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Quirino Cristiani (July 2, 1896 – August 2, 1984) was an Italian-born Argentine animation director and
cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...
, responsible for the world's first two animated feature films as well as the first animated feature film with sound, even though the only copies of these two films were lost in a fire. He is also the first person to create animation solely using cardboard cutouts.


Biography

Quirino Cristiani was born on July 2, 1896 in Santa Giuletta, Italy. His family moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1900, and Quirino spent his childhood soaking up the fast pace and left-leaning politics of the great southern metropolis. He came to consider himself a ''porteño'' first (as the natives of the port of Buenos Aires called themselves) and an Argentine second. As a teenager, he developed a passion for drawing, which led him through a brief course with the Academy of Fine Arts to the publication of political
caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, ...
s for the city newspapers. Soon the perfect target for his satire presented himself. The national elections of 1916 peacefully ended the 36-year-long rule of the Conservative party and placed Radical party leader Hipólito Yrigoyen in the president's seat. Yrigoyen favored the lower middle class, especially in Buenos Aires, and granted unprecedented freedom to the press. The press in response turned on him, mocking his social awkwardness, his replacement of Conservative corruption with Radical corruption in the government, and his decision to keep Argentina out of World War I, a decision that was unpopular with the germanophile Argentine military. He soon was dubbed "Peludo" ("
Armadillo Armadillos (meaning "little armored ones" in Spanish) are New World placental mammals in the order Cingulata. The Chlamyphoridae and Dasypodidae are the only surviving families in the order, which is part of the superorder Xenarthra, along wi ...
") for his reclusive personality, always seeking the security of his "lair". Living in the capital was another Italian immigrant, Federico Valle, once a cameraman and director in Europe (he used Wilbur Wright's visit to Rome in 1909 as the opportunity to film the world's first aerial
cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to fo ...
), now a producer of newsreels for his adopted country. Valle was apolitical, but he knew the porteños were not. He hired the twenty-year-old Cristiani off the street, gave him Émile Cohl's ''Les Allumettes animées'' (''Animated Matches'', 1908) to teach him the technique, and set him loose. Before 1916 was out, Valle's newsreel ''Actualides Valle'' came out with an episode including the one-minute cartoon ''La Intervención en la provincia de Buenos Aires'' (''Intervention in the Province of Buenos Aires'') by Quirino Cristiani. The cartoon was about Yrigoyen's ouster of Buenos Aires governor Marcelino Ugarte for dishonesty. This film used cardboard cutouts as the form of animation, a choice Cristiani would stick with throughout his career. This short film did surprisingly well, and Valle announced a new project: the green animator would next create the world's first feature-length animated film, with President Yrigoyen as the subject. The funding would come from a Mr. Franchini, who owned a chain of movie theatres to show the finished film. Cristiani would get his character designs from newspaper cartoonist Diógenes Taborda (pen name "El Mono", "The Monkey") Cristiani managed to accomplish his goal, doing the lion's share of the animation, the 58,000-frame ''
El Apóstol ''El Apóstol'' ( English: ''The Apostle'') is a 1917 lost Argentine animated film using cutout animation. Italian-Argentine immigrants Quirino Cristiani and Federico Valle directed and produced, respectively. Historians consider it the world's ...
'' (an hour and ten minutes at 14 frames per second) premiered on November 9, 1917 and destroyed in 1926. The movie was a satire, with President Yrigoyen ascending to the heavens to use Jupiter's thunderbolts to cleanse Buenos Aires of immorality and corruption. The result is a burnt city. The film was well-received, but most of the praise went to producer Valle, with what was left over going to Taborda. In 1918, the German commander in Argentina, Baron von Luxburg, decided to manipulate Argentina into joining World War I on its side by sinking an Argentine ship and blaming the act on the Entente. The tales of the survivors of the incident led nearly everyone to realize what really happened, but Yrigoyen swung his political weight to cover the incident up, out of fear that Argentina might be pushed into the war as an enemy of Germany, an outcome he feared just as much as a German alliance. Cristiani saw the incident as the perfect opportunity, and with a new set of producers created the world's second feature-length animated film, ''Sin dejar rastros'' in 1918. The title (''Leaving No Trace'') was a reference to von Luxburg's supposed order to the German U-boat captain who sank the ship. President Yrigoyen felt he had no choice but to order the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to confiscate the film the day after it premiered. In doing this, the Radical showed himself little better than the repressive Conservative presidents he had replaced. On the other hand, Cristiani was not imprisoned and spent the next several years creating political cartoons and caricatures for the newspapers. Two other animated features were put out at this time by Andrés Ducaud, the man who designed the fire effects in ''El Apóstol''. To support his growing family, Cristiani founded the advertising company Publi-Cinema, where he made short commercial cartoons. To show these cartoons, he traveled to the poorer parts of town, where no movie theatres were to be found, and showed the paying public
Chaplin Chaplin may refer to: People * Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977), English comedy film actor and director * Chaplin (name), other people named Chaplin Films * '' Unknown Chaplin'' (1983) * ''Chaplin'' (film) (1992) * ''Chaplin'' (2011 film), Ben ...
shorts and other films interspersed with his animation. This did so well that the police shut him down for "disturbing the peace and interrupting traffic". President "Peludo" finished out his six-year term in 1922, and was succeeded by another Radical, Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear. During Alvear's presidency, Cristiani started making animated shorts for entertainment purposes. Some of the titles included ''
Firpo-Dempsey ''Firpo-Dempsey'' is a 1923 animated short, directed by Quirino Cristiani Quirino Cristiani (July 2, 1896 – August 2, 1984) was an Italian-born Argentine animation director and cartoonist, responsible for the world's first two animated featu ...
'' (1923) on the
boxing match Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing boxing glove, protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a ...
between American heavyweight champion
Jack Dempsey William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey (June 24, 1895 – May 31, 1983), nicknamed Kid Blackie and The Manassa Mauler, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1914 to 1927, and reigned as the world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926. ...
and Argentinian champion
Luis Firpo Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...
, ''Uruguayos Forever'' (1924) on Uruguay's Olympic gold medal in soccer, and ''Humberto de garufa'' (''Little Umberto's Folic'', 1924), on the visit of Italian Prince Umberto of Savoy to Buenos Aires. In 1918 and 1926, a fire destroyed Federico Valle's film vaults; among the films lost forever was ''El Apóstol''. In 1928, the aging Hipólito Yrigoyen was re-elected president of Argentina. Cristiani felt that the man was too dominated by the corrupt leaders of the Radical party. With a script by Eduardo Gonzalez Lanuza, he set out to make his third animated feature film, ''
Peludópolis ''Peludópolis'' is a 1931 Argentine animated film directed by Quirino Cristiani. It was released on 18 September 1931 in Buenos Aires. The film was released with a Vitaphone sound-on-disc synchronization system soundtrack, making the film genera ...
''. The movie was to be a sort of fable, with pirate Yrigoyen's floating "Peludo City" (Argentina) beset by hungry sharks (the Radicals). Cristiani converted the operation over to sound partway through, including a few songs in the soundtrack (he used the primitive
sound-on-disc Sound-on-disc is a class of sound film processes using a phonograph or other disc to record or play back sound in sync with a motion picture. Early sound-on-disc systems used a mechanical interlock with the movie projector, while more recent syst ...
system for the recording since it was unlikely that most Argentine theaters would be able to handle sound-on-film at the time of release). Then, on September 6, 1930, a year into production, work on ''
Peludópolis ''Peludópolis'' is a 1931 Argentine animated film directed by Quirino Cristiani. It was released on 18 September 1931 in Buenos Aires. The film was released with a Vitaphone sound-on-disc synchronization system soundtrack, making the film genera ...
'' was halted when President Yrigoyen was ousted by a Conservative military coup d'état. With so much invested in the film so far, Cristiani decided to proceed, re-arranging the plot to de-emphasize Yrigoyen and the sharks, and carefully adding the characters of the generals as the heroes, in an attempt to protect himself from possible persecution. He then added an everyman character named Juan Pueblo, to become the moral centre of the film. With the provisional blessing of the provisional ruler of Argentina, General José Félix Uriburu, Cristiani premiered the film on September 16, 1931. Few people felt that the wake of a revolution was the right time to laugh about it. In addition, the Great Depression had come to Argentina. Yrigoyen died in bed in 1933 and suddenly the entire country was gripped with grief for a man few had cared deeply for when he was alive. Cristiani respectfully withdrew the film from circulation. Quirino Cristiani never had another chance for greatness in animation. Mickey Mouse took over Argentina like he had the rest of the world, and like so many other artists, Cristiani couldn't compete. Studios Cristiani was converted into a dubbing/subbing lab, one of the best of its kind in Argentina. Cristiani made three more animated films in his life, none of which were memorable. When Walt Disney came to Argentina as part of his Latin America research tour, Cristiani showed his films to him, then sent him to cartoonist Molina Campos, the source of the
gaucho A gaucho () or gaúcho () is a skilled horseman, reputed to be brave and unruly. The figure of the gaucho is a folk symbol of Argentina, Uruguay, Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, and the south of Chilean Patagonia. Gauchos became greatly admired and ...
segment in ''
Saludos Amigos ''Saludos Amigos'' ( Spanish for "Greetings, Friends") is a 1942 American live-action/animated anthology film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It is the sixth Disney animated feature film and the first of the six pack ...
'' (1943). Cristiani has been called "The man who anticipated Disney." Two fires in 1957 and 1961 destroyed the majority of Cristiani's work, including the only prints of ''
Peludópolis ''Peludópolis'' is a 1931 Argentine animated film directed by Quirino Cristiani. It was released on 18 September 1931 in Buenos Aires. The film was released with a Vitaphone sound-on-disc synchronization system soundtrack, making the film genera ...
''. He died in
Bernal, Argentina Bernal is a city located in the northeast of Quilmes in the province of Buenos Aires, approximately 10 miles south of the city of Buenos Aires. It is the second largest and most populated city in the Partido of Quilmes. Bernal borders Avellaneda P ...
on August 2, 1984.


Films

* 1916: '' La intervención en la provincia de Buenos Aires'' * 1917: ''
El Apóstol ''El Apóstol'' ( English: ''The Apostle'') is a 1917 lost Argentine animated film using cutout animation. Italian-Argentine immigrants Quirino Cristiani and Federico Valle directed and produced, respectively. Historians consider it the world's ...
'' * 1918: ''
Sin dejar rastros ''Sin dejar rastros'' (Spanish: "Without a Trace") is a 1918 lost Argentine animated feature film. It was written and directed by Quirino Cristiani. The film used cutout animation. Plot The plot revolved around the recent incident involving the ...
'' * 1923: ''
Firpo-Dempsey ''Firpo-Dempsey'' is a 1923 animated short, directed by Quirino Cristiani Quirino Cristiani (July 2, 1896 – August 2, 1984) was an Italian-born Argentine animation director and cartoonist, responsible for the world's first two animated featu ...
'' * 1923: '' Firpo-Brennan'' * 1924: '' Uruguayos forever'' * 1924: '' Humberto de Garufa'' * 1925: '' Rhinoplastia'' * 1925: '' Gastronomía'' * 1931: ''
Peludópolis ''Peludópolis'' is a 1931 Argentine animated film directed by Quirino Cristiani. It was released on 18 September 1931 in Buenos Aires. The film was released with a Vitaphone sound-on-disc synchronization system soundtrack, making the film genera ...
'' * 1938: '' El mono relojero'' *1940–1951: ''Da Nasrda mono eco Mornici'' (released 1970) * 1941: '' Entre pitos y flautas'' * 1943: '' Carbonada''


See also

*
List of lost films For this list of lost films, a lost film is defined as one of which no part of a print is known to have survived. For films in which any portion of the footage remains (including trailers), see List of incomplete or partially lost films. Reas ...


References

* Giannalberto Bendazzi (Anna Taraboletti-Segre, translator); ''Cartoons: One Hundred Years of Cinema Animation''; Indiana University Press; (paperback reprint, 2001)


External links

* * * Quirino Cristiani, The Untold Story of Argentina's Pioneer Animator, by Giannalberto Bendazzi: http://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.4/articles/bendazzi1.4.html * Quirino Cristiani Movie, by Gabriele Zucchelli: http://www.QuirinoCristianiMovie.com/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Cristiani, Quirino 1896 births 1984 deaths Italian emigrants to Argentina People from the Province of Pavia Italian expatriates in Argentina Naturalized citizens of Argentina Argentine animators Argentine cartoonists Argentine satirists Argentine animated film directors