Ladislaw Starewicz - Cameraman's Revenge

[OmegaWolf747]

Was that Mr. or Mrs. Beetle in prison with the grasshopper at the end?

[Sobotman]

all beatles are charm in this film :)



[r4fken]

The music was often played by a musician in the cinemas this music was recorded and added in the 90's by the BBC but this is still most likely the original score written for the film back in 1911.

Hope it helps.

[Ursulocrow]

Are these real bugs?

[EricaVee]

@Ursulocrow yes. they're dead bugs with wire on their legs.

[AliceMoving]

I wonder if Starewicz used real bugs, models, or a combination?

That being said, this film is totally delightful, and I love their little shoes! X^D

[EricaVee]

@AliceMoving they're real bugs with wires in their legs. he was the curator of a natural history museum.

i also cracked up laughing when I saw the shoes!

[AliceMoving]

@EricaVee Thanks for the info! Man, a curator of a natural history museum AND an animator? I gotta build me a time machine, go back in time, and marry the guy.

[TreguardLordDunshelm]

I love it the way the beetle is animated that when it moves the sofa it makes it look really heavy. 99 years old and still fun!

[violining21]

Do you know if this is the original music?

[AliceMoving]

@violining21 It couldn't be the original music, because synchronized sound wasn't readily available or feasible when this film was made. Besides which, the music is credited to Robert Israel, who is a modern composer who specializes in making musical scores for silent films. :^)

[AtorTheFlyingEagle]

@violining21 No. It is a silent film. Sound didn't come in until the late twenties.

[NOTcaptainhook]

"Beetles are good doctors..."



[untropezon]

Excellent! Entertaining, fascinating, touching. I am a great fan of The Beetles!

[jquevedo61]

Wow-very impressive! Almost a hundred years old!!!! Thank you so much for posting this!

[nieznanisprawcy9430]

"Gay Dragonfly"?

[AlexDeLargeisHere]

Released almost 100 years ago and is 100 times more intelligent than mainstream Hollywood films today.

[erickBUENO2009]

masterpiece



[SuperBob776]

im stuck in awwww

[clementlee2009]

it's going to be 100 years old next year!!!!

[LaFondaDeLaEsqina]

Haha wwooww, staa de weboss estaa peli ñ.ñ descargandoo.... ((: waaahhh!! ske staa genial ^^

[andreaprodan]

Another dumb question:

"Did Franz Kafka ever see this and IMAGINE the start of METAMORPHOSIS..."One morning Gregor Samsa awoke to find..."

[BigRalphFiennesFan]

srry to ask, but is the modern day version of this 'a bugs life'? 

[mrsmudgeyful]

@BigRalphFiennesFan if so i missed the part when the ant enters a strip club to pick up some dragonflies :)

[laranjais123]

one of my favorites stop-motions

[OscarApollo]

@laranjais123 Stop-motion? This is live-action. Beetles actually do this.

[RobRock07]

Nice...

[JohnEvansChaoseed]

It's once again proven that all you need to create great art is patience and attention to detail verging on insanity.

[ivycompton]

@JohnEvansChaoseed

I can't remember hearing a better definition of art!

[Lucius1958]

Amazing! (and slightly creepy).......

I wonder, did Winsor McCay ever see this? The cafe scene makes me think of his later "Bug Vaudeville"......

And I'm positive Edward Gorey must have gotten some inspiration, here, for such pieces as "The Insect God"......

[Maximuuh]

"Mr. Beetle should have guessed that the aggressive grasshopper was a movie cameraman."

Well, duh.. How dumb can he be?

If he wasn't such a complete moron there wouldn't be any scoffle with parasites

[CalyxAsgard]

And thus, insect porn was invented....

[Neonman78]

The dialogue in this sucks.

[merrywrath]

@Neonman78 If that's your way of trying to be cool, you've failed miserably. Come back when you've added something significant to this world.

[Neonman78]

@merrywrath The voice acting is also quite mediocre.

[Annie1962]

@Neonman78 as are your comments

[EnigmaticUnseen]

@Neonman78 Clearly, you've lost a brain lego.

[Xikowisk]

OPS...Fantástico! Valeu @TeatroBonecos pela dica.

[Xikowisk]

Fantástico! Valeu @teatrodebonecos pela dica.

[sialababamak537]

Starewicz was Pole not Russian.

[stew631]

lol that grasshopper got pwned by mr. beetle

[Terestrasz]

The earliest effect of the Uncanny Valley.

[necrodrama]

dios mio es muy bueno, obio que la gente de ahora le es dificil compremprender esto que esta fuera de estereotipos y maodas, yo diria que genuino y revolucionario

[KoslowskiFan]

Might be a stupid question, but was it done with real insects? Love the film ;)

[jussaramarcondes]

Yes, it was. Dead insects.

[sleepyholiday]

@KoslowskiFan

it was xD

[MapleTree621]

@KoslowskiFan It was done with dead insects. gross.

[hurryupandw8t]

Truly, a louse-y film.

[AXXID]

sublime!

[mikethasan]

great!

[specialkate00]

i'm writing an essay about this one at the moment, cannot stop admiring him. Sad Sad last years of his life,spent with no wife and almoust in hunger,still he was brave enough not to sell his art to Americans, the only things he had to sell were his wonderful puppets...

[thepigboystudios]

his business always took him to the gay dragonfly night club. ha ha ha

[ppRoss]

wow. what were cars used for then?

[jimmygrek]

Strange!!

The paparazzi of 1912 ,using bicycles,were quicker than any others, that were using cars..

Very nice..

[dandanik]

You know, in 1912 were car's highest speed allowed about 15Kmph. SO, I am sorry, but bicycles were  quicker.

[PenanggalanMonster]

That was amazing :) I'd love to find more stop motion insect stuff like this.

[lolspiders]

this is so awesome.

[MaliciousMalice]

You are fucking dumb

[HeelsOnHoliday]

Władysław Starewicz was an entomologist (a bug scientist), so he actually had all these bugs in a collection.

He first tried to film bugs normally to make documentary films of these bugs' rituals/habits (mating, eating, etc.), but the harsh lights of the early cameras either scared them into running away.. or fried the bugs. He made the stop-go animations originally to be documentaries, but then he realized he can make them do whatever he wanted! :)

[vitalJG]

Władysław Starewicz - his from Poland;)

Look for this animation and for our, XXI centuries, animations... People are amazing;)

Thnaks for people like Starewicz, Disney, James Stuart Blackton.

[Sjalvastefan]

By the way, it's amazing that they perfected the use of Stop Motion as early as 1912. Dear Lord, I take my hat off.

[Sjalvastefan]

"His business always took him to the "Gay Dragonfire" night club. The dancers there understood him."

Best gay ever.

[narutonut48]

@sjalvastefan

 back then gay ment happy

[flyhead2]

This is the work of a true genius. The great man did absolutely everything himself, including making the camera. Mind-blowing innovation and artistry.

[Coconutattack]

Stalker...

[hbh2046]

For Fucking Fuck's Sake!!

That's 86 years before Pixar's "A Bug's Life"!!!

FUCK!!!!

[EnigmaticUnseen]

@hbh2046 Pixar doesn't have the BALLS to produce something as epic as this by hand.

[JasonRiptide]

This is almost 100 years old.

It's ridiculous. It's so good by any time period's standards.

[fanunoflamencomex]

Susee-Beetle!!!

[zathusura78910]

fuck tim burton!

this is where its at

[bluematter08]

I agree! Besides, I think the animators should get the credit not Tim Burton but everyone always praises him. Go figure.

[pisces516973]

Charming! Thank you.

[LivelyLorikeet]

Wow, the cameraman sure got his revenge! That was great!

[TeleTooby]

Awsome!=3

[andreabassanello]

beutiful! Thanks!

Look to "the mascot", amazing too.

[01ZaRa10]

WOW that´s incredible! and in 1912! WOW... thank you!

[domramalaja]

Thanks for sharing! This was really great!!

[helenadudarets]

Fantastic!

[caroljbowie]

A True Work Art!!!

[bigyellowlegoman]

fantastic cnt belive i ofund this

[hollowcaustic]

I remember the "Gay Dragonfly" club. Good times

[QuikFingaz]

Yo, this is some crazy shit. How the hell did he get those insects in such perfect shape for this film? I mean, it's not like you can walk around and find a dead insect that have not been squashed or decomposing. Or maybe he bred them to kill them as use them as his puppets... Seems pretty disturbing to me the whole process of creating a masterpiece like this.

[Paganzer]

He was an insect researcher, before he did his films he'd preserve insects for his work.

[flyhead2]

He first killed the insects, then inserted fine wires into their limbs. The man was brilliant.

[QuikFingaz]

Brilliant and artistic but, like I said, disturbing...

The whole idea of breading insects to kill them to use them as puppets strikes me as harsh, even if they are the species least disliked/protected by humans...

[flyhead2]

Perhaps, but mainstream Hollywood films are infinately more suspect from a moral perspective, where cynical sex and violence permeate everything. We have become accustomed to this, unfortunately, but reflect a little on what we take for granted before distancing yourself from this masterpiece.

[Hubrizoid]

I'd imagine breaded insects would probably taste terrible.

But probably less so than unbreaded insects.

[lolspiders]

it's from ninteen fuckin twelve, cut the peta bullshit

[nikker1985]

Its 2009 and I still kill insects.

[yaakhee]

thanks for putting this up

[geroldkid]

Ladislaw was the greatest pioneer of revolutionary stop-motion animation. No one will ever come close to him.

[KotLeopold]

It's quite amazing, I must agree. His films were almost something of an anomaly for the time period, if you look at the early developments of American cartoons. It's a shame Russian soon thereafter went through war and civil war, there weren't really any cartoons made again until 1923. Who knows what they would have done had such things never occured.

[GS337]

The Grandfather of Stop-Motion.

[ThuridRotten]

not grandfather... FATHER!!!!!!!!!!!

[vostgirl2]

wow its crazy find such film here! verry verry rare work...THANK YOU!

[pavlovich74]

I'm glad there are sites like YouTube that still have this man's work up for popular consumption, thanks Vorbis.