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BFI Shop  >   DVDs >  Documentary  > Science is Fiction / The Sounds of Science: The Films of Jean Painleve RRP 24.99
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Science is Fiction / The Sounds of Science: The Films of Jean Painleve RRP 24.99

certificate E Certificate
1927-1978
Colour, and black & white
France
Language(s): French
Subtitles: English
Published/distributed by BFI
ISBN/EAN: 5035673007198
Ratio 01:33:01
Region 2 Runtime: 120 mins + 95 mins
Price: £25.00
(Including VAT at 20%)
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Science is Fiction / The Sounds of Science: The Films of Jean Painleve RRP 24.99 
Painleve, Jean
With alternative soundtrack by Yo La Tengo

Before David Attenborough and Jacques Cousteau - there was Jean Painleve. Poetic pioneer of science films, Painleve explored a twilight realm of vampire bats, seahorses, octopi, and liquid crystals. In collaboration with his life-partner, Genevieve Hamon, Painleve made more than 200 science and nature films and was an early champion of the genre. This selection from 50 years of passionate scientific enquiry includes his most famous films - The Sea Horse, The Vampire, The Love Life of the Octopus and Sea Urchins - with their often-amazing music, which ranges from Duke Ellington to the French pioneer of electronic music, Pierre Henry.

Possessing a remarkable eye for life's eerie curiosities, Painleve's art pivots on the premise that 'science is fiction'. He created a landscape of bug-eyed wonderment marked by a playful sense of nature's hidden poetry and scandalized the scientific world with a cinema designed to entertain as well as edify. In the process he won over the circle of Surrealists and avant-gardists and counted amongst his friends Antonin Artaud, Sergei Eisenstein, Jean Vigo, and Luis Bunuel. Painlev's astonishing documentaries witness a genuinely 'magic realism', which continues to enchant audiences around the world.

A two-disc set in a double-cover digipack; the DVD release also includes 'The Sounds of Science', an exclusive extra disc featuring an alternative soundtrack by US art-rock band Yo La Tengo to a selection of the films. Yo La Tengo's place in rock history is unique - few bands in memory dare to experiment quite so widely with such casual audacity. From screeching art-rock and jangling pop songs to electronic soundscapes and hushed lullabies, their music explores the range of musical history without ever sounding less than modern. In 2001 the band was selected by the San Francisco International Film Festival committee to compose new music for the films of Jean Painleve. Their alternately sombre and joyously moody music seemed like a natural fit for Painleve's dramatic underwater studies. Yo La Tengo's score has previously only been available on a CD, 'The Sounds of the Sounds of Science'. This is the first time that the music and Painleve's films can be seen together on DVD.

Extras
* Filmed introduction by academic Dr Michael Abecassis
* Two short films by Percy Smith: The Birth of a Flower (1910), The Strength and Agility of Insects (1911)
* A short film by Adrian Klein: Colour on the Thames (1935)
* Also included is a 32-page illustrated booklet with essays and film notes
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