Reaching Out to the Most Open-Hearted of All Audiences

17 April 2016

Czech Film

Reaching Out to the Most Open-Hearted of All Audiences

Czech Film

Reaching Out to the Most Open-Hearted of All Audiences

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After seven years, Czech children’s films, once the pride of Czech cinema, are back at the Berlinale. In Your Dreams!, an adventure about a teenage girl who makes friends with a group of traceurs, will be screened in the “Generation” section. The film is directed by Petr Oukropec, a producer by profession.

 

An article by Šimon Šafránek for Czech Film Magazine / Spring 2016

The strong tradition of Czech children’s cinema was a feature at Berlin in the latter part of the 2000s: in 2007, there were two tales from the puppet film Fimfárum, and in 2009, Maria Procházková brought her family film Who’s Afraid of the Wolf, which combines a live-action adaptation of a traditional fairy tale with animated footage. As Maria Procházková emotionally recalls: “I still remember the screening, with simultaneous interpreting, in a big theatre full of children, and at the end they were all chanting the name of the girl, Terezka, the main character, and the actress herself was there with us, feeling like a real star in all the uproar.”

Maria Procházková is currently working on a serial adaptation of the playful book Proč obrazy nepotřebují názvy (Why Pictures Don’t Need Titles) by Jiří Franta and Ondřej Horák. The book, which was awarded the prestigious Czech literature award Magnesia Litera in the children’s book category, not only presents the most famous works of art of the modern era using a crime storyline but also destroys the myth that galleries are “cathedrals of boredom” that should be avoided like the plague. However, what the authors teach children is first and foremost to think about art. Maria Procházková develops her project as an animated 12-episode TV series for Czech Television, well known for producing children’s films; the broadcaster became even more important in this respect after launching the all-day national children’s channel ČT:D. Each episode will be around 12 minutes long, and the director is currently preparing the trailer for the pilot.

Procházková has been involved in children’s cinema for a number of years. Her trademarks are the use of various forms of animation and involving the children themselves. Procházková tells us, “the series of short episodes such as Evropské pexeso, České pexeso, Slovíčka, and Živý svět: Kví were voiced by children. Děti kreslí písničky is a series of animated video clips that children helped to draw. And the short series about speech therapy, LOGOhrátky, uses child actors and props the children made.”

Procházková believes children make the most open-hearted of all audiences, and says, “at the same time, I’m constantly fascinated by children’s imagination; I want to stay connected to it, and that’s something I am allowed to do through animation.”

FROM DINOSAURS TO KOOKY

Czech children’s cinema has a long and fine tradition: last year, the children’s adventure Journey to the Beginning of Time by Karel Zeman celebrated its 60th birthday! Zeman became famous for his imaginative mix of live-action footage, puppets, and painted or drawn backgrounds. Last year, the documentary Filmový dobrodruh Karel Zeman (Film Adventurer Karel Zeman) was made about his life, and there is a museum in Prague dedicated to his work. His fantasy and science-fiction films Invention for Destruction (The Fabulous World of Jules Verne), The Fabulous Baron Munchausen, and Journey to the Beginning of Time are being digitally restored in 4K resolution.

Another genre typical of Czech cinema is the fairy tale in a historical setting, such as those by Bořivoj Zeman: Pyšná princezna (The Proud Princess) and Šíleně smutná princezna (The Incredibly Sad Princess). The same genre was employed by Václav Vorlíček at the beginning of the 1970s in the Czech- East German co-production of Tři oříšky pro Popelku (Three Wishes for Cinderella) but he specialized in fantasy films with science-fiction elements, such as Dívka na koštěti (The Girl on the Broomstick) and the TV series Arabela. Vorlíček competed for the attention of young viewers with his colleague Jindřich Polák, director of the TV series Pan Tau (Mr. Tau) and Návštěvníci (The Visitors).

Today, these films and series are national treasures of Czech cinema, and viewers gladly watch them again and again, especially at Christmastime. The popularity of fairy tales is further reflected in the success of some more recent films: last year, for example, the musical-fairy tale Three Brothers by the Oscar-winning director Jan Svěrák dominated Czech cinemas, drawing an audience of 670 thousand viewers.

CHILDREN’S FILMS FROM LAST YEAR:

Several children’s films premiered in Czech cinemas last year. Puppetry film was represented by a feature film about a dangerous journey The Little Man by Radek Beran, which combined puppets with real forest locations, a technique which had already been put to good use in Czech cinema by Jan Svěrák in his popular film Kooky (2010). Last year’s crop of animated films was topped by the series Rosa & Dara and Their Great Adventures, produced by Bionaut and created by three young animators: Martin Duda, Kateřina Karhánková and Alexandra Hetmerová. And The Seven Ravens, a traditional and more typical live-action fairy tale, was made by Alice Nellis.

UPCOMING:

The illustrator and animator Galina Miklínová is in the process of finishing her first feature film, an adaptation of Lichožrouti (Oddsockeaters), the best-selling book about the eaters of socks, which already has several sequels. The film is produced by T.H.A. and co-produced by Czech Television. Director Jiří Strach is preparing An Angel of the Lord 2, the sequel to his 2005 fairy-tale blockbuster; written by Marek Epstein, it will star Klára Issová, who received the Shooting Stars Award in Berlin in 2007. The local king of popular comedy, Zdeněk Troška, returns to the Czech tradition of special-effects fantasy films in his comedy Strašidla (Spooks), which tells of the hardships of traditional storybook characters living in today’s world. The film is produced by Fénix Film. And as early as February, Crazy Kingdom by Marta Ferencová, a fantasy fairy tale about a spoiled princess and two crafty companions, goes on release with a galaxy of popular Czech stars led by Bolek Polívka and Oldřich Kaiser.

CZECH IT OUT:

One of the more ambitious Czech projects aimed at younger audiences is the animated film Myši patří do nebe (Even Mice Belong in Heaven), directed by Denisa Grimmová and Jan Bubeníček based on the novel by one of the leading authors of children’s literature Iva Procházková. The book has already had some success in the German market as well. Grimmová combines puppet and 3D animation, and Alice Nellis, director of Tajnosti (Little Girl Blue) and Výlet (Some Secrets), contributes to the script.

In the film, two mortal enemies, a fox and a mouse, meet in animal heaven following an accident. Losing their natural instincts, they become best friends. They return to the real world but are reborn into opposite roles... Production of the film, which gently touches on the taboo topic of death, should start in November 2016, with release in November 2018. The project, which was acclaimed at the Annecy Film Festival in 2014 and also presented at the important Dutch children‘s film forum festival Cinekid, has been selected for some prestigious events this year: the Cartoon Forum in Lyon and the Financing Forum for Kids Content in Malmö. The film is produced by the Czech company Fresh Films, and the French co-producer is Les Films du Cygne.

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