Programme 2009

Císařův slavík

Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), 1948, 35mm, colour/b&w, 70'
No dialogue; suitable for children.
Directed, Graphic Design by: Jiří Trnka
Live Action Direction: Miloš Makovec
Story: Hans Christian Andersen
Adapted for the Screen by: Jiří Trnka, Jiří Brdečka
Animation: Zdeněk Hrabě, Jan Kašpar, Stanislav Látal, Břetislav Pojar, Bohuslav Šrámek, Jiří Trnka
Camera: Ferdinand Pečenka
Editing: Helena Lebdušková, Jiří Trnka
Music: Václav Trojan
Sound: Josef Zavadil
Cast: Jaromír Sobota, Helena Patočková
Production: KF a.s. - Jiří Trnka Studio

A little boy lives surrounded by the gloomy splendour of a grand town house. He has all kinds of playthings, mechanical toys, Chinese figures and a piano to play on, but he cannot play with a little girl, who runs about, free as a bird, outside the gate which separates the boy from the world. He falls ill and, in a fever, dreams the story he has been reading in his Andresen's fairy-tales, in which he interwines the elements of his own experience.

“Trnka was an extraordinarily talented and hard-working individual. He painted and wrote and was a woodcutter, a sculptor, and an illustrator. In all his films he was not only a writer and graphic artist but also an editor, a designer and builder of puppets, and a designer of puppet costumes. Often misunderstood and attacked by the critics, he never bent to any pressures. The work he produced was well-rounded, full of human warmth, tenderness, wisdom, humor, and grace. He succeeded in bringing the puppet film out of the periphery and into mature prominence. He brought the masterworks of literature into the purview of the puppet film and expressed philosophical ideas and emotions with such urgency that his films have become not only a landmark but also a yardstick for puppet films yet to be made.” Vladimír Opěla

Jiří Trnka was born in 1912 in Pilsen and as soon as he could hold a pen in his hand he spent every spare minute drawing. He was also enchanted by the world of puppet theatre. Trnka studied at the University of Applied Arts in Prague and afterwards made a living by illustrating books. But he always dreamt of setting his drawings in motion. For a while, he ran a wooden puppet theatre on Prague's Wenceslas Square. As soon as Trnka established himself as an animator, he and his closest colleagues, including Břetislav Pojar, moved on to set up their own studio of puppet film. The Bratři v triku (or Brothers in T-shirts) Studio, as it was called, became the birthplace of the very first Czech animated film. Trnka worked literally days and nights. Only two years after establishing the puppet film studio, Trnka and his friends completed their first puppet feature, The Emperor's Nightingale. And ten years later Trnka produced what is regarded as his masterpiece - a puppet adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Within the next twenty years, his studio produced dozens of films. Unfortunately, Trnka's remarkable work tempo took its toll. He died in 1969 at the age of only 57. Yet, in a span of just a few decades, he managed to do what others don't achieve in a lifetime. Even today, in the age of computer animation, his films continue to capture viewers with unmatched poetry and tenderness.

Selected Festivals and Awards: Paris Film Festival 1950 (Méliès Prize), Edinburgh IFF 1951 (The prize of the French film critics), Locarno IFF 1955 (First Prize)