Pappé Julian
Julian Pappé was born in 1920 in Rzeszow, Poland.
Already as a young boy he joined a model airplane club to make model airplanes.
During the war he started out his creative activity making wooden marionettes.
Life brought him to Russia where he spent 4 years. In Alma-hata he worked with a stage design team for the production of “Ivan the Terrible”, the famous Eisenstein’s film.
After the war Pappé became a director of „Teatr Lalki i Aktora” (Puppet and Actor Theatre) in Łódź. He collaborated with Władysław Jarema in the Theatre „Groteska”. In 1947 went to Paris. Together with Władysław Jarema organized artistic shows for Polish immigrants in Paris.
Few years later he founded a private film studio “Magic-Films” in 1954.
The puppet theatre experience helped him in film production.
He completed several author animated short films, experimental pictures and documentaries.
Julian Pappé co-operated with a department of experimental film for French Television (ORTF) under the leadership of Pierre Scheaffer. He also collaborates with the French avant-garde film directors: François Truffaut, Louis Malle, Jean-Luc Godard.
In 1979 he made together with Jan Lenica animation feature film based on “UBU ROI”.
Last 15 years of his artistic activities he dedicated to the film pioneers. He wanted to safeguard the early film animations of J-Etienne Marey, George Demeny and the first animated films of Emil Reynaud. He used his technical knowledge and discovered the method of transfer antique frames onto the 35mm tape. He managed to safe Emil Reynaud´s “The optic Theatre” from 1877 and show it in many European cities (now preserved in the archives of the French Cinemateque in Paris).
The last, unfinished project of Julian Pappé was to re-create George Sand marionette theatre. Ms. Sand known in Poland as Chopin’s lover, created in her Nohant Castle a private theatre. Her son Mauricio was responsible for the marionettes while Ms. Sand produced the costumes. Both mother and son wrote brilliantly observant plays, which were enjoyed by such prominent public as A. Flaubert, André Balzac, and Alexandre Dumas. Julian’s Pappé ambition was to revive the old performances in the film form using modern computer techniques. He was fascinated by the quality and expressiveness of the plays and the theatre marionettes.
