"Oeufs d'épinoche" or "Stickelback Eggs" is a French black-and-white silent film by notable documentarian Jean Painlevé. It is one of his lesser known works and honestly if a man in his 20s makes a film like this, I genuinely wonder why he became a filmmaker and not a biologist. The topic is so specific and scientific here that it is not a good watch for anybody outside a biology lab. This description/criticism may apply to some of his works, but here it is really 100% true. This is not one for the uneducated masses (and I include myself here). I am usually careful with the word "boring", but it applies here very much. Do not watch if you are not a studied scientist. It will do you nothing good. Unluckily, at considerably over 20 minutes, it is also one of Painlevé's longest works, which makes it even more dragging.
2 Reviews
The University Lecture
boblipton28 August 2018
I had never heard of Jean Painlevé before poking around the France section of Filmstruck. Born in 1902, he was the son of the mathematician and French Prime Minister Paul Painlevé. He entered film with Michel Simon and made the first of his films, mostly about undersea life, in the 1920s. Wikipedia claims he directed over 200 films; the IMDb just over 40. Twenty-three were released in dvd by Criterion in 2009 as SCIENCE IS FICTION.
The Criterion collection dates this film from 1925; the Internet Movie Database from 1929; the difference probably arises from issues of production or modes of release.
This movie is an illustrated and animated university lecture, showing the progress of the fish' egg from before it is fertilized to far along in its progress. It makes some clever and, for the 1920s, masterful use of microphotography and time-lapse photography, and the title cards use precise and scientific terminology. The audience can see the contractions in the blastomer, and the circulation of blood in the embryo. Although nowadays, quite obviously, much cleaner and more elaborate educational films could be made, the effect is amazing for the era and still clear and, for those interested in the subject, quite educational 90 years later.
The Criterion collection dates this film from 1925; the Internet Movie Database from 1929; the difference probably arises from issues of production or modes of release.
This movie is an illustrated and animated university lecture, showing the progress of the fish' egg from before it is fertilized to far along in its progress. It makes some clever and, for the 1920s, masterful use of microphotography and time-lapse photography, and the title cards use precise and scientific terminology. The audience can see the contractions in the blastomer, and the circulation of blood in the embryo. Although nowadays, quite obviously, much cleaner and more elaborate educational films could be made, the effect is amazing for the era and still clear and, for those interested in the subject, quite educational 90 years later.
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