Night on Bald Mountain is a film set to the music of the same name by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky, and arranged by his fellow Russian composer, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The film was created by the inventors of pinscreen animation, Alexandre Alexeieff and his collaborator Claire Parker. Alexeieff was born in Kazan, Russia in 1901 and died in Paris in 1982.
Pinscreen animation makes use of a screen filled with moveable pins to make textural images which can be played upon with light and shadows. Objects can be pushed into a pinscreen to help create images. Creating animation using a pinscreen is incredibly time-consuming, changing each picture along the way using pins and light. Alexeieff described his pinboard as being one inch thick with one million pins.
The only other person known to have mastered the technique of pinscreen animation was Canadian filmmaker Jacques Drouin. Night on Bald Mountain was the first film made on pinscreen.
The film was produced in 1933. The music was performed by The London Symphony Orchestra with Albert Coates conducting, and recorded in 1931.
Here is the amazing 1933 Night on Bald Mountain 👻🎃 Happy Halloween!
Soviet Film Wednesday celebrates the artistry of Soviet filmmakers and in no way endorses the war in Ukraine.
Curated by Jennifer
