Karel Zeman
| Karel Zeman | |
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| Born | November 3, 1910 Ostroměř, Austria-Hungary (present-day Czech Republic) |
| Died | April 5, 1989 (aged 78) Zlín, Czechoslovakia |
| Occupation | Film director, animator |
| Influenced by | Jules Verne, Gustave Doré, Hermína Týrlová |
| Influenced | Terry Gilliam, Jan Švankmajer |
| Children | Ludmila Zeman[1] |
| Awards | 1980 Order of the Republic[2] |
Karel Zeman (November 3, 1910 – April 5, 1989) was a Czech film director, artist, production designer and animator. Because of his creative use of special effects and animation in his films, he has often been called the "Czech Méliès."[3][4][5]
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Life[edit]
Zeman was born on November 3, 1910, in Ostroměř (near Nová Paka) in what was then Austria-Hungary. In the 1920s, he studied at a French advertising school, and worked at an advertising studio in Marseilles until 1936.[6] It was in France that he first worked with animation, filming an ad for soup.[7] He then returned to his home country (by now Czechoslovakia), after visiting Egypt, Yugoslavia, and Greece.[7]
Back in Czechoslovakia, Zeman advertised for Czech firms like Baťa and Tatra. At Baťa's window-dressing school, where he was teaching, Zeman met the animator Elmar Klos and showed him a sample of his work. Klos offered Zeman a job at Zlín's animation studio. After some consideration (his wife and children were already established in Brno), Zeman accepted the job in 1943.[7] At the studio, Zeman worked as an assistant to the pioneering animator Hermína Týrlová, and in 1945 he became the director of the stop-motion animation production group.[8] The same year, in collaboration with his brother Bořivoj Zeman, he made his first short film, Vánoční sen ("A Christmas Dream").
Zeman then went on to solo work, including a series of shorts starring a puppet called Mr. Prokouk. His half-hour film Král Lávra (1950), from the poem by Karel Havlíček Borovský, won him a National Award, and was followed by his first feature film, Poklad ptačího ostrova (1952). His most unusual film may be the short Inspirace ("Inspiration," 1948), which tells a wordless, poetic love story using animated glass figurines.[7]
It was in 1955, however, that Zeman began the work for which he is probably most famous: six feature films that combine live-action and animation techniques to create artistic visual styles. These were:
- Cesta do pravěku (1955), inspired by Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth and the paintings of Zdeněk Burian
- Vynález zkázy (1958), based on Verne's Facing the Flag, and filmed to emulate the original illustrations for Verne's novels
- Baron Prášil (1961), celebrating the legendary Baron Munchausen and the engravings of Gustave Doré
- Bláznova kronika (1964), a satire of the Thirty Years' War, suggested by the drawings of Matthäus Merian[9]
- Ukradená vzducholoď (1967), inspired by the Verne novels Two Years' Vacation and The Mysterious Island, the Art Nouveau style, and the 1891 Prague Centennial Exhibition
- Na kometě (1970), an anti-war fantasy based on Verne's Hector Servadac
He was a member of the jury at the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival[10] and at the 7th Moscow International Film Festival.[11]
After this, Zeman experimented with more classical forms of animation, beginning with seven shorts about Sinbad the Sailor which were then expanded into the feature film Pohádky tisíce a jedné noci (1974).[12] His final films were Čarodějův učeň (1977), from the novel The Satanic Mill by Otfried Preußler, and Pohádka o Honzíkovi a Mařence (1980).
He died in Zlín on April 5, 1989, a few months before the Velvet Revolution.
Legacy[edit]
Zeman's works were influential to the Czech animator Jan Švankmajer,[13] as well as to the American filmmaker Terry Gilliam,[14] who said of Zeman: "He did what I'm still trying to do, which is to try and combine live action with animation. His Doré-esque backgrounds were wonderful."[15]
In 2012 a museum dedicated to Zeman and his work, the Muzeum Karla Zemana, opened near the Charles Bridge in Prague.[16]
Filmography[edit]
Feature Films[edit]
| Year | Original Czech title | Standard English title | US release title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 | Poklad ptačího ostrova | The Treasure of Bird Island | N/A |
| 1955 | Cesta do pravěku | Journey to Prehistory | Journey to the Beginning of Time |
| 1958 | Vynález zkázy | An Invention for Destruction | The Fabulous World of Jules Verne |
| 1961 | Baron Prášil | Baron Munchausen | The Fabulous Baron Munchausen |
| 1964 | Bláznova kronika | A Jester's Tale | War of the Fools[17] |
| 1967 | Ukradená vzducholoď | The Stolen Airship | N/A |
| 1970 | Na kometě | On the Comet | On the Comet |
| 1974 | Pohádky tisíce a jedné noci | Tales of 1,001 Nights | Adventures of Sinbad the Sailor |
| 1977 | Čarodějův učeň | Krabat — The Sorcerer's Apprentice | N/A |
| 1980 | Pohádka o Honzíkovi a Mařence | The Tale of John and Mary | N/A |
Short Films[edit]
| Year | Original Czech title | English title | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1945 | Vánoční sen | The Christmas Dream | Released in the US as A Christmas Dream |
| 1946 | Křeček | The Hamster | |
| 1946 | Podkova pro štěstí | Horseshoe for Luck | The first Mr. Prokouk film[18] |
| 1947 | Pan Prokouk ouřaduje | Mr. Prokouk, Bureaucrat | |
| 1947 | Brigády | Voluntary work | The third Mr. Prokouk film |
| 1947 | Pan Prokouk v pokušení | Mr. Prokouk in Temptation | |
| 1948 | Pan Prokouk filmuje | Mr. Prokouk Filming | |
| 1948 | Inspirace | Inspiration | |
| 1949 | Pan Prokouk vynálezcem | Mr. Prokouk, Inventor | |
| 1950 | Král Lávra | King Lávra | |
| 1955 | Pan Prokouk, Přítel zvířátek | Mr. Prokouk, Friend of the Animals | |
| 1958 | Pan Proukock detektivem | Mr. Prokouk, Detective | |
| 1959 | Pan Proukock akrobatem | Mr. Prokouk, Acrobat | |
| 1971 | Dobrodružství námořníka Sindibáda | Adventures of Sinbad the Sailor | |
| 1972 | Druhá cesta námořníka Sindibáda | The Second Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor | |
| 1973 | V zemi obrů. Třetí cesta námořníka Sindibáda | In the Land of Giants (the third voyage) | |
| 1973 | Magnetová hora. Čtvrtá cesta námořníka Sindibáda | The Magnet Mountain (the fourth voyage) | |
| 1973 | Létající koberec. Pátá cesta námořníka Sindibáda | The Flying Carpet (the fifth voyage) | |
| 1974 | Mořský sultán. Šestá cesta námořníka Sindibáda | The Sultan of the Sea (the sixth voyage) | |
| 1974 | Zkrocený démon. Sedmá cesta námořníka Sindibáda | Taming the Demon (the seventh voyage) |
References[edit]
- ^ "Archived - Ludmila Zeman". Library and Archives Canada. 2002-09-25. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
- ^ "Havlin presents award, Husak letter to artist". Daily Report: Eastern Europe. Foreign Broadcast Information Service. 4 November 1980. p. D6. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ Wellner-Pospisil, Michael (2002). "Le Méliès tchèque" (in French). Festival International du Film de la Rochelle. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ "Hommages et rétrospectives 2010: Karel Zeman". Angers European First Film Festival. 2010. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ "Journée des enfants: Projection du film Sindbad de Karel Zeman" (in French). Cinéma Tout Écran. 2002. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ Richter, Václav (20 May 2010). "Karel Zeman: le centenaire du magicien du cinéma tchèque" (in French). Radio Prague. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ a b c d Lazarova, Marketa. "The Fabulous World of Karel Zeman". Jules Verne: Andreas Fehrmann's Collection. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
- ^ Hames, Peter (2009). Czech and Slovak Cinema. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 196.
- ^ Polt, Harriet (Spring 1964). "The Czechoslovak Animated Film". Film Quarterly 17 (3): 38. JSTOR 1210908.
- ^ "2nd Moscow International Film Festival (1961)". Moscow International Film Festival. Retrieved 2012-11-04.
- ^ "7th Moscow International Film Festival (1971)". Moscow International Film Festival. Retrieved 2012-12-22.
- ^ "A Thousand and One Nights (1974) - Connections". IMDb. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
- ^ Harper, Graeme; Stone, Rob (2007). The unsilvered screen: surrealism on film. London: Wallflower Press. p. 61.
- ^ Zipes, Jack (2011). The Enchanted Screen: The Unknown History of Fairy-Tale Films. New York: Routledge. p. 43.
- ^ Gilliam, Terry (2004). Terry Gilliam: Interviews. Mississippi: Jackson University Press. pp. 132–133.
- ^ Velinger, Jan (26 December 2012). "Visionary filmmaker Karel Zeman". Radio Prague. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ "War of the fools (Film, 1964)". WorldCat. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
- ^ "Pan Prokouk: Podkova pro štěstí". Česko-Slovenská filmová databáze. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
External links[edit]
- Karel Zeman at the Internet Movie Database
- Karel Zeman filmography (Polish)
- Karel Zeman: Genius of Animated Film at SME.sk (Slovak)
- Gallery of Czech stop-action animation including clips from The Fabulous World of Karel Zeman.
- A Strange Introduction to Karel Zeman: The Czech Visionary (TCM Movie Morlocks)
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