Ladislas Starevich (Russian: Владисла́в Алекса́ндрович Старе́вич, Polish: Władysław Starewicz; August 8, 1882 – February 26, 1965) was a Polish-Russian stop-motion animator notable as the author of the first puppet-animated film The Beautiful Leukanida (1912).
For the fifth film, Starewicz wished to record the battle of two stag beetles, but was stymied by the fact that the nocturnal creatures stopped moving or died due to the heat whenever the stage lighting was turned on.
Of these, The Beautiful Leukanida (premiere – 1912), first puppet film with a plot inspired in the story of Agamemnon and Menelaus, earned international acclaim (one British reviewer thought the stars were live trained insects), while The Grasshopper and the Ant (1913) got Starewicz decorated by the czar.
After the October Revolution of 1917, the film community largely sided with the White Army and moved from Moscow to Yalta on the Black Sea.
After a brief stay, Starewicz and his family fled before the Red Army could capture the Crimea, stopping in Italy for a while before joining the Russian émigrés in Paris.
He made Le mariage de Babylas (Midnight Wedding), L'épouvantail (The Scarecrow, 1921 ), Les grenouilles qui demandent un roi (alternately called Frogland and The Frogs Who Wanted a King, 1922), Amour noir et blanc (Love in Black and White, 1923), La voix du rossignol (The Voice of the Nightingale, 1923) and La petite chateuse des rues (The Little Street Singer, 1924).
These were his daughter Irina (who had changed her name to Irène) who collaborated in all his films and defended his rights, his wife Anna Zimermann, who made the costumes for the puppets and Jeanne Starewitch (aka Nina Star) who acted in some of the films (The Little Street Singer, The Queen of the Butterflies, The Voice of the Nightingale, The Magical clock, and others) In 1924, Starevich moved to Fontenay-sous-Bois, where he lived until his death in 1965.
Often mentioned as being among his best work, The Tale of the Fox (French: Le Roman de Renard, German: Reinicke Fuchs) was also his first animated feature.
It was based on an Eastern European story, in which a child goes to the forest to collect a fern flower, which grows during the night of Saint-Jean, and makes wishes come true.
Again produced by Alkam films, Starevich made Nose to Wind, which tells the adventures of Patapouf, a bear who escapes from school to play with his friends the rabbit and the fox.
All his family co-labored on it, as remembers his granddaughter Martin-Starewitch, whose hands can be seen in animation tests from Like Dog and Cat, Starevich's unfinished film.
He was one of the few European animators to be known by name in the United States before the 1960s, largely on account of La Voix du rossignol and Fétiche Mascotte (The Tale of the Fox was not widely distributed in the US).
The films have shown incredible imagination and also development of techniques including motion blur, replacement animation, multiple frame exposure, and reverse shooting.
Since 1991, Leona Beatrice Martin-Starewitch, Ladislas Starevich's granddaughter and her husband, François Martin, have restored and distributed her grandfather's films.
This was done by Léona Béatrice Martin-Starewitch, his granddaughter, and her husband, François Martin, owners of the rights to the films made by Starevich and his family.
Content: The Cameraman's Revenge, The Insect's Christmas, The Frogs who Wanted a King (short version), The Voice of the Nightingale, The Mascot and Winter Carrousel.
Bonus: The Babylas's Wedding (tinted colours), The Queen of the Butterflies (United Kingdom version), Comment naît et s'anime une ciné-marionnette.
Content: In the Spider's Claws, The Eyes of the Dragon, Love Black and White Bonus: The Eyes of the Dragon (1932 sound version), Love Black and White (1932 sound version), Comment naît et s'anime une ciné-marionnette Bonus: The Mascot, Gueule de bois, Comment naît et s'anime une ciné marionnette.