Jean Painlevé (20 November 1902 - 2 July 1989) was a film director, actor, translator, animator, critic and theorist. 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 Lou...
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Jean Painlevé (20 November 1902 - 2 July 1989) was a film director, actor, translator, animator, critic and theorist. 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,...
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