Customer Reviews

Cameraman's Revenge & Other Fantastic Tales

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This charming DVD turned out to be quite a surprise and got me wanting to watch it over and over again. The six short films on this disc are all quite different and span 46 years of animator Ladislaw Starewicz's work (1912-1958), but have in common the most impressive and unusual puppet animation I've ever seen. The first scenes (Cameraman's Revenge) are already most striking: very realistic-looking insects moving and behaving like people in a house, in a very human story about infidelity, complete with a good dose of humour and sarcasm - and all this in the year 1912! The next short film (they average around 10 minutes each, with the exception of "The Mascot" which is 26 minutes) also features insects, and then frogs take centre stage in the third film that deals with a political theme. In all of them I was struck by the realistic and smooth motions of all the 'characters', as well as the humorous storyline. If you have an aversion to insects and/or frogs, you'll be relieved when the fourth film ("Voice of the Nightingale") features birds and a real girl, and this time the film has lovely stencil colour - a technique applied to some early silent films - which makes it look like a soft pastel or watercolour painting, and it perfectly suits the fairytale feeling of this delightful story. Perhaps the most impressive of them all is "The Mascot" which features toys, dolls and other strange creatures coming to life, the mascot being a cute stuffed toy trying to get back home after being taken away with other toys. In this one, animated toys and puppets merge impressively with real street scenes and people, and dolls become so humanlike that it's scary. Finally, the last one from 1958 is in full colour and different once again, and although the last two films are from the sound era, hardly a word is spoken, which I think emphasizes the visual impact of the puppet animation. Although I'm not very familiar with animation in general and what it involves, I can't help being very impressed by Starewicz's talent and skill, and no doubt he desevers a prominent place in the pioneering and development of puppet animation. Definitely a must for anyone interested in animation, and certainly recommended for anyone curious to see something different, special and unforgettable.

Simply amazing work from the man who practically invented stop-motion animation. Films included are:

* Cameraman's Revenge (1912)
The unusual subject of insect infidelity is tackled. The oldest film in the collection, and fascinating - If he didn't used real bugs in this, he used VERY realistic models.

* Insect's Christmas (1913)
A "Santa" ornament jumps of a Christmas tree, and brings Christmas to the banks of a pond for various insects and frogs.

* Frogland (1922)
The story of the frogs that wanted a king. Zeus sends down a succession of undesirable candidates, then (apparently) gets annoyed with the request and sends them a Stork!

* Voice of the Nightingale (1923)
A little girl captures a nightingale. A hand-tinted film, and very beautiful.

* The Mascot (1934)
A dog puppet attempts to help a poor, sick girl by bringing her an orange. Along the way he encounters other toys and a host of demons!

* Winter Carousel (1959)
A bear and a rabbit court a pretty girl bear while playing in the snow.

While "The Mascot" is undoubtedly the prize to this collection, I'm also very fond of "Voice of the Nightingale", a touching hand-colored film combining stop-motion and live action. (trivia - the girl in the film, billed as "Nina Star" is actually Ladislaw's daughter Irene).

My only beef with this release is that it's the exact same films as on the older VHS/Laserdisc release. I know that "Nose to the Wind", "The Dragonfly and the Ant", "Christmas Eve", and "The Lily of Belgium" have been released on other video compilations which are now out of print - couldn't they have gotten some of those added? And when are we going to get to see his masterpiece, "The Tale of the Fox (Le Roman de Renard)?

The Mascot is just one entree of an incredible visual feast by Russian/Polish Animator Ladislaw Starewicz.This is especially true when compared to the poverty of digital imagination we are witnessing today. It is avision of such texture and pure creativity that itcould inspire whole new artistic movements. I had to laugh outloud at the unexpectedness and depth of theimages. This film is made for children. But notchildren as defined by Disney or Hasbro or Sesame Street. Rather for real children who love strange mythologies and flights of dark fantasy. The tale follows the quest of a stuffed puppy doll in search of an orange. (!?) It follows the animated puppy through the city streets of Paris into hell (!) to protect the orange. The little film was made by Ladislaw Starewicz who is credited with being the first man to make stop motion animated stories in 1910. Starewicz is truly the inspiration for the masterfully weird puppet films of the Brothers Quay and Jan Swankmejer. And in someways his little films surpass them.... which is hard to believe. But it's true. Starewicz has a taproot inserted deeply into the soil of arcane ancient Europa.It is a world of puppets and gargoyles, of dolls and devils,of fairytales and medieval woodcuts. The silent qualitiesin this nearly silent film only emphasize the dense textures and old European qualities. There is a deep source of inspiration here for artists, film makers, and humans who still exercize their imagination. This film is featured in a compilation of Starewicz's work entitle THE CAMERAMAN'S REVENGE AND OTHER SHORT FILMS. All of these short films are worth their weight in artist gold.

Wow. I was very impressed with Starewicz's work. More so than I had expected to be. Not only is it stand alone brilliant but you can clearly see where and how animators like Svankmajer and the Quays were influenced by his work. I agree with the descriptive details in the review above and I really can't reccomend this enough to anyone into animation or silent/classic films. The man was so far ahead of his time it hurts. I waited a while for this film to become available again for purchase but it was WELL worth it and it is not something I could find at a video library/store where I live so it was even more satisfying.

This film is worth the price just for "The Mascot," an amazingly sophisticated short film with more subtle character development and more disturbing images than just about any other animated film. To create the character of the Mascot (an endearing stuffed dog), and place him at the Devil's Ball (with the most bizarre assemblage of creatures imaginable), reveals just how masterful Starewicz was, and why there has never been anyone like him to this day. If you've never seen The Mascot, you have a gaping hole in your appreciation of great animation.

Cold wars apart, "The Cameraman's Revenge & Other Fantastic Tales" gives us a great complement for the already aesthetically enjoyable collection (visually, narratively and musically), "Masters of Russian Animation" vols. 1-4 (available through Amazon.com).

Even if I may not agree with the "beautiful tinted" status given by Film Preservation Associates and Image Entertainment to some shorts originally in black and white, it is good to acknowledge the DVD editors efforts to get together some of Starewicz's outstanding operas.

"Fetiche Mascotte" (1933) deserves a special mention. Maybe just a simple coincidence, but its narrative feels like a great source of inspiration to modern animation plots like Tim Burton's "Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993), -which, by the way, has a devil character quite similar to one appeared in this Starewicz's short- and John Lasseter's "Toy Story" (1995). However, this is only a personal point of view.

Good sound clarity during the whole DVD, makes me wonder how great it would be to have equal image quality clear of dust spots, and missing or blurry frames (maybe in future editions or new collections).

I hope Film Preservation Associates and Image Entertainment keep their interest in a second volume of Starewicz's shorts including "Lucanus Cervus" (1910), "Prekrasnaya Lyukanida" (1910), "Strekoza i muravey" (1913), "Devi gory" (1919) and the great "Le Roman de Renard" (1930).

Starewicz's films are AMAZINGLY done, considering how much of his work was done in the 1910's. That aside, his stories, are funny, touching, and full of heart. I haven't seen all the films in this collection, but the Mascot is wonderful, and his insect movies achieve a range of expression I would not have thought possible with insect puppets.

It's been about 8 years since I first heard the name Ladislas Starevitch. Then someone told me it was Ladislaw Starewicz. Sigh. Even if I got the name wrong, there's no mistaking genius. Sadly, in the film world Willis O'Brien is hailed for his brilliant stop-motion work, and Starewicz seems to go almost unknown.

I don't know how much of his work has been lost, but Starewicz was the pioneer of stop-motion, and it's a shame that more isn't available on DVD. Some of the works collected here are pre-WWI, and they were ALL created far from Hollywood.

Oh yeah-- the review. Well, what can I say? These short films range from the touching to the bizarre (I never associated frogs with Christmas), and the masterpiece of the collection is "The Mascot". I believe it was released the same year as "King Kong". Comparing the technique of the two films is very thought-provoking.

"The Mascot" appears to have been an immense undertaking. I can only imagine what Starewicz thought when he saw "King Kong" being released the same year. If you're a fan of stop-motion, or if you're just interested in what passed for kids' stuff before Disney, you should check this out.

I had been looking for the works of THIS artist since 1986.
WOW..what a find. Any fan of animation will enjoy this

"For real children who love strange mythologies and flights of dark fantasy?" Whoa, easy pal! Don't let the previous review turn you off. Starewicz's work really is a wonderful, unique thing. Take it from a former Sesame Street viewer.