 Painlevé cannot be considered part of the Surrealist movement and did not actually consider himself a surrealist.He did, however, share the surrealists' interest in psycho-sexual stimulation and the ultimate weirdness of procreation.Painlevé first came to the cinema as an actor, alongside Michel Simon, and also as assistant director in the René Sti unfinished film "L'inconnue des six jours" "(The Unknown Woman of Six Days)", 1926.