Jean Painlevé

Jean Painlevé (France, 1902 – 1989) was a film director and pioneer of French popular science cinema. His studies in mathematics, medicine and biology laid the foundations for his work, whose legacy exceeds 200 works on the natural world that combine humor and scientific rigor with a surrealist style. Some of his most outstanding works are L’Hippocampe (The Sea Horse) and Amours de la pieuvre (The Love Life of Octopuses). He was an innovator of the use of the microscope in cinema and a bridge between science and art in the 20th century, exerting a great influence on later artists and filmmakers. His work is part of the collection of museums such as The Metropolitan Museum in New York or the Pompidou Center in Paris.