Female Beauty

Synopsis

This Italian-language puppet film advert for Super-Iride fabric dye centres on a woman dressed in drab clothes. At a ball, nobody asks her to dance. At her wits’ end, she decides to seek help from Dr Faust. He knows just what to do and conjures up Mr Satana. He snatches the rainbow from the sky, puts it in a wash tub and then extracts colourful fabrics from it. This marvellous soapy water, he explains, contains Super-Iride fabric dye. 

Trivia

It was only recently that puppeteer Harry Tolsma introduced the facial faceting technique. In Kermesse Fantastique (1951), we see how these new possibilities were immediately used to push the boundaries of the technique. In this film, the way the female character speaks is rendered much more subtly. It should be borne in mind that the techniques available for making the facial masks were extremely primitive compared with today’s possibilities.

For puppet maker Harry Tolsma, the figure of Mr Satana in particular must have been a complex challenge. The appearance naturally had to match the design featured on the packaging. At the same time, the muscular arms had to be easy to animate. A foam rubber torso was chosen, into which PVC hands were incorporated. The face was also technically interesting. The part of the head that needed to be able to move for speaking was limited to the chin and the mouth. These parts fitted into the head like interchangeable jigsaw pieces.
When you combine this with the often very small size of the puppets – which were generally no larger than 15 to 20 centimetres – you can really only draw one conclusion: this was exceptionally skilful puppetry.

Smoke and fire

Smoke and fire are visible in Dr Faust’s room. In scenes of this kind, this was often achieved in puppet films by placing glass plates within the set, onto which smoke and/or flames had been applied as animation. Cut-out animation cells were placed in the open fireplace. Colour filters were then placed in front of the lamps to create the animation. This simple technique produced a surprisingly natural effect. Furthermore, as the glass plate was positioned in front of the puppets, it created an optical blur in the flames in the foreground.

Had the filmmakers opted for the highly complex – and therefore costly – double exposure with masks, they would probably not even have achieved such a natural effect as can be seen here. It is precisely the combination of puppet animation, animation and a simple trick with glass that produces such a convincing image..

Advert text

‘Dye your clothes, fabrics, yarn and so on at home’ with the ‘Super Rainbow’ (and ‘black’)
Ditta Ruggero Benelli – Prato (name of town and manufacturer)