Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
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Item Coloring science outside the lines : the poetry and passion of Jean Painlevé(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2007) Frostic, Maria Tucker; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: William Neff; Paul Monaco (co-chair)The majority of current science films for popular audiences follow a formula that can best be described as conventional journalism. Artistic science films are rare, and historically they have generated outrage and distrust by the scientific community. In this paper, I explore the possibility that artful science films are a valid method of conveying the wonders of science to an audience. Underwater French filmmaker Jean Painlevé made films that strike a clever balance between art and science, and this unique fusion of divergent parts results in moving vignettes on the astonishing surreal beauty of the marine world. By considering the origin of the science film, by examining Painlevé's films and philosophy, and by investigating the role of art and science in society, I argue that artistic science films are valid educational tools that should be used to communicate the wonders of science.Item Ocean Pictures : the construction of the ocean on film(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2008) Kennerson, Elliott Doran; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Ronald Tobias.Common filmic tropes of the ocean draw upon ideas that go back to the novels of Herman Melville and Jules Verne, who constructed the ocean respectively as a hostile wilderness and a watery Eden. Two of the earliest and most influential underwater filmmakers, Jacques Cousteau and Jean Painlevé, employed these tropes, as have subsequent filmmakers, especially in their depictions of charismatic ocean fauna. The power of the Eden/wilderness dichotomy of the ocean has spilled over not only from novel to film and from fiction to non-fiction, but into the socio-political sphere of ocean-related controversies like the one that is the subject of my film, Sealed Off!!!