The cinema, created in Europe, in the Warsaw Treaty, in the Soviet Union and countries controlled by this, was not a cultural island, completely not paying attention to what happened in the capitalist West. Some political and cultural climate can be fiercely unfavorable, but many artists of the Soviet bloc have studied the art of the Berlin wall. One of the most amazing transcultural approaches was a small idyll, which the Czechoslovak audiovisual had with the French writer Hulio Verne. This Idill took place mainly, but not only thanks to the dedication of one of the great youth directors of all time: Karel Zeman.
Looking at Verna was not an abnormal option. For decades of their work (or their abbreviated versions) have been widely used as a door to initiate literature for young people and, at the same time, as a source of pleasure for adults. His trips to the center of the Earth, or in the lower part of the sea, or distant countries, inspired directors such as Georges Mess, a pioneer of a fantastic audiovisual. One of the results was a symbolic short film Lunar tripI remembered for his images of the moon, visualized as the face in which he affects the rocket.
Over the years, a drop of recognized adaptations of the work of the French writer has become rain. Large production of Disney as Twenty thousand underwater travel leagues (In the version of the director Richard Fleisher and Kirk Douglas and James Mason in the main roles), he gave a pistol of departure to a certain stage of Vernian splendor on the large screen in the middle of the last century. More ambitious American shows arrived (Return to the world in 80 daysIN Travel to the center of the Earth) and other productions around the world (Spain will subscribe to the fashionable years later with the contribution of Juan Antonio Bardem, Hesus Franco and, especially, Juan Picker Simon). In this context of the paper of the aforementioned Zeman presented Devil’s invention In 1958.
Czechoslovak Apostle Vernian images
At the same time, when the technician of special effects Ray Harrihausen began to impress the special effects that he developed for Hollywood productions, such as Great Gorilla or Monster of time remoteKarel Zeman was consolidated as a wizard of a real mixture of images with drawings and animation in Stop movementThe Czechoslovako field appeared with a feature film Travel to the backgroundWhich seemed to these interests and fantasies of a young audience: a group of children met dinosaurs and other miracles.
Devil’s invention He has already noted the path of what would be all adaptations of vernicular novels from Zeman. He puts on an adventure cinema of a friendly approach, which contained bonuses (both darts and messages) for an adult audience interested in fantastic narratives, but this privileged young audience. Everything is reported with caution and a certain pause, which can be destructive in comparison with the acceleration and vocation of the sensory stunning, which projects as the current audiovisual oriented to the children’s audience. Its viewing can be an excellent diversification of audiovisual diets if a clear lack of duplication in Spanish is assumed. Currently, the Filmin platform includes in its catalog Devil’s invention And Stolen broadcastsBoth in their original version, accompanied by subtitles in Spanish.
In Zeman’s Vernial works, there were charming adults and fearless young people who lived with adventures and Rams of Cast, but also children appeared who served as ties with young spectators. Violence and crime were considered, yes, but they are represented in a slightly alarming way. Images, aesthetically very careful, had a hybrid character: the characters involuntarily moved through real and decorated scenarios and paintings that mentioned engravings that illustrated the books of Verna.
Together with retro -futurist technologies and a camera of a fantastic monster, criticizing strokes appeared. Zeman seemed to be very knew that Vern was not only a prolific writer who published stories for supply for a conservative editor. The adventures that the French reported proceeded from the colonial imaginary, but sometimes they included some humanistic intuitions about the implicit barbarism of colonialism. And his calls for confidence in scientific progress included warnings about their possible use for destructive purposes.
Devil’s inventionFor example, he was an ignorant scientist who works in a new source of energy, his young assistant and a cruel aristocrat who wants to use research to create an explosive terrible. Later Stolen broadcastssince 1967, and On a cometFrom 1970, it also included criticism of strokes in relation to weapons, chauvinisms and desires of the authorities. The first, delightful, caricatures the arms race between countries, always trying to have the following Diabolic inventionThe theme seems to be, unfortunately. In the second film, the violent struggle for political power (and for the profit made from the trade in weapons) was not stopped even when the area of the earth acts from the rest of the planet and adheres to an air snake from the attraction that gave rise to this heavenly body in its way.
Utopia and dystopia in the same narrative
With Zeman, already in the last section of his career, two other directors of communist Czechoslovakia took a witness with two adaptations of the author of the book From the ground to the moon: Ludwick Rya and interesting old Lipsky. Their contribution can be slightly less suitable for children, but they can be potentially very useful for young people or spectators for adults.
Ludwick signed once The secret of the city was At the end of the seventies of the last century. Perhaps this is the most obvious political of all these adaptations (it allows a metaphorical reading of antagonism between the bloc, headed by the Soviet Union and the Blok, headed by the United States), and, perhaps, it is also the most gloomy. Having received a huge inheritance, two brothers decided to establish the city: luck, marked by a kind of socializing humanism, which is looking for a common good; And the city of steel, which uses the operation and competition for growth. The youth referent is not absent in history: the boy is looking for his father, and ultimately enters the plot of espionage, conspiracies and dangers.
The mysterious castle in Los -KarpatosInitially released in 1981, this is a kind of mixture of elements of romantic literature, Gothic terror and a mysterious narrative. Among the secret passages, imaginary and scientific technologies, the film may relate to the silent series Louis Feuylde (author of the book Judo or Vampires) and other classics of cinema in contact with fiction PulpThe field use of the mood is sometimes black, and sometimes absurd, always eccentric, makes it an atypical dish, which is not for all tastes.
This joy for lovers of the most specific fantastic and open cold can also serve as an introduction into an excited and crowded filmography and too little known to his director. Lipski signed approaches, as a rule, various narratives in the orbit of mass culture are parodied: detective literature, futuristic science fiction, Western and what was missing. In this case, he also decided to convey the original text to a strange place and at the same time in his filmography: a kind of rarely comic aesthetics. The film is available on the Cultpix platform.