Calgary Public Library

Three fantastic journeys by Karel Zeman, Journey to the beginning of time ; Invention for destruction ; Fabulous Baron Munchausen, written and directed by Karel Zeman; Criterion Collection

cze

videorecording

Three fantastic journeys by Karel Zeman

written and directed by Karel Zeman; Criterion Collection

248

Criterion collection, 1015, 1016, 1017

Journey to the beginning of time ; Invention for destruction ; Fabulous Baron Munchausen

"A one-of-a-kind silver-screen illusionist, Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman devoted his career to transporting viewers to realms beyond their wildest imagining. The deft, breathtaking combinations of life action and animation techniques that he pioneered in the postwar years earned him comparisons to legends such as Georges Méliès, and an array of followers that includes Jan Švankmajer, Terry Gilliam, and Wes Anderson. Presented here are three of Zeman's most enchanting fantasies--a boys' adventure into the mists of prehistory, a Jules Verne-derived flight of fancy, and an exotic eighteenth-century tall tale--all of them treasure chests of wondrous sights, tactile textures, and headlong yarn-spinning that helped put Czechoslovak cinema on the international map"--ContainerJourney to the beginning of time (1955) (84 min.) : The youngest of four boys one day finds a fossil of a trilobite. So his older friends take him on journey through prehistory to see real live trilobites and dinosaursInvention for destruction (1958) (81 min.) : An evil millionaire named Artigas plans to use a super-explosive device to conquer the world from his headquarters inside an enormous volcanoThe Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1961/1962) (83 min.) : Outrageous Baron Munchausen tells of his many adventures, from meeting the Man in the Moon to defeating a Turkish army all by himselfFeatures: New 4K digital restorations of all three films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks; U.S.-release version of Journey to the Beginning of Time from 1960; Alternate English-dubbed soundtrack for Invention of Destruction, and the opening sequence of the 1961 U.S.-release version; New programs with animation filmmaker John Stevenson and special-effects artists Phil Tippett and Jim Aupperle discussion director Karel Zeman and his complex visual trickery; Four early short films by Zeman: A Christmas Dream (1945), A Horseshoe For Luck 1946), Inspiration (1949), and King Laura (1950). Film Adventurer: Karel Zeman, a 2015 documentary about the director, featuring filmmakers Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam, illustrator Ludmila Zeman, and others; Short documentaries produced by the Karel Zeman Museum profiling the director and detailing the production and effects of all three films; Restoration demonstrations and an interview with restoration supervisor James Mockoski; Trailers; New English subtitles translations; Plus an essay by film critic Michael Atkinson, along with deluxe pop-up art

general

animation

Journey to the beginning of timeInvention for destructionFabulous Baron Munchausen