Karel Zeman VSF Films

[Donpimpom]

I Have been searching the forum for information about Karel Zeman.
Surprisingly I didn't find anything, and I say surprisingly because IMHO it's a must see for every VSF lover.
Karel Zeman films have really shocked me when i was a kid and actually I'm still amazed watching their suggestive fantastic films.
So i decided to share with you what I know about this men and his work.

Karel Zeman is a Czech filmmaker and stop motion animator
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0954724/
During his career he made 29 films, from these 29 a group of them have common elements in technique and writing (and they are very VFS).
Those common elements would be:

-writing. Most of the films are deeply inspired in Jules Verne books, frequently instead of screen versions he picks ideas from different books to create a whole new story.Titles  like "Around the world in 80 days", "Five weeks in Balloon", "Mysterious island" or "20.000 miles under the sea" mixed with elements of guaranteed success when addressing at young audiences like pirates or dinousaurs. Anyway the interest of these films is more focused on the technique, art direction and display of VSF paraphernalia than the script.

-Animation technique. For me this point his the top of these films. We should consider Zeman was working on the 50's Czechoslovakia so no computer, no Hollywood industry, and very probably no big budget. Despite this the result is clearly as great as the Harryhausen animations. The stop-motion animation mixes with real person acting over painted set and many visual tricks.

-Art Direction. The overall look imitates the s XIX engravings and effect vastly increased by the use of black and white film. The script is inspired in Jules Verne but the art direction catches the excess the sXIX illustrations displaying an vast array of gadgets and flying items. So if Jules Verne use to display an invention on each book, on these films each frame seems a compendium of VSF inventions on screen.

I haven't seen all the Karel zeman films, but from the ones i have seen the very VSF sources are:

-Vynález zkázy. 1958
In my opinion their best film, I saw it on tv when I was 10y old and I was mesmerized. The script is a mix of  "20.000 miles under the sea" & "Mysterious island". Spanish version was released as "Una Invencion Diabolica", in france as "L'invention diabolique". I read somewhere the English version was a cut and paste mixing this film and another one also from Zeman, all released with the tittle "Fantastic worlds of Jules Verne" but i cannot confirm this point.
I have seen also references to a English DVD titled "The Deadly Invention" maybe that would be the proper release of this film, I can not help too much about that point, no idea how was released in Germany.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052374/




-Ukradená vzducholod 1967
"El Dirigible Robado" in Spanish, "Le Dirigible Volee" in French, in English "The Stolen Balloon" maybe?
This one looks so similar at "Vynález zkázy" that seems some production items could be easily recycled, If you enjoyed the previously mentioned film, you will like this one too, the script is fine and has some nice trick, but i stil prefer the "Vynález zkázy" script . Anyway the plethora of VSF devices pays the time to watch the film.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062412/



-Na kometě 1970
Screen version of "les aventures d'Hector Servadac" also from Verne, "of on a comet". A passing comet makes a portion of earth jump on the space following the comet, the mass of earth is a portion of Africa including some inhabitants from different nations mostly colonial troops, French, British Spaniards, etc. Hector Servadac will  fight dinosaurs and other dangers to save his beloved fiancee Angelica.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066121/


-Cesta do praveku 1955
Released in English as "Journey to the beggining of time" a pack of kids sailing in a little boat go down the river travelling in time watching all the dinosaurs and creatures from ancient ages. The less VSF from all but a great entertainment for oldstyle dinosaur lovers.


When looking for some images to do this post less boring i found what seems to be a excellent site about karel Zeman, sadly is in polish, lets hope google translator dont mess it too much
http://www.film.org.pl/prace/karel_zeman.html

The last line is to thankyou for make your eyes suffer my painful english 

[Hauptgefreiter]

Impressive! I saw those films some 20 years ago, but couldn't remember who made them...

[Svennn]

There are some familiar images there that have me trying to remember more. I would never have come across these by name without your post, very useful - thank you.

A quick search on Amazon & Evilbay did find some but at pretty high prices. I would certainly like to watch them and learn more.

[Fjodin]

Are there are enlgish translation to thsese films?

Also is there are any youtube (or similar) clip with these great dinos? I just like stop motion dinosaurs

[earthdog]

I've never heard of these films before but it looks like I've been missing out on something good. Thanks for the info, you have certainly raised my interest.

[OSHIROmodels]

I can see where Miyazaki Hayao got some of his inspiration from 

Thanks for posting 

cheers

James

[Pentaro]

The Spanish DVDs were very easy to find a couple of years ago. I think they only have Spanish subtitles, but as Donpimpom said, the plots are easy to guess.

http://www.dvdgo.com/director-karel2zeman/0/Karel2Zeman

I liked your article, thanks!

[The_Beast]

Unfortunately, every time I mention/show these to friends, they compare them to then contemporary films.

Disney's 20K Leagues is slick in comparison to the two examples of his work I've got, but they've got so much more to mine in texture and scope when I watch them, alas.

Ah, well, not everyone appreciates the conventions of anime either.

Doug

[Trencher]

Nice find! Yeah, this brings back some childhood memories. 
Wasn't he the guy who made the stop-motion models for "Pan Tau" series as well?

[gloriousbattle]

Sadly, I can't find anything dubbed in English, but here



is a Baron Muenchausen film with English subtitles.

Thanks for this, BTW!

[ushistoryprof]

Thank You, I saw the Jules Verne movie when I was a boy in the sixties and still remember how enjoyable they were.  The art style was so unusual and fun to watch that I vidly remember many of the scenes to this day.  I too had forgotten the name and appreciate your post.

[Donpimpom]

I don't know if Miyazaki has seen the zeman films, maybe, but IHMO the one clearly inspired by zeman films is the French comic book artist Jacques Tardi (the one of Adele Blanc-Sec) when working on Le Demon des Glaces, I strongly recommend you to read it.

on this site its an good comparative study between Tardi's book and the original Verne's book illustrations
http://eurovelo.vox.com/library/post/000-6.html
have a look at the flying device at the bottom of this page


you can get it here
http://www.amazon.com/d%C3%A9mon-glaces-Jacques-Tardi/dp/2203399287

About Zeman films in english, i have seen a dvd box releasing 2 films the Deadly Invention and Baron Prasil (munchausen) but haven't find the link again :-(