His work is so beautiful. Thank you fir sharing his story. I was unaware of his work until I read this. It's hard to believe why some critics in his day couldn't consider this as animation. Like the previous commenter said. His work us mesmerising
Thank you -- glad you liked it! We're big fans of his films here. And for sure, the controversy around him has always been a bit strange. But he's secured his place now, so it seems it's settled, finally.
This is a great, thorough piece. I've been meaning to go through Petrov's work for years, and now I have my chance to watch all of it. It's too bad that so far as I can tell there's no blu-ray collection of all of his works available.
Much appreciated — glad you enjoyed, and hope you feel the same about the films themselves! The lack of a great Petrov collection is a serious problem, likely caused in part by the fact that he’s worked at so many different studios over the years (and none of them being Soyuzmultfilm). With luck, one will turn up someday.
It's great stuff. Reminds me of the old internet, before the social media giants took over. It's nice to see that people are putting together these sorts of well researched pieces.
Googling around again, it looks like maybe none of Petrov's films are available on blu-ray, which is really too bad. It's clear that he put a herculean effort into the detail of these moving paintings, so it would be really nice to be able to see them in the best possible format.
On a semi-related, but different, blu-ray note: Jan Svankmajer is certainly a different animal from Petrov, but I recently found out that there's a 7 disk set featuring (I think?) all of Svankmajer's feature length films, but you have to order it directly from his website, and it comes at the somewhat hefty price of 205 euros. It's unclear to me whether or not his shorts (arguably his best stuff) are even available on blu-ray.
There's so much good animation that came out of the Eastern Bloc, and based on clips I've seen around, I get the sense that there's a lot I haven't even heard of. Hopefully as much of it as possible will end up properly preserved eventually.
Thanks very much for the kind words. And for sure, animation behind the Iron Curtain was a pretty incredible thing -- one we've been exploring ourselves for years without getting anywhere near the end of it.
The lack of a Petrov Blu-ray collection is part of a wider trend, from what we've seen: even when the greats have their work restored, it often doesn't get a physical release, or the physical release only comes out in one country (say, Japan). It's great to discover that Svankmajer is an exception, because Czech animation absolutely has this problem -- like the scarcity of restored Jiří Trnka films.
Lastly, really appreciate the link to this account -- it's new to us, and cool to see that it's found such a large audience. If you're ever looking to watch full versions of Eastern Bloc stuff with subtitles, we highly recommend digging around on Animatsiya: https://www.animatsiya.net/
You've done quite a good job of finding interviews to mine! I was unaware of a lot of them and will have to add some to my reading list.
There are a few more interesting things that I think are worth mentioning - for one, Petrov's work on commercials is actually quite an interesting and little-told chapter, and most of them are something special. I guess they've been his main bread and butter during the years when he was struggling to get bigger films off the ground.
There used to be a page on the Pascal Blais Studio website where you could watch all of them that then existed. That was when it was still possible for a Canadian ad company to employ someone living in Russia. I remember especially liking his ad for the Canadian province of Newfoundland (which, unfortunately, didn't get as much airtime as I think it deserved):
Since then, he's also made some ads in Russia, with my favourite being the one for Russian Railways (kind of similar to the Newfoundland one in how it moves through landscapes):
He also made a 3-minute film that was part of the opening ceremony for the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi (which, unfortunately, is only currently available with a sports commentator speaking over parts of it):
The other interesting thing is that Petrov has attempted to teach others his technique at his studio, and one of his female students directed her own short film at the studio using the paint-on-glass technique she was taught. Unfortunately, it becomes immediately apparent how one-of-a-kind Petrov is, because while the technique in her film is indeed the same paint-on-glass, the animation style looks no different from the mainstream, which led me to think "what's even the point, then?". I wish I could remember the name of the film or the director.
Those advocating for Petrov's manner of photo-realism in character animation are few and far between, and it's hard to see who can follow him. The late Richard Williams was one. Also Anatoliy Petrov in the last few decades of his career (it's actually possible that one Petrov influenced the other, though indirectly. Anatoliy Petrov's impressive how-to-animate workbook was only published posthumously in 2010).
I'm quite looking forward to his first feature film. Reportedly it will have Prince Nevsky take a journey east to be a diplomat to the Golden Horde. I have to wonder at Petrov's "luck" to have chosen such a timely theme. But I suppose that, as a thinking person, he must have felt deeply the way that things were going for quite a long time. Certainly he could apparently sense it better than Soyuzmultfilm's director, who in ~2021 was still talking in interviews about how their goal was to recreate the South Korean model of working on outsourced Western-financed productions (as if it was still the 1990s...).
Thank you! We were trying to bring together all the sources we'd seen previously (plus as many more as we could find) into a complete-ish narrative of his career in paint-on-glass. It took a lot of reading, but Petrov gives interesting interviews and there was a lot of great material.
Thanks as well for all this detail about his ads. We've seen a few before, but some of these are new to us (the United Airlines ones are especially good). It was a chapter of his work that almost made it into this write-up but got cut toward the end. Definitely worth discussing, though!
We haven't come across his successors' films ourselves yet, unfortunately -- although he did work with other painters on The Old Man and the Sea (namely, his son) and especially My Love. Not sure if the Nevsky film is the same setup or not, but it's possible. We'll be keeping an eye out for that one, for sure.
This is unbelievable, the way he catches movement that looks so natural but in paint, where you can barely preview your work or do corrections. Truly surreal
It absolutely is -- you have to wonder how it's possible, keeping a whole movement in your head at such a level of detail while working this way. It's like a combination of the hardest parts of old-school, pre-computer stop motion with the hardest parts of 2D animation. The fact that someone can do it like this is hard to believe.
His work is so beautiful. Thank you fir sharing his story. I was unaware of his work until I read this. It's hard to believe why some critics in his day couldn't consider this as animation. Like the previous commenter said. His work us mesmerising
Thank you -- glad you liked it! We're big fans of his films here. And for sure, the controversy around him has always been a bit strange. But he's secured his place now, so it seems it's settled, finally.
This is a great, thorough piece. I've been meaning to go through Petrov's work for years, and now I have my chance to watch all of it. It's too bad that so far as I can tell there's no blu-ray collection of all of his works available.
Much appreciated — glad you enjoyed, and hope you feel the same about the films themselves! The lack of a great Petrov collection is a serious problem, likely caused in part by the fact that he’s worked at so many different studios over the years (and none of them being Soyuzmultfilm). With luck, one will turn up someday.
It's great stuff. Reminds me of the old internet, before the social media giants took over. It's nice to see that people are putting together these sorts of well researched pieces.
Googling around again, it looks like maybe none of Petrov's films are available on blu-ray, which is really too bad. It's clear that he put a herculean effort into the detail of these moving paintings, so it would be really nice to be able to see them in the best possible format.
On a semi-related, but different, blu-ray note: Jan Svankmajer is certainly a different animal from Petrov, but I recently found out that there's a 7 disk set featuring (I think?) all of Svankmajer's feature length films, but you have to order it directly from his website, and it comes at the somewhat hefty price of 205 euros. It's unclear to me whether or not his shorts (arguably his best stuff) are even available on blu-ray.
https://svankmajer.cz/produkt/blu-ray-collection-7-discs/
There's so much good animation that came out of the Eastern Bloc, and based on clips I've seen around, I get the sense that there's a lot I haven't even heard of. Hopefully as much of it as possible will end up properly preserved eventually.
(Lots of wild clips here, for instance: https://www.instagram.com/under_the_visions/)
Thanks very much for the kind words. And for sure, animation behind the Iron Curtain was a pretty incredible thing -- one we've been exploring ourselves for years without getting anywhere near the end of it.
The lack of a Petrov Blu-ray collection is part of a wider trend, from what we've seen: even when the greats have their work restored, it often doesn't get a physical release, or the physical release only comes out in one country (say, Japan). It's great to discover that Svankmajer is an exception, because Czech animation absolutely has this problem -- like the scarcity of restored Jiří Trnka films.
Lastly, really appreciate the link to this account -- it's new to us, and cool to see that it's found such a large audience. If you're ever looking to watch full versions of Eastern Bloc stuff with subtitles, we highly recommend digging around on Animatsiya: https://www.animatsiya.net/
So beautiful! I watched The Cow partway through reading this post...his work, his play with light and shadow, is mesmerizing.
It really is -- that's a genuinely stunning film. Glad we could introduce you to it!
You've done quite a good job of finding interviews to mine! I was unaware of a lot of them and will have to add some to my reading list.
There are a few more interesting things that I think are worth mentioning - for one, Petrov's work on commercials is actually quite an interesting and little-told chapter, and most of them are something special. I guess they've been his main bread and butter during the years when he was struggling to get bigger films off the ground.
There used to be a page on the Pascal Blais Studio website where you could watch all of them that then existed. That was when it was still possible for a Canadian ad company to employ someone living in Russia. I remember especially liking his ad for the Canadian province of Newfoundland (which, unfortunately, didn't get as much airtime as I think it deserved):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9YEahUcT9w
Since then, he's also made some ads in Russia, with my favourite being the one for Russian Railways (kind of similar to the Newfoundland one in how it moves through landscapes):
https://www.animatsiya.net/film.php?filmid=1521
He also made a 3-minute film that was part of the opening ceremony for the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi (which, unfortunately, is only currently available with a sports commentator speaking over parts of it):
https://www.animatsiya.net/film.php?filmid=1522
Some other ads of his can be seen at this YouTube playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLthSlyKI_E2rIaqdiM1co8yLDClTX1XUc
The other interesting thing is that Petrov has attempted to teach others his technique at his studio, and one of his female students directed her own short film at the studio using the paint-on-glass technique she was taught. Unfortunately, it becomes immediately apparent how one-of-a-kind Petrov is, because while the technique in her film is indeed the same paint-on-glass, the animation style looks no different from the mainstream, which led me to think "what's even the point, then?". I wish I could remember the name of the film or the director.
Those advocating for Petrov's manner of photo-realism in character animation are few and far between, and it's hard to see who can follow him. The late Richard Williams was one. Also Anatoliy Petrov in the last few decades of his career (it's actually possible that one Petrov influenced the other, though indirectly. Anatoliy Petrov's impressive how-to-animate workbook was only published posthumously in 2010).
I'm quite looking forward to his first feature film. Reportedly it will have Prince Nevsky take a journey east to be a diplomat to the Golden Horde. I have to wonder at Petrov's "luck" to have chosen such a timely theme. But I suppose that, as a thinking person, he must have felt deeply the way that things were going for quite a long time. Certainly he could apparently sense it better than Soyuzmultfilm's director, who in ~2021 was still talking in interviews about how their goal was to recreate the South Korean model of working on outsourced Western-financed productions (as if it was still the 1990s...).
Thank you! We were trying to bring together all the sources we'd seen previously (plus as many more as we could find) into a complete-ish narrative of his career in paint-on-glass. It took a lot of reading, but Petrov gives interesting interviews and there was a lot of great material.
Thanks as well for all this detail about his ads. We've seen a few before, but some of these are new to us (the United Airlines ones are especially good). It was a chapter of his work that almost made it into this write-up but got cut toward the end. Definitely worth discussing, though!
We haven't come across his successors' films ourselves yet, unfortunately -- although he did work with other painters on The Old Man and the Sea (namely, his son) and especially My Love. Not sure if the Nevsky film is the same setup or not, but it's possible. We'll be keeping an eye out for that one, for sure.
Thank you so much for everything you do, the incredible posts you write and your research!
Petrov's work is haunting and utterly beautiful. "The Cow" especially is heartbreakingly and unforgettable.
Thank you! This is extremely kind -- it means a lot. We're happy that we could share his work with you.
This is unbelievable, the way he catches movement that looks so natural but in paint, where you can barely preview your work or do corrections. Truly surreal
It absolutely is -- you have to wonder how it's possible, keeping a whole movement in your head at such a level of detail while working this way. It's like a combination of the hardest parts of old-school, pre-computer stop motion with the hardest parts of 2D animation. The fact that someone can do it like this is hard to believe.
Excellent work on this post. I learned a lot and plan to go see The Wild Robot.
Went to see The Wild Robot today, very moving. I enjoyed the broad style of the work and the variety of shot angles. Thanks for the recommendation!
Glad you liked it! The hype for it right now is massive. Seems like a guaranteed Oscar nominee this year.
Thanks very much! Happy the piece resonated with you -- and hope you enjoy that film! It's the talk of the industry right now.
The Cow is so moving. Again, another letter moving me and exciting me that I am subscribed!
Thank you! This is great to hear. And happy to share The Cow -- it's a favorite of ours, and it deserves more attention than it sometimes gets.