''Death by Design'' is a 1995

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

documentary directed by Peter Friedman and Jean-François Brunet of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris which focuses on

cell biology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living and ...

, with an emphasis on

programmed cell death Programmed cell death (PCD; sometimes referred to as cellular suicide) is the death of a cell as a result of events inside of a cell, such as apoptosis or autophagy. PCD is carried out in a biological process, which usually confers advantage durin ...

and why our lives depend on it.

Cast

Featured are prominent

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

s such as

Nobel prize laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...

Rita Levi-Montalcini Rita Levi-Montalcini (, ; 22 April 1909 – 30 December 2012) was an Italian Nobel laureate, honored for her work in neurobiology. She was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with colleague Stanley Cohen for the ...

(along with her artist

twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

sister

Paola Levi-Montalcini Paola Levi-Montalcini (22 April 1909 – 29 September 2000) was an Italian painter. Personal life Paola Levi-Montalcini was born in Turin, Italy. Her parents, Adamo Levi and Adele Montalcini, were Sephardi Jews. She was one of four children. He ...

Martin Raff Martin Charles Raff (born 15 January 1938) is a Canadian/British biologist and researcher who is an Emeritus Professor at the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology (LMCB) at University College London (UCL). His research has been in immunolog ...

Polly Matzinger Polly Celine Eveline Matzinger (born July 21, 1947, in La Seyne, France) is a French-born Immunology, immunologist who proposed the danger model theory of how the immune system works. Early years Polly Matzinger was born on July 21, 1947, in Fra ...

, Pierre Goldstein, and Nobel laureate

Robert Horvitz Howard Robert Horvitz ForMemRS NAS AAA&S APS NAM (born May 8, 1947) is an American biologist best known for his research on the nematode worm ''Caenorhabditis elegans'', for which he was awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, t ...

Notable elements

The documentary is notable for its combination of a whimsical use of metaphors with scientific rigor, and incorporates

animation Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...

, micro-cinematography, and scenes from old

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

films and

stock footage Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock ...

, including

Busby Berkeley Busby Berkeley (born Berkeley William Enos; November 29, 1895 – March 14, 1976) was an American film director and musical choreographer. Berkeley devised elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns. Berke ...

-choreographed

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

routines. The opening scene features the trailer from the 1950s

science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar ...

It Came From Outer Space ''It Came from Outer Space'' is a 1953 American science fiction horror film, the first in the 3D process from Universal-International. It was produced by William Alland and directed by Jack Arnold. The film stars Richard Carlson and Barbara ...

''. (Note: "The Life and Times of Life and Times" is a separate film that is included on the same DVD).

Awards

Winner of: The Prix Euopa in Berlin for Best Non-Fiction Film of the Year, The Earthwatch Environmental Film Award, The Audience Award, Marseille International Documentary Film Festival, France The Jury Prize, Visions du Réel International Documentary Films, Nyon, Switzerland, The Golden Gate Award, 1996 San Francisco International Film Festival, The Jury Prize, Thomas Edison Film Festival, New Jersey, 1996, The Gold Apple, National Educational Media Network Awards, California, 1996, The Grand Jury Prize, Festival du Film de Chercheur, France, 1996, The Bell-Northern Prize for Scientific Excellence and the Pratt & Whitney Prize for Excellence in Science Popularization at the Québec Science Film Festival. See https://www.strange-attractions.com/death-by-design

References

External links

* http://firstrunfeatures.com/deathbydesigndvd.html * https://search.alexanderstreet.com/preview/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cvideo_work%7C3566283 * * https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/death_by_design * https://variety.com/1995/film/reviews/death-by-design-1200443609/ * https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/25/arts/the-dance-of-death-inside-the-body.html * https://blog.sevenponds.com/lending-insight/film-review-death-by-design-where-parallel-worlds-meet-by-jean-francois-brunet-and-peter-friedman * https://itvs.org/films/death-by-design American animated documentary films Programmed cell death Documentary films about science Documentary films about death {{sci-documentary-film-stub