style analysis 3

we talked about all the different things around us that influence our visual understanding. that is different with younger children who are still able to see the world pure without all the interpretations and often wrong visions that corrupt our brain more and more the older we get and the more we download into our internal harddrive. a lot of famous artists, like PICASSO, MATISSE and MIRO, used children drawings for inspiration because they are not following some artistic influence yet. the only difference between drawings of different children is the way they grow up, happy, free, without pressure – or not. that’s why children drawings all over the world and independent from their culture look similar. following are some beautiful examples of children – ‘art’ I found on different websites, and art of the masters that shows clearly the influence. further images from the JOHN & FAITH HUBLEY animated shorts MOONBIRD and ADVENTURES OF AN *, where you will notice the reference to PICASSO and to children art. that is as well the case in a lot of shorts from ZAGREB FILM, I show only a few examples here.

© picasso / miro / john & faith hubley / zagreb film / unknown children

zagreb style 6

the OSCAR-nominated animated short SATIEMANIA was produced in 1978 by ZDENKO GASPAROVIC for ZAGREB film. the comically violent film is based on the piano music of ERIC SATIE, it is a satirical portrait of the city-jungle with its excesses, the brothels and bars. following are some captured moments.

© zagreb film / zdenko gasparovic

zagreb style 5

TYPHUS, or in the original language – TIFUSARI, was produced by ZAGREB FILM in 1963, by a very successful team – script and direction VATROSLAV MIMICA, design and backgrounds ALEKSANDAR MARKS and animation VLADIMIR JUTRISA. the film is apparently MIMICA’S tribute to the dead of WW2, he was a partisan fighter himself. very powerful black/white images similar to woodcuts and close to the artwork of KAETHE KOLLWITZ, ERNST BARLACH and ERICH HECKEL show the eerie world of hallucinations caused by typhoid. following are some captured images of the 8 min short.

© zagreb film

zagreb style 4

THE BLACKSMITH’S APPRENTICE is a short from the ZAGREB-film studio produced in 1961, a year where the studio released as well the masterpieces DON QUIXOTE and ERSATZ. ZLATKO BOUREK did the script, the design, directed and painted the backgrounds. only the animation was done by JOSIP PECINKA. I love the BG-style, judge yourself in the recreated pans and scenes below. but I am sorry to say – that’s the only thing I like, the story is more than lame and the character-design is horrible. I add one captured image with some of the ‘creatures’. it is supposed to be inspired by HIERONYMOUS BOSCH. well, I don’t think so.

© zagreb film

happy end

this is some more about the ZAGREB-FILM production – HAPPY END. in my post yesterday I mentioned the pictures of the film I found in two books. they made me curious and were the reason I wanted to see the whole film. here now are these black/white stills together with the creators of HAPPY END and a lot of other zagreb-film productions.

VATROSLAV MIMICA in the 60s

ALEKSANDAR MARKS 1962

ZLATKO BOUREK 1968

THE ZAGREB FILM CAMERA DEPARTMENT in the 60s

© zagreb film

zagreb style 3

in the mid-eighties I contacted STUDIO ZAGREB and after some negotiations I was able to order VHS-copies of my favorite zagreb-film shorts from the fifties and sixties. in total – 28 films! the studio made video copies just for me, that’s why it had it’s price. unfortunately about half of the shorts were in a very bad condition, the prints they used had changed colors, and the transfer was not color- and light-corrected. but I was very happy to have the films I always wanted to see, since I only knew them from descriptions and pictures in a book about zagreb animation.
I am not sure what is left from these films after the war in yugoslavia in the nineties, hopefully they were able to save the master negatives. well, VHS is not the best archive material. that’s why I transferred the original VHS tapes in the end-nineties digitally, and I burned them additional onto DVD’s.
after I had started with my archeology-hobby and the recreation of animation-backgrounds, I checked the zagreb-archives as well. the shorts, where I really wanted to see the BG’s, were mostly in a very bad color- and image condition. but recently I began to restore some of them. it is a pretty time-consuming and difficult job, since I have no idea how the original colors looked like. a while ago I started already to post some captured scenes of my favorite zagreb-shorts. but today is the PREMIERE of the first recreated pans of a short that probably not too many have seen.
HAPPY END was created in 1959, written and directed by VATROSLAV MIMICA, designed by ALEKSANDAR MARKS, animation VLADIMIR JUTRISA, backgrounds ZLATKO BOUREK. after I had seen only one black/white image from the film in the early sixties I wanted to see this short. it took a while! the concept is a bit weird, the film starts at the end and moves forward to the beginning. but – the style is amazing, the surrealistic scenes are very long and it looks like DALI had been hired as consultant. unfortunately most of the short is too light, no color at all, even the best software can’t help. but I was able to at least recreate a few longer pans and want to show them to you.

© zagreb film

zagreb style 2

THE INSPECTOR RETURNS HOME, studio zagreb 1959. written and directed by VATROSLAV MIMICA (born 1923), designed by ALEKSANDAR MARKS (1922 – 2002), animation by VLADIMIR JUTRISA (1923 – 1984), backgrounds by ZLATKO BOUREK (born 1929). the short does not really have a recognizable story. but it is not important for me, lookwise it is a masterpiece – the style is so different from everything that had been done before. imagine these BG’s at the end of the fifties. collages that remind you more of some abstract picasso artwork, and the characterdesign that is not following any design-rules. no wonder the film started a new expressionistic look in zagreb films. its makers were the leading talent of the studio for the next decade. here are a few captured scenes.

© zagreb film

inspired

on my lecture trips over here in asia I have a chance to meet and talk to a lot of students. what you wanna know of course is, what inspires them, who are their favorite artists. maybe there is someone
they admire and want to do something similar in their future. what is kind of depressing that I very rare get a clear answer. only very few have a raw model they wanna follow. even worse, only a few are even informed about successful artists in the animation field. the most I hear is – we love anime. well… I don’t know what is going wrong, do I meet the wrong people? I would expect with all the information you can get through the internet there is a bit more enthusiasm.
following I have collected some designs of the artists who inspired me when I was a student. ‘giants’ like EYVIND EARLE, KEN ANDERSON, WALT PEREGOY, JOHN HUBLEY, a lot of artists from ZAGREB FILM STUDIO, JIRI TRNKA, TERRY GILLIAM + MONTHY PYTHON, comic strip legends like ANDREE FRANQUIN, MORT DRUCKER, ALBERT UDERZO and HUGO PRATT, – and a german comic series MECKY.

© disney enterprises, inc, HUBLEY, ZAGREB FILM, JIRI TRNKA, TERRY GILLIAM, ANDREE FRANQUIN, MORT DRUCKER, ALBERT UDERZO, HUGO PRATT, SPRINGER-HOER ZU

zagreb style 1

ALONE was produced by ZAGREB FILM in 1958, script and direction bt VATROSLAV MIMICA, design ALEKSANDER MARKS. again the story is not the best but the style of the film is interesting. the same for the second compilation of scenes, THE INSPECTOR RETURNS HOME from 1959. as well directed by MIMICA and design by MARKS, backgrounds by ZLATKO BOUREK. very new at that time was the collage style of the film. not only the BG’s even the character is put together from cut-out pieces. I saw these films for the first time when I started to study the end of the sixties, and they influenced my own designs a lot as you can see in the last comp.

© zagreb film

boomerang

the captured images are from the 1962 ZAGREB FILM short BOOMERANG, directed, designed and animated by BORIS KOLAR, backgrounds ZLATKO BOUREK. similar to the story of HUBLEY’S THE HOLE this political parable is about generals, the army and a butterfly that nearly causes a nuclear war. a very typical and risky film for the studio in the sixties, surrounded by butterflies and generals. the story is a bit lame but I love the style of the characters and the backgrounds. the zagreb films were very much influenced by the UPA style and disney’s ( or better WARD KIMBALL’S ) more stylized shorts. but you can see as well a huge influence of modern european art in their designs.

© zagreb film

la peau de chagrin

LA PEAU DE CHAGRIN is a novel written by honore de balzac in 1831. it is about a man, raphael, who finds a powerful talisman that grants him any wish but shrinks with each use. the user dies when it shrinks to zero. be careful what you wish – it could kill you.

ZAGREB FILM started in the early fifties. in a later post I will go more into details of the studios history and its productions.

here, first, are some images of the studio’s LA PEAU DE CHAGRIN from 1960. script dragutin vunak and tomislav butorac, directed and designed by VLADIMIR KRISTL , animated by zlatko grgic, backgrounds by zvonimir loncaric.

raphael is in black, pauline in lily white, the devil in red. the backgrounds are very stylish, a masterpiece from the jugoslawian studio.

© zagreb film