Hello and welcome back to picsandportraits.
Now, it’s finally October, my favourite time of year, and to celebrate we’re dedicating
this month to horror and Halloween themed content.
In this video we are going to be looking at the work of puppeteer and stop-motion animator
Wladislaw Starewicz, who frequently used taxidermic insects and other small animals as the stars
of his films!
Stop-motion techniques in film are as old as the medium itself.
Early artists would often use stop trick photography to create the illusion of actors and objects
appearing or disappearing.
This could be played for comedic effect but also lends itself nicely to horror.
One of the earliest examples of stop-motion animation as we understand it is 1907’s
The Haunted Hotel, directed by J. Stuart Blackton.
We’ve talked about Blackton’s contribution to animation on here before and with this
film he continued expanding the medium.
In it’s most famous scene, invisible spirits prepare a meal for a traveller.
The Haunted Hotel would be remade the following year as The House of Ghosts by Segundo de
Chomón, with additional scenes featuring this horrific monster.
In these early examples, stop-motion was used to enhance live-action films.
They were special effects.
For the first fully stop-motion film we need to look to Russia.
Ballet dancer and choreographer Alexander Shiryaev had become the first Russian animator
by happenstance, when he sketched out and staged several routines using traditional
and stop-motion techniques between 1906-1909.
Now what I find interesting about this is that his work was lost until 1995, and would
probably have never been screened publicly.
He did it less for expression and more to study human movement.
But at the same time he was experimenting someone else was making similar discoveries
separately.
Russian-born Polish, Władysław Starewicz was the Director of the Museum of Natural
History in Kaunas, Lithuania when he began making short documentaries.
He aspired to create one of two stag beetles fighting but found his subjects would die
when exposed to light, given the fact they were nocturnal.
After seeing Émile Cohl’s Animated Matches, he decided he could simply animate the dead
bugs.
Noting the creative potential, Starewicz began staging short plays, with the bugs acting
out complex narratives.
The only surviving film from his early period is 1910’s The Beautiful Lukanida, in which
two male bugs fight for the affection of a female bug.
While the subjects on his films are not inherently scary, some are actually quite heartwarming,
I think the idea of reanimating a dead animal is pretty morbid.
He would inject them with embalming fluid and replace their legs with wire that allowed
articulated movement.
Despite a lack of voice and facial gestures, Starewicz gets an incredible amount of emotional
range out of his puppets.
Some critics were so amazed by these films, they were convinced the bugs were alive and
trained to perform.
This was years before anthropomorphic animals were appearing in cartoons and even though
there is a high novelty value here, these shorts are far from one-note.
Starewicz’s puppets were used to communicate human traits and emotions and his films explored
topics other early animators wouldn’t touch.
My favourite is The Cameraman’s Revenge from 1912.
In it bugs paint, drive automobiles, go to nightclubs and commit adultery.
The props and sets are beautifully designed and create an immersive environment for the
insects to interact with.
Starewicz manages to convey both romance and lust, just by shot composition and setting.
One affair we see through a keyhole and another open, before a fireplace.
Again, these are insects.
Starewicz’s work was so incredible it earned him decoration by Nicholas II, the final Emperor
of Russia, whose government was overthrown during the Revolution of 1917.
The Russian film industry had sided with the czar and following the Revolution Starewicz
and his family evaded the Red Army and fled for Paris, where he would spend the rest of
his life and career.
While The Tale of The Fox is perhaps his best known and regarded film from this later period,
I’d instead like to look at 1933’s The Mascot, as I find it fits our theme just a
bit better.
It is the story of a stuffed dog, made of cloth and leather, that gets separated from
its owner and its journey back to her.
It is deceptively adorable as during this adventure, the dog, Fétiche, has to flee
a nightmarish hellscape.
In what is known as the Devil’s Ball sequence, several horrifying puppets attack Fétiche
under the command of the Devil.
As he did with insects, Starewicz lends character to each of these creatures.
He was a master of expressive movement and every character, no matter how small their
role, has a distinct personality.
Władysław Starewicz was an innovator whose work inspired several artists over the next
century, many of whom worked within the genre of horror.
His influence can be seen as early as Willis O’Brien and as recently as Tim Burton.
I think the reason stop-motion works so well in horror is because, though expressive, it’s
still unnatural movement.
The something unsettling about it.
Unlike traditional animation puppets are tangible, they exist in a physical space.
Stop-motion allows them or other objects to move on their own.
It brings the inanimate to life.
I will post links in the description below if you want to explore Władysław Starewicz
more and if you enjoyed this video gives us a thumbs up.
Be sure to subscribe if you haven’t and check out some of our videos, like our recent
Sleepcore Stream.
It was supposed to be a marathon of monster movies but became a double-feature thanks
to some copyright issues.
No matter.
We have plenty of Halloween programming lined up so stay tuned for that and as always, thanks
for watching!