During the starting point of my Animation project, as a class we had to research many different animation artist from the past. I had decided to choose Jan Svankmajer.

Jan Svankmajer

Jan Svankmajer is a Czech filmmaker and artist whose work spans several media. He is a self-labelled surrealist known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Terry Gilliam, the Brothers Quay, and many others. Jan Svankmajer was born in Prague. An early influence on his later artistic development was a puppet theatre he was given for Christmas as a child. He studied at the College of Applied Arts in Prague and later in the Department of Puppetry at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts. Svankmajer made his first film The Last Trick in 1964 and for over thirty years has made some of the most memorable and unique animated films ever made for example Alice, gaining a reputation as one of the world's foremost animators, and influencing filmmakers from Tim Burton to The Brothers Quay.

After studying puppet theatre for four years in Prague, Svankmajer began his career as a director, designer and puppeteer at the State Puppet Theatre in Liberec. During the Early 1960s he had started to work with several different theatre companies in Prague to stage a variety of puppet plays. During the year of 1962 Svankmajer had switched his interest to filmmaking, he had felt that more work would be possible technically, and that his work would reach a better audience from around the world. As a filmmaker Svankmajer had created many highly praised films involving animation and live action.

During the year of 1972 Czech authorities banned him from making films for seven years simply because he had been filming footage of Czech’s life without authorisation. Working as a professional, Svankmajer takes a very individual approach to filmmaking, in contrast to most stop-motion animators. When watching a Svankmajer film, the viewer could be presented with a cast of real people, porcelain dolls, skeletons, animal corpses, corkscrews, tights or any object that he had found interesting. Svankmajer’s imagery is usually dim, frequently shot in black and white and it would often have films with no discernible plot, he always considers choosing to focus on the beauty of the movement of the objects, and on the simple creation of a strange and evil world.

Recently during an interview, Svankmajer explained that he uses animation to allow objects speak for themselves. He had said that this is because he believes that objects are capable of concealing the events that they have witnessed. What Svankmajer does is listen to the listen to the objects, and then communicate with them by animation and bringing them to life. In another interview he clarifies that his ability to make this interpretation is the single most important thing to him within his work. He criticises other animators for preferring to demonstrate their technical abilities rather than concentrating on giving meaning to their films.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykdk9tZiS8Q

 

In Many of Svankmajer’s short films the viewer’s imagination is given freedom to create a personal sense of horror, in reaction to the evil and sensitive imagery used in many. Because Svankmajer’s work is so rigid in style and content, it would seem to be unmarketable for commercial purposes on TV, especially given popular tastes. However in 1988 he made a music video for Hugh Cornwall, and a year later made two short films for the worldwide known channel MTV. As his wok is becoming more widely recognised, his work is having thoughtful influence on animators, from the famous Brothers Quay to even the most prominent of Hollywood directors, like Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam.

In 1997 Svankmajer received the ‘Persistence of Vision’ award at the San Francisco Film Festival, a fitting award for a director with such solid ideals. Despite the fact that most of his work exists in the form of short films, and therefore can only receive limited release, it seems clear that his talent has made its mark within the realms of animation and film-making worldwide.