Giant French Marionettes in Berlin Wall Celebration
I saw this on
pintangle and thought it was pretty awesome. Sadly, my German skills are fairly low, and fairly nonexistent understanding someone speaking as quickly as the narrator apparently had to in the video. So, I ended up zoning out on the audio and just watched the visuals, instead. These marionettes are MASSIVE, and it looks like over a dozen puppeteers(?) were required just to animate one marionette.
If you're like me and want to know what's going on, someone kindly commented @ the video location with a photo spread that the Boston Globe had on their website. The marionettes were part of a celebration on October 3rd of the 20-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The puppeteers are from the Royal de Luxe "street theatre" company out of France, and I'm assuming that they had a role in creating the two giant marionettes.
A few pics from the Boston Globe page are behind the cut....
I just went with the default size on the pics...you'll have to click on picture to see the larger size.
Just a pic to show the relative size of the marionettes (they are on a barge), and *cough* some of the hot male puppeteers *cough*. I was happy to see that there were at least 2 or 3 female marionette wranglers, though.
There's a section of the video where the "Little Giantess"/Niece yawns, and you can see the bellows for the mouth in this picture. It's pretty amazing to see the detail in the face, with the eyelashes, veins in the eyes, etc. I'll have to go back and see if the marionette's eyeballs are movable as well...I know that she can blink.
Here are the niece's feet. It appears that most (if not all) of the two marionettes' bodies are made from carved and lacquered wood. I'd love to find an article/video in English/French/German/other language that describes these two marionettes in more detail. If anyone knows of one, let me know!
The Little Giantess in action. Note the shoes. There is a closeup of the shoes (pic #5) at the Boston Globe page.
The Big Giant on the move, after he "climbed out" of the river Spree. At first I didn't understand *why* he was in diving gear in the river, but he was there to destroy the wall.
Uncle and niece reunited at last in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.
There are a lot more pics @ the Boston Globe site, so be sure to check them out if you're interested!
pintangle and thought it was pretty awesome. Sadly, my German skills are fairly low, and fairly nonexistent understanding someone speaking as quickly as the narrator apparently had to in the video. So, I ended up zoning out on the audio and just watched the visuals, instead. These marionettes are MASSIVE, and it looks like over a dozen puppeteers(?) were required just to animate one marionette.
Click to viewIf you're like me and want to know what's going on, someone kindly commented @ the video location with a photo spread that the Boston Globe had on their website. The marionettes were part of a celebration on October 3rd of the 20-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The puppeteers are from the Royal de Luxe "street theatre" company out of France, and I'm assuming that they had a role in creating the two giant marionettes.
A few pics from the Boston Globe page are behind the cut....
I just went with the default size on the pics...you'll have to click on picture to see the larger size.
Just a pic to show the relative size of the marionettes (they are on a barge), and *cough* some of the hot male puppeteers *cough*. I was happy to see that there were at least 2 or 3 female marionette wranglers, though.
There's a section of the video where the "Little Giantess"/Niece yawns, and you can see the bellows for the mouth in this picture. It's pretty amazing to see the detail in the face, with the eyelashes, veins in the eyes, etc. I'll have to go back and see if the marionette's eyeballs are movable as well...I know that she can blink.
Here are the niece's feet. It appears that most (if not all) of the two marionettes' bodies are made from carved and lacquered wood. I'd love to find an article/video in English/French/German/other language that describes these two marionettes in more detail. If anyone knows of one, let me know!
The Little Giantess in action. Note the shoes. There is a closeup of the shoes (pic #5) at the Boston Globe page.
The Big Giant on the move, after he "climbed out" of the river Spree. At first I didn't understand *why* he was in diving gear in the river, but he was there to destroy the wall.
Uncle and niece reunited at last in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.
There are a lot more pics @ the Boston Globe site, so be sure to check them out if you're interested!