Ladislas Starewitch

   Du vendredi 15 au mardi 19 décembre 2017 : 7 séances qui mêlent les films de la période russe, films d'animation et films avec acteurs, et les films de la période française. Programmation très rare qui associe les copies 35mm venues du Gosfilmofond et de la Collection Martin-Starewitch. 
   De telles programmations ont eu lieu Festival de Catalunya à Sitges en 2000, au Musée d'Art Contemporain de Barcelone (MACBA) en 2008, à Fontenay-sous-Bois en 2014 et à Dijon en 2015.
 

Ladislas Starewitch, vers 1923. © Collection Martin-Starewitch

   La présentation de cette manifestation par Anthology Film Archives :

A STOP-MOTION BESTIARY: THE FILMS OF LADISLAS STAREWITCH

December 15 – December 19

IMPORTED PRINTS!

You may know him as Starewicz or Starevitch, or if you’re on a first name basis, as Wladyslaw, but however you choose to identify him the filmmaker we’ll be calling Ladislas Starewitch is a towering figure in the history of motion-picture animation. His endlessly inventive, whimsical, and genuinely magical films have lost none of their power to delight and amaze, even after more than a century. Born to Polish parents in Moscow in 1882, and raised primarily in what are today Lithuania and Estonia, Starewitch made his first films in Kaunas, Lithuania, and went on to work for the early film producer Aleksandr Khanzhonkov in Moscow. Following the October Revolution in 1917, he relocated to Paris, where he would make dozens of extraordinary films from 1920 until his death in 1965.

Starewitch’s eureka moment came at the Museum of Natural History in Kaunas, where he endeavored to make a film documenting a battle between two stag beetles. When his uncooperative protagonists continually frustrated his efforts by dropping dead under the harsh glare of the stage lighting, Starewitch finally circumvented the problem by resorting to stop-motion animation. By means of wires, wax, and an extraordinary manual dexterity, he created tiny puppets out of the dead beetles, thereby securing a place in animation history as the creator of the cinema’s first work of stop-motion puppet animation. Soon the insects would be replaced by his own handcrafted puppets, and indeed Starewitch’s genius is manifest not only in his abilities as a filmmaker, but also in the exquisite craftsmanship of his puppets and sets.

Though Starewitch’s reputation is secure (thanks in part to his acknowledged influence on filmmakers including the Quay Brothers and Wes Anderson), his films are more often discussed than seen. In the hopes of remedying that, we present this extensive retrospective, featuring more than 25 of Starewitch’s films, drawn from both his Russian and French periods, all of them screening on 35mm or 16mm! That this series is possible is thanks in large part to the efforts of Starewitch’s granddaughter, Léona Béatrice Martin-Starewitch and her husband, François Martin, who have worked tirelessly to preserve, promote, and distribute the work of this key figure in the history of screen animation.

Co-presented by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. Special thanks to Mathieu Fournet & Amélie Garin-Davet (Cultural Services of the French Embassy), as well as to Léona Béatrice Martin-Starewitch & François Martin, and Yulia Belova (Gosfilmofond).

Programme 1
     December 15 at 7:00 PM
     December 19 at 7:00 PM
THE MAGIC CLOCK / L’HORLOGE MAGIQUE (1928, ca. 30 min, 16mm, b&w)
THE TALE OF THE FOX / LE ROMAN DE RENARD
(1929-30/1941, 65 min, 35mm, b&w)
   One of the first animated feature films in cinema history (it premiered a full year before Disney’s SNOW WHITE), and the only film of this scope that Starewitch would make, THE TALE OF THE FOX is a masterpiece of the form. Master Fox, the forest’s utmost trickster, harasses the king upon whose lands he lives. Following a particularly wily hoax, however, the king orders Master Fox to be arrested and brought before the court. Inspired by a medieval French fable, THE TALE OF THE FOX is a ceaselessly inventive and wondrous film.
     Total running time: ca. 100 min.

Programme 2
(A ce programme 2, il faut ajouter La Belle Lucanide)
    December 16 at 5:45 PM
THE CAMERAMAN’S REVENGE / MEST’ KINEMATOGRAFICHESKOGO OPERATORA (1911, 10 min, 16mm, b&w) – La Vengance du ciné-opérateur
THE INSECTS’ CHRISTMAS / ROZHDESTVO OBITATELEJ LESA (1911, 6 min, 35mm, b&w) – Le Noël des insectes
THE DRAGONFLY AND THE ANT / STREKOZA I MURAVEJ (1911, 6 min, 35mm, b&w) – La Cigale et la fourmi
THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS / NOCH’ PERED ROZHDESTVOM (1912, 24 min, 35mm, b&w) – La Nuit de Noël
HAPPY SCENES FROM INSECT LIFE / VESELYE SCENY IZ ZHIZNI ZHIVOTNYH (1912, 5 min, 35mm, b&w) – Scènes amusantes de la vie des insectes
A JOURNEY TO THE MOON / PUTESHESTVIE NA LUNU (1912, 6 min, 35mm, b&w) – Un Voyage dans la lune
THE LILY OF BELGIUM / LILIYA BEL’GII (1915, 13 min, 35mm, b&w) – Le Lys de Belgique
MARS’S STEPSON / PASYNOK MARSA (1914, 9 min, 35mm, b&w) – Le Fils de Mars
     Total running time: 85 min.

Programme 3
     December 16 at 8:00 PM
BABYLAS’S MARRIAGE / LE MARIAGE DE BABYLAS (1921, 15 min, 35mm, couleur)
THE SCARECROW / L’ÉPOUVANTAIL (1921, 17 min, 35mm, couleur)
THE VOICE OF THE NIGHTINGALE / LA VOIX DU ROSSIGNOL (1923, 13 min, 35mm, couleur)
THE QUEEN OF THE BUTTERFLIES / LA REINE DES PAPILLONS 1927, 23 min, 35mm, couleur)
     Total running time: ca. 75 min.

Programme 4
    December 17 at 5:45 PM
IN THE CLAWS OF THE SPIDER / DANS LES GRIFFES DE L’ARAIGNÉE (1920, 25 min, 35mm, couleur)
LOVE IN BLACK AND WHITE / AMOUR NOIR ET BLANC (1923, 22 min, 35mm, couleur)
THE EYES OF THE DRAGON / LES YEUX DU DRAGON (1925, 26 min, 35mm, couleur)
     Total running time: ca. 80 min.

Programme 5
   December 17 at 8:00 PM
THE FROGS WHO WANTED A KING / LES GRENOUILLES QUI DEMANDENT UN ROI (1922, 17 min, 35mm, couleur)
THE TOWN RAT AND THE COUNTRY RAT / LE RAT DE VILLE ET LE RAT DES CHAMPS (1926, 10 min, 35mm, couleur)
THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER / LA CIGALE ET LA FOURMI (1927, 16 min, 35mm, couleur)
THE LION AND THE FLY / LE LION ET LE MOUCHERON (1932, 8 min, 35mm, b&w)
THE OLD LION / LE LION DEVENU VIEUX (1932, 9 min, 35mm, b&w)
HOW A CINÉ MARIONETTE IS BORN AND COMES TO LIFE / COMMENT NAÎT ET S’ANIME UNE CINÉ-MARIONNETTE (1932, 3 min, 35mm, b&w)
       Total running time: ca. 70 min

Programme 6
    December 18 at 7:00 PM
THE MASCOT (aka PUPPET LOVE) / FÉTICHE MASCOTTE (1933, 21 min, 35mm, b&w)
THE RINGMASTER / FÉTICHE PRESTIDIGITATEUR (1934, 12 min, 35mm, b&w)
THE MASCOT’S MARRIAGE / FÉTICHE SE MARIE (1935, 15 min, 35mm, b&w)
THE NAVIGATOR / FÉTICHE EN VOYAGE DE NOCES (1936, 12 min, 35mm, b&w)
THE MASCOT AND THE MERMAIDS / FÉTICHE CHEZ LES SIRÈNES (1937, 16 min, 35mm, b&w)
         Total running time: ca. 80 min.

Voir la présentation sur le site de Anthology Film Archives : http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screenings/series/48342