The Best of Jiří Brdečka

Vzducholoď a láska

animated / 1948 / Czechoslovakia / col. / 9 min.

Director: Jiří Brdečka
Screenplay: Jiří Brdečka
Designer: Kamil Lhoták
Music: Jan Rychlík

Via a fin-de-siècle tale of ill-fated love that ultimately prevails, this film reflects the nostalgic interest Jiří Brdečka and designer Kamil Lhoták had in both obsolete technology and the golden age of slapstick comedy. Brdečka’s recurring theme of a couple in love makes its first appearance in the film.

Špatně namalovaná slepice

animated / 1963 / Czechoslovakia / col. / 14 min.

Director: Jiří Brdečka
Screenplay: Jiří Brdečka
Photography: Ivan Masník
Designer: Jaroslav Malák, Zdenek Seydl (ilustrácie sliepky • hen illustration)
Editor: Marta Stuchlíková
Music: J. F. Fischer

Brdečka’s best-known animated piece is based on an original idea by Miloš Macourek and won the Grand Prix at the prestigious Annecy International Animated Film Festival. The simple plot unfolds during a school art lesson, during which a young boy’s vivid imagination confronts the “realism” required by his stuffy teacher. With its ironic tone, the piece sees the filmmakers clearly espousing free thought in defiance of rigid conservatism.

Pomsta

animated / 1968 / Czechoslovakia / col. / 14 min.

Director: Jiří Brdečka
Screenplay: Jiří Brdečka
Designer: Miroslav Štěpánek
Photography: Ivan Masník
Editor: Květa Mašková
Music: Jan Klusák

An animated Gothic tale based on Gérard de Nerval’s short story about a young man crossed in love, who asks the wizard Gonin for help and suffers the consequences. The film has its share of black humour and a certain surrealist edge. Designer Miroslav Štěpánek took his inspiration from 17th-century engravings and the work of Jacques Callot.

Metamorfeus

animated / 1969 / Czechoslovakia / col. / 13 min.

Director: Jiří Brdečka
Screenplay: Jiří Brdečka
Designer: Vladimír Kladiva
Photography: Zdena Hajdová
Editor: Květa Mašková
Music: Zdeněk Liška

Another Brdečka masterpiece, this film is based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, which the author used as a parable for the immortality of culture and art. In the context of the occupation of Czechoslovakia the previous year, the work’s underlying message is clear. Visually, the film is inspired by the Pompeii frescos and, from a literary perspective, by Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

Jsouc na řece mlynář jeden

animated / 1971 / Czechoslovakia / col. / 11 min.

Director: Jiří Brdečka
Screenplay: Jiří Brdečka
Designer: Eva Švankmajerová
Photography: Zdena Hajdová, Boris Baromykin
Editor: Květa Mašková
Music: Jiří Kolafa

Inspired by an old broadside ballad, Jiří Brdečka brings us a woeful tale of a veteran returning home who is accidentally killed by his own parents. Combining Eva Švankmajerová’s paintings with cutout animation, special effects, and even a live actor, the filmmaker once again brings into play his fondness for naive folk kitsch.

Tvář

animated / 1973 / Czechoslovakia / col + b&w. / 3 min.

Director: Jiří Brdečka
Screenplay: Jiří Brdečka
Designer: Jiří Anderle
Photography: Zdena Hajdová, Emil Strakoň
Editor: Marta Látalová
Music: Jiří Kolafa

An experimental study in black and white tracing the stages of human life through the transformation of a man’s face. Both Jiří Anderle’s masterful drawings and Jiří Kolafa’s music help to create the various ideas and associations underlying the work.

Horníkova růže

animated / 1974 / Czechoslovakia / col. / 12 min.

Director: Jiří Brdečka
Screenplay: Jiří Brdečka
Photography: Zdena Hajdová
Designer: Jitka Walterová
Editor: Marta Látalová
Music: Zdeněk Liška (hudobné adaptácie / musical arrangement)

Adapting a 1930s song, Brdečka presents a ballad of true love between a miner and his sweetheart in a tale that ends in tragedy. This first collaboration between the filmmaker and the distinctive artist Jitka Walterová is an authentic tribute to proletarian poetry, but without the period lip service paid to contemporary ideology.

Třináctá komnata prince Měděnce

animated / 1980 / Czechoslovakia / col. / 9 min.

Director: Jiří Brdečka
Screenplay: Jiří Brdečka
Designer: Jiří Běhounek
Photography: Zdena Hajdová
Editor: Marta Látalová
Music: Jan Klusák

A grotesque fairy tale for adults about a voracious prince and a fragile princess. In order to be able to marry his beloved, the young man pretends to live only on the fragrance of flowers while, in reality, he gorges himself on food in his secret chamber… Jiří Brdečka’s last animated film.