Jean Painlevé
| Jean Painlevé | |
|---|---|
| Born | 20 November 1902 7th arrondissement of Paris |
| Died | 2 July 1989 (aged 86) Neuilly-sur-Seine |
| Occupation | Photographer filmmaker |
Jean Painlevé (20 November 1902 – 2 July 1989) was a photographer and filmmaker who specialized in underwater fauna. He was the son of mathematician and twice prime-minister of France, Paul Painlevé.
A few days after Painlevé was born, his mother, Marguerite Petit de Villeneuve, died from complications arising from an infection contracted during childbirth. Painlevé, an only son, was raised by his father's sister Marie, a widow.
In the Lycée Louis Le Grand, he was a poor and inattentive student who preferred to skip classes and go to the Jardin d'Acclimatation where he was assisting the guard in taking care of the animals. Painlevé later wrote: "In high school, my classmates hated me. They hated people in the margins, such as Vigo, son of the anarchist Almereyda, or Pierre Merle, son of Eugène Merle, director of [satirical weekly] Merle Blanc ("White Blackbird"). Me, I was the son of a Boche ("Kraut)", that Painlevé who had fought for Sarrail, solitary and unique republican general, and who had relieved [general] Nivelle of his duties to replace him with Pétain". He finished high school well apart "from these poor, unhappy ones who were like tradesmen in their trade". Among the few friends he made in his adolescence are future film critic Georges Altman, writer and precious stones specialist Armand Moss (Moschowitz), who later appeared as an extra in Mathusalem, and others.
There is a collection of brass / galalith jewelry associated with his films.
Painlevé had to abandon his studies aimed at entering the École Polytechnique because he understood practically nothing of Mathematics. (He would subsequently state he wished that mathematics was approached "like a language and not like a mystery"). Instead, he turned to medicine. However, two years into his studies, he abandoned the class of Professor Delbet, on account of the professor's treatment of a hydroencephalic patient which Painlevé found cruel, never to come back. He next turned to biology and entered the Laboratoire d'Anatomie et d'Histologie Comparée at the Sorbonne.
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