Jiri Trnka -- Walt Disney Of The East!
"Jiri Trnka -- Walt Disney Of The East!"
This was the heading of an article written
by an English journalist after he saw Trnka's wide screen puppet feature
film The Midsummer Night's Dreamat the Cannes Film Festival
in 1959. He exaggerated in many ways, as there were many differences
between the two great artists. The least of which is that Disney
focused his work on the children or family audience, while Trnka addressed
most of his films to the adult audience. He arrived to the first post-war
Cannes Festival in 1946 with his three cartoons (his filmmaking career
had only begun on May 29, 1945, when a group of young animators asked
the famous book illustrator to become their boss!) Despite the fact
that his fairytale cartoon The Robbers and the Animalswon the
festival, another film that was entered, The Present,was of
more importance to Trnka's work. The Present(written by J.
Brdecka) was a cartoon for adults -- a satire with Trnka's very own
individual art design and a non-Disney way of storytelling. This film
was completely misunderstood until Stephen Bosustow congratulated
Trnka on it three years later. If you compare The Presentwith
UPA's productions you know why! It was a visible step that divided
post-war animation into two groups: the productions of big studios
(classics) and films that were modern expressions, created in form
and content by strong, individual personalities.
But Trnka loved puppets and he preferred puppets to all other kinds
of art. That is why he, along with his fellow animators wanted to
try "to make puppets move on the screen" and established
a small studio of puppet films (called The Studio of Jiri Trnka today)
in 1946. From this very year on, Trnka created one puppet feature
film each year (The Czech Year, The Ceasar's Nightingale, The Novel
with a Basefrom Chekhov's work, a Western parody The Aria of
Prairieand Bajaja). The Czech Yearis a very significant
work for Trnka's career. (The film's Czech title is Spalicek,which
refers to illustrated folk songbooks and also a piece of wood.) When
he was asked twenty years later, which of his films he prefered most,
he remembered The Czech Year.It was not his patriotism at all.
The film is a cycle of six parts illustrating the old Czech folk customs
around the year. It was prior to Christmas 1946, so Trnka decided
to start with The Bethlehemsequence, which was inspired by
his own painting. The short film was very successful and he got the
idea to go on - the cycle finally reaching six parts. The Czech
Year,his first puppet feature film, was internationally acclaimed
for his beautiful, brilliant animation of simple puppets (pieces of
wood) and music inspired by Czech folk songs (V. Trojan).
Printer-friendly version
Post new comment