If you are wondering where I have been, the answer is watching vintage French nature documentaries. Why? I don’t know. I was only going to watch a couple and then suddenly it was four days later and I had watched All Of Them. Which is funny because I found them while trying to cancel my Criterion subscription because I don’t use it.
In truth I don’t know how to review these. They span sixty years of Painlevé’s work, and it is very difficult to compare a silent film about fish eggs to an 80s film strip about pigeons for elementary schoolers. But I enjoyed the Process of Watching them, and do want to point at a couple for being particuarly delightful.
1947’s ‘Freshwater Assassins’ is bout 24 minutes long. It took me about an hour to watch. Why is that? Every time a new creature was introduced, it was done so so compellingly that I just had to pause the movie and google it. These are not charismatic creatures. They are alien looking freshwater invertebrates. They are dragonfly larva and water scorpions and a sort of beetle larva that sucks the juices out of its prey. And yet Painlevé captures them with so much love and awe that it’s infectious to the viewer. It really, really makes you want to know more about these weird little bugs.
And that love for unloved creatures is clear through line in the best of Painlevé’s films. He seems to hold a deep appreciation for every animal except the octopus, of which there are two films about in this collection, both of which painting octopus in a sinister light. No idea what that’s about. But take 1982’s ‘Pigeons in the Square’. Twenty-seven minutes of sustained, loving attention to a much overlooked creature. The camera zooms in and slows down to show us how they walk, how they endure painful foot injuries, how they plan their landings. You really end the short with a deep appreciation for pigeons.
Even ‘The Vampire’, a 1945 short about vampire bats, transcends its sinister tone with an undercurrent of ‘isn’t this cool? Isn’t it so cool we know know all this? That I can show you this? Look at some parasites from the bat’s saliva. That’s microscopic! And I can film it! Isn’t that cool?’
And it is, is the thing. We are, now, used to microscopic footage and nature documentaries. We have seen lil bugs swimming around, and in full color too. But I think we forgot like, how fucking cool that is. When you see that for the first time when you’re like 6, you’re blown away by What Is Possible In The World. By the time you become an adult you start to take this stuff for granted. But then you watch stuff like this, where someone is really pushing the technology of the time in service of showing his audience ‘look what exists! Look at these snails! Don’t you just love them? Isn’t this so cool?’ And that sense of wonder comes rushing back.
Do I rec these? I don’t know how I could possibly answer that. I don’t think most audiences would have any patience for them. And truth be told, I did fall asleep during one of the silent films. But. If you think you do. And you’re tooling around on Criterion anyways. Why not give them a shot. You in the very least will get to look at some cool bugs. And what more does one need in life, really?
Signing off,
Marlowe
Marlowe Writes 