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Friday, April 6, 2012

An amazing Black and White Sea Urchin film/video from... 1928???

Found this stunning Black and White video/film called "Les Oursins" which shows what I believe is the spatangoid  Echinocardium cordatum and other sea urchins..



The description reads
Réalisé en 1928, et donc muet, ce film est un des premiers grands exemples de l'art singulier de Jean Painlevé. Grâce à des techniques de prises de vue originales, mais surtout à un sens de l'image et du rythme, il parvient à décrire de manière extrêmement précise et pédagogique les caractéristiques d'une espèce animale, tout découvrant les beautés étranges, fascinantes, parfois comiques que permet l'observation d'êtres auxquels la plupart ne trouverait aucun intérêt. Chez lui, sens de la beauté et exigence savante se renforcent mutuellement.
Which translates to English as
Produced in 1928, and therefore silent, this film is one of the first great examples of the singular art of Jean Painlevé. Through techniques of original shooting, but mostly a sense of image and rhythm, he manages to describe with extreme accuracy and pedagogical characteristics of an animal species, whilediscovering the beauty strange, fascinating, sometimes comedy that allows the observation of things which most would find uninteresting. Home, sense of beauty and scholarly requirements are mutually reinforcing.
I know nothing about French filmmaking..but this is pretty amazing footage.. 
at

6 comments:

  1. TaupoApril 6, 2012 at 8:32 AM

    Jean Pain-levé's work is amazing. I've actually blogged a bit about it: http://ssaft.com/Blog/dotclear/index.php?post/2010/09/13/Le-documentaire-animalier-de-Jean-Painleve
    Unfortunately, the company that manages his legacy is very aggressive. I don't think those videos will last long as all the ones that were in my article were turned down...

    ReplyDelete
  2. TaupoApril 6, 2012 at 8:59 AM

    Actually, you helped me find many videos and I updated my article! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousApril 7, 2012 at 1:26 PM

    Very nice footage, especcially of Echinocardium burrowing, thanks for pointing it out!

    Sincerely,
    Bram

    ReplyDelete
  4. Danna StaafApril 10, 2012 at 1:24 PM

    This is so awesome I couldn't resist blogging about it for my science/art column at KQED: http://science.kqed.org/quest/2012/04/10/cinematic-science-from-the-farm-to-france/

    Thanks for the inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
  5. ChrisMApril 10, 2012 at 1:27 PM

    Awesome! I'm glad that its managed to inspire so much attention! I can only hope that, as per Taupo's comments, the management company will be lenient if/when they find out and the movie can continue to be appreciated by the public..

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi! I'm Janola.May 12, 2012 at 12:58 PM

    The echinoid looks furry in this video. I like the footage of it burrowing.

    ReplyDelete