Ivo Caprino

Ivo Caprino (Oslo, February 17 1920 – February 8 2001 in Oslo) was a Norwegian film director and writer, best known for his puppet films. His most famous film is Flåklypa Grand Prix ("Pinchcliffe Grand Prix"), made in 1975.

Related Topics:
Oslo - February 17 - 1920 - February 8 - 2001 - Norwegian - Film director - Writer - Puppet - Flåklypa Grand Prix - 1975

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Caprino was the son of furniture designer Mario Caprino and the artist Ingeborg Gude. In the mid forties, he helped his mother design puppets for a puppet theatre, which inspired him to try making a film using his mother's designs. The first result of their collaboration was Tim og Tøffe, an 8 minute film released in 1948. Several films followed in the next couple of years, including two 15 minute shorts of that are still shown regularly in Norway today, Veslefrikk og Fela (Little Freddy and his Fiddle), based on a Norwegian folk tale, and Karius og Baktus, a story of two little trolls living in a boy's teeth.

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Caprino quickly became a celebrity in Norway. His films received rave reviews. He continued making a number of short films through the fifties and sixties, mostly based on Norwegian folk tales, as well as a number of commercials.

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When making Tim og Tøffe, Caprino had invented an ingenious method for controlling the puppet's movements in real time. This technique, which can be described as a primitive, mechanical version of animatronics, was kept secret for decades and contributed greatly to the public's fascination with his films. However, in the late fifties, Caprino converted to stop motion and made the rest of his films using traditional frame by frame animation techniques.

Related Topics:
Animatronics - Stop motion

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