Death By Design/The Life and Times of Life and Times

Starring:Polly Matzinger, Rita Levi-Montalcini, Robert Horvitz, Pierre Golstein, Klaus-Michael Debatin, Martin Raff
Director: Peter Friedman (II), Jean-François Brunet
Studio: First Run Features
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Death by Design, a witty, fast-paced documentary by Peter Friedman (working with French researcher Jean-Francois Brunet), concerns an unlikely but fascinating subject: programmed cell death. Taking us deep into the mysteries of cellular biology, Friedman reveals the arcane reasons why some cells suddenly and automatically kill themselves, apparently triggered by signals from surrounding cells. Friedman employs some impressive, microscopic cinematography, but he knows most people are not inclined to look at the building blocks of life even for an hour. So he makes clever, allegorical use of other bits of film--clips of cars driving on the freeway, animation, Busby Berkley musical numbers, Harold Lloyd--to underscore the major points. Wonderfully entertaining and enlightening, Death by Design makes the invisible a thing of kinetic beauty.

The Life and Times of Life and Times is an edgy yet witty treatise on an enduring scientific and philosophical mystery: Why do we age? For that matter, why does anything in the material world change over time, and what does time mean in a biological sense? Several garrulous scientists seem happy to expound on one or another aspect of these questions in this stimulating documentary by Jean-François Brunet and Peter Friedman ("Death By Design: Where Parallel Worlds Meet"). Among other things, the film's talking heads remind us we know little about aging, and that evolution could have eradicated aging in human beings by now except for the fact that nature regards older, post-fertility people as, well, unworthy of preserving. But don't despair: Other species face the same dilemma, except scientists have learned to lengthen the life span of, say, fruit flies by delaying their reproductive period. (Hmm) If there is such a thing as a fountain of youth, it all comes down to genetics, The Life and Times tells us in its casually enigmatic way. --Tom Keogh
Description
Winner of 10 international Awards, DEATH BY DESIGN is a guided tour into the invisible world of cells, told through a collage of metaphors and interviews with cellular biologists. State-of-the-art microcinematography is playfully intercut with parallel images from life at the human scale: a hundred lighted violins, imploding skyscrapers, Busby Berkeley musicals, Harold Lloyd antics and more. Using the same imaginative interplay of classic films, animation and research,THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LIFE AND TIMES tells the complex story of how we age and also shows how scientists hope to alter the genes that determine how long we live.

Death By Design/The Life and Times of Life and Times
Average customer rating:

life by design

Consciousness-shifting!

"Survivor" at the cellular level

As thought provoking as Koyaanisqatsi, only with words.

Death By Design/The Life and Times of Life and Times
Starring: Polly Matzinger , Rita Levi-Montalcini , Pierre Golstein , Robert Horvitz , and Klaus-Michael Debatin
Director: Jean-François Brunet , and Peter Friedman (II)
Manufacturer: First Run Features
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0008FXT78
Release Date: 2005-06-21

Amazon.com

Death by Design, a witty, fast-paced documentary by Peter Friedman (working with French researcher Jean-Francois Brunet), concerns an unlikely but fascinating subject: programmed cell death. Taking us deep into the mysteries of cellular biology, Friedman reveals the arcane reasons why some cells suddenly and automatically kill themselves, apparently triggered by signals from surrounding cells. Friedman employs some impressive, microscopic cinematography, but he knows most people are not inclined to look at the building blocks of life even for an hour. So he makes clever, allegorical use of other bits of film--clips of cars driving on the freeway, animation, Busby Berkley musical numbers, Harold Lloyd--to underscore the major points. Wonderfully entertaining and enlightening, Death by Design makes the invisible a thing of kinetic beauty.

The Life and Times of Life and Times is an edgy yet witty treatise on an enduring scientific and philosophical mystery: Why do we age? For that matter, why does anything in the material world change over time, and what does time mean in a biological sense? Several garrulous scientists seem happy to expound on one or another aspect of these questions in this stimulating documentary by Jean-François Brunet and Peter Friedman ("Death By Design: Where Parallel Worlds Meet"). Among other things, the film's talking heads remind us we know little about aging, and that evolution could have eradicated aging in human beings by now except for the fact that nature regards older, post-fertility people as, well, unworthy of preserving. But don't despair: Other species face the same dilemma, except scientists have learned to lengthen the life span of, say, fruit flies by delaying their reproductive period. (Hmm…) If there is such a thing as a fountain of youth, it all comes down to genetics, The Life and Times tells us in its casually enigmatic way. --Tom Keogh

Description

Winner of 10 international Awards, DEATH BY DESIGN is a guided tour into the invisible world of cells, told through a collage of metaphors and interviews with cellular biologists. State-of-the-art microcinematography is playfully intercut with parallel images from life at the human scale: a hundred lighted violins, imploding skyscrapers, Busby Berkeley musicals, Harold Lloyd antics and more. Using the same imaginative interplay of classic films, animation and research,THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LIFE AND TIMES tells the complex story of how we age and also shows how scientists hope to alter the genes that determine how long we live.

Customer Reviews:

life by design.......2007-03-22

DEATH BY DESIGN (1997)
directed by Jean-Francois Brunet & Peter Friedman
approx 70 minutes

This movie is on the unusual subject of the way cells die. Other processes such as cell communication and division are also covered but the main issue here is the idea that cells are sent a signal to die and "commit suicide". Several experts speak on the subject and hypothesize that maybe the reason it hasn't been discussed is due to mankind's inherent fear of death. My favorite interview subject in the movie is Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini, one of the first to study the cell death process. Her sister, Paola Rita Levi-Montalcini was a painter whose work used themes of life and death and some of it is shown here.

The movie is made in an interesting way, juxtaposing stock footage and shots from microscopes. One part I liked in particular was the grainy clip of the dancers from an old musical edited with gray science shots of cell division. The soundtrack switches between classical and neo-classical for effect.

Although there are few subjects in the world less emotional than cellular biology, the way this movie is put together adds a bit of lyricism to the "design".

Consciousness-shifting!.......2002-04-14

I saw this on World Link TV one night when nothing else was on. I was completely captivated, enchanted, blown away. Words cannot describe this film or the way it shifted/stretched my consciousness. I felt like a child being playfully tossed into the air of a greater understanding of (and trust in) how the entire intelligent universe unfolds itself. A complete joy! I've got to find this on DVD....

"Survivor" at the cellular level.......2000-08-25

I remember vividly seeing this film on TV. I was in Europe on business, jet-lagged, unable to sleep at 2AM. So I flipped on the TV and this came on. The title and opening few minutes made me almost change the channel, but I'm sure glad I stayed with it, because it just engrosses you. Seeing this film and learning about aptosis ("programmed cell death") have been very important/helpful to me, in hindsight.

I recall a quote in a book, something like "zen is what happens after you've spent enough time thinking about death", or words to that effect.

As thought provoking as Koyaanisqatsi, only with words........1999-11-21

This documentary will test your understanding of corporeal existence in the way major psychotropics used to in the sixties, only without the hangover. It is a misleading title, though once you watch it you'll get it. The "death by design" is also referred to as "programmed cell death" and it is a detailed explanation and deconstruction of cellular resurrection and rebirth on orders of billions of times per second; what makes us "us." It is how cells communicate with each other and survive for the good of the whole. Move. Divide. Stay where you are. Become something else. Kill. Commit suicide. Die. It will astound you and give you a perspective of life that damn near reaches divine inspiration. Just get passed the graduate film school opening credit sequence and sit back with jaw dropped. You won't regret it and you will demand that your friends watch it, too. Especially if you're in the right head.

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