Kermesse Fantastique

Content

A man is invited into his radio and ends up at a fairgrounds. When he returns home, he doesn't know if it was a dream.

Triumph of technology

Kermesse Fantastique is subtitled "Triumph of technology". This subtitle refers to the electronics manufacturer's lavish celebration of its 60th anniversary. Philips advertised itself as Triumph of technology.
For Joop Geesink's Dollywood, the animated film Kermesse Fantastique was also a triumph of (film) technology. This production, which was worked on for over a year and a half, was the 'state of art' at the time of its release. Anno 1951, all the technical ingenuity imaginable was applied. The spectacular sets and bombastic music provided a visual spectacle. What the studio's production crew spent a lot of energy on was making the lead actor's puppet. Under the technical direction of puppet maker Harry Tolsma, this film presented the ultimate animated puppet. Through an ingenious system of interchangeable heads (phase masks), the figure was able to show all the expressions that were desirable.
Because this is the first time this technique was used so excessively, the emotions sometimes come across as somewhat exaggerated. The makers were keen to show what his could achieve.
Sies Numan, was the advertising chief of Philips. He was very much involved in this project. His company pulled out a production budget of 100,000 Dutch guilders for it, which by today's standards works out at close to 1 million euros.
Special constructions were made for the sometimes very complex but tight camera movements to allow the leaden and large cameras to move freely through the set. Much of this equipment has long been used for other productions.

World fame

According to the promotional poster below, illustrated by Joop Geesink himself, over 300 puppets performed in this production.
A grand spectacle with hundreds of puppets, beautiful sets and thousands of lights. The overall picture featured a grand orchestral setting by French composer George Auric. The film ran for a long time as a pre-film in cinemas and at numerous festivals. This brought Geesink worldwide fame and commissions. Kermesse Fantastique rotated for many more years as part of an entertainment package that was shown at schools and community centres for young people, among others..

Academy Award nomination

Although this film went into circulation in 1951, as of January 1953, this title stands as a nominee for the famous 'Oscar' prize, the Academy Award. Unfortunately for Dollywood, this film did not make it through the pre-selection and thus did not even become a nominee.

To qualify for the 'Oscar' nomination, the final title was all but replaced by the version shown here. This camouflages the image of a commercial. Originally, the Philips logo was shown large, with the slogan "Philips Radio - Triumph of technology" below it. Original end title of the film had different slogans in different languages. In Dutch, it was "Philips Radio - Triomf der Techniek." In Germany, the end title was "Philips Radio - Friend of the Family".

Trivia

Web visitors with knowledge of animation will notice that József Misik's animation is minimalist. There are many extras in the sets. They slide by, they do not walk. In later productions, animated by Cor Icke, this does not happen. Also noticeable is a mutual difference in style between the performing puppets. This arose because scenes with crowds of people were composed with puppets from earlier productions. Within the visual spectacle, this break in style was hardly noticeable.
Much attention was paid to the main character and prominent supporting roles. For 1951, the expressions used in faces were unprecedented.