Czerwone i czarne (The Red and the Black)

Director: Witold Giersz
Release date: 1963
Rating: ★★
Review:

‘The Red and the Black’ is a rare attempt at a gag cartoon in a Polish studio. True, the film’s designs are no less avant-garde as that of other contemporary films from the era, this time featuring highly abstracted painted characters, but unlike his countrymen, Witold Giersz aims at laughs.

The film is an addition to a long canon of bullfighting cartoons, with the Red being the bullfighter, and the black being the bull. There are some fine gags, like the two drinking beer together, or the bull suddenly revealing the film makers, but the characters and the action remain emblematic, and Giersz has no sense of timing, so the gags all fall flat. Thus, despite some clever ideas, ‘The Red and the Black’ is a rather tiresome watch, and the film well overstays its welcome.

Watch ‘The Red and the Black’ yourself and tell me what you think:

‘The Red and the Black’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Anthology of Polish Animated Film’