Hyas and Stenorhynchus, marine crustaceans (1929) User Reviews

With Spirograph Worms

[boblipton · 7/10 · 29 August 2018]

This clearly was a goat-glanded production; Criterion gives its original date as 1927, while the IMDb gives it as 1929. The copy I saw had a score of Chopin music, title cards and a voice-over commentary. Clearly it was issued in some form as a silent and then, equipped with a sound track, re-issued by Gaumont a couple of years later.

The two types of crustaceans are small critters of two related genuses that resemble small crabs. Individual species are sometimes called crabs. They have the peculiarity of using bibs and bobs from their localities to adorn themselves for camouflage, resulting in what might appear to be a walking mass of seaweed.

Painlevé uses only about seven of the ten minutes of this short subject on these animals. The rest is devoted to the spirograph worm, a sessile creture that puts out fronds to breathe and gather in food in what the narrator calls "a Loie Fuller ballet". It is here that Painlevé uses his most extreme microphotography; ten micrometers take up the entire screen.

Like the director's other science films of the era, it uses marvelous camerawork to produce amazing results. We could do better today, but that's only after ninety years of technological advances.

(Too) Difficult subject

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 27 March 2016]

"Hyas and Stenorhynchus, marine crustaceans" is a pretty early 10-minute short film by French documentary pioneer Jean Painlevé. He was not even 30 when he made this one and went on to make films for over half a century afterward. Unfortunately, I personally did not enjoy this one really that much, but that may be just me. I simply did not find the topic here too interesting. This documentary is still in black-and-white (no surprise looking at the year) as usual for Painlevé's older works and gives us an insight into water creatures, crab-like animals I guess. Oh yeah and as always with Painlevé too, make sure you get subtitles if you aren't fluent in French. His narration sure sounds pretty enthusiastic and he makes a joke here and there too to detract from the complicated topic he elaborates on in here. I personally a glad this one only runs for 10 minutes and not 90 or as I did not feel it was a rewarding watch, even if I like Painlevé. His talking definitely elevates the material.