ZoologicalSurrealismdraws from French scientific and nature filmmaker Jean Painleve's early oeuvreto rethink the entangled histories of cinema, Surrealism, and scientificresearch in interwar France. Delving deeply into Painleve's archive, James LeoCahill develops an account of "cinema's Copernican vocation" - how it was used toforge new scientific discoveries while also displacing and critiquinganthropocentric viewpoints.