The Red and the Black is a 1963 animated film by Witold Giersz.
The first film in which Witold Giersz used his famous technique of painting directly on film, without outlines, was Mały western (A Little Western). Three years later, the director returned to this method in Czerwone i czarne (The Red and the Black) – approximately at the same time as George Dunning (known predominantly for Yellow Submarine) completely independently applied the same method of animation in his film Flying Man.
Czerwone i czarne was very successful worldwide. The director introduced a very humourous convention, in which he in fact participates personally – he shows his own self on the screen, playing together with his drawn characters. The plot is centred around a bullfight, which – thanks to the use of a variety of artistic solutions – becomes not only visually exquisite, but also light, funny, and timeless.
There is one more ingenious scene in the film. The bull, having found a mirror, turns it around in such a way that we see what is going on behind the camera. The scene showing the surprised director is one of the most subtle self-portraits in the history of cinema. – Katarzyna Roj wrote.
- Czerwone i czarne (The Red and the Black), Poland, 1963. Directed by Witold Giersz, screenplay: Witold Giersz, Tadeusz Kowalski, Andrzej Lach, cinematography: Jan Tkaczyk, animation: Witold Giersz, music: Waldemar Kazanecki, produced by: Studio Miniatur Filmowych (Film Miniature Studio). Duration: 6 min.
Selected awards
- 1964 – Brown Lajkonik for Best Animated Film at the Kraków Film Festival; Grand Prix for animated film at the International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen;
- 1965 – First Prize for short film in the Children's Film Section at the Cannes Festival; First Prize for animated film in Montevideo;
- 1966 – Honorable Mention at the Melbourne International Film Festival; Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival
Author: Joanna Pawluśkiewicz, December 2006, transl. AM, December 2015