Love in Gipsyland

Synopsis

Late one evening, cheerful music fills the air in a caravan site. A young man plays a serenade for a girl, but is sent away by her father. Later, he is discovered to be a violinist. Thanks to a Philips television, the boy and the girl are brought back together.

A technical masterpiece 

The young violinist’s puppet is, technically speaking, a masterpiece. A seemingly endless series of expressions can be seen on his face, thanks to interchangeable phase masks combined with the ability to animate the eyes. The father figure and the girl are also capable of a wide range of expressions. This film demonstrates an enormous refinement in the phase technique, which was first used on a large scale in *Kermesse Fantastique*. The puppets were crafted by Harry Tolsma, Dollywood’s resident puppeteer, who was renowned for his artistic and technically sophisticated creations.

“That’s me!” 

The staff at Joop Geesink’s Dollywood worked under intense pressure to perform. As an outlet, they played numerous practical jokes. Most of these were not visible or recognisable to the audience. But take a close look at the scene in which the violinist is recognised by an impresario and offered a contract. The man in the car is a puppet bearing the likeness of Joop Geesink, who in real life also loved driving big American cars. During the presentation of the film to the client in the Dollywood screening room, Joop saw his likeness appear on the screen and exclaimed in surprise: “Hey, that’s me!”. Art director Henk Kabos and animator Cor Icke, who were present at that moment and responsible for the joke, quickly replied: “Yes, we needed a puppet to represent a true gentleman.” That was a satisfactory answer. This is the only film from Dollywood, lasting just a few seconds, in which Joop Geesink is recognisable as a puppet.

Trivia

In stop-motion films like this, the music is recorded before the footage is shot. When animating the violinist, the animator must match the speed of the music in terms of timing. The young violinist stands on stage and plays a single, very long, uninterrupted note lasting 4 seconds. This meant that the puppet’s bow – measuring 5 centimetres in length – had to be moved from one side to the other in a single, smooth motion lasting 4 seconds, i.e. 100 (!) frames. This was a huge challenge for animator Cor Icke, who had to achieve it all using analogue techniques. He found the solution by using a compass, the legs of which could be adjusted with a set screw. He counted the number of turns needed to cover the 5 centimetres, divided that number by 100 (frames) and thus worked out how far the bow needed to be moved between each frame. It then took sheer craftsmanship to move the tiny puppet, with an arm made of aluminium wire, half a millimetre for each frame.
From 35 to 8 The film was originally shot on 35 mm Technicolor. In the 1980s, the editorial team had the opportunity to make an 8 mm film copy for its own archive. Although the old scan has been digitally restored, the colours are no longer optimal and the sound is less vivid than the original. The original aspect ratio was 4:3.