film techniques like slow motion or fast speed, filmmakers could create a "surrealist aesthetic." He thought that nature was incredibly inventive and more amazing than any made-up movie scene.
Jean believed that cinema could create a "surreal life." However, even though he had these connections and ideas, Jean Painlevé didn't actually consider himself a part of the Surrealist movement.
Jean's Films and Career
Jean Painlevé first got involved in cinema as an actor and an assistant director in 1926. Soon after, he started making his own films. His first film was L'œuf d'épinoche: de la fécondation à l'éclosion (The Stickleback's Egg), made in 1927.
He sometimes created the music and sounds for his films himself. For example, in his film Les Oursins (Sea Urchins), he used a mix of noises as a tribute to the composer Edgar Varèse.
Jean Painlevé directed over 200 science and nature films during his career. He also designed and sold jewelry shaped like seahorses, made from brass and bakelite.
In 2009, a collection of his films called Science is Fiction: 23 Films by Jean Painlevé was released on DVD by The Criterion Collection.
Selected Filmography
- Cristaux Liquides (Liquid Crystals) (1978)
- Acera ou Le bal des sorcières (Acera, or the Witches’ Dance) (1972)
- Amours de la pieuvre (Love Life of the Octopus) (1965)
- Histoires de crevettes (Shrimp Stories) (1964)
- Comment naissent les méduses (How Some Jellyfish Are Born) (1960)
- Les Alpes (1958)
- L'Astérie (1958)
- Les Oursins (Sea Urchins) (1958)
- Les Danseuses de mer (Sea Ballerinas) (1956)
- La Chirurgie correctrice (1948)
- Écriture de la danse (1948)
- Assassins d'eau douce (Fresh Water Assassins) (1947)
- Notre planète la Terre (1947)
- Pasteur (1947)
- Jeux d'enfants (1946)
- Le Vampire (The Vampire) (1945)
- Solutions françaises (1939)
- Images mathématiques de la lutte pour la vie (The Struggle for Survival) (1937)
- Similitudes des longueurs et des vitesses (Similarities Between Length and Speed) (1937)
- Images mathématiques de la quatrième dimension (The Fourth Dimension) (1937)
- Voyage dans le ciel (Voyage to the Sky) (1937)
- Barbe-Bleue (Bluebeard) (1936)
- Microscopie à bord d'un bateau de pêche (1936)
- Corèthre (1935)
- L'Hippocampe (The Sea Horse) (1934)
- Électrophorèse de nitrate d'argent (1932)
- Ruptures de fibres (1931)
- Bernard-l'hermite (The Hermit Crab) (1930)
- Traitement expérimental d'une hémorragie chez le chien (Experimental Treatment of a Hemorrhage in a Dog) (1930)
- Les Crabes (1930)
- La Daphnie (Daphnia) (1929)
- Hyas et stenorinques (Hyas and Stenorhynchus) (1929)
- Les Oursins (Sea Urchins) (1929)
- La Pieuvre (Devilfish) (1928)
- L'œuf d'épinoche : de la fécondation à l'éclosion (The Stickleback's Egg) (1927)
Images for kids
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Jean Painlevé, a French filmmaker known for his underwater films.
See also
In Spanish: Jean Painlevé para niños
