Starewicz

WLADYSLAW STAREWICZ
SIX LEGS TO TANGO

Sept. 19 | 7pm | Alamo Drafthouse

Presented in association with the Center for Russian, Eastern European, and Euroasian Studies

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An evening of entomusicology: The Tin Hat Trio performs to the films of Wladyslaw Starewicz, in which the director provides a glimpse into the secret lives of anthropomorphic insects, rats and frogs who preach morality, dabble in adultery, dance, eat, drink and drive.

Wladyslaw Starewicz’s childhood passion for entomology remained with him throughout his life. Around 1909-10, he made his first film, a documentary about insects in Lithuania. During this time, he also experimented with stop-action films using embalmed beetles, which he articulated by wiring the legs to the thorax with sealing wax. This led to his big breakthrough, The Battle of the Stag Beetle, released by the Van Kanjonkov Studio of Moscow and the very first puppet-animated film made. The animation was so smoothly rendered, that one London newspaper claimed that an unknown entomologist had trained the insects. With the release of The Ant and the Grasshopper, his third film, Starewicz was honoured by the Tsar for his work.

Starewicz fled the Russian Revolution in 1920 and settled in a villa in Fontenay-Sous-Bois, France, where he became known as Ladislas Starevich. He worked obsessively, writing or adapting stories; designing and building the puppets, sets and costumes; articulating every moment and shooting each film frame by frame. Rather than relinquish creative control of his work, Starewicz rejected offers from American animation studios and spent his life producing his own surreal, lyrical animation.

Ant and Grasshopper (1913)
A grasshopper who thinks work is immoral and an ant who believes sharing is his moral obligation explore the social constructions of the insect world.

Cameraman’s Revenge (1912)
What happens when insects cheat on their spouses? Most likely the only film about insect infidelity ever made.

The Frogs Who Wanted a King (aka Frogland) (1923)
If I were a Wooden King, I would stand around shifting my eyes back-and-forth. If I were a Stork King, I would gobble up clueless frogs. What would I do if I were a Lightening King? A bunch of frogs ask the powers that be for a king to rule their land, and what they get isn’t quite what they expected.

Town Rat, Country Rat (1927)
A country rat visits his city rat friend, and all they want is to have a good time…and they would, too, if it weren’t for that pesky cat.