A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream 1959

7.20

The first puppet kinescope in the world. It is based on the famous poetic comedy by William Shakespeare. Three worlds meet in this story: the noble world of three Athens couples, a common popular world of tradesmen amateur theatre and a fairy-tale happiness of magic creatures as elves and nymphs. The film is considered the most remarkable Jiří Trnka's work and a milestone in the history of the world animation.

1959

The Hand

The Hand 1965

7.40

A happy little potter is approached by a huge hand which wants him to sculpt its statue. The potter refuses, wanting nothing more than to be left alone with his only friend, a potted plant. As the hand's request gives way to bribery, demands, and threats, the potter becomes more desperate to escape its clutch, leading to tragedy.

1965

The Lion and the Song

The Lion and the Song 1959

6.60

A musician is playing his music to some animals, when a hungry lion shows up.

1959

Archangel Gabriel and Mistress Goose

Archangel Gabriel and Mistress Goose 1965

5.80

Taken from Boccaccio's Decameron, this lovely puppet film tells the bawdy story of the beautiful young Venetian lady who confesses her sinful passion for the Archangel Gabriel to a lustful monk, who promptly impersonates him in her bedroom with predictable results. Amidst the film's ribaldry, the hypocrisy and false piety of the monk are mercilessly mocked.

1965

Cybernetic Grandma

Cybernetic Grandma 1963

6.00

Trnka’s sci-fi vision of the future in which machines and robots try to substitute themselves into the most beautiful human relationships. A cybernetic robot is supposed to substitute for the loving grandmother of a little girl. The wise grandmother, however, comes back and the girl finds the warmth of her grandmother’s loving arms again. Trnka’s artistic ideas in this film can be described as both poetically fragile and dramatically cautionary.

1963

Punch and Judy

Punch and Judy 1966

6.40

Two puppets, Punch and Judy, do battle to the death over the custody of a live guinea pig.

1966

Et cetera

Et cetera 1967

5.80

A small, animated figure learns how to use a whip, a pair of wings and a house.

1967

Hey Mister, Let's Play! How They Met At Kolin

Hey Mister, Let's Play! How They Met At Kolin 1966

8.70

Pilot of the series "Hey, Mister, Let's Play". The story of two bears, the older one is experienced and sly, the younger is naive and gullible. This is the story of how they met in the Czech town of Kolín.

1966

Hey, Mister, Let’s Play! Princesses Are Not to Be Sniffed At

Hey, Mister, Let’s Play! Princesses Are Not to Be Sniffed At 1967

6.00

The third episode of the series "Hey, Mister, let's play", in which the heroes are two bears, one foxy and the other naive. In this episode the big bear out-smarts the small one by convincing him that the fish he caught is a spellbound princess.

1967

The Devil and Kate

The Devil and Kate 1956

7.00

Adaption of the Antonin Dvorak opera Čert a Káča (The Devil and Kate), Op. 112, B.201, based on a farce by Josef Kajetán Tyl.

1956

The Midnight Adventure

The Midnight Adventure 1960

6.00

An old woodblock train meets its shiny new electric replacement one Christmas Eve in this glowingly nostalgic stop-motion toy story, directed by Bretislav Pojar and featuring gorgeous design by Trnka.

1960

Joy of Love

Joy of Love 1966

6.00

This melancholy piece about the metamorphoses of love and the eternal dissatisfaction of human beings with what they have was inspired by the lyrics of the French song "Plaisir d'amour."

1966

Otylie and 1580 Blots

Otylie and 1580 Blots 1966

1

A modern fairy-tale about Otýlie, a girl who each time she writes something gets all dirty from the ink. One day her teacher wants to clean her with an eradicator and otylie disappears. She is happy to be invisible but due to blots she becomes an ordinary girl again.

1966

Crazy Planet

Crazy Planet 1964

1

A little boy who is unable to count goes off to the crazy planet where arithmetic doesn’t exist. After many adventures, he goes back to school to learn.

1964

Kouzelník

Kouzelník 1965

1

Animated story of a sad magician

1965