At the Caravana de Recuerdos, Richard has been running a Foreign Film Festival all year long. He encouraged watch-along challenges, and I responded with “The Cameraman’s Revenge” (1912, 12 min.) the landmark of animation by pioneering Polish puppeteer Wladyslaw Starewicz, available in a marvelously tinted version at archive.org.
Starewicz’s puppets are insects (and one hapless frog). Actual insects, killed and preserved and turned into puppets. They do uncanny things. The grasshopper or whatever it is on the left actually paints that portrait. At a cabaret performance, a stag beetle applauds by clicking its mandibles together while a grasshopper drums on the floor with his long legs.
Given that he has for some reason begun filming insect puppets, what did Starewicz think to do with them? His answer: domestic melodrama.
Mr. Beetle is amorous and picks up a beautiful dragonfly who performs at a nightclub. A jealous grasshopper and camera buff and, why not, bicyclist, secretly films their assignation which he later projects – the grasshopper is also the projectionist at the local cinema – for the world to see (on the right, filmed through a keyhole), humiliating Mr. Beetle and enraging his wife, who beats him with her parasol.
Now Mr. Beetle wants his own revenge which lands Mr. and Mrs. Beetle in jail, where they perhaps reconcile their differences.
What do you do with your taxidermic bug puppets? The freedom, inventiveness, and light-hearted insanity of the great early filmmakers is a thrill to see.
The real virtues of the film are threefold, first, as I mentioned above, Starewicz’s attention to detail in the actions of his puppets, as we see them paint, operate a camera, fight, and come dangerously close to an explicit bug-puppet sex scene.
Second, and closely related is the casual surrealism of seeing the insects riding bicycles, going to a movie or checking into a seedy hotel for an assignation. The décor of the Beetles’ home for some reason strikes me as especially fine, although at a small scale it may be too difficult to make out their modish Asian theme, including the porcelain monkey statuette on the fireplace mantel.
Third, form determines content in this case, as it is a movie about movies, both about the kinds of stories told in movies and about the medium itself. The movie shown in the theater up above is made of scenes from “The Cameraman’s Revenge,” and in the ensuing fight Mr. Beetle escapes by punching his way through the screen.
How did Starewicz come to make such an odd film? I will quote from his biography at IMDb.com: “fascinated by insects, he bought a camera and attempted to film them, but they kept dying under the hot lights.” So he made them into puppets so he could film them in action. And then that action turns out to be packing a suitcase and driving a car. There is a step missing here.
I hope Richard enjoys the movie! When I founded Wuthering Expectations I thought I would write about movies a lot, the good old ones like “The Cameraman’s Revenge.” But I was wrong.
This movie was awesome, Tom! "Lighthearted insanity," indeed. I didn't deserve such a good challenge choice, but I'm glad you selected it because I wouldn't have seen it otherwise. The special effects (so to speak) were truly amazing to behold. Thanks so much for the pick!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds fantastically odd. Very much looking forward to seeing it.
ReplyDeleteIt is fascinating that our most amusing, interesting, and moving tales are often domestic dramas. The dichotomy of insects forced to play out the anthropomorphic drama was very funny.I love the suitcase details. That the insects kept dying under the lights is...well, perfect. Oh dear. As usual I was rooting for the love story. I may have interesting dreams this evening.
ReplyDeleteI had not watched the film when I issued the challenge, so I can say now that it lives up to its reputation.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the insects were a new twist, "The Cameraman's Revenge" is typical of the greatest early films in that they are always the most amazing mixes of convention - borrowed from fiction or theater or photography - and wild "look what film can do" innovation. This was something Scorsese captured well in Hugo: the sense of adventure and exploration and crazy inventiveness of the early film geniuses.
So even though it was entomology that brought Starewicz to film, he then fell in love with puppetry and film and continued making animated movies for decades.
The "film within a film" bit is brilliant.
ReplyDeleteI will have to watch this. It looks like great fun to me.
ReplyDeleteThis is encouraging. Maybe someday I will spend more time writing about these crazy old movies.
ReplyDeleteThis does sound delightful! Will definitely be watching it. Thanks for posting the link, Tom.
ReplyDeleteI can see it now, I'll do early film theme weeks. Thomas Edison week, early scifi week, animation week. Breaking the fourth wall week, moonmen getting hit with umbrellas week, kitchen pratfall week.
ReplyDeleteYes, excellent! These early films are so great in part because the scripts didn't come out of established studio writing factories and seem more individual than what you get from, say, the last 60 years of Hollywood. "The Cameraman's Revenge" has some interesting stuff, especially the way the insects keep forcing their way/are forced physically through images (the wife through the painting, the husband through the movie screen, and even the grasshopper is pulling the beetle and the dragonfly through the keyhole, sort of) so there's a kind of argument about liminality and the social dangers or representational art, if you like. Or at least one could make a prima facie case about that, which would be fun, if one was me. Anyway, yes: more early films please.
ReplyDeleteYou might enjoy the work of Segundo de Chomon and Charley Bowers. Chomon is often compared to Melies, but with more animation. Bowers was recently rediscovered; his use of stop-motion is still surprising. And both did some funny and lovely stuff.
ReplyDeleteI tell you Scott, Edison was working on that problem in 1894. It is amazing how the American / foreign film distinction appeared almost instantly.
ReplyDeleteDoug, those do sound good. If it is like Melies, I will enjoy it.
When I saw this a few years ago I was gobsmacked at how amazing it still looked, a century later. This is timeless movie magic!
ReplyDeleteMiguel, do not hesitate to lay a Challenge on Richard. The year is not over yet.
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