"To believe in the octopus, one must have seen it," wrote Victor Hugo.

To reveal, to make visible — this is precisely what runs throughout the entire body of work of French filmmaker and biologist Jean Painlevé, who devoted his life to uncovering the mysteries of the marine world. With The Love Life of an Octopus, he transcends what the collective imagination has long relegated to the category of “horrific animal,” revealing instead its beauty, finesse, and astonishing complexity. The film begins from our preconceived notions about these species, which have too often haunted our dreams, stories, and legends, in order to deconstruct them. Painlevé invites us to recognize, in the radical otherness of the octopus, a genuine intelligence — a consciousness capable of perception and emotion.

This is not a naïve identification, nor a simple anthropomorphization, but a posture of affective openness: to allow oneself to be moved by another form of life, and to perceive in it a singular, legitimate, fully valid presence. This recognition awakens curiosity, lowers our defenses, and naturally fosters empathy. How can one remain indifferent to the fascinating scene in which a mother octopus tends her eggs for weeks, without eating, tirelessly cleaning the water and the surrounding environment? From a once-feared creature to a marvel of perseverance and attentive care!

The film is the result of a patient companionship with living beings: begun around 1958, it took nearly ten years to complete, the shooting entirely dependent on the octopus’s biological cycle, as it only spawns in August. Filmed primarily at the Arago Laboratory in Banyuls-sur-Mer and at Roscoff, and based on pioneering techniques of macrophotography and underwater observation, The Love Life of an Octopus stands today as a rare work: a skillful blend of scientific rigor and poetry, reminding us that understanding the Living often begins with learning to observe it in a different way.

Jason Burnham
Tënk editorial manager