This week’s mystery movie was the 2004 film “A Belated Premiere” on the amazing work of Alexander Shiryaev, written and directed by Viktor Bocharov, photographed by Inna Tiktinskaya, artwork by Yury Solovev and music by Sergei Banevich. It’s on YouTube in four parts.
See “Ghosts of ‘Nutcracker’ Past, Preserved on Film” by Marina Harss from the New York Times, Dec. 11, 2018.
Writing in the New York Times (Jan. 14, 2005), dance critic Anna Kisselgoff said the film fragments “look terribly modern” and called “Belated Premiere” “an eye-opening documentary.”
Update: This is “The Buffoon’s Dance” from “The Nutcracker.”
I have always wanted to do a mystery animated movie, but most of the available cartoons are way too familiar. This one is more obscure. But, trust me, it’s very cool.
For Tuesday, we have another animated sequence.
Update: This is “Cakewalk.”
Our mystery animator also did very clever stop-motion….
… which doesn’t translate well to screen grabs.
Update: This is “Pierrot-Artists.”
доверие мозга roll call: Mary Mallory (mystery кино and mystery мультипликатор).
For Thursday, here is the mystery animator himself, looking very much like Monday’s mystery photo.
Update: This is Alexander Shiryaev.
доверие мозга roll call: Sarah (mystery кино and mystery мультипликатор)
For Friday, our animator takes on an ambitious project: A stop-motion version of “La Bayadere.”
And here is our mystery animator later in life.
Update: Alexander Shiryaev.
доверие мозга roll call: Mary Mallory (mystery animator), Beach Gal (mystery films and mystery animator), Sue Slutzky (mystery films and mystery animator) and Sylvia E. (mystery films and mystery animator).
ladailymirror.com 
Ancient animation is the coolest thing ever. It’s not like you did one of the Dogville comedy shorts — but if you did, Benito would identify which one in a heartbeat. He adores those.
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Seems to be one of the ‘Out of the Inkwell’ series
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Alas, Koko, Bimbo and Betty won’t be appearing this week.
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Is this sand animation? If so, is the artist Caroline Leaf?
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An interesting guess, but alas, I’m afraid not.
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I assume it can’t be “In Gollywog Land”? Which I believe was in color. For some reason you can’t find that film for love or money. Couldn’t be the title.
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Alas, we must say “Nyet” to “Gollywog Land.”
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Hmmmm….?
It looks like poses depicting Olympic games drawn on tiles, but I’m sure that’s not correct.
This will be a fun one. Still thinkin’
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Ha! Nyet, nyet!
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Maybeeee….Wladislaw Starewicz is the animator – don’t see the mystery movie yet, so I’m not sure. But the images and movie references I’ve found for him are fantastic.
Still hunting.
Sooo glad you picked animation (my world) this time.
This is fun and informative.
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An excellent guess! You’re very warm. 🙂 This fellow’s movies are very cool. You’ll like his work.
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Alexander Shiryaev’s “The Nutcracker.”
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Puppet Theatre.
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or BELATED PREMIERE.
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It took awhile, but Monday’s cartoon is “Buffoon’s Dance from the Nutcracker” by Alexander Shiryaev (1906). His work is very obscure, but I’m to posit that all the films this week will be by him.
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Alexander Shiryaev.
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Our mystery film this week is Alexander Shiryaev’s Buffoon’s Dance.
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The stop-motion screen grabs are from Shiryaev’s Pierrot Artists.
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Tues. animated sequence screen grab I think is from Shiryaev’s paper animation titled Cake Walk.
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Is it Alexander Viktorovich Shiryaev?
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The first image is from “The Nutcracker”
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The stop motion: P’ero-Khudozhniki (Artist Pierrots)
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Ha, ha! Great.
Aleksander Shiryaev
The Buffon Dance for Monday
Not sure about Tuesday’s title though it’s the same style as the Buffon Dance, so maybe the same title???
Wednesday’s stills are from “Puppet Theater”
Thursday is the ballet dancer/ animator man himself.
What a talented guy, and so early!
This was amazing stuff to research and watch.
Looking forward to Friday & Saturday and to learning more.
Thanks so much.
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Friday’s screen grab is from Alexander Shiryaev’s The Marriage of Harlequin and Columbine from his 5 sequences of his puppet (stop-motion) animation as he called it, Harlequin’s Jest, based on the Harlequinade Ballet.
The photo of our animator in older years is Alexander Shiryaev himself.
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