Silent and Sound versions?
My understanding is the print available today is a sound version from 1941 and the 1930 version was silent.
This would make sense comparing to other 1930s Starevich shorts with more primitive sound.
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MovieChat Forums > Le roman de Renard (1941) Discussion > Silent and Sound versions?
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I doubt about a silent version.
The production of the movie started when sound existed and took ten years, it was actually released in 1939.
Ok, here's the deal - the animation of the film was actually finished around 1930-1931 or so in Paris. However, Starewitch had a lot of difficulty finding the money and people to make a soundtrack for the film, so although some people saw the animation without any sound, the film was never released until someone in Nazi Germany decided that since Goethe had written a version of the "Reynard" tale, this film would be a suitable one to fund to show off German cultural achievements. The film was first released in Berlin in April 1937 with a German-language soundtrack, 7 years after the actual animation was finished! It was released in France with a soundtrack only in 1941, and this is the version which is available on DVD today.
Do a google search for this film with the date "1937" - you'll find a couple of articles confirming this version of events.
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Still, looking the non-singing sequences compared to the songs there is quite a difference in technique and photography. Also seeing some of his shorts with the "Fétiche" dog character from different years in the 30s it does look a lot like the song sequences date from later than many "non-sync" scenes. I put "non-sync" in quotes because I guess it's possible that the songs were animated without a soundtrack or finished soundtrack as a guide and the earlier looking material was simply earlier in a circa 1930 production. At least to me the animation in the songs looks much closer to 1937 than 1930.
shareHmm, possibly. But there isn't much information around.
Even finding the information in my earlier message wasn't very easy.
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Ladislas's grand-daughter's website has a newspaper clip from World Film News, London, October 1936 clearly noting a limited release prior to 1937 and that that was at least /intended/ for sound; "But probably his most important picture is his early sound film, Renard the Fox, made in 1930 and shown at the Sorbonne. In this film Starevitch makes a brilliant satiric use of animals".
Her footnote states that "In 1930 the animated part of the film was finished, ready to have a soundtrack added and silent rushes where shown to the audience. Because of many problems to create that French soundtrack, the film was only released in France in 1941, after a German version in 1937". i.e. apparently reinforcing that there was no top-down reworking of the actual animation post-1930 (or 1931, depending on which source one reads).
02/ymmv,
d. :)