Surreally human: Jan Švankmajer's world of self-destructive puppets

Roč.18,č.2(2015)

Georgia Chryssouli

https://doi.org/10.5817/TY2015-2-8

Trvalý odkaz (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/134428

PDF (angličtina)
Abstrakt
This article explores the relation of Jan Švankmajer with the Czech puppet tradition, viewing his puppetry through a Surrealist prism and investigating the role of puppets in his work, as simultaneously inert objects and animated creatures that cross the dichotomous line between life and death, thereby raising questions in relation to human nature and identity. Jan Švankmajer is a leading Czech filmmaker and artist and a self-proclaimed militant surrealist. His work is characterised by a diversity of means and techniques, these include: live-action, puppets, clay modelling, traditional drawn animation, object collage, stop-frame special effects and stop-motion animation. Švankmajer's fascination with the corporeality of an animated entity has been developed through a deep and strong affinity with traditional Czech theatre. His own professional background in the puppet theatres of Prague, the Theatre of Masks, the Black Theatre and the Laterna Magika Puppet Theatre has significantly influenced his work. Švankmajer's work is the bearer of a magic function, revealing the marvellous through mystification. Švankmajer, like the alchemists of old, is continually distilling the water of his experiences so that through this process, the heavy water of knowledge, essential for the transmutation of life, begins to flow.

Klíčová slova:
Jan Švankmajer; Czech animation; Czech animated film; Czech puppet theatre; uncanny; Surrealism

Stránky:
303–328
Reference

ALOQUIE, Ferdinand. 1965. The Philosophy of Surrealism. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1965.

CONCANNON, Phil. 2012. Jan Švankmajer [online]. Little White Lies: London, TCO London,2012 (06–27) [accessed on Aug. 10th, 2014]. Available on line at < http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/features/articles/jan-svankmajer-2–20800>.

DONALD, James (ed.). 1989. Fantasy and the Cinema. London: BFI, 1989.

EFFENBERGER, Vratislav. 1989. Švankmajer on the Fall of the House of Usher. Transl. by Gaby Dowdell. Afterimage 13 (1987): 33–7.

FOSTER, Hal. 1993. Compulsive Beauty. London: MIT Press, 1993.

HAMES, Peter (ed.). 1995. Dark Alchemy, The Films of Jan Švankmajer. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 1995.

HAMES, Peter. 1995. Interview with Jan Švankmajer. In Peter Hames (ed.). Dark Alchemy: The Films of Jan Švankmajer. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 1995: 96–118.

HAUSER, Arnold. 1986. Mannerism: The Crisis of the Renaissance and the Origin of Modern Art. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1986.

KRÁL, Petr. 1987. Questions to Jan Švankmajer. Transl. by Gil McGreal. Afterimage 13 (1987): 22–32.

NORTH, Dan. 2009. The Last Trick [Online], [accessed on May 15th, 2015]. Available on line at < https://drnorth.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/the-last-trick-jan-svankmajer-1964/>

O'PRAY, Michael. 1988. Punch and Judy. Monthly Film Bulletin 55.659 (December 1988): 378.

STAFFORD, Mark and Virginie SELAVY. 2011. Interview with Jan Švankmajer [online] Electric Sheep Magazine: London, Strange Attractor, 2011 (06–14) [accessed on August 2nd, 2014]. Available on line at: < http://www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk/features/2011/06/14/interview-with-jan-352vankmajer/>

STRICK, Philip. 1986. The Last Trick. Monthly Film Bulletin 53.630 (1986): 223.

WELLS, Paul. 1999. Body Consciousness in the Films of Jan Švankmajer. In Jayne Pilling (ed.). A Reader in Animation Studies. London: John Libbey Cinema and Animation, 1999: 187.

Metriky

0

Crossref logo

0

23

Views

0

PDF (angličtina) views

PDF (angličtina)