Starewicz had become a master animator by 1933, incorporating techniques never used before and rarely since (such as moving the puppets during the actual exposure to create blurring for fast movement). His use of rear-screen projection is also surprisingly effective.
But more important than these technical details is the great humor of his writing and his sensitivity to character. Each of the dozens of puppets in this film is imbued with a convincing personality; none more so than the title character, known as Fétiche in France and Duffy in England and the U.S. I think the scene of him hanging in a car's rear window is one of the funniest and most poignant scenes you'll find in any film. The character was so successful Starewicz starred him in four more films - if anyone has them, please contact me!
We have CGI now, but all Starewicz had was an imagination that wouldn't take "no" for an answer. Whatever he wanted to see on the screen, he created. And he wanted to see some truly bizarre stuff - every imaginable piece of scrap is called up for service: old shoes, chicken bones, utensils, broken glasses, dolls, monkeys, rats...nothing was off limits.
A sweet, funny, and also eerie film that should be seen by anyone with even a passing interest in animation. Or film, for that matter.
(text by youtube uploader)
19 Comments
paul4dirtawww aww
paul4dirtwhat terry gilliam said about this movie in the guardian:
"It was at the Sitges film festival that I first saw an exhibition of work by the pioneering Russian animator Wladyslaw Starewicz, and the puppets were so enrapturing that when I got home I ordered up all the tapes I could find of his work. His work is absolutely breathtaking, surreal,inventive and extraordinary, encompassing everything that Jan Svankmajer, Walerian Borowczyk and the Quay Brothers would do subsequently. This is his last film, after The Tale of the Fox from 1930; it is all right there in this cosmic animation soup. It is important, before you journey through all these mind-bending worlds, to remember that it was all done years ago, by someone most of us have forgotten about now. This is where it all began."
paul4dirt*findthumb
siftbotA different thumbnail image for this video could not be found for findthumb request by paul4dirt.
Eklekhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025477/
*shortfilms
*love
http://www.archive.org/details/Duffy_the_Mascot
Fétiche Mascotte (Duffy the Mascot, aka The Mascot, aka Puppet Love, aka The Devil's Ball) (1934), a strange story about a loving dog puppet who practically goes through Hell to get an orange to a dying girl. Director Ladislas Starevich (1882-1965) was a Polish, Russian and French stop-motion animator who used insects and animals as his protagonists.
siftbotAdding video to channels (Love, Shortfilms) - requested by Eklek.
siftbotMoving this video to paul4dirt's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.
paul4dirt*beg
siftbotSending this video to Beggar's Canyon to plea for a little attention - beg requested by original submitter paul4dirt.
paul4dirt*promote
siftbotSelf promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued - promote requested by original submitter paul4dirt.
siftbotTags for this video have been changed from 'stopmotion, animation, russia, france, poland, puppets, vintage, shortfilm' to '30s, stopmotion, animation, russia, france, poland, puppets, vintage, shortfilm' - edited by swampgirl
ctrlaltbleach*dead
siftbotThis video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by ctrlaltbleach.
siftbotAwarding eric3579 with one Power Point for fixing this video's dead embed code.
ant*dead -- "'The Mascot - Complete & Unc...' This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Léona Martin-Starewitch..."
siftbotThis video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by ant.
eric3579oops
siftbotAwarding eric3579 with one Power Point for fixing this video's dead embed code.
Discuss...
Enable JavaScript to submit a comment.