Old Czech Legends

Old Czech Legends 1953

6.40

A monumental piece of art bringing the heroes of the ancient Czech myths back to life. The picture consists of seven parts: Cech the Forefather, Bivoj, Libuse, Premysl, Girls War, Horymir, Lucka War.

1953

The Emperor's Nightingale

The Emperor's Nightingale 1949

5.30

Adaptation of a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, about an emperor who prefers the tinkling of a bejeweled mechanical bird to the song of a real nightingale. When the Emperor is near death, the nightingale's song restores his health.

1949

The Good Soldier Schweik

The Good Soldier Schweik 1956

7.20

Adapting Jaroslav Hasek's raucous satirical novel, and also bringing Josef Lada's equally famous illustrations to garrulous puppet life, posed Trnka one of his biggest creative challenges. Trnka himself felt that the final episode was the most artistically successful, but there's much to enjoy in all three, not least the way that the lackadaisical layabout Svejk's own self-serving anecdotes are realized through cut-out animation.

1956

The Golden Fish

The Golden Fish 1951

5.70

A poor fisherman catches the golden fish that promises him to fulfil three wishes if he sets her free again. He does so and the fish fulfils two of his three wishes. However, she refuses to fulfil the third one, the last one in which the fisherman’s wife wants to be equal to God.

1951

The Hurvinek Circus

The Hurvinek Circus 1955

6.00

Hurvinek cannot go to a circus because he injured himself when sliding down the stair rail. He daydreams that he is an acrobat riding a scooter and an animal-trainer taming beasts. (MUBI)

1955

The Devil's Mill

The Devil's Mill 1949

5.80

A barrel organ grinder meets the devil on a mysterious moonlit night in this haunted-house fable, which showcases Trnka’s atmospheric use of sound to conjure a macabre mood.

1949

Story of the Bass Cello

Story of the Bass Cello 1949

5.50

"Román s basou" is another short by master a stop-motion puppet-animator Jiri Trnka. The story is based on Anton Chekhovs story "Roman s Kontrabasom". Princess Bibulova decides to go fishing along the river while not far away a bass player leaves his two companions to go for a swim.

1949

The Czech Year

The Czech Year 1947

6.10

The first full-length puppet film made by Jiri Trnka. Like the painter Ales who illustrated the national songs, Trnka depicts the traditional customs and tales of the Czech village in six separate sequences: Shrovetide, Spring, Legend About St. Prokop, The Fair, The Feast and Bethlehem." A Treasury of Fairy-tales" made Trnka famous all over the world and it is a masterpiece of Czech and world animation.

1947

Song of the Prairie

Song of the Prairie 1949

5.50

An animated singing western short in which a cowboy takes on the villain to save his beloved.

1949

Two Little Frosts

Two Little Frosts 1955

6.50

Two mischievous frost spirits make things chilly for a pair of travelers in this wintry comic folktale.

1955

Prince Bayaya

Prince Bayaya 1951

5.40

Bayaya, a young peasant, protected by the spirit of his dead mother, arrives at the castle of the King, where he entertains his three daughters. He soon realizes that the three princesses are nagged by evil spirits. The little peasant manages to rid them of them, fights a duel with a wicked lord who wanted to marry one of the three princesses. He finally wins the heart of the youngest sister while saving the soul of his mother who was in purgatory.

1951

The Merry Circus

The Merry Circus 1951

5.10

Trnka brings to life a surrealist circus of tightrope-walking fish, musical monkeys, balancing bears, and high-flying acrobatics in this whimsical feat of cutout animation made in collaboration with leading Czech painters of the era.

1951

O milionáři, který ukradl slunce

O milionáři, který ukradl slunce 1948

5.00

The millionaire who stole the sun, adaptation of a social tale by Jiri Wolker. A millionaire who owns a whole town, its factories and workers, falls ill. The surgeons tell him that sunshine is the only cure for him. The millionaire orders the sun to be taken down from the sky and put in a metal enclosure to shine only for himself...

1948