Karel Zeman
Birth : 1910-11-03, Ostromer u Nové Paky, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]
Death : 1989-04-05
History
Karel Zeman was a brilliant pioneer of special effects in film. Despite his artistic talent, his parents insisted he study business. At the age of 17, he went to Aix-en-Provence in the south of France, where he studied advertising design. In 1943, the film director Elmar Klos offered him a job at the Bata Film Studios. Zeman often had to struggle against difficult conditions in the technically ill-equipped Kudlov Studios. Many of the workers with whom he started had no particular experience of filming. They, like Zeman himself, had to learn everything on the job. Journey to the Beginning of Time, released in 1955, became Zeman's breakthrough film, his first to combine live action, animation and puppetry. Four years later, Invention for Destruction saw him shoot to world-wide success. Zeman continued to develop his highly successful use of special effects in The Fabulous Baron Munchausen and the two Jules Verne adaptations that followed. In the 70's, Zeman returned to making strictly animated films. In the late 70's Zeman was threatened with the loss of his sight, but he overcame the disease and continued working. In the final stages of his life he suffered from heart problems.
Self (archive footage)
A look at the life, work and importance of Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman (1910-89), a genius of world cinema, a wizard of special effects, revealing his sources of inspiration and his revolutionary filming techniques.
Director
Scenario Writer
Animation
Young knight John travels the world in search of fame and fortune, but also to help others and prove himself. However, things go dire fast and he becomes burdened with life's hardships. But then he meets a pretty water nymph, Mary.
Art Direction
Young knight John travels the world in search of fame and fortune, but also to help others and prove himself. However, things go dire fast and he becomes burdened with life's hardships. But then he meets a pretty water nymph, Mary.
Writer
Young knight John travels the world in search of fame and fortune, but also to help others and prove himself. However, things go dire fast and he becomes burdened with life's hardships. But then he meets a pretty water nymph, Mary.
Director
Young knight John travels the world in search of fame and fortune, but also to help others and prove himself. However, things go dire fast and he becomes burdened with life's hardships. But then he meets a pretty water nymph, Mary.
Self
Director
Animation
Krabat, a beggar boy, is lured to become an apprentice to an evil, one-eyed sorcerer. With a number of other boys, he works at the sorcerer's mill while learning black magic. Every Christmas one of the boys has to face the master in a magical duel, where the boy never stands a chance because the master is the only person who is allowed to use a secret spell: The Koraktor.
Dialogue
Krabat, a beggar boy, is lured to become an apprentice to an evil, one-eyed sorcerer. With a number of other boys, he works at the sorcerer's mill while learning black magic. Every Christmas one of the boys has to face the master in a magical duel, where the boy never stands a chance because the master is the only person who is allowed to use a secret spell: The Koraktor.
Screenplay
Krabat, a beggar boy, is lured to become an apprentice to an evil, one-eyed sorcerer. With a number of other boys, he works at the sorcerer's mill while learning black magic. Every Christmas one of the boys has to face the master in a magical duel, where the boy never stands a chance because the master is the only person who is allowed to use a secret spell: The Koraktor.
Director
Krabat, a beggar boy, is lured to become an apprentice to an evil, one-eyed sorcerer. With a number of other boys, he works at the sorcerer's mill while learning black magic. Every Christmas one of the boys has to face the master in a magical duel, where the boy never stands a chance because the master is the only person who is allowed to use a secret spell: The Koraktor.
Animation
Five different exploits of Sinbad the sailor where he gets mixed up with the pretty daughters of exotic potentates, with powerful monsters that threaten his existence, and with all sorts of teeming jungle life.
Screenplay
Five different exploits of Sinbad the sailor where he gets mixed up with the pretty daughters of exotic potentates, with powerful monsters that threaten his existence, and with all sorts of teeming jungle life.
Director
Five different exploits of Sinbad the sailor where he gets mixed up with the pretty daughters of exotic potentates, with powerful monsters that threaten his existence, and with all sorts of teeming jungle life.
Director
Prokouk the watchmaker
Art Direction
When a comet passes the Earth very closely, it pulls a small part of North Africa, and a small swathe of humanity, along with it.
Screenplay
When a comet passes the Earth very closely, it pulls a small part of North Africa, and a small swathe of humanity, along with it.
Director
When a comet passes the Earth very closely, it pulls a small part of North Africa, and a small swathe of humanity, along with it.
Art Direction
The Stolen Airship (Czech: Ukradená vzducholod) is a 1967 live-action/animated film by Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman. The story is based loosely on Jules Verne's novels Two Years' Vacation and The Mysterious Island. The film in Art Nouveau style consists of live-action scenes, generally shot in black and white, as well as hand-drawn, stop motion, and cutout animation. Various live-action and animated elements are often composited into the same scene.
Screenplay
The Stolen Airship (Czech: Ukradená vzducholod) is a 1967 live-action/animated film by Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman. The story is based loosely on Jules Verne's novels Two Years' Vacation and The Mysterious Island. The film in Art Nouveau style consists of live-action scenes, generally shot in black and white, as well as hand-drawn, stop motion, and cutout animation. Various live-action and animated elements are often composited into the same scene.
Director
The Stolen Airship (Czech: Ukradená vzducholod) is a 1967 live-action/animated film by Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman. The story is based loosely on Jules Verne's novels Two Years' Vacation and The Mysterious Island. The film in Art Nouveau style consists of live-action scenes, generally shot in black and white, as well as hand-drawn, stop motion, and cutout animation. Various live-action and animated elements are often composited into the same scene.
Story
An anti-war black comedy set during the Thirty Years' War. The film combines live action with animation to suggest the artistic style of the engraver Matthäus Merian.
Screenplay
An anti-war black comedy set during the Thirty Years' War. The film combines live action with animation to suggest the artistic style of the engraver Matthäus Merian.
Director
An anti-war black comedy set during the Thirty Years' War. The film combines live action with animation to suggest the artistic style of the engraver Matthäus Merian.
Art Designer
The 20th century's first man lands on the moon and discovers - that Baron Munchausen has already beaten him to it, along with Cyrano and characters from Jules Verne's lunar-landing novel. The Baron spirits the young cosmonaut by horse-drawn ship back to an ancient "Earth", where they insult a sultan, rescue a princess, fall in love with the princess, and then as a trio have further experiences in a world of pastel colors, ornate dreamlike settings, and the inevitable angry disrupters of peacefulness and love.
Screenplay
The 20th century's first man lands on the moon and discovers - that Baron Munchausen has already beaten him to it, along with Cyrano and characters from Jules Verne's lunar-landing novel. The Baron spirits the young cosmonaut by horse-drawn ship back to an ancient "Earth", where they insult a sultan, rescue a princess, fall in love with the princess, and then as a trio have further experiences in a world of pastel colors, ornate dreamlike settings, and the inevitable angry disrupters of peacefulness and love.
Story
The 20th century's first man lands on the moon and discovers - that Baron Munchausen has already beaten him to it, along with Cyrano and characters from Jules Verne's lunar-landing novel. The Baron spirits the young cosmonaut by horse-drawn ship back to an ancient "Earth", where they insult a sultan, rescue a princess, fall in love with the princess, and then as a trio have further experiences in a world of pastel colors, ornate dreamlike settings, and the inevitable angry disrupters of peacefulness and love.
Director
The 20th century's first man lands on the moon and discovers - that Baron Munchausen has already beaten him to it, along with Cyrano and characters from Jules Verne's lunar-landing novel. The Baron spirits the young cosmonaut by horse-drawn ship back to an ancient "Earth", where they insult a sultan, rescue a princess, fall in love with the princess, and then as a trio have further experiences in a world of pastel colors, ornate dreamlike settings, and the inevitable angry disrupters of peacefulness and love.
Writer
A film of the Czech multimedia theatre production, Magician's Lantern
Director
A film of the Czech multimedia theatre production, Magician's Lantern
Set Decoration
Writer
Screenstory
As the world progresses into the industrial age, a professor studying the "nature of pure matter" is spirited away by a would-be dictator and connived into building a super-bomb, as a young reporter and a girl rescued from the sea attempt to warn him of their mutual kidnapper's intentions to dominate the world with a new and more-deadly-yet weapon.
Screenplay
As the world progresses into the industrial age, a professor studying the "nature of pure matter" is spirited away by a would-be dictator and connived into building a super-bomb, as a young reporter and a girl rescued from the sea attempt to warn him of their mutual kidnapper's intentions to dominate the world with a new and more-deadly-yet weapon.
Art Designer
As the world progresses into the industrial age, a professor studying the "nature of pure matter" is spirited away by a would-be dictator and connived into building a super-bomb, as a young reporter and a girl rescued from the sea attempt to warn him of their mutual kidnapper's intentions to dominate the world with a new and more-deadly-yet weapon.
Director
As the world progresses into the industrial age, a professor studying the "nature of pure matter" is spirited away by a would-be dictator and connived into building a super-bomb, as a young reporter and a girl rescued from the sea attempt to warn him of their mutual kidnapper's intentions to dominate the world with a new and more-deadly-yet weapon.
Animatronics Designer
Story of Mr. Prokouk, who having read too many detective stories sees criminals everywhere.
Idea
Story of Mr. Prokouk, who having read too many detective stories sees criminals everywhere.
Screenplay
Story of Mr. Prokouk, who having read too many detective stories sees criminals everywhere.
Screenplay
Story
Special Effects
Special Effects
Four schoolboys go on an awe-inspiring expedition back through time, where they behold landscapes and creatures that have long since vanished from the earth.
Art Designer
Four schoolboys go on an awe-inspiring expedition back through time, where they behold landscapes and creatures that have long since vanished from the earth.
Story
Four schoolboys go on an awe-inspiring expedition back through time, where they behold landscapes and creatures that have long since vanished from the earth.
Screenplay
Four schoolboys go on an awe-inspiring expedition back through time, where they behold landscapes and creatures that have long since vanished from the earth.
Director
Four schoolboys go on an awe-inspiring expedition back through time, where they behold landscapes and creatures that have long since vanished from the earth.
Writer
Director
Animation
People living on an island finds a treasure, but it does not only do them good.
Screenplay
People living on an island finds a treasure, but it does not only do them good.
Director
People living on an island finds a treasure, but it does not only do them good.
Adaptation
A king hides an embarrassing secret - and it causes him to execute every barber who cuts his hair.
Screenplay
A king hides an embarrassing secret - and it causes him to execute every barber who cuts his hair.
Director
A king hides an embarrassing secret - and it causes him to execute every barber who cuts his hair.
Screenplay
A glass blower imagines that his creations come to life. A story of love contained within a single drop of rain. A voyage into ethereal beauty.
Story
A glass blower imagines that his creations come to life. A story of love contained within a single drop of rain. A voyage into ethereal beauty.
Director
A glass blower imagines that his creations come to life. A story of love contained within a single drop of rain. A voyage into ethereal beauty.
Story
After a hard day at work, Mr. Prokouk decides to invent a machine to ease his labor. But inventing is work too, and Mr. Prokouk spends more time dreaming about inventions than actually inventing anything. Can he find an easy solution?
Screenplay
After a hard day at work, Mr. Prokouk decides to invent a machine to ease his labor. But inventing is work too, and Mr. Prokouk spends more time dreaming about inventions than actually inventing anything. Can he find an easy solution?
Director
After a hard day at work, Mr. Prokouk decides to invent a machine to ease his labor. But inventing is work too, and Mr. Prokouk spends more time dreaming about inventions than actually inventing anything. Can he find an easy solution?
Story
Shortfilm from the Mr. Prokouk series. Mr. Prokouk wants to be a filmmaker, but the making of a film has more complications than he expected.
Screenplay
Shortfilm from the Mr. Prokouk series. Mr. Prokouk wants to be a filmmaker, but the making of a film has more complications than he expected.
Director
Shortfilm from the Mr. Prokouk series. Mr. Prokouk wants to be a filmmaker, but the making of a film has more complications than he expected.
Animation
Director
Screenplay
Story
Special Effects
Screenplay
Cobler Mr Prokouk starts working in an office where there is a lot of paperwork too big for him.
Animation
Cobler Mr Prokouk starts working in an office where there is a lot of paperwork too big for him.
Director
While building a house, Mr. Prokouk is interrupted by a chap in a barrel with a seemingly endless supply of free liquor. This does not improve Mr. Prokouk's building skill. Can he regain sobriety long enough to finish his house?
Director
Cobler Mr Prokouk starts working in an office where there is a lot of paperwork too big for him.
Director
Animals try to escape from a flood.
Director
A walking on the street finds a horseshoe, thinks it's a good luck charm. So, he decides to take it with him home and find a suitable place for it. He soon discovers that the horseshoe brings him nothing but bad luck.
Art Designer
Christmas has arrived. As a little girl and her parents enter the room, the little girl finds all kinds of toys under the Christmas Tree. She immediately throws her old doll aside and starts playing with her new dolls. But that night she has a dream. Or maybe it isn't a dream?
Animation
Christmas has arrived. As a little girl and her parents enter the room, the little girl finds all kinds of toys under the Christmas Tree. She immediately throws her old doll aside and starts playing with her new dolls. But that night she has a dream. Or maybe it isn't a dream?
Director
Christmas has arrived. As a little girl and her parents enter the room, the little girl finds all kinds of toys under the Christmas Tree. She immediately throws her old doll aside and starts playing with her new dolls. But that night she has a dream. Or maybe it isn't a dream?
Director
