Jiří Trnka
Jiří Trnka ( jir-schi trn-ka , born February 24, 1912 in Pilsen-Petrohrad , Austria-Hungary , † December 30, 1969 in Prague ) was a Czech visual artist , illustrator , screenwriter and director of animated films .
Life
After studying art with Jaroslav Benda in Prague, he worked in the Pilsner J. Skupa puppet theater. First he designed backdrops and worked alongside as a sculptor, painter and graphic artist. However, these works are less known compared to his book illustrations or puppet cartoons . In the early 1940s he began to illustrate children's books together with Adolf Zábranský .
During the Second World War he went to Prague as a costume and set designer. He also built the Jiří Trnka a Bratři v triku film studio (Jiří Trnka and the Brothers in Trick). With this company, in which he created his puppet and cartoon films, he achieved world fame.
In the last years of his life he worked for the world exhibition Expo 67 in Montreal , devoting himself to sculpture and book illustration.
person
Jiří Trnka is one of the founders of the Czech animated film. Many see him as the greatest creator of puppet cartoons. Trnka's inventiveness as well as the diversity and originality gave the Czechoslovak cartoon its unmistakable character and its internationally recognized high level.
In 1996 an American magazine described him as "second to Chaplin as a film artist because his work inaugurated a new stage in a medium long dominated by Disney".
plant
Trnka mainly worked with dolls. The best-known cinematographic works include the film adaptation of Staré pověsti české (Old Bohemian Legends) by Alois Jirásek , Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka (The good soldier Schwejk) by Jaroslav Hašek and the full-length film A St. John's Night's Dream (Midsummer Night's Dream) by William Shakespeare . Other famous works were Kybernetická babička (Cybernetic Grandmother) from 1962, in which Trnka exhausted the possibilities of artificial intelligence, and the western parody Song of the Prairie . For children he shot, among others, Špalíček and Prince Bajaja .
Many of his films have received awards. In 1968 he won the Hans Christian Andersen Prize as an illustrator.
Filmography (selection)
- 1945: Zasadil dědek řepu
- 1946: Zvířátka a petrovští
- 1946: Pérák a SS
- 1946: Dárek
- 1947: Špalíček
- 1949: Román s basou
- 1949: Čertův mlýn (1949)
- 1949: The Song of the Prairie ( Árie prérie )
- 1950: Prince Bajaja ( Bajaja )
- 1951: O zlaté rybce
- 1953: Dva mrazíci
- 1953: Staré pověsti české
- 1955: The Emperor and the Nightingale ( Císařův slavík )
- 1955: The good soldier Schwejk ( Dobrý voják Švejk )
- 1959: A Midsummer Night's Dream ( Sen noci svatojánské )
- 1962: Vášeň
- 1962: Kybernetická babička
- 1964: Archanděl Gabriel a paní Husa
- 1965: The Hand ( Ruka )
literature
- H. Hoffmann and W. Schobert: Jiří Trnka: The puppet filmmaker from Prague. (Catalog) Series of publications by the Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-88799-009-9
- LH Augustin: Jiří Trnka (in Czech). Academia Publishing House, Prague 2002, ISBN 80-200-1050-5
Web links
- Jiří Trnka in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Information about Trnka
- Filmography
- Literature by and about Jiří Trnka in the catalog of the German National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Trnka, Jiří |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Czech visual artist, illustrator, scriptwriter and director of animated films |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 24, 1912 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pilsen-Petrohrad , Austria-Hungary |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 30, 1969 |
| Place of death | Prague |