One of the great Czech filmmakers, JAN SVANKMAJER was born in 1934 in Prague where he still lives. He trained at the Institute of Applied Arts from 1950 to 1954 and then at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts. He soon became involved in the Theatre of Masks and the famous Black Theatre, before entering the Laterna Magika Puppet Theatre where he first encountered film. In 1970 he met his wife, the surrealist painter Eva Svankmajerova, and the late Vratislav Effenberger, the leading theoretician of the Czech Surrealist Group, which Svankmajer joined and of which he still remains a member.

JAN SVANKMAJER

Today he is one of the most celebrated animators in the world. His best known works are probably the feature films Alice (1988), Faust (1994), Conspirators of Pleasure (1996), Little Otik (2000) and Lunacy (2005)

“I never call myself an animated filmmaker because I am interested not in animation techniques or creating a complete illusion, but in bringing life to everyday objects.”

“For me, animated film is about magic. This is how magic becomes part of daily life, invading daily life.... Magic enters into a quite ordinary contact with mundane things ... (making) reality seem doubtful. ”

“I am not interested in animated film in its totality. I am only interested in the technical aspect of the craft in relation to what I want to express and technique is the crucial medium through which I can endow real objects with a magical power of their own. This is how magic becomes part of daily life, invading daily life, magic enters into quite ordinary contact with mundane things. The normal contact that people are accustomed to suddenly acquires a different dimension, one that makes reality appear doubtful.”

One of Jan’s most famous books, ‘The Unsilvered Screen’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBnK3JgzkHA

Meat Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCMYMo6il14

Little Otik

Jan Svankmajor had a huge impact on future animators because of the way he revolutionized the way in which he styled his films eg. Little Otik, as it was, “A handmade dream”. - New York Times and “Magnificently twisted black comedy” – L.A. Weekly. ”Must be the smartest and most disturbing movie about parenting in ages”. Other directors have followed in Jan’s footsteps, in order to create something as interesting as Jan’s work. We can see that directors such as James Wan and Drew Goddard got their inspiration from Jan.