FNC 2017: Old Czech Legends

OLD CZECH LEGENDS

Staré povesti ceské

LES INCORTOUNABLES

ANIMATION

CZECHOSLOVAKIA | 91 MINUTES | 1953| Czech with English Subtitles 

The Czeck film Director Jiří Trnka is renown as the great master of puppet making and puppet animation. His contribution to that special art form is quite significant. Because of his influence in animation, he was called "the Walt Disney of Eastern Europe".

For his Old Czech Legends, Trnka chose six classic Czech folktales, more specifically, historical legends that were put into a literary form in 1984 by the writer Alois Jirásek in his book with the same Czech title as Trnka's film.

Trnka is careful to vary the tales' tone and tempo, transforming long forgoten heroes of national legends into living characters, incarnated by his very unique puppets he designed and made himself. Trnka’s work is equally impressive for his innovative editing, lighting, and sound. He was a winner of many international film award, raising the bar for the future puppet animators and influencing their work, even of the Quay Brothers. 

The film represent a unique opportunity to become acquainted with the work of a master puppeteer Jiří Trnka, and to get to experience his way of transmitting a narrative through his animated puppets.

FNC OFFICIAL SYNOPSES

"The lives of the earliest inhabitants of the historic land of Bohemia, recounted in a series of six stop-motion animation segments. Released in 1953, this film by the Czech director breathes humanity and empathy into the folk tales behind the heroes and legends of Czechoslovakia. Inspired by the book Ancient Bohemian Legends by Alois Jirásek, Old Czech Legends is proof not just of Trnka’s outstanding artistry and puppeteering talent, but also his amazingly inventive use of cinematic language."

For more informations about the FNC, the program, film scheduling and various venues visit the FNC festival's website.

MWFF 2017: A Prominent Patient

A Prominent Patient
Masaryk

WORLD COMPETITION

Czech Republic

The film is based on a true story. 

Montreal World Film Festival's Official Synopses:

"In 1939, the flamboyant diplomat Jan Masaryk emigrated to the United States following the German invasion of Czechoslovakia. With the help of psychiatrist Dr. Stein, a German immigrant, Masaryk recalls the political struggles that led to the Second World War and tries to defeat his real and personal enemies."

The film shows the historical situation in Europe just before the World War 2, focusing largely on Czechoslovakia. It reveals how some big-scale geopolitical strategies were conceived and played at the time, what complex international moves were considered and deployed, disregarding interests of smaller countries like Czechoslovakia.

The film is set in years 1937-1939. The main character is Jan Masaryk, the son of the first Czechoslovak president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk who was the founder of Czechoslovakia at the fall of the Austro-Hungerian Empire. Film starts with Tomáš Masaryk death. Shortly after, Jan Masaryk becomes a Czechoslovak ambassador to the United Kingdom. At that time, Czechhoslovakia faced Germany's aggression and their demand to annex Sudet (Sudeten in German) territory, a part of Czechoslovakia. Masaryk tries to persuade England to help keep Czechoslovakia intact, but fails. The Munich Agreement is settled, and Czechoslovakia gives up to Nazi Germany at first it's borderline Sudet lands and later the entire country.

Jan Masaryk, devastated by the political events, travels to the United States where he has a vast network of family and friends, since his mother was an American. According to the film, he is institutionalized there due to a nervous breakdown, and treated by Doctor Klein, a refugee from Germany. Their relationship is intense, as two great professionals (a psychiatrist and a politician) influence each other in understanding not only their personal but also geopolitical struggles.

The film includes a few sequences of Masaryk's life that in reality happened outside of the plot's time-span. It appears these time shifts away from the Masaryk's real life chronology were chosen for a more compact presentation of Jan Masaryk's personality, to show what a "character" he was, and also to create a more compelling visual story:

- There does not exist any evidence that Jan Masaryk was hospitalized during his three months visit to the US in the early 1939. However, in 1912, at the age of 26, he attended for a short period the Vineland Developmental Center in New Jersey, a special school for young men and women, and was diagnosed there to have a mild form of schizophrenia. But is not it claimed that genius often borders on madness?

- Similarly, he met Marcia Devenport, an American journalist, only in 1941, not during the time covered by the film (1937-39).

- In addition, although at his times cocaine was wildly used by the European high society, there is no evidence that Masaryk did. Non of his family, friends or associates mention it in their memoirs or correspondence.

The film succeeded in portraying vividly a slice of a very complex geopolitical period in European history (which was actually even much more complex than what could be shown during the film's 100 minutes). It also succeeded in recreating on the screen one of the personages and political players of that era - Jan Masaryk - and show his unusual and astute personality and how he fought to make a difference for his country. 

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director: Julius Ševčík

Producer: Julius Ševčík

Script: Julius Ševčík

Lead Actor: Karel Roden
Lenght: 100 Min.

Music composed by: Kryštof Marek, Michał Lorenc

Initial release: December 22, 2016

N.B.

On September 4, 2017, this film received the Best Actor Prize awarded at the festival's closing ceremony to the film's lead actor Karel Roden for his portrayal of Jan Masaryk.

FILM TRAILER

For more information, visit the Montreal World Film Festival's website.

Article's dedicated web address.

MWFF 2016: Tiger Theory

TIGER THEORY/TEORIE TYGRA

WORLD COMPETITION

DIRECTOR: Radek Bajgar

PRODUCER:Petr Erben

SCRIPT: Radek Bajgar, Mirka Zlatnikova

MUSIC: Jiri Hajek

COUNTRY: Czech Republic; 102 min.
LANGUAGE: Czech, English subtitles

Official Synopses:

"Can a timid and domesticated bunny morph into a feral tiger? Henpecked veterinarian Jan sets off on a journey to reclaim his freedom and answer the question."

Tiger Theory is an exceptionally funny and entertaining film. During my years of covering the Montreal World Film Festival, I never heard so much laughter from the audience, the constant bursts of hilarious laughter, as during the projection of this film last night. Yet this was not a mindless laughter. Paradoxically, I could even refer to this film as a comic "tragedy", as it touches on core issues of family relationships, marriage ties, and the commitment constrains people face, or rather, that wives impose upon their husbands. The last night's laughter from the audience was rooted in peoples' recognition of those issues in their personal lives, and represented a kind of a personal catharses for them, an emotional release of old stuck family issues they had held inside for a long time. 

The film is about a man's need for his personal space within a committed relationship, his "liberty", so he can reconnect to himself, to the core of his being, to who he truly is. The next film, the director told the audience after the projection of the film, will be about how to "liberate" a woman, the space a woman needs within the relationship to be a more complete and stronger human being. I am certain that everybody at the film's screening last night will be eagerly awaiting the release of that next film! 

Tiger Theory is a very clever and sharply intelligent film which deals with serious life situations and issues with the specific Czech sense of humour that the majority of people will relate to and will find not only entertaining and funny but also deeply meaningful. I highly recommend this film.

FILM TRAILER

MWFF 2015: INVENTION FOR DESTRUCTION

Original 1958 Czech Poster

VYNÀLEZ ZKÀZY / INVENTION FOR DESTRUCTION

1958, B&W, Czech Republic, 78 min., Cinema Classics 

Production Team

Director : Karl Zeman

Screenwriter : Karel Zeman, Frantisek Hrubin

Cinematographer : Antonín Horák, Bohuslav Pikhart, Jirí Tarantík

Editor : Zdenek Stehlík

Cast : Lubor Tokos, Arnost Navrátil, Miroslav Holub, Frantisek Slégr, Václav Kyzlink, Jana Zatloukalová

Music : Zdenek Liska

Film production and Sales : Prod.: Ondrej Beranek, Punk Film, Veslarsky ostrov 62, 147 00 Prague 3 (République tchèque), ondrejberanek@punkfilm.cz.

I highly recommend this film especially for children. It is a wonderful adventure and suspense, where the right wins over the evil. The film's old-fashioned type of narrative, plot, subject matter, animation, and actors' interpretation all give it a sense of authenticity and even innocence, though the film is about malice and a threat of total destraction. This is a digitized remake of the original film that was released in 1958 and won a Grand Prix at the Brussels's Expo 58 World Film Festival. It was subsequently shown all over the world, in many countries, and hundreds of cinemas.

The plot of the film is simple but effective and compelling. The visual effects and animation are stunning, especially when one considers there were no computers at the time to process and create this type of unique background imagery and animation. All the visual effects had to be made from the scratch, laboriously, and manually, by hand. Karel Zeman invented many amazing techniques for this film. They are in the one-of-the-kind category, special and unique, and very effective. And even today, they are still being marvelled at by the cinema and animation specialists since they are not available to be easily recreated by the modern computer programs.

If you will have an opportunity to see this remake of the original Karel Zeman's film, now called INVENTION FOR DESTRUCTION, do not hesitate and go to see it. And take your kids and all the children in your neighbourhood with you! 

Film's Official Synopsis

THE FABULOUS WORLD OF JULES VERNE (Czech: Vynález zkázy, literally The Deadly Invention or An Invention for Destruction) is a 1958 Czech adventure film directed by Karel Zeman. Based on several works by Jules Verne, primarily his 1896 novel Facing the Flag, the film evokes the original illustrations for Verne's works by combining live actors with various forms of animation. In it an evil millionaire named Artigas plans to use a super-explosive device to conquer the world from his headquarters inside an enormous volcano. 

 Director

Karel Zeman (1910-1989) was a Czech film director, artist, pupeteer and animator. After early success with the character Mr Prokouk, and with both glass, INSPIRATION (1949) and cutout animation, A TREASURE OF BIRD ISLAND (1952), he dazzled the film world with a couple special-effects masterpieces JOURNEY TO THE BEGINNING OF TIME (1955) and THE FABULOUS WORLD OF JULES VERNE (1958).