Surrealist stop motion

Surrealist stop motion

Jan Svankmajer 

Jan Švankmajer,  (born September 4, 1934, Prague, Czechoslovakia [now in Czech Republic]), Surrealist artist, puppeteer, animator, and filmmaker known for his dark reimaginings of well-known fairy tales and for his avant-garde use of three-dimensional stop-motion coupled with live-action animation.

Some critics hailed him for privileging visual elements over plot and narrative, others for his use of dark fantasy.

He studied at the School of Applied Arts in Prague from 1950 to 1954 before enrolling in the puppetry department at the Academy of the Performing Arts.

His first short—Poslední trik pana Schwarcewalldea a pana Edgara (1964; The Last Trick), in which two magicians participate in a heated competition of skill—gave evidence of his early interest in stop-motion.

As important as his skillful technique was the dark and subversive tone and mood Švankmajer’s films projected. His first feature film, Něco z Alenky (1988; Alice), is a sinister adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Švankmajer’s most famous work, Lekce Faust (1993; Faust), gave a new spin to the familiar tale of the Faustian bargain.

The film is set in a foreboding puppet theatre that lures the main character inside. There he experiences a strange version of the Faust play, which includes giant puppets and clay figures filmed in stop-motion.

Švankmajer also drew on fairy tales for the inspiration of his plots.

Otesánek (2000; Little Otik) is a dark comedy about a wooden baby who comes to life and devours his parents. 

Although Švankmajer won more than 30 awards and honours from various international film festivals, he remained relatively unknown.

After the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovaki in 1968, the authorities restricted opportunities for his films to reach a wider audience, finding his work generally unsuitable for their desired ends.

Švankmajer’s reputation grew considerably after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Terry Gilliam

Known for:

Animated sequences of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Directed, Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), The Imagination Trilogy:

Time Bandits (1981)

Brazil (1985)

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989)

The Fisher King (1991), Twelve Monkeys (1995), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

Known for his surrealist imagery, dark satire, dystopian scenarios, and battling with studios over his distinctive artistic vision. Born and raised in Minnesota, USA. Moved to England in 1967

Worked on Monty Python’s Flying Circus from 1969-74 where he had full creative licence to develop animated shorts

Brazil received rave reviews in Europe but screened badly in the US, so Universal Studios ordered the film to be re-cut into a 93 minute rom-com, down from 143-minutes. Gilliam screened it privately for LA film critics who loved it. It was released in a compromised 132-minute cut that got rave reviews.  The film garnered Gilliam his first Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay

The Adventures of Baron Muchausen also suffered from a chaotic shoot, it’s budget ballooning from $23.5 to $47 million.  It won major awards but was considered a bomb when it only made $8 million at the box office

The Fisher King and 12 Monkeys were massive critical and box office hits but Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was not

The problems with Man of La Mancha were captured in the BTS documentary Lost in La Mancha (2003)