Filmmaker and biologist Jean Painlevé shot his first films for the French Academy of Sciences. He specializes in underwater biology, working on the Parisian art scene at the same time (with Jacques-André Boiffard and Eli Lotar, most notably). L'Hippocampe (1933), Barbe-Bleu (1936), and Vampire (1945) usher in a new genre of film where the aesthetics of the image and the soundtrack build on the scientific content.