Trnka Shorts: Volume One

The Hand

This was Trnka's last, and some say greatest, film. An artist, happy in his life, devotes his time making a pot for his favorite flower. But a giant hand appears and orders him to create a statue of a hand instead. He resists at first, but the hand is all powerful and he is forced to submit, at the cost of his liberty and ultimately his life. This darkly humorous allegory on totalitarianism, which won the top prize at the Annecy International Animation Festival, was banned in Communist Czechoslovakia.

Story of the Bass Cello

Chekhov's story about a bass player whose clothes are stolen while he's bathing in a river. When he happens upon a beautiful maiden in the same predicament, he hides her in the case of his large double-bass.

Merry Circus

Neither a puppet film nor a cartoon, but an entirely unique means of expression and technique. Made from stop action photography of paper cutouts, the movement in this film, whether it's juggling seals or acrobats flying through the air, is magical.

Trnka Documentary

This brief documentary offers a glimpse of Trnka’s genius. Includes clips of him working on his puppets and excerpts from such films as Grandpa Planted a Beet, The Czech Year, Prince Bayaya and The Good Soldier Schweik.

A Drop Too Much

The tragic tale of a motorcyclist who, happily on his way to meet his fiancée, stops at a tavern with disastrous consequences. Trnka was the art director on this early warning against drunk driving.

Song of the Prairie

Another Trnka masterpiece, a parody of the wild American West, where the pistol rules the roost, timidity has no place, and love blossoms at first sight.

This English version, featuring a narration by Boris Karloff, has been digitally remastered. It is a puppet animation classic based on the Hans Christian Anderson story about how the song of a simple nightingale teaches an Emperor to revolt against the rigid protocol of his glittering but shallow world. When released recently on home video, the Washington Post called it "a lost classic happily found again" and Wired magazine “one of the most stunningly beautiful animated films ever released" and "a masterpiece of filmmaking and a production that elevates the art form to new heights.”

 

Trnka Shorts Volume One $14.95	VHS
Trnka Shorts Volume Two $14.95	VHS
Emperor’s Nightingale by Jiri Trnka VHS $14.95	VHS
Trnka Films (all volumes included) DVD $29.95	DVD