Karel Zeman
Directing
Biography
Karel Zeman was a brilliant pioneer of special effects in film. Despite his artistic talent, his parents insisted he study business. At the age of 17, he went to Aix-en-Provence in the south of France, where he studied advertising design. In 1943, the film director Elmar Klos offered him a job at the Bata Film Studios. Zeman often had to struggle against difficult conditions in the technically ill-equipped Kudlov Studios. Many of the workers with whom he started had no particular experience of filming. They, like Zeman himself, had to learn everything on the job. Journey to the Beginning of Time, released in 1955, became Zeman's breakthrough film, his first to combine live action, animation and puppetry. Four years later, Invention for Destruction saw him shoot to world-wide success. Zeman continued to develop his highly successful use of special effects in The Fabulous Baron Munchausen and the two Jules Verne adaptations that followed. In the 70's, Zeman returned to making strictly animated films. In the late 70's Zeman was threatened with the loss of his sight, but he overcame the disease and continued working. In the final stages of his life he suffered from heart problems.
Known For
When a comet passes the Earth very closely, it pulls a small part of North Africa, and a small swathe of humanity, along with it.
On the Comet
A 20th century man lands on the Moon and discovers that Baron Munchausen has beaten him to it, accompanied by Cyrano de Bergerac and the characters from Jules Verne's novels about the conquest of the satellite.
The Fabulous Baron Munchausen
Four schoolboys go on an awe-inspiring expedition back through time, where they behold landscapes and creatures that have long since vanished from the earth.
Journey to the Beginning of Time
As the world progresses into the industrial age, a professor studying the "nature of pure matter" is spirited away by a would-be dictator and connived into building a super-bomb, as a young reporter and a girl rescued from the sea attempt to warn him of their mutual kidnapper's intentions to dominate the world with a new and more-deadly-yet weapon.
The Fabulous World of Jules Verne
A look at the life, work and importance of Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman (1910-89), a genius of world cinema, a wizard of special effects, revealing his sources of inspiration and his revolutionary filming techniques.
Film Adventurer Karel Zeman
A film of the Czech multimedia theatre production, Magician's Lantern. Eight Czechoslovak directors filmed a choreographic performance conceived and directed by director Alfred Radok and artist Josef Svoboda. This performance consists of twelve scenes: "Introduction", "Airport", "Rhythms", "Cymbal Concert", "Inspiration", "Hoop Dancer", "Spartakiade", "Dvořák's Slavonic Dance", "Prague Spring", "Love is a Fatal Game", "SL'UK", and "Finale".
Laterna magika II
Five young people take off in a lighter-than-air machine at the Prague Centennial Exhibition. A live-action/animated film based loosely on Jules Verne's novels Two Years' Vacation and The Mysterious Island. The film in Art Nouveau style consists of live-action scenes, generally shot in black and white, as well as hand-drawn, stop-motion, and cutout animation. Various live-action and animated elements are often composited into the same scene.
The Stolen Airship
Krabat, a beggar boy, is lured to become an apprentice to an evil, one-eyed sorcerer. With a number of other boys, he works at the sorcerer's mill while learning black magic. Every Christmas one of the boys has to face the master in a magical duel, where the boy never stands a chance because the master is the only person who is allowed to use a secret spell: The Koraktor.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
People living on an island finds a treasure, but it does not only do them good.
The Treasure of Bird Island
A glass blower imagines that his creations come to life. A story of love contained within a single drop of rain. A voyage into ethereal beauty.
Inspiration
A silent promotional film directed by the great Karel Zeman.
110 Years of the Pilsen Brewery
The story of the piper Švanda, who went abroad for money and fame, but whose love for his homeland ultimately wins.
Strakonický dudák
Five different exploits of Sinbad the sailor where he gets mixed up with the pretty daughters of exotic potentates, with powerful monsters that threaten his existence, and with all sorts of teeming jungle life.
A Thousand and One Nights
An anti-war black comedy set during the Thirty Years' War. It follows ploughman Petr, recruiter Matěj and country girl Lenka who get caught up in both sides of the war and experience many adventures before they find happiness. The film combines live action with animation to suggest the artistic style of the engraver Matthäus Merian.
The Jester's Tale
Cobbler Mr. Prokouk starts working in an office where there is a lot of paperwork too big for him.
Mr. Prokouk, The Office Clerk
Young knight John travels the world in search of fame and fortune, but also to help others and prove himself. However, things go dire fast and he becomes burdened with life's hardships. But then he meets a pretty water nymph, Mary.
The Tale of John and Mary
Mr. Prokouk finds a horseshoe and thinks it's a good luck charm. So, he decides to take it with him home and find a suitable place for it. He soon discovers that the horseshoe brings him nothing but bad luck.
Mr. Prokouk: A Horseshoe for Luck
After a hard day at work, Mr. Prokouk decides to invent a machine to ease his labor. But inventing is work too, and Mr. Prokouk spends more time dreaming about inventions than actually inventing anything. Can he find an easy solution?
Mr. Prokouk, The Inventor
Christmas has arrived. As a little girl and her parents enter the room, the little girl finds all kinds of toys under the Christmas Tree. She immediately throws her old doll aside and starts playing with her new dolls. But that night she has a dream. Or maybe it isn't a dream?
A Christmas Dream
Seventy-year-old filmmaker Karel Zeman recapitulated his thirty years of work in the field of animated and trick films. The film Karel Zeman for Children includes excerpts from Baron Prášil, The Tale of Hansel and Gretel, Mr. Prokouk, King Lávra and Journey to the Prehistoric Times. The film is presented on the 100th anniversary of the birth of this important figure of Czech cinema.