Posts Tagged ‘Karel Zeman’


Baron Prasil

June 26th, 2009 | article by | 2 Comments »
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a.k.a. THE FABULOUS BARON MUNCHAUSEN
Ceskoslovensky Statni Film [1961] 83′
country: Czech Republic
director: KAREL ZEMAN
cast: MILOS KOPECKY, RUDOLF JELINEK,
cast: JANA BREJCHOVA, KAREL HOGER

There are a number of big names and big films that people tend to think of when the fantasy genre comes to mind – Disney’s 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, Korda’s THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, Harryhausen’s SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, and so on. One of the greatest names in fantastic cinema has been all but forgotten here in the west, with his work largely out of print and the level of critical interest at practically zero – but over the course of his four decade career he crafted what remain some of the most original and aesthetically impressive efforts in the genre.

With the illustrations of Gustav Dore as his guide and a collection of works by Jules Verne and others his inspiration, Karel Zeman set out to create what can only be described as storybooks on film. The results, for the most part, were nothing short of astounding. While less renowned than his earlier JOURNEY TO THE BEGINNING OF TIME or THE FABULOUS WORLD OF JULES VERNE, 1961′s BARON PRASIL, which relates the incredulous journeys of Baron Munchausen, stands as one of his very greatest achievements.

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Journey to the Beginning of Time

September 4th, 2007 | article by | No Comments »
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a.k.a. Cesta Do Praveku
company: Ceskoslovensky Statni Film
year: 1955
runtime: 93′
country: Czech Republic
director: Karel Zeman
cast: Vladimire Bejval, Petr Herrman,
Zdenek Hustak, Josef Lukas
not on home video in the USA

Back when I was young and well before my mother thought it suitable to subject me to the various video store delights to which I wished to subject myself I was a child of the local public library’s fledgling video selection. Seeing as I was between the ages of four and six at this stage in my development it’s very difficult to remember everything that we might have checked out – even with this handicap two titles stand out quite clearly in my mind.

The first is the film that, more than any other, might have set me on my troubled course to WTF-Filmdom – the positively inimitable KING KONG [1933]. It’s difficult to gauge the impact that Willis O’Brien’s fantastically animated creations had on my mind but one thing was for sure: I was a dinosaur fan for life.

I’m sure that my mother’s library account from that time will attest to the fact that, between the years of 1987 and 1990, the tired old VHS print of KING KONG saw considerable action. It was another video, however, that found its way home with us nearly every time we left the pre-renovation-era Asheboro Public Library. . . one that would do more than play on my childish imagination. . . one that would create such a thirst for additional knowledge that, by the time I was seven years old, my personal library was filled to the brim with dinosaur books and videos that ranged from the highly informative to the useless and trashy.

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