The mesmerizing, utterly unclassifiable science films of Jean Painleve (1902-89) have to be seen to be believed: delightful, surrealist-influenced dream works that are also serious science. The French fillmmaker-scientist-inventer had a decades-spanning career in which he create hundreds of short films on subjects rang…

The eight-part television series Jean Painlevé Through His Films, directed by Denis Derrien and Hélène Hazera