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Jiri Trnka's puppets

16 décembre 1959
01m 35s
Ref. 00009

Information

Summary :

Inauguration of an exhibit entitled This Little World covering Jiri Trnka's work, in the Louvre Palace, where we see Jiri Trnka presenting one of his puppets. Followed by a report in the Prague Studios where we see Jiri Trnka and his team working on the different steps in the creation of an animated film, the drawing of each puppet's model during their production and the shooting of scenes, shot by shot.

Media type :
Vidéo
Broadcast date :
16 décembre 1959
Source :
Actualités Française (Collection: Les Actualités Françaises )
Personnalité(s) :
Jiri Trnka
Themes :
Places :

Context

Even though Jiri Trnka (1912-1969), trained at the Prague School of Arts and Crafts, and rightly seen as the all-time greatest creator of puppet films, the Czech artist was also a renowned painter, a successful illustrator and an experienced stage set creator. He made his first films in 1945, when he first became interested in animation (Grandfather Plants a Beet), but his passion for theatre animation naturally led him to shoot wooden actors, which he had managed a troupe of prior to the war.

Feature length films then follow, with productions covering working-class traditions and national heroes, with The Czech Year (1947), Prince Bayaya (1950), Old Czech Legends (1952) and ?vejk the Brave Soldier (1955). Trnka's greatest success nevertheless remains Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which was presented in Cannes in 1959, which made him the icon of "Eastern country" animators.

Afterwards, the filmmaker stopped making feature length films in favour of short fables in tune with current times, such as The Cybernetic Grandma in 1962 and The Hand in 1965.

Thierry Méranger

Transcription

(Music)
Journalist
It's an entire Little World that is being presented today at the Louvre Palace, the Little World of the good giant that is Jiri Trnka, Czech painter, illustrator, puppet master and film-maker. A Little World that is both poetic and colourful, which each one of has seen on screens at one time or another.
(Music)
Journalist
This Little World comes to life each day in the studios of Prague.
(Music)
Journalist
There, under Trnka's impulse, are created, outline by outline and face by face, the characters of the heroic or burlesque drama that follows its author step by step.
(Music)
Journalist
Painstaking work, slow and almost tiresome. Each image (and there are 24 images per second) requires an infinitesimal modification of the character's attitude. It's a joy when there's only one of them on stage! Here on screen will be displayed, in a short while, the legendary figurine that will transport children and adults to the kingdom of dreams.
(Music)