\
"For me,animated film is about magic. This is how magic becomes part of daily life, invading daily life... Magic enters into a quite ordinary contact with mundane things (making) reality seem doubtful."
-Jan Svankmajer-
Those are the wise words from wold renown surrealist filmmaker and artist, Jan Svankmajer. Born in Prague, the Czech animator had always been interested in art even in his young age. His artistic development started when he was a mere child as he was given the opportunity to play with his own puppet theater which he had gotten for Christmas.
He continued to pursue his future in the arts by furthering his studies at The College of Applied Arts in Prague and later in the Department of Puppetry at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts. He spent most of his career devoting himself into theatre but then moved into classic surrealism under the influence of theoretician, Vratislav Effenberger, with a film entitled 'The Garden' and joined The Czechoslovakian Surrealist Group.
He was married to an internationally known surrealist painter, ceramicist, and writer, Eva Svankmajerova, until her final days on October 2005. Both of them collaborated on several movies including Alice, Faust and Otesanek. They had two children together, Veronika (b.1963) and Vaclav (b.1975, animator)
He received his high reputation over the several decades for his originality in his technique of using stop-motion and the combination of surreal, nightmarish and subtly comedic pictures.
His trademarks include exaggerated sounds, and the unforgettable effects in all the eating scenes. His movies often introduces the life given to inanimate objects by using stop-motion. Many of his films also uses clay as a medium in creating the objects, also known as claymation.
He often creates his films based on a child perspectives especially in 'Down The Cellar'. At the same time, he adds a little grotesque and aggressive nature. In 1972, he was banned from making films by the communist authorities. Many of his later films were suppressed due to the banishment which made him almost unknown in the West until the early 1980's.
Today, Svankmajer is one of the most celebrated animators in the world. Throughout the years, he has achieved various kind of awards including the Lifetime Achivement Award at the World Festival of Animated Film on 2000. On 2013, he received the Innovation & Creativity Prize by Circolino dei Films. His most recent award is on 2014 where he received the FIAF Award during the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
-F.N-
No comments:
Post a Comment