An Evaluation of the Work of Jan Svankmajer
Jan Svankmajer is an animator like no other that I know of. Surrealist in style, his artistic work encompasses a broad range of mediums- film, sculpture, painting, graphic design, prose and poetry. His filmic work often involves a combination of animation, puppetry and live action- a challenging style for any filmmaker to use effectively. Svankmajer films are by trademark dark and macabre tales, told not for the sake of aesthetic or technique, but always to serve a very personal purpose, which I will talk about shortly.
In this essay, I will deal mainly with the work that Svankmajer created as an animator. To put it in context, however, I will first give a rough overview of his background and the work for which he is best known.
Svankmajer was born in Czechoslovakia in 1934. His parents were both artistically inclined; his father was a window dresser while his mother was a dressmaker. 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 collaborated with several different theatre companies in Prague to stage a variety of plays.
In 1964 his interests turned to filmmaking. In this medium he felt that more would be possible technically, and that his work would reach a wider audience. After creating various award-winning short films like The Last Trick, his work underwent a decisive transition from Mannerism to Surrealism in 1968. As a surrealist Svankmajer would create many highly acclaimed films involving animation and live action.
Svankmajer’s work became surrounded by political controversy with the making of the film Antonio’s Diary (1972). The film was not intended to have political meaning, but the Czech authorities banned him from making films for seven years simply because it contained unauthorised footage depicting everyday Czech life. Dimensions of Dialogue (1982) became his best-known short, and won several international awards. Like Antonio’s Diary, however, it was banned in Czechoslovakia, and was also shown to the ideology commission of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party as an example of the kind of film that should not be made. Alice (1985-87), based on the book by Lewis Carol, was Svankmajer’s first feature film, and his first to reach an American audience. Since then he has made two more feature-length films: Faust (1993) and Conspirators of Pleasure (1996).
In society today, we are conditioned to believe certain sets of ideals. We use these ideals to interact and get along with the other people we surround ourselves with. These ideals are often the societal norms that form common ground amongst individuals. However, living life based off these basic and unchanging beliefs is not beneficial to humanity, nor does it make life any easier to live. In fact, holding on to the most accepted beliefs holds back society as a whole. Judith Halberstam, in her essay “Animating Revolt and Revolting Animation” challenges these societal norms through the analysis of animated movies and, in doing so, carves a path for a new way of thinking.
... Their attitude and tone is something that can be contrasted in the two stories.
Art has been the reflection, interpretation and representation of artists' beliefs and morals eternally. Various artists stand for different matters that quite possibly affect their lives, or might be of an interest to them. Norval Morrisseau is an artist that I was intrigued by his portrayal and the techniques used in his paintings. In this paper, we are going to look at the implementation of Morrisseau's painting style used to expose his philosophies of different aspects in his life.
The first step was receiving Christ and the next step is to become strengthen in the faith so that the adversary cannot steal, kill, or destroy the good work that has been started in one’s spiritual life. There are afflictions that will occur, but with God’s help, we can maintain the righteous lifestyle. Even though hardship may arise, God will keep us in perfect peace, if we can stay focus on Jesus.
Norstein has a very original, particular style to his animations and the purpose of this essay is to critically analyse the form and ideology of one of his animations with the intention of discovering what it is that makes his artwork so unique and has led to him being regarded as one of the greatest animators in history?. The method by which this will be done will be to firstly report the elements and functions that went into forming Norstein?s animations and ?Hedgehog in the Fog? in particular, then to analyse how these elements .mix with his personal influences to imply further meaning within his work.
Bliss, John, Art that Moves: Animation Around the World. Chicago, Illinois: Heinemann Raintree, 2011. Print
On August 25, 1958, Timothy Walter Burton was born (“Biography”). Burton had a painful childhood in which the relationship with his parents and brother was nonexistent (Morgenstern). Through his intense feeling of isolation, his visual talent began to develop. The comfort found in hobbies such as writing and drawing led him to attend the California Institute of the Arts which led him to his first job in any artistic field at the Disney Animation Studios (“Biography”). Burton has since been referred to as one of the most visually gifted writers, artists, and filmmakers that America has seen (Hanke). His short stories, poems, and film scripts are centered on an inner darkness which he has been slowly acquiring since his childhood. He throws himself into everything he writes and makes even the simplest characters have a deep, complex meaning. His famous darkness and symbolism is shown in his book The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories. The book contains a collection of his short stories, poems, and illustrations about a variety of fictional characters that can be compared to Burton and his life. Tim Burton’s home life and previous hardships have made a significant impact on his work. In my paper, I will draw parallels to his life and work as well as prove that there is reasoning and beauty in the way he is.
Mark Rothko, born as Marcus Rothkowitz, was born September 25, 1903 in Gvinsk, Russia and by the age of ten had emigrated to the United States with his parents. He attended Yale University in the early 1920's, but never completed his formal education there. In 1925 he entered studies at the Art Students League in New York City where he started painting under the instruction of Max Weber. Although he studied under Max Weber he still considered himself as basically a self-taught painter. In the 1930's and 1940's he went through phases influenced by Expressionism and Surrealism, but from about 1947 he began to develop his own distinctive style for which he is known for today. Critics labeled Mark Rothko as an Abstract Expressionist, but defiantly he argued this association by his peers, because he did not want to be known for a certain style. When Rothko started painting, his work was more symbolic than...
Graphic designer and typographer Stefan Sagmeister has always had a unique way of viewing the world, therefore has created designs that are both inventive and controversial. He is an Austrian designer, who works in New York but draws his design inspiration while traveling all over the world. While a sense of humor consistently appears in his designs as a frequent motif, Sagmeister is nonetheless very serious about his work. He has created projects in the most diverse and extreme of ways as a form of expression. This report will analyse three of Stefan’s most influential designs, including the motives and messages behind each piece.
In conclusion we can see that even worlds apart artists can still find inspiration from unlikely subject matter. Watteau’s from the theater. Picasso’s from the street. Both artists not only showed their era in their art but also themselves and others. Even when it comes to entertainment it seems that not artist can escape the idea of shaping their own worlds into their piece of art. As well, both also showed not only the similarities but also differences of their era and how art was viewed.
As I inched my way toward the cliff, my legs were shaking uncontrollably. I could feel the coldness of the rock beneath my feet when my toes curled around the edge in one last futile attempt at survival. My heart was racing like a trapped bird, desperate to escape. Gazing down the sheer drop, I nearly fainted; my entire life flashed before my eyes. I could hear stones breaking free and fiercely tumbling down the hillside, plummeting into the dark abyss of the forbidding black water. The trees began to rapidly close in around me in a suffocating clench, and the piercing screams from my friends did little to ease the pain. The cool breeze felt like needles upon my bare skin, leaving a trail of goose bumps. The threatening mountains surrounding me seemed to grow more sinister with each passing moment, I felt myself fighting for air. The hot summer sun began to blacken while misty clouds loomed overhead. Trembling with anxiety, I shut my eyes, murmuring one last pathetic prayer. I gathered my last breath, hoping it would last a lifetime, took a step back and plun...
Eisenstein is a man blessed and cursed with an attention to detail. Soviet Cinema is in essence, montage, but how Eisenstein utilizes it to progress an intellectual conversation is much bespoke of montage and its capabilities. Unlike the manipulative montage of Kuleshov, or the relational editing sequence of Pudovkin, Eisenstein uses editing as a sequence of collisions that produce an associative meaning, despite different material (Eisenstein). However, for montage, all other factors are insignificant. What matters is the cut, and how the cut is related to other cuts. The following examples of the hieroglyphs are used by Eisenstein to illustrate a process of meaning generation which can be implemented in cinema
Therefore Billy Beane decides to set an unconventional strategy in order to be able to compete with other wealthy teams “out there”. His goal setting is based on the strategy he sets for his game in what he calls “an unfair game”. Manager Billy knows that decreasing cost is the main concern of the top executives of his team. The main shareholders and stakeholders have set their goals based on their conservative approaches. To be more specific, the top manager of Oakland Athletic is not willing to take any risk in order to pay more money to recruit better players.
Art has been always seen as a form to express self emotions and ideas; an artist creates an idea and shapes it by culturally known objects and forms to send encrypted message. Through the times both, ideas and materials used, separates art in to different periods and movements. In late 40’s and late 50’s two art and culture movements emerged, one from another. The first one, Lettrism, was under the aspiration to rewrite all human knowledge. From it another movement, Situationism, appeared. It was an anti-art movement which sought for Cultural Revolution. Both of these movements belong to wide and difficulty defined movement of experiment, a movement whose field is endless. Many different people create experimental films because of the variety of reasons. Some wishes to express their viewpoints which are unconventional. But most of them have an enthusiasm for medium itself. They yearn to explore what prospects the medium has and wishes to open new opportunities to create and to explore, as well as to educate. Experimental filmmaker, differently from mainstream filmmakers, wishes to step out from the orthodox notions. The overall appreciation is not the aim that the experimental filmmakers would seek for. Experimenters usually work on the film alone or with a small group, without the big budget. They intend to challenge the traditional ideas. And with intention to do so Lettrism tries to narrow the distance between the poetry and people’s lives, while Situationism tries to transform world into one that would exist in constant state of newness. Both of these avant-garde movements root from similar sources and have similar foundations. Nonetheless, they have different intentions for the art and culture world and these movements...
We must defy and repel the doubts that enter our minds that suggest that God is not present or alive, that He is not powerful or wise enough to assist us, and that He does not truly love us. Occasions of sin should be avoided and sin must be spurned at all costs. Moreover, avoiding anger, hatred, and irritableness is crucial as these vices can divert us from the path of holiness. Interestingly, the first letter of Saint Paul to Timothy also provides us with the spiritual ingredients that nourish us for the combat. As Christians, we ought to strive to lead a life of “righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.” (1 Tim 6:11) These virtues are the prerequisite qualities for persevering in the Faith amid the hardships of