The Cinematheque

New Restorations

“His best work is ripe for discovery … Kubal embraced freedom and simplicity to the extreme in his drawings for The Marzipan Comedy (1987) and High Noon (1988).”

Animation Obsessive

On the heels of his centenary, the films of Viktor Kubal (1923–1997) are available in North America for the first time. Kubal was a sketch artist, using coloured pencils and tempera washes, who believed that his highest goal was to say as much as possible with the smallest number of lines. His films are almost entirely free of dialogue, erupting in riots of slapstick, zany transformations, and satirical observations. His subjects spring from inspirations as varied as his daughter Dita (who lends her name to one of his characters), fairy and folk tales (“Hansel and Gretel” for The Marzipan Comedy), and socio-critical parables that deliver morals with a wink. Kubal’s choice of animation made him an outlier as a young Slovak film student, one inspired by the character quirks of Fleischer Animation rather than the fluid melodrama of Disney. But the work endures, a winning stylistic mix of underground comics and children’s storybooks, now restored by the Slovak Film Institute.

“Kubal sees farther than many forecasters, political scientists and naive idealists … His work, the expression of a rare multi-talented individual, remains with us a symbol of an unwearying creative endeavour.” Rudolf Urc, Best of Viktor Kubal

“I know one thing: that visual art and art in general is a great pain. Great pain with what one wants to do and is unable to do. And one tries it again and again. And I like that misery.” Viktor Kubal

Dita at the Post Office
(Dita na pošte)
Czechoslovakia 1967
7 min. DCP

Promotion
(Postup)
Czechoslovakia 1968
6 min. DCP

Two Good Friends
(Dvaja dobrí kamaráti)
Czechoslovakia 1972
7 min. DCP

Tom Thumb and the Germs
(Janko Hraško a bacily)
Czechoslovakia 1974
7 min. DCP

What Happened to Johnny on the Road
(Čo sa stalo Janíkovi na ceste)
Czechoslovakia 1981
5 min. DCP

The Marzipan Comedy
(Marcipánová komédia)
Czechoslovakia 1987
40 min. DCP In Slovak with English subtitles

High Noon
(Na pravé poludnie)
Czechoslovakia 1988
4 min. DCP