Władysław Starewicz (sometimes Russified as “Vladislav Starevich,” with his surname just generally butchered as “Starevitch,” “Starewich,” and “Starewitch”–damn Polish trick alphabet! He later changed it altogether to make it easier on Francophones, calling himself “Ladislas Starevich”) became famous as a Polish-Russian-French animator, a line he sort inadvertently fell into. His first career was as Director of the Museum of Natural History in Kovno, Lithuania. In making documentaries on animal behavior for the museum, he found himself stymied when the nocturnal stag beetles he wanted to film fighting would go to sleep under the bright lights required by earlier motion-picture cameras. So, he faked up the stag-beetle fight in stop motion, and after that he was off to the races. After fleeing several wars and uprising, he wound up settled in France, where he would do most of his greatest work.
Starewicz’s 1933 film, The Mascot (aka “Duffy the Mascot”, “Puppet Love,” or “The Devil’s Ball” [?!?]) , is widely regarded not just as Starewicz’s best work, nor as one of the best stop-motion films ever made, nor even as one of the best animations ever made, but as among the greatest short films ever made (the most notable film aficionado to take that position is Terry Gilliam, predictably). Thanks to the Internet, you can judge that on your own. Without a doubt, it is one of the most endearingly creepy films I’ve ever seen:
I got the tip on this from this Slate article, showcasing another film made by Starewicz, The Cameraman’s Revenge:
I *love* that Starewicz imbeds the middle of his movie into the end of his movie. Also, that it’s such a Russian-style “happy ending.”
If all this has you feeling inspired, you can do worse than dropping a buck or two on an iPhone app (which my son and I continue to occasionally monkey with).
Skip to content
