With a spirit full of joyful humor, Jean Painlevé and co-director Geneviève Hamon take us through a day in the life of a shrimp and its companions. While the two filmmakers readily acknowledge that this elegant and monstrous aquatic creature—unfortunately for it, far too delicious—will most likely end up, along with its friends, in the stomachs of the gourmands who catch them, their interest in the mishaps and complexities that punctuate its all-too-short life is evident and remarkably well developed. The film is very short—barely ten minutes—but long enough for viewers to learn that human beings are not its only predators: the poor shrimp may also fall victim to its own kind. The extreme close-ups of the creature are particularly captivating, revealing the delicacy of its refined constitution: tiny fins with bluish details; legs so fragile yet industrious, each with a precise function; translucent skin and shell that allow us to observe the swallowing and digestion of food as if by X-ray. Each moment in the shrimp’s life is recounted as meticulously as it is succinctly, from feeding to egg-laying, to molting—a phase that places it in a terribly precarious position before its new carapace appears—exposed to its peers, who take advantage of the soft flesh of this transitional state to attack and, in all likelihood, consume it. In the end, the shrimp’s life is a cruel one. When it is not destined for human feasts, its own world can turn hostile. Should we see in these existential cycles any kind of allegory for the all-too-often brutal habits of human beings? The filmmakers certainly do not go that far, but viewers are free to read into it whatever they wish…

Claire Valade
Critic and programmer