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[1] |
| Children | Ludmila Zeman[2] |
| Awards | 1980 Order of the Republic[3] |
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."[4][5][6][7]
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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.[8] It was in France that he first worked with animation, filming an ad for soup.[9] He then returned to his home country (by now Czechoslovakia), after visiting Egypt, Yugoslavia, and Greece.[9]
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.[9] 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.[10] 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.[9]
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[11]
- 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[12] and at the 7th Moscow International Film Festival.[13]
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).[14] 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.
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[15] |
| 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[16] |
| 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]
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054665/trivia
- ^ http://www.writersunion.ca/ww_profile.asp?mem=1257&L=Z&N=Ludmila%A0Zeman
- ^ http://docs.newsbank.com/s/HistArchive/fbisdoc/FBISX/1244772906807590/102FE1F6CA316FA2
- ^ http://www.festival-larochelle.org/festival-2002/karel-zeman
- ^ http://www.leedsfilm.com/film/invention-for-destruction/
- ^ http://www.premiersplans.org/festival/2010/en/retrospectives-zeman.php
- ^ http://www.cinema-tout-ecran.ch/2002/prog/enfants.html
- ^ http://www.radio.cz/fr/rubrique/faits/karel-zeman-le-centenaire-du-magicien-du-cinema-tcheque
- ^ 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)". MIFF. Retrieved 2012-11-04.
- ^ "7th Moscow International Film Festival (1971)". MIFF. Retrieved 2012-12-22.
- ^ http://web.mac.com/prokouk/iWeb/LudmilaZeman/KarelZeman.html
- ^ http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/43996060
- ^ http://www.csfd.cz/film/10119-pan-prokouk-podkova-pro-stesti/
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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