Jan Werich´s Fimfárum

Black and white, 35 mm
Czech Republic, 2002, 98 min
Section: Czech Films

Synopsis

Director and animator Vlasta Pospíšilová made the puppet film Miserly Barka in 1986, based on a story from a book of fairytales by Jan Werich. She returned to this popular book twice, adapting the fairytales When the Oak Leaves Fall (1991) and Fulfilled Dream (2000), which were now conceived as part of a planned film pentalogy. The initiator and coproducer of the project is Pospíšilová’s younger colleague Aurel Klimt, who directed two of the five stories (Franta the Fearless and Fimfarum). While the Czech readership associates the book with the illustrations of Jiří Trnka, the directors worked on the project with artists Martin Velíšek and Petr Poš. The appeal of the pentalogy, combining classic puppet animation with a highly expressive artistic conception, is reinforced by Werich’s commentary (featuring the now classic audio recording by the late author). The best traditions in Czech animated film are thus combined with a modern dynamic approach and the liberal setting of kindly, humorous stories which are aimed – according to the author – at smart children and smart adults.

About the director

Vlasta Pospíšilová (b. 1935) is a living legend of Czech animation. After graduating from the School of Applied Arts in 1959 she began working for the Jiří Trnka studio. As a highly acclaimed animator she worked closely with a number of well-known directors (Jiří Trnka, Zdeněk Smetana, Jaroslav Boček, Stanislav Látal). She debuted as a director in 1980 with the film Maryška and the Wolf’s Castle. She also made the animated films The Magic Orchard (1982) and Mrs Poverty (1984).

Aurel Klimt (b. 1972, Žilina, Slovakia) studied drawn animation, videoart and puppet animation at Prague’s Film Academy (FAMU). He began to make a name for himself with the videoart programmes A Long Time Ago (1992) and Inside (1994), the puppet film Mashkin Killed Koshkin (1995), the parody Blood-Thirsty Hugo – An Eastern (1997) and the original grotesques The Fall (1999) and The Enchanted Bell which was screened in cinemas as part of the joint project The Magnificent Six (1999).