Director of Lithuanian Polish-speaking origin, pioneer of puppet animation, 20th century. in the first half he created in Lithuania, Russia and France.
This artist was not only the first in the world to use puppets in his films, but also created at a level that his contemporaries were never able to achieve. V. Starevičius carefully guarded his professional secrets and spread false rumors himself to confuse his competitors. As noted by film critic Skirmantas Valiulis, V. Starevičius even liked to mystify his life a little. Therefore, the information that has reached us about this director and his work is quite contradictory.
He was born in hiding in 1863. in the family of Aleksandars Starevičius, a participant in the uprising, and noblewoman Antanina Legecka in Moscow. After the death of the mother, the child was taken by relatives from Kaunas. Here he finished primary school. He attended high school already in Estonia. While still a schoolboy, he became interested in photography and entomology. V. Starevičius not only collected insects for his collection, but also made realistic models of them.
He never finished his studies, but that didn't stop him from earning a living drawing, and later finding a civil service in Kaunas. At the same time, he was interested in photography and was self-employed. It is said that precisely because of his excellent photos of Kaunas, the Museum of Local History entrusted V. Starevičius with a camera and offered to make several films. After the success of the film "Over the Nemunas", V. Starevičius tried to create sketches from the life of his favorite insects. However, the insects were not good actors, they could not stand the hot lamps, so V. Starevičius eventually replaced them with clever mock-ups.1909 V. Starevičius completed two films: "The Life of Dragonflies" and "Beetles - Scarabs". It is believed that in 1910 Lucanus Cervus, about stags fighting for a female, was the world's first animated puppet film. The short film "The Beautiful Lucanida" was created using the same technique, in which the plots of knightly novels were parodied. The film became popular all over the world, and for a long time the audience was not alerted to its secret: they thought that real trained beetles were filmed. V. Starevičius made films alone and did not reveal the secrets of his mastery.
Inspired by the success of "Lucanus Cervus", V. Starevičius decided to go to Moscow, where there are much greater opportunities for creativity. In Moscow, the artist was taken under the patronage of businessman A. Khanzhankov, who gave him a camera, tapes, rented an apartment and a studio, but demanded the rights to the films being made. V. Starevičius made films in A. Chanžankov's studio until 1917. Apart from cartoons, he was also interested in feature films.in 1919 emigrated to Italy, later moved to France. Here he immediately received orders for cartoons. A couple of years later, his "Song of the Nightingale" was awarded the Rosenfeld Gold Medal. He received another gold medal for his most significant work - the world's first full-length puppet film "Lapinas Raneikis". This one was built from 1926 (1928?) to 1930. and was released at the beginning of the era of sound cinema. However, it was voiced only eight years later at the expense of the German government. Unfortunately, for this reason, the film was rarely shown after the war.V. Starevičius himself was hardly touched by the war. After 1945 he decided to settle in the suburbs of Paris and continue making his films here. However, his popularity was declining, and so were the commissions for films. In the last years of his life, he made commercials and even sold his dolls.
