"8 tentacles, 2,000 suckers." "A 24 inch octopus can hold 250 kilograms." "Octopus," "Cephalopod," "horrifying animal." "THE LOVE LIFE OF THE OCTOPUS" "On the shore uncovered by the sea, some years, they are everywhere." "Flabby, without a shell, it slithers at low tide, one tentacle after the other." "It can live a while out of the water." "Its color changes reflect its surroundings as well as its emotions." "An extraordinary detail:" "This simple mollusc's eye is constituted like that of a superior animal." "It has folds which resemble eyelids." "It nests in the bed of the sea or in the slightest opening" "which it hides with pebbles, sand, leftovers from its meals," "shells." "Only lapping water indicates its presence," "this lapping being caused by its respiration." "Water inhaled by an opening on each side of its body is rejected by a tube." "Although it can crawl in all directions, it swims backwards, expulsing water violently from its tube directed towards the front." "A crab flees but the octopus gets it." "It grabs the crab with a tentacle or jumps on it." "Inside its mouth the powerful beak tears the crab to pieces and swallows it." "In the spring some preliminary movement precede mating." "The violence, time and distance vary according to the maturity and size of the partners." "Several very big suckers distinguish the male." "This one, in perfect health, violently grabs a female who is not very consenting." "Maybe already impregnated?" "She carries him on her back." "Ridges on her skin accompany color changes." "The male has to insert the end of his special arm, the third to the right of his head, into the respiratory opening of the female." "There is no official, privileged position for that." "The little male on the left, white from fear, reacts to the invitation of the female but keeps his distance." "The specialized arm transports cases containing male elements to the female's breeding orifice." "The coupling lasts hours, days." "When he removes his arm the male makes the cases left in the female burst." "Billions of sperm cells come out." "Here they are, greatly magnified." "They are stored and will fertilize the female's eggs when she lays them." "These eggs are attached to a central cord that she hangs from the roof of her nest." "If she lays 30 cords, that could add up to five hundred thousand eggs." "During their month-Iong development, the female never leaves her nest, never eats, never stops rubbing the eggs with her tentacles, never stops circulating water with her jet." "This permits the eggs to breathe through their shells and keeps them clean." "Each egg is about one millimeter long." "Its evolution has some strange aspects; for example, accelerated 1,400 times thanks to a movie camera," "torsion," "then rotation." "The embryo develops" "and after 3 weeks one can see a miniature octopus in its shell." "Big colored cells begin to play." "When the rotation stops, it still grows a little, absorbing its nutritive ball." "At the opposite end, its heart beats a hundred times a minute." "Then they hatch - an explosion." "In a few minutes thousands of baby octopuses two millimeters long leave their shell." "They jump backwards but the respiratory tube can bend and propulse them in every direction." "Those who can't get out now will never hatch." "Adaptation:" "Alfred de Graaff" "Subtitling TITRA FILM Paris"