With the modern world of animation mainly being focused on the single medium of computer graphics, much is forgotten on the ingenious preceding mediums of animations created by the abstract and political animators of the 1920’s and 1930’s. One of the most groundbreaking animators from this time was Berthold Bartosch. Bartosch’s ingenious design and experiments in animating show that what makes a film truly unique could be as simple as a little bit of soap and ingenuity.
Bartosch was a Bohemian (Czech Republic) born artist who studied at The Art School of Vienna, and moved to Berlin to create educational animations “for the masses” in 1919(Cavalier 104). He first collaborated with Lotte Reiniger with the silhouette animated film The Ornament of the Loving Heart in 1919 and once more on The Adventures of Prince Achmed in 1926 (Russet 83). When working with Reiniger, Bartosch’s contribution would be creating the unique and stylized effects portrayed in the film, “which gave him skill in shooting layers of translucent material to create land, sky, and sea, effects”(Thompson 364). Bartosch was known for his continuous experimentation with different effects in his films. “Lotte Reiniger has written that even after six months of working on one or another scene, Bartosch would have to be literally forbidden to go any further with his studies and experiments”(Russet 84).
Bartosch’s one and only major film of his own was L’idee in 1930, based on woodcuts created by Frans Masereel (Cavalier 104). The film’s focus is on the personified conception and its struggles and pulls towards unification of suppressed masses in a world of tyranny (Thompson 364). The technological achievement of Bartosch’s film is astounding. “On the mere technical level the film represents a prodigious achievements-some 45000 frames, many of which were animated on four different levels simultaneously, often with as many as 18 superimpositions made in the cameras- and all conceived and executed by the mind and hands of one man alone” (Russet 84). Bartosch began work on a second film, an anti-war film, but before reaching completion, he had to leave Berlin during the Nazi occupation of Europe. All of his work on the film had been destroyed during the war, only a few frames remain (Russet 85). But even while having to deal with the utter devastation of losing his work on his second film, Bartosch’s continued to plan and conceptualize new works to create. While “his passion and drive for making films never diminished” (Cavalier 104), Bartosch’s would never get past concept and never finished another full length film.
Bartosch’s influence became apparent very early in his career. His style of having a continuously moving image influenced Alexander Alexieff and Clare Parker to create Night on Bald Mountain, which also used unique and experimental animation techniques “After Seeing The Idea, he decided to try and create the effect of engravings in motion pictures”( Thompson 365). Both Alexieff and Parker stayed close with Bartosch to his death. Bartosch died in 1968 of illness; it is quoted by Clare Parker that on his deathbed Bartosch continued to talk of films which he would never be able to create. His last words to Clare in regards to animation were “Soap it is quite extraordinary, with soap one can do everything” (Russet 85).
For my final animation I took on the feat of recreating Bartosch’s masterpiece within a constrained amount of time. Luckily, Bartosch while being innovative, also found very simple and cheap ways to created truly astounding effects. Bartosch was known for having an incredibly small studio, about 10×12 feet (Russet 86), which just so happens to be near the exact size of the studio I was working in for my project. Even with such minimal space and material, Bartosch was able to use all he had to create mesmerizing effects. “For an effect of stars he will take a piece of cardboard, pin prick it and photograph it moving before the camera with a strong light behind it… Nothing could be simpler or more effective” (Russet 83). I was able to use a multiplane and recreate some of the lighting and exposure effects from Bartosch’s films. The punctured cardboard worked perfectly as the background for my piece, and most professional cameras come with exposure settings, so I was able to recreate the fading lighting effects in a very beautiful way.
L’Idee is mostly remembered for its poetic and philosophical plot. I tried to re-create that by also basing my work on some form of poeticism of my own creation, not even coming close to the beautiful philosophy portrayed in Bartosch’s work. Something I did not realize when creating the concept was that Bartosch was born lame, and because of this he wanted to portray fluid movements, giving walks and waltzes a sense of rhythm, with beautiful success (Russet 85). I did not realize this until after I had created the waltzing scene, which with this clarity, becomes a personal poetic coincidence which I had not planned.
Alexander Alexieffe was quoted as saying that it was Bartosch “who first dared to give animation the dimensions of a great art, trusting it to voice his pain, to lay bare his heart, to tell of his hope for a better future-which he never saw”(Russet 89). I hope I was able to re-create Bartosch’s fantastically unique and magical style, and I hope I did his work justice.
Work Cited
Russet, Robert, and Cecile Starr. Experimental Animation: Origins of a New Art. New York: Litton Educational Publishing, 1976. Print
Cavalier, Stephen. The World History of Animation. California: University of California Press, 2011. Hardcover Print.
Thompson, Kristin, and David Bordwell. Film History: An Introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing. Print.
Anna C. Gilmore 