![](https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/yuhRipjeLp7tmGUfodVkC6kMl1p.jpg)
![](https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w200/lHxmNVsovdUnS1x7qfXf3pBE8tj.jpg)
The mesmerizing, utterly unclassifiable science films of Jean Painlevé (1902-89) have to be seen to be believed: delightful, surrealist-influenced dream works that are also serious science. The French filmmaker-scientist-inventor had a decades-spanning career in which he created hundreds of short films on subjects ranging from astronomy to pigeons to, most famously, such marine-life marvels as the sea horse and the sea urchin.