Karel Zeman was a brilliant Czech animator who produced magical films, filled with surrealist whimsy. I stayed up late many a night in my youth in order to watch the fruits of his fertile imagination flicker across the screen of our old RCA television set.

His special effects were astonishing for their time, employing simple, in-camera optical effects, flawless stop-action animation, and live-action to produce stunningly beautiful imagery that looked as if it came straight out of an engraving by Gustave Doré. His work has inspired Terry Gilliam of Monty Python, and Wes Anderson, among many others. Anderson paid homage to Zeman in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and Gilliam even went so far as to remake Zeman's film, The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (AKA Baron Prášil), with decidedly mixed results.

Zeman's Munchausen is an unqualified masterpiece of fantastic cinema that is, inexplicably, unavailable in the US on DVD, and extremely difficult to find everywhere else. Fortunately, several clips are available on YouTube, so do yourself a favor and spend some time watching them. You'll be glad you did.

[Link: The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (review)]
[Link: Baron Prášil Clips 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
[Link: The Special Effects of Karel Zeman Part I and Part II]
[Link: Karel Zeman Short Subjects]

Posted by MrBaliHai at 6:37 PM | Permalink

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It's been quite a while since I've found anything worthy of adding to my Vintage Oceania collection, but today I stumbled upon this lovely illustration from the April 29, 1871 issue of Harper's Weekly, that depicts a Maori war canoe race in New Zealand. I really like the feathered, big-nosed figurehead on the prow. I wonder who the artist was? Unfortunately, I can't find any signature.

UPDATE: one of my sharp-eyed readers located the artist's signature at the bottom lefthand side of the illustration. After looking at it under high magnification, I've determined that it's "G. Durand", a 19th-century engraver who did indeed work for Harper's.

[Link: Vintage Oceania gallery]

Posted by MrBaliHai at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)