Conference by Thierry Lefebvre, Senior Lecturer at the University Paris Diderot.

When he began his career in scientific filmmaking towards the end of the 1920s, Jean Painlevé was able to look to an already long-standing French tradition: on one hand, the science film, brilliantly illustrated for the past 20 years by the work of Doctor jean Comandon; on the other hand, the naturalist short film, represented since the Teens by the Scientia series produced by Éclair Films.

Positioned at the intersection of these two sub-genres, Jean Painlevé was able to aptly seize the opportunity of the revolution that the advent of the talking film represented in order to radically transform them.

The following films will be screened:

Les Anneaux de Liesegang (Jean Comandon, ONRSII, 1924)

La Ranatre (Eclair-Scientia, 1913)