Here's a post on some of the major Central/Eastern European animators I'm aware of. I've excluded Poland because its tradition is broad and diverse enough to merit its own post, and because I've yet to make my way through the PWA animation sets I own. Thanks to these sets the work of Polish animators is more readily (and legally) available than some of the other animators I've talked about.
EstoniaPriit PärnOne of the most distinctive, challenging, and provocative animators out there, on par with any live-action master. His work deliberately flies in the face of the aesthetic gloss typically associated with professional animation. His characters are crudely drawn and his animation style is rough, unpredictable, and inconsistent. His narrative films are baffling, featuring endless tangents, bizarre imagery, brash and non sequitur humor, and what seem like irrelevant details. Over the past year or two I've made my way through his entire oeuvre (a frustrating challenge at times, given the rarity of some of his films); I've only neglected a few commercial spots, I believe, which simply aren't available.
He's a difficult filmmaker to adjust to, but it's well worth the effort. His style is utterly unique and his films are always compelling, even when they're incomprehensible. Some might call him a Surrealist (he was once involved with an Estonian surrealist group) but that classification doesn't quite work for me. In any case, his films are always amusing, but their themes are often quite serious and at times they achieve a rare beauty. Since he's among the best of the filmmakers I've discovered, I'll address each of his works separately (from first to last).
Is the Earth Round?, . . . And Plays Tricks, Exercises in Preparation of an Independent Life - Pärn's first animations, and his roughest. All three are full of visual jokes and an anarchic tone, but only merit investigation if you like Pärn's style.
The Triangle (1982) - A relationship between a man, a woman, and the tiny man who lives under their sink. A study of gender dynamics and the nature of marriage. His first really strong animation.
Time Out (1985) - Essentially an extended sequence of stream-of-consciousness visual punning. Non-narrative. He just has fun toying with the possibilities of animation.
Breakfast on the Grass (1987) - His masterpiece. Life in Soviet Estonia, as seen by Priit Pärn. Follows four characters and their daily struggles under Soviet rule until their paths cross. If you watch any of his films, WATCH THIS ONE.
Hotel E (1992) - Another masterpiece, and perhaps his most ambitious. Presents an enigmatic and rather frightening portrait of Eastern (Soviet) culture and Western culture, observing how they differ, and speculating about what might happen now that the Berlin Wall had fallen. Difficult but unforgettable.
1895 (1995) - Made on the centenary of the cinema, this bizarre picaresque is an elaborate homage to the cinema and its creation; it's about a man named Jean-Paul who's not sure who he is or what he's supposed to do with his life. Also paints an unusual portrait of Europe and the identities of its various nations.
Night of the Carrots (1998) - For me, at least, one of his most impenetrable animations. About an establishment called PGI that everyone wants to enter, but those who inhabit it have nothing to do and cannot leave. Involves a gelatinous blob, an egg who speaks German, and conspiratorial rabbits who practice voodoo. Some interpret it as a depiction of the internet and its grip on society, but its symbolism is so off-the-wall it's hard for me to pin anything down.
Karl and Marilyn (2003) - Meaning Karl Marx and Marilyn Monroe. It's been a while since I've seen this one so I can't say much about it, but I recall it being particularly concerned with sexuality, the nature of appearance, and the East/West division which preoccupies Pärn so often. Also features some Antonioni parody.
Life Without Gabriella Ferri (2008) - His most recent film, drawn primarily in monochrome with pastel colors for contrast. I love it, but I don't even know where to start with a summary. Just watch it.
There's also a documentary about him called
Parnography by Hardy Volmer. As far as I can tell his films are not yet available on DVD anywhere, but a few of them are readily available through youtube or torrent sites. I have several of his animations and the Volmer documentary on my computer, and would be eager to share them with anyone who is interested. Just send me a PM.
Ülo PikkovIn addition to animating, Pärn also works as an illustrator and a teacher. He's had a tremendous influence over the upcoming generation of animators in Estonia (and Ukrainian animator Igor Kovalyov), most of whom he taught personally. My familiarity with most of these animators is limited, given how difficult it can be to find their work, but I have seen a few by Ülo Pikkov. His
Dialogos is drawn directly onto the film. It's reminiscent of Time Out, having a similar free-wheeling, non sequitur string of events. It lacks the wit of
Time Out's transitions, though. His
Bermuda is a more mature work. The film is clearly influenced by Pärn's visual style but it's more restrained and less confusing than Pärn's films.
Both are available online:
Dialogos and
Czech RepublicBerthold BartoschA Czech animator who made most of his films outside of Czechoslovakia. He worked with Lotte Reiniger on her silhouette animations but his most famous work (and I believe his only surviving solo effort) is the astounding
L'Idée from 1932. It is perhaps the first animation designed with serious themes in mind (I guess that honor might go to McCay's
Sinking of the Lusitania). The film is animated with cut-outs in the style of expressionistic woodcuts and it employs some impressive use of lighting and the optical printer. I've only been able to find it online in rather pitiful quality
here. I have a higher quality file on my computer I can share for those interested, but if anyone knows of DVD availability, I'd be extremely grateful. It deserves to be seen under better conditions.
Jiri TrnkaThe master of Czech puppet animation, and the founder of Jiri Trnka Studio where many subsequent Czech animators have worked, including Jan Svankmajer and Jiri Barta (Japanese puppet animator Kihachiro Kawamoto studied under Trnka personally, and often collaborated with the studio). He animated in stop motion using both puppets and cut-outs, and most of his films were based on established stories, like Czech folk tales or Shakespeare's
A Midsummer Night's Dream. I've only seen a fraction of his work, since it's so hard to come across (a DVD of his work is out of print, but still available, I just haven't bought it). His swan song, The Hand, is reason enough to include him in this survey: it depicts an artist struggling against the oppression of a totalitarian hand who wants him to make only sculptures of hands. His
The Merry Circus is a fun if simple cut-out short. While his films can feel dated at times, I find the transparency of their artifice quite charming and they possess a resourceful wit. Some of his films are available on youtube but most are in pretty dismal quality. I hear Trnka also illustrated children's books but I haven't seen much of that work.
Karel ZemanHe's mostly known for his feature-length fantasy films, mixing painted sets, real actors, and various animation techniques, forming a highly artificial but wonderfully inventive pastiche. He's also made some shorts, including one called
Inspiration using glass figures in stop motion. To date I've only seen one of his features,
A Deadly Invention, which I adore -- its wit and attention to detail are astonishing, and if one is willing to embrace naïvité, its effects are quite charming. Zeman is credited for both direction and art direction, and his meticulous devotion to the look of the film shows. It looks like an illustration brought to life. Honestly, it's hard to keep track of the number of effects employed to achieve its look. Lines are drawn on everything to make the film resemble engravings; they're even superimposed over the (moving!) waves.
Some of his films are available on Region 2 DVDs, from the Czech Republic and Germany, at least. I can't say how English-friendly they are.
A Deadly Invention was available on Region 1 DVD under its alternate title (
The Fabulous World of Jules Verne) but appears to be out of print.
Jan SvankmajerSvankmajer is well known on these forums, so I won't go into much detail, but his films are invaluable. They are among the best animations ever made. A complete collection of his shorts is available through the BFI, produced by our very own Michael Brooke, and I recommend it over the Kino discs if you're region-free. Most of his features are available through various DVD labels, though a few are out of print.
Jiri BartaAn animator who's still around, and still working, but who did most of his work in the eighties. His films were compiled on a pretty solid DVD by Kino:
Jiri Barta: Labyrinth of Darkness. His style is remarkably diverse, with almost every film featuring a different sort of animation. Some use cut-outs (
Disc Jockey,
Riddles for a Candy), some use strangely manipulated live action (
The Last Theft), and others use stop motion. His stop motion films approach stop motion in all sorts of inventive ways, using found objects like gloves and life-size mannequins. His greatest film to date is
The Pied Piper of Hamelin (or
Krysar), an hour-long stop motion animation using expressionist woodcuts in cut-out animation style. It's a dark, Gothic adaptation of the classic story and its woodcut style resembles nothing else I've ever seen. It's extraordinary, and it alone merits a purchase of the disc.
He's also worked with computer animation; it's not on the disc but it's available on
youtube. The animation toys with the artifice of computer animation. Most recently he made a children's puppet film in 2009, which I haven't seen. For decades, however, he's been trying to finish a dream project called
Golem. He made a trailer to help get funding and it can be viewed
here. It's some of the most impressive animation I've ever seen and the fact that he hasn't found the funds to finish it is unfathomable. I desperately hope he manages to finish it someday; if I could figure out how, I'd send a personal donation to the project.
Michaela PavlátováA contemporary animator who has also ventured into live-action. I won't discuss her live-action films because I haven't seen them (they include
Night Owls and
Faithless Games). Her films often focus on the dynamics of relationships: how they operate, how they change, how people communicate. She expresses these dynamics in visual terms, focusing less on characterization and more on the mechanism of communication, using repetition, caricature, and expressionistic touches. She transforms speech into symbols and visual puns, preferring this expressive visual language to mere words. Communication and sexuality are recurrent themes in her work. Her two best films are
Reci, Reci, Reci (
Words, Words, Words) and
Repeat, which were both made in the nineties. Both are very clever and beautifully designed. Her other film are well worth looking into as well, especially her version of The Carnival of the Animals, which uses the familiar songs to explore sexual scenarios. She has a
website which hosts some illustrations and lists her animation work (although the animation section fails to mention her two early works,
Etude from an Album and
The Crossword Puzzle). The flash animations on the site aren't worth your time, unfortunately. As for availability, I don't know of any legal means, but several of her shorts can be found online. I can share some files as well, just PM me.
Some other names worth knowing in Czech animation are Bretislav Pojar, Pavel Koutský, Vlasta Pospisilova, and Aurel Klimt. I've seen a few films by them, and they're talented animators, but I don't know enough about them to share in detail. I may elaborate further down the road, once I'm more familiar with them.
CroatiaZagreb FilmA film studio in Zagreb. It was started for animation production but later expanded into the realm of documentaries, educational films, and features, so it sounds like the Croatian answer to the National Film Board of Canada. I know very little about the studio, but I have seen a few films by animators who worked there.
Zdenko Gasparovich - His short film
Satiemania is an inspired hand-drawn bit of chaos. Random goings-on set to the music of Eric Satie. The film is readily available online, although not in very good quality. Unfortunately it's only one of two short films he ever directed.
Zlatko Grgic - Worked extensively at Zagreb, on projects like a cartoon series they had called Professor Balthazar. The films I've seen were produced elsewhere:
Dream Doll, made in collaboration with Bob Godfrey (the poor man's Terry Gilliam), and a few films he made for the National Film Board of Canada.
Dream Doll is the best of Godfrey's terrible work.
Dušan Vukotic - I've only seen one film by this fellow, but it's delightful.
Surogat (
Ersatz) was the first foreign film to win the Oscar for Best Animated Short. Its playful story is told through a very geometric design scheme, without words. The film is available
online.
HungaryMarcell JankovicsWorking out of Hungary's Pannonia Film Studio, Jankovics has made an array of both shorts and features. I first encountered him a few years ago when I saw his minimalist short
Sisyphus, his most widely seen film (in part because it was reappropriated for a Superbowl ad a few years ago). I saw another short around the same time,
Hidavatas (which is good, but lacks the succint power of
Sisyphus). After that he got lost in the shuffle, until I started working on this post. Now that I've researched him more, I'm kicking myself for having waited so long. The most remarkable discovery was his second feature,
Fehérlófia (Son of the White Mare, 1982), which is possibly the most boldly animated feature I've ever encountered. It applies a radical use of color and design to a Hungarian folktale, and sustains this radical form for its entire running time. It's an astounding achievement, and demands to be seen. It's difficult to describe its style -- it brings to mind psychadelic art, but it never feels as obnoxious or messy as psychadelic works tend to. Perhaps it's best just to watch a clip from the film:
the opening.
After watching
Fehérlófia I saw another short, translated as "The Struggle" or "The Fight", about art and its toll on the artist. While most of his films were made in the seventies and eighties, he's still active. His most recent feature (
Song of the Miraculous Hind) was made in 2002, although some sources indicate that
The Tragedy of Man, an animated adaptation of
this play is his most recent.
If you just look his name up on Google you can find some of his short films online -- not in any ideal quality, but given the simple line work in most of his shorts they're more watchable than most under those conditions. "The Struggle" is harder to find, possibly because of the various translations, but can be found if you search for the native title,
Küzdök.
Fehérlófia is also available on youtube, but it deserves better. I have a decent file I can share via PM; you can buy the DVD from Hungary, but the shipping costs are outrageous: 40+ euro for one disc.
Here if you're crazy.
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