+ intro by musician and Starve Acre composer Matthew Herbert (Wednesday 4 September only)
Jan Svankmajer on ‘Little Otík’
Little Otík is based on a folk tale best known from the version by K.J. Erben. What attracted you to the subject?
In the early ’70s Eva [Svankmajerová] was looking for a ‘drastic’ fairytale that she could make into an animated short film. Otesánek was her final choice; she had illustrated the story earlier for a children’s book. She asked me to help her with the script, and suddenly I realised what a great subject I was handling. That it was, in effect, a topical version of the Faust myth: a rebellion against nature and the tragic dimension of that rebellion. In short, I stole the story from Eva and subsequently integrated her original idea into the final shape of my script.
You say the name Otesánek is untranslatable, but there’s a lot of play in the dialogue about the baby’s real name (Otík) and the character in the folk tale (Otesánek). What is the significance of this?
The word Otesánek is a blend of the word to hew and the diminutive noun ending ‘ánek’, used mostly for words characterising children. Figuratively the word Otesánek is used in Czech to characterise a person who devours and digests everything, not only food.
Most of your features combine puppets with live actors, and the central characters exist as both puppets and real people. But in Little Otík none of the characters change their status. Is this a new departure?
Little Otík differs from my previous films mainly by being a version of a traditionally constructed story with normal dialogue. That’s not the case with Alice or Faust, and certainly not with Conspirators of Pleasure. In this sense Little Otík is the most conventional of my films. In its subject matter, though, it’s quite close to Faust and, in showing the omnipotence of desire, to Conspirators of Pleasure. This is only another angle on the subjects that obsess me, not a new departure in my work.
In many folk tales a child is threatened by an ogre or wild beast. In Little Otík , by contrast, the child has become an ogre. What was the intention behind this reversal?
I do not work with intentions. Pursuing intentions leads to making films as theses. That has nothing to do with freedom of the imagination. It’s common knowledge that the subconscious components of our mind are just as meaningful as the conscious. So my preference is for post facto interpretation rather than intention. In Little Otík the child devours its ‘parents’. Otík is the product of their desire, their rebellion against nature. This is not a child in the real sense of the word, but the materialisation of desire, of rebellion. That’s the tragic dimension of the human destiny – it’s impossible to live without rebelling against the human lot.
That is the essence of freedom. The Marquis de Sade invoked nature in his early texts, but in later works he condemned it, calling it a whore and a murderess, rebelling against it. But between de Sade and the present there’s a history of shocking experiences in human civilisation. Without that terrible ambivalence we are unable to face anything, certainly not nature. That’s why we end our rebellions on our knees.
Little Otík is much longer than your other features and its narrative progression is more orthodox. Was this a matter of being faithful to the original story?
Storytelling, whatever the story, has its own laws. It differs from recounting a dream (as in Alice). Similarly, when you start using conventional dialogue, you’ve got to realise the film will be longer. A film told through dialogue (without a narrator) always works in a roundabout way, which requires time; figurative speech – the language of pictures and symbols – is more direct and consequently shorter. Little Otík is long because I made a wrong estimate of the roundabout way. In other words, it involved a rather different way of working than I have used so far.
The telling of Erben’s original tale takes the form of two-dimensional animation. What is its function within the film?
Erben’s tale read by Alzbetka is an independent animated short that has an important role in the film, in that it gives the spectator a clear picture of the original myth, unadulterated by the deformations of present-day society. It is this that provides the source of Alzbetka’s ‘knowledge’ and her ‘counter activity’. Thus animated, the Erben tale could stand on its own (with minor alterations) as an independent short film. It’s a film within a film.
The surrealist group you belong to has participated in various exhibitions in Prague since the fall of communism. Does this newfound recognition pose a threat?
The fact that since November 1989 the group has arranged a number of public events, including the issuing of the review Analogon, and has tried to acquaint the broader public with its activities doesn’t mean it has become integrated into Czech culture. Surrealism has always been a minority affair, even in the ’30s. In so far as it was perceived at all it was considered to be an abscess on the body of Czech culture. Today the rabid attacks of the fascist establishment and Stalinist lackeys have been replaced by indifference and ignorance. For art historians surrealism has long been dead, which is why they are only interested in historical surrealism and ignore the present movement. I do not think we are in any danger of ‘recognition’.
You once described Walt Disney as one of the leading destroyers of European culture. What is being destroyed and how can this be resisted?
Disney is among the greatest makers of ‘art for children’. I have always held that no special art for children simply exists, and what passes for it embodies either the birch (discipline) or lucre (profit). ‘Art for children’ is dangerous in that it participates either in the taming of the child’s soul or the bringing up of consumers of mass culture. I am afraid a child reared on current Disney produce will find it difficult to get used to more sophisticated kinds of art and will assume his/her place in the ranks of viewers of idiotic television serials. That doesn’t mean that works with imaginative value may not occasionally crop up in consumer culture – for instance, King Kong. But I fear their number is dwindling.
Peter Hames, Sight and Sound, October 2001
LITTLE OTÍK (OTESÁNEK)
Director: Jan Svankmajer
©/Production Company: Athanor
©/In association with: Barrandov Biografia, FilmFour
In co-production with: Illuminations Films
With financial contributions from: State Fund of the Czech Republic, Czech Literary Fund Foundation, Ren Corporation Ltd, Cesky K Ltd
Producer: Jaromír Kallista
Co-production: Keith Griffiths
Production Accountant: Zdena Cerna
Production Manager: Vera Ferdová
UK Production Manager: Pinky Ghundale
Studio Manager: Tomás Kalous
Production Assistant: Miroslav Jirkovsky
Assistant Directors: Martin Kublák, Tijn Po
Script Supervisor: Shimon Shemtov
Screenplay and Story: Jan Svankmajer
Director of Photography: Juraj Galvánek
Additional Photography: Jan Ruzicka
Assistant Cameraman: Peter Necas
Grips: Joseph Cernusak, Miroslav Zika
Chief Lighting Technician: Jirí Curin
Lighting Technicians: Ladislav Marek, Zdenek Cermak, Zdenek Vodvárka
Stills Photography: Boris Baromykin
Computer Special Effects: Martin Stejskal
Animation: Bedrich Glaser, Martin Kublák
Animated Film/Costumes: Eva Svankmajerová
Animation Storyboard Artist: Vaclav Svankmajer
Animation Colourists: Eliska Schmidtová, Joseph Cahill
Puppets/Props: Joseph Cahill, Martin Kublák, Shimon Shemtov, Daniel Bird
Film Editing: Marie Zemanová
Assistant Editors: Daniel Bird, Jitka Frimlová, Adela Spaljová
Artistic Direction: Eva Svankmajerová, Jan Svankmajer
Assistant Art Director: Vaclav Svankmajer
Set Dresser: Karel Vanásek
Propmen: Karel Jilek, Karel Cihlar
Set Construction Foreman: Tomás Kalous
Set Construction: Roman Dergam, Jirí Placata, Jan Skala, Martin Fiser
Costumes/Props/Set Design: Jan Svankmajer
Costumes: Katerina Rudova, Miroslava Gailová, Katerina Stejskalová
Latex Casts: Jirí Sram
Wardrobe: Katerina Rudova
Make-up: Alena Sedova, Bozena Doslá
Image Colour Correction: Vladimir Altman
Optical Effects: Pavel Kryml, Ivan Haták
Sound: Ivo Spalj
Sound Assistants: Robert Dufek, Matej Kratochvil, Igor Pokorny, Radovan Horak
Additional Sound Services: Jaroslav Sodomka, Alena Durlinová, Vaclav Hanousek
Sound Mix: Ivo Spalj, Pavel Spatny
Sound Mix Assistant: Pavel Stverák
Sound Effects: Jitka Zvirocká, Olga Cechová, Zdenek Dusek, Maria Novotná, Karel Süssmilch
Animal Training: Fauna Film Praha, Ota Bares, David Schmidt
Cast
Veronika Zilková (Bozena Horáková)
Jan Hartl (Karel Horák)
Jaroslava Kretschmerová (Mrs Stádlerová)
Pavel Novy (Frantisek Stádler)
Kristina Adamcová (Alzbetka)
Dagmar Stríbrná (Mrs Správcová, the caretaker)
Zdenek Kozák (Mr Zlábek)
Gustav Vondrácek (Mládek, the postman)
Arnost Goldflam (gynaecologist)
Jitka Smutná (Bulánková, the social worker)
Jirí Lábus (policeman at station)
Radek Holub (young postman)
Jan Jirán (Karluv, co-worker in office)
Zdenek Palusga (uniformed policeman)
Frantisek Polata (plainclothes policeman 1)
Vaclav Jezek (plainclothes policeman 2)
Mikes (the cat)
Josef Cahill
Marie Maresová
Anna Wetlinská
Vojtech Bernatsky
Olga Cechová
Jirí Machácek
Tomás Hanák
Josef Chodora
Barbora Cejnarová
Hana Krehaková
Kamila Simberska
Tomas Vott
Miroslav Soban
Milena Podhajská
Karel Vidimsky
Denisa Kucabová
Karolina Sebestová
Zuzana Zahradková
Patricie Kasiková
Tomas Cejnar
Matej Sturm
Matyas Kohlicek
Lukas Chadima
Vincent Navratil
Jan Durkac
Marie Brozovská
Karolina
Czech Republic/UK/Japan 2000©
131 mins
35mm
ROOTS, RITUALS AND PHANTASMAGORIA
Dead of Night + A Winter’s Dale
Mon 2 Sep 20:40; Sat 14 Sep 12:30
Little Otik Otesánek
Wed 4 Sep 20:15 + intro by musician and Starve Acre composer Matthew Herbert; Sat 21 Sep 17:45
Against the Crowd: Murrain + intro by novelist Andrew Michael Hurley + Omnibus: Whistle and I’ll Come to You
Sat 7 Sep 18:20
Play for Today: Robin Redbreast
Mon 9 Sep 18:30
Don’t Look Now
Tue 10 Sep 20:45; Thu 26 Sep 20:50; Sun 29 Sep 18:10
A Ghost Story for Christmas: A Warning to the Curious + Beasts: Baby
Fri 13 Sep 18:15
Eraserhead
Fri 13 Sep 20:45; Tue 1 Oct 21:00; Mon 7 Oct 18:10
Screenplay: White Lady + intro by filmmaker and season curator Daniel Kokotajlo + Children of the Stones (episode 1)
Mon 16 Sep 20:40
The Shout + Lonely Water (aka The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water)
Wed 18 Sep 18:10 + Q&A with filmmakers Daniel Kokotajlo and Mark Jenkin; Sat 21 Sep 15:00; Wed 2 Oct 20:50
The Hunger
Thu 19 Sep 20:35; Sun 6 Oct 18:10
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