The Puppet Master: The Films of Jiří Trnka
Screening Dates
  • July 19, 2018 6:30
  • July 21, 2018 6:30
New Restoration

Trnka established his reputation as a world-renowned master of puppet animation with his Venice prize-winning first feature, a kinetic visual symphony bursting with music and dance that celebrates the customs and folklore of the Czech people. Composed of six short episodes—the last of which, Bethlehem, was Trnka’s first-ever attempt at puppet animation—it traces one year in a country village through the town’s traditions, from springtime festivities to feasts to fairs to Christmas-night rituals. Trnka’s extraordinary puppet work is a marvel to behold in this new digital restoration by the Czech National Film Archive, but equally impressive is his mastery of the cinematic language, with rhythmic montage editing and swooping camera movements creating a whirling dervish sense of dynamism.

In Czech with English subtitles.

preceded by

The Animals and the Brigands
(Zvířátka a petrovští)
Czechoslovakia 1946
Jiří Trnka
8 min. DCP

A rooster, a cat, and a goat meet a trio of ignoble characters deep in a night-shrouded forest in this hand-illustrated, Cannes-prize-winning folktale, which showcases Trnka’s gift for evoking light and shadow.

Media