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Includes the legendary animated film The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Revered as one of the world's most significant figures in animation, Czech filmmaker Jiri Barta has made a career fashioning stunningly gothic worlds of horror and fantasy that are infused with sublime humor and intense moral examinations. Mixing the aesthetic traditions of such artists as Gaudi, Kafka, Poe, Fritz Lang, The Brothers Quay and Jan Svankmajer, Barta's films are wondrous creations that go far beyond mere children’s tales.
His early paper cut-out extravaganzas-Disc Jockey (1980) and The Design (1981)-give way to the object ballet of A Ballad about Green Wood (1983), in which logs celebrate the eternal renaissance of spring. Old mannequins spend their cracked and broken lives In the Club of the Laid Off (1989), and myriad styles of handwear spring to life as a brief history of international cinema in the award-winning The Vanished World of Gloves (1982). Barta's international reputation was cemented with The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1985), a very un-Disney adaptation of the classic German fairytale in which carved wooden puppets in a gothic cubist town are plagued by live rats. Considered one of the greatest works of puppet animation, it recalls the dark medieval epics
of Ingmar Bergman. His only live action film,
The Last Theft (1987), is a jewel thief/vampire flick shot in the style of 1970s European
exploitation cinema.
Working mostly from the prestigious animation studio founded by the legendary Jiri Trnka, Barta's works have been criminally overlooked in the U.S. Kimstim is proud to present all eight of Jiri Barta's films, available for the first time together on one DVD.
- A Ballad About Green Wood
11 minutes, color, 1983
- The Club of the Laid Off
25 minutes, color, 1989
- The Design
6 minutes, color, , 1981
- Disc Jockey
10 minutes, color, 1980
- The Last Theft
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21 minutes, color, 1987
- The Pied Piper of Hamelin
55 minutes, color, 1985
- Riddles For a Candy
8 minutes, color, 1978
- The Vanished World of Gloves
16 minutes, color, 1982 |
