Tous les films de Jean Painlevé

 French

jean painlevé.

Compilation 3

 

 

  Versions :

Version française d'origine et sous-titres anglais

 

 

 

 

Bonus :

 

 

 

 

 

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FRESHWATER ASSASSINS (Music: Armstrong, Ellington, Baron Lee, Gène Krupa, Jimmy Luœford)

When I was in third year at Lycée Louis-Le-Grand, I resented the biology teacher's inability to explain, in 1914, how aquatic animals breathed air at the surface of the water. It was not until I read "L'Aquarium de Chambre", by the Swiss Frank Brocher, who suffered from tuberculosis, and was assigned to the contemplation of meadows, that I learnt that fine hairs held the air in the tracheas and kept out the water when the animal returned to the depths; it was a wonderful discovery for which I had waited many years...

I began to explore the lakes and ponds around Paris, which were later to be concreted over; I captured everything I could find there with my fishing net, and discovered over many days and nights that the specialists' descriptions did not coincide with what I saw: a carnivorous specimen was herbivorous or vice-versa, and the water beetles for instance, large flying beetles, were alleged to be vegetarian, whereas their larvae were carnivorous.

I had captured one, which I carried home in an open jar. That night, I dreamed I was a knight fighting for Joan of Arc... l received a terrible blow behind my ear from an Englishman's lance; the pain woke me, I felt my ear with my hand and caught hold of the water beetle. It had flown out of its captivity and - an explanation of which I learned much later - guided by the heat, had come to inject its gastric fluids into me, through hooks akin to those of the terribly carnivorous larva... My dream had immediately followed this incident. Pieces of cartilage fell from my ear for weeks afterwards although I applied anti-acidifiant regularly. This established that the flying adult was as carnivorous as the larva. I also found out that the may-fly larva, believed to be vegetarian (because it cuts up plants for clothing), was carnivorous...

In a word, my knowledge of the lake's inhabitants was good enough to write a scenario, but when I started filming, none of what I had expected would ever happen. Perhaps the disturbance was due to the light... The film was long and accompanied by the most celebrated jazzmen of 1925-35 (Jimmy Luceford, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, etc), but some people do not enjoy jazz, and a quarter of an hour is enough...I only play the second part, for the finale especially, with "White Heat", set to the film without correction, from the first to the last note, the synchronisation remaining perfect by some cosmic coincidence.      

 

 

SEA BALLERINAS (Music: Pierre Conté)

Whenever possible, I produce three versions of the same subject: one study containing the basic elements which need to be developed; one academic version made up of verified assertions; and one public copy, in which I attempt, through music for instance, to emphasize or to render a series of most curious or unexpected pictures on the topic more easily digestible.

In the academie version, I sometimes insist on facts proven by my shots and which contradict the official assertions. Here, for instance, a small brittle-star (ophiotrix fragilis): these brittle stars, closely resembling starfish, can be found in abundance in the harbour in front of the Marine Biology Station in Roscoff, and are renowned for giving birth to two youngsters at twenty minutes' interval. The reply given was that these could not be of the same species as those described in Grassé's "bible". But there were no other species at that place... Furthermore, after weeks of waiting, I filmed a brittle-star which, having given birth to five in one go, lost its shell as a result, and yet did not die, but instead reconstructed it little by little... My unorthodox results were explained away by the fact that "I had man-handled these brittle-stars", etc... Yet that was not the case, and nevertheless many brittle-stars lost their shells...                                                      

My studies spanned over years, as is perhaps not the case of those who publish their findings... and the brittle-stars survived, reconstructing a hardened and calcified shell. I filmed all the transitional phases. Scandal! It's always very difficult for a scientist (who has not a scientific mind) to admit he was wrong... I have met a few, for whom I have the deepest respect. Colleagues criticized the end of the film, where I illustrated the movements of a feather-star as a dance directed by the antennae and jaw movements of a magnificent Galatea (squat-lobster) of living colour: I would have thought it was unusual enough not to lead to confusion. Even the lay public should understand that it was poetic licence...

 

 

   

DIATOMS (Music: R Angles, R. Lersy)

Diatoms form a subject which covers plant and animal characteristics. Specialists guard their topic jealously: "they are diatoms" and will not deal with them unless they are roasted... Whereas I had brought forth a picture from microscopic scanning, and was, I think, one of the first to photograph them with the delay mechanism that Hitachi had made for me, which showed all the details to perfection: the contrast of the electronic phase was added to that of the optic phase... But they were unaccustomed to such an approach... I therefore cannot offer a name for what I filmed. Some are fixed, some are mobile. The extraordinary Vibrio Praxillifer, for instance, which was discovered when Loewenhoek invented the microscope, and has since become the Bacillaria Paradoxa... An amazing creature. 

Diatoms can be found everywhere, and their silicious shells form a third of the continents above water.   

The cause of alternative movement in some is difficult to understand, and their short lives of several days do not make things easier... Some carry ocelli... It's amazing...  

(For a sequence during which I refer to "true golden gems", I had asked the musician for a touch of romanticism, Rimsky-Korsakov, for example... "You want to kill my music"... So, at that point in the soundtrack, I simply added "travajda la mokère, travajda bono...").

 

 

THE PIGEONS IN THE SQUARE (Music: Ramon de Herrera)

I was never very interested in birds, but I learned what I needed to know about them for drawing-room conversation.

If I made a film about pigeons, it was a matter of ethology: In the square next to the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, I had noticed that there were often one or two pigeons who were strangers to the neighbourhood who kept away from the natives, and did not share their food. Three or four days later they had either left or been accepted. I wanted to film this behaviour, and show it to some kids and find out what they thought about it... That changed things; I took an interest in these winged creatures.

All the pigeons in the world are descended from rock pigeons, but what a huge number of varieties! When they are domesticated they lay several eggs a year; semi-domesticated, once or twice a year or two eggs. Crossbreeding produces many different plumages, colours, etc . I realised that one in ten of them had crippled feet: snares, frost, virus? I noticed also that their suffering came to an end when they lost their toes; they danced around on their drumsticks and then died because they could no longer roost. I also show that domination, in pigeons, comes from what they possess : if they lose it , they lose face and lose aggressivity... In fact I think this is a general rule, and that appearances are deceptive... I recall also , even if it is well known, that birds cannot walk backwards, and that except at a distance they cannot see with both eyes at once because of their beak, and have to turn their heads to one side, that their head can turn through 360°,  that the bone which makes up their foot corresponds to the heel of a man, that they keep their beaks in the water while they drink, in contrast to land birds such as sparrows, which raise their heads to swallow, that copulation takes three seconds... while their tongue-to-tongue kisses last for five minutes...

One of the clearest demonstrations of heredity comes from the Vulture filmed by the Spaniard La Fuente, where a fledgling who has not known his parents reproduces their specific and complex movements, such as breaking ostrich eggs he has never seen before by hitting them with pebbles. Another film about genetics, Japanese this time "Monkey Island", shows the extraordinary development by  imitation of the young, over a two-year period. Since then, many adults have been filmed swimming. The Soviet film, "Pet foxes" shows the peaceful foxes obtained by cross-breeding between the least aggressive foxes from several litters. Many experiments of this kind are known today, and are enough to understand that evolution does not oblige men to descend from apes, nor do they imply the contrary: two twigs held parallel are sufficient, and will jump if necessary.

The film concludes with a tribute to the creator of scientific films, Marey. Remember that birds expend a lot less of their energy when they fly in tight formation, and that every dense crowd of individuals gives rise to a different collective being... where each individual acts like the others, and differently than he would on his own.

 

 

 

THE STRANGE WORLD OF AXEL HENRICHSEN (Music: Pierre Maillard-Verger)

A family near Copenhagen created, in their own personal manner, living forms out of varied materials. One of them, Axel, a blacksmith, would use waste matter from wood, vegetation and animals (he owned a large garden containing magnificent plants and diverse flora to which his wife tended...).    

I made an "newsreel" about it, which was, like a few others I made, of interest to nobody... I had hoped to encourage kids to do the same sort of thing, since very little cost was involved in the making of these objects...(at least these feathered creations enabled Geneviève and Maryvonne Hamon to make very pretty pictures!). The film distributors, who were accustomed to my work, despised it, claiming that it was of no merit. It took me two days to make the film, one day in winter and one in summer.                                                                   

 

 

CALENDAL (Based on research by R Conté and M. Nadal Music: folklore - Pierre Maillard-Verger)

With the help of a team, I have made films dependent on methodology, but I have also (and on my own entirely) recorded the scenes of films which I call "newsreels". This is one such film, made in a single day and without any retakes, for the heat would not allow them.

I must point out that these dances were not performed by a handful of professional dancers only, but also by actors and locals. Pierre Conté's "Notation of movement" had made it possible for them to learn the steps with precision, by the positioning of parts of the body, and then rhythm, position, speed, emphasis...This is all put on paper as music notation, which can be understood, learned and remembered by anybody with a knowledge of music ( which is important for choreographers who cannot remember their creations a few years later !).

Pierre Maillard-Verger's music, recorded in advance, filled the theatre in Baux de Provence. The rehearsal took place on the day of the presentation itself. I made other "newsreels", such as "The Roscoff Festivities" "The Strange World of Axel Henrichsen", but none quite as exhausting as these Calendal dances...

The final and very tricky editing was done by Michelle Nadal, one of Pierre Conté's students.

 

 

                       LOBSTERS (Based on research by M. Léglise)

 

Here is a fairly unexciting subject of study: one must wait for months, years even, for an adult which can produce tangible results, whereas any rat will yield the answer for its species within three weeks...

Nevertheless, in this case, Mr Léglise established what he had been looking for concerning the possible cross-breeding of species. He further made interesting behavioural experiments possible.. Thus the female, for instance, will always express her consent in an identical manner by sliding onto her back between the pincers of the chosen male.

In Marseilles, researchers studied the action antennae for clearly determined messages, but such was not the aim in the present case. The issue was whether a cross between the American and the European lobster would produce a fertile species or not. It took several years of waiting before mating, fertilisation and egg-laying could be witnessed; the American lobster is only fertile around its fourth year, the European by its fifth. It was then only another three years later at the least that the larvae became adult lobsters...Rats are clearly more cooperative...

Second generation mating took place at last, and it was not fertile. Which proves, as Milne-Edwards had postulated, that European and American lobsters are not of the same species.

 

 

                OUR PLANET EARTH (Music: Guy Bernard Special effects: A.P.Dufour)

During the Nazi occupation, I did everything except film making, so I left my collaborator, A.P.Dufour, the best special effects engineer in cinema, in charge of making the film we had agreed on. It was finished in 1945. It carries his trademark being perhaps somewhat heavy-handed, but is highly representative of the hypotheses of the time... The monsters of bygone eras, for instance, were made of reinforced modelling paste. This material had already proved its worth with Bertrand for Blue Beard in 1936, and Dufour had used it for a film at the Palais de la Découverte with the Exposition Universelle of 1937 in mind; "The theory of the formation of the Alps" by Professer Moret of Grenoble, a film which has since disappeared... This theory has also become obsolete; since "Our Planet Earth", the continental drift has changed, and so have the "overthrust" of folds, the formation of gulfs, and geological eras have extended to millions of years, etc. But forty years ago it wasn't so obvious...

The musician Guy Bernard wrote his music frame by frame; thé pictures were enhanced by a colleague when necessary....

 

 

                VOYAGE IN THE SKY (Music: Van Hoorebeeke and J. Yatove Special effects: A.P. Dufour)                      

Recipe: It is enough to lie flat on your back in a field where the hay has just been cut, on a starry summer night, to turn your face to the sky, to wait, staring intensely at the stars until they start to twinkle with fatigue. Soon your body will be freed by a state of torpor, the celestial vault will bend it to the curve of its dome, weight will disappear, you will feel yourself sucked into the infinite, and your voyage will begin to the tune of the earthly crickets playing their own creaking version of the music of the spheres.    

Everything becomes simple and self-explanatory: what was empty is now full, and what was full is now empty. The imponderable ether is a printing-bed with instant transmission. Matter is only a whole. But when you return from this adventure, you will only think you have been dreaming, and that is why so few of the people you can trust want to be witnesses. But it is true: when you look at the moon through modem optics, you can see for yourself that all you have to do is pass through the lens to stand there.
 Thus: Voyage in the Sky.                                                                                                   

When the French television retransmitted Armstrong's landing on the moon, this astonishing moment was retransmitted about four o'clock in the morning, because France had not paid for direct transmission. To fill the waiting time various films were shown, among them "Voyage in the Sky"... We were with a young lab assistant, whose young son had been watching Walt Disney films for long enough to have seen such exploits already. When this film was shown he concluded that it was all over, and fell asleep...

 

MATHEMATICAL PICTURES OF THE FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL (Author: M.V.A. Kostitzin, Faculty of Sciences of     Moscow Special effects: A.P. Dufour)

A series of graphs reveal the different forms of population growth: indefinite growth, in the absence of enemies and with abundant food supplies, with constant birth and death rates. But various obstacles can thwart growth, be it that of nutrition or of the predators. If the population is regularly limited, it becomes a logistic population. It can achieve its balance in a given way through competition, through the simple encounter of two individuals. Where important figures are involved, the total number is proportionate to their square, which can be 20 to 30 inhabitants for every square kilometer in the United States of America, or 226 in Belgium in the same year, 1930.

If no balance is found, the population can die out... The battles between different species create different unbalances for each one. This phenomenon is explained by the Law of Periodic Cycles proposed by the Italian mathematician Volterra ; a second Law explains the variations in the prey/predator averages ; finally, vital changes alter these averages: the third Law of Volterra.

Biological equations are extremely complicated and tend to lead to the disappearanœ of species rather than a balance being achieved. But mutations give rise to new represen­tatives, and their hybrids, when genetically protected, will allow a possible evolution over a very long period of time, as is illustrated by the case of the horse's foot.

 

 

                A NOTATION FOR MOVEMENT (Based on research by Pierre Conté)

In 1931, Pierre Conté was about to publish his findings on "The general technique of movement and writing", when the Joos Ballet Company, which had come to present the famous "Green Table" at the International Competition of Dance Archives, brought out the writing system they had chosen: that of their collaborator, Rudolph von Laban... Pierre Conté became acquainted with the system, prepared to support it, but upon discovering that it brought him satisfaction neither from a bio-mechnical point of view, nor especially within the link between MUSIC and DANCE, he published his own system.

From June 1945 onwards, I was in touch with Pierre Conté and closely followed his method for writing down movement. Although I had no competence in that field. I understood from the very clear explanation of the principles from which he worked, that Pierre Conté - an admirer of Marey and Demeney - had discovered what many had searched for for so long: the common body of Movement and Dance. Furthermore, thé fact that he made use of actual musical signs to note down anything relating to rhythm, moods and accents, seemed particularly convincing to me...

Those scientific and musical bases, the coherence and easy use of the system, the pertinent answers brought to the essentiai questions raised were all the reasons which justified my interest as a film maker in this French discovery. It took a good fifty years before the professionals came to realise that such questions would arise more and more frequently. Thanks to the devotion of Michelle Nadal and the Art and Movement association, the French system has been kept going and is presently applied in many domains.

I must add that Pierre Conté was also a prolific composer, and that it was a pleasure to use his scores, which have also been preserved by Michelle Nadal, for some of my films ("How 'Jellyfishes' are born", " Sea Ballerinas ", " Shrimp Stories ").

 

                            LE GRAND CIRQUE DE CALDER

 

 

            

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                PENCHENAT’S MASSAGE TECHNIQUE METHOD AND BENCH (Silent)                    

In 1918, Ferdinand Penchenat, a wrestler (alias "Butcher Ferdinand", 198 lbs/6'6"), had suffered severe war injuries. He pioneered the Penchenat method of osteo-physiotherapy, at Professer Abrami's. This method was adopted by the Masseurs de
France, and in 1937 I filmed some of his techniques. The patient had to be totally relaxed before the treatment could begin; this was achieved by creating a layer of hot air (using a normal hairdrier) under a blanket which was shaken with the other hand, followed by a very light massage, done by hand.          

In 1946, Penchenat, weighing only 99 Ibs, returned from Dachau, were he had been subjected to intensive torture. As soon as he arrived in Paris, he went back to his surgery on the rue Lauriston. He replaced the metal rod which he had earlier used to amplify the effects of the vibrator with an "Oyster Master" engine, which one placed on the back of one's hand, thus enabling the masseur to use his fingers freely and to his best advantage.

The massage sessions he gave were usually prolonged by a series of passive manipulations, followed by active gymnastics for which a bench of his own design was used. This bench had a supple board which cut out any possible resonance, and allowed certain parts of the body to be held in place by highly original hooks, which are still held in admiration by physical culture specialists today. Indeed, the way the shoulders or the pelvis could, as a result, be maintained in a fixed position gave rise to positive results and improvements: a better posture, greater amplitude of controlled movement, the elimination of much unnecessary pressure, impressive suppleness, a localization of the action levels on the spine and intensive muscular reinforcement, without any excessive energy expenditure.

This extraordinary instrument can be looked up in "The Penchenat Method for Physical Training", edited by Masson. We owe this book to Michelle Nadal, who was a disciple of Penchenat, and is the depository of the bench and the method. She was assisted by Dr Guy Voyer.

 

 

 

 

 

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