Sly as a fox, or, picaros avant la lettre

One more film for Paul Rumsey’s cinematheque: Le Roman de Renard.

The Tale of the Fox, as the film is known in English, was stop-motion animation pioneer Ladislas Starevich‘s first fully-animated feature film. It is based on the tales of Flemish picaro avant-la-lettre Renard the Fox.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcznvlBTQFk]

Le Roman de Renard

Lords, you have heard many tales,
That many tellers have told to you.
How Paris took Helen,
The evil and the pain he felt
Of Tristan that la Chevre
Wrote rather beautifully about;
And fabliaux and epics;
Of the Romance of Yvain and his beast
And many others told in this land
But never have you heard about the war
That was difficult and lengthy
Beween Renart and Ysengrin

6 thoughts on “Sly as a fox, or, picaros avant la lettre”

  1. Paul Rumsey

    You can also see “The Mascot” on Youtube. In the Devil’s Ball sequence you can see some living vegetables, (leeks or radishes), flying to the ball, which look to me as if they are based on some illustrations in Grandville’s “Un Autre Monde”. There is also a great flying fish skeleton!

  2. suburbanlife

    Jan – this is a delightful clip. Amazing animation!

    Lichanos contacted me via e-mail and asked to request you check your Akismet spam queue. His comments aren’t getting through? Could you de-spam those? G

  3. jahsonic

    Thanks Suburban, your comments are always a pleasure.

    Lichanos, I have no comments of you in my spam-queue, I miss your comments, they were well-informed. Tho’ I must admit I felt a little miffed by your phrase ” I think by now I know how your tastes run,” (I can’t figure out that myself) I can assure you that I haven’t put you on my blacklist, in fact, your comments are sorely missed.

  4. lichanos

    Jahsonic:

    Seems I can only comment on many WordPress blogs at home, where I have other things to occupy my time. I don’t know why – probably something to do with my office security.

    Sorry to have offended you with my comment. Your tastes are broader than I implied.

    I love this animation piece here, and I enjoyed your post about Hogarth and caricature. I offer this link for those who love 18th century satirical prints. It’s by my favorite, James Gillray:

    http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/art/print/exhibits/gillray/captions/image65.html

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