Word: trnka
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Many years ago Hans Christian Anderson wrote a fairy tale about a Chinese Emperor and his golden-voiced nightingale. Jiri Trnka has taken the classic folk story and transformed it into a charming, sophisticated screen production. To compare this Czechoslovakian movie with any other would be impossible, for here is not only a fine picture, but a completely new art form in the theatre...
...Trnka, an artist and sculptor in his own right, has used but two live actors. All the other parts are played by cleverly carved wooden figurines. Using animated cartoon technique, Trnka filmed each frame of the movie separately-taking as many as twenty shots for a simple movement of an arm. The production is in Nu-Agfa color, which lends a soft, warm tone to the action...
Although there have been other artistic motion pictures, Trnka's work does very well without the lavish surrealism of predecessors like "The Red Shoes" and "Tales of Hoffman." And its delicacy and restraint can not help but charm an audience...
...Emperor's Nightingale (Rembrandt Films) is the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, enacted by puppets in the soft hues of Nu-Agfa Color. Produced in Czechoslovakia by Jiri Trnka, the U.S. version keeps the original film's excellent score, adds a well-written narration by Phyllis McGinley, spoken by Boris Karloff in a Dutch-uncle mood...