Fantastic Planet

Fantastic Planet 1973

7.60

On the planet Ygam, the Draags, extremely technologically and spiritually advanced blue humanoids, consider the tiny Oms, human beings descendants of Terra's inhabitants, as ignorant animals. Those who live in slavery are treated as simple pets and used to entertain Draag children; those who live hidden in the hostile wilderness of the planet are periodically hunted and ruthlessly slaughtered as if they were vermin.

1973

Darkness, Light, Darkness

Darkness, Light, Darkness 1989

7.60

A human body gradually reconstructs itself as its various component parts crowd themselves into a small room and eventually, after much experimentation, sort out which part goes where.

1989

The Pied Piper

The Pied Piper 1988

7.40

A darkly brilliant stop-motion adaptation of The Pied Piper of Hamelin about a plague of rats that punish townsfolk corrupt with greed. One of Czechoslovakia's most ambitious animation projects of the 1980s, notable for its unusual dark art direction, innovative animation techniques and use of a fictitious language.

1988

Dimensions of Dialogue

Dimensions of Dialogue 1983

7.64

Three surreal depictions of failures of communication that occur on all levels of human society.

1983

The Flying Sneaker

The Flying Sneaker 1991

6.20

Little Rehor isn't allowed to play with the other boys. His only friend is the girl next door, Luci. Rehor's father is doctor on a boat and he has sent Rehor a package with butterfly larvae. When they hatch he discover a fairy who can do magic tricks.

1991

The Pit, the Pendulum and Hope

The Pit, the Pendulum and Hope 1983

6.80

Animated short film based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" and Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam's "A Torture by Hope".

1983

When the Oak Leaves Fall

When the Oak Leaves Fall 1991

8.30

The story is a celebration of the cleverness and wit of the simple peasant Čupera, who triumphs not only over the demon of alcohol, but also over the bureaucratically persistent and thorough devil. The hell that the farmer goes through during the withdrawal process is stylized as a shantytown, a galley with a prison and a dehumanized night club.

1991

Die Irrfahrten des Odysseus

Die Irrfahrten des Odysseus 1986

7.00

On a lonely island, where Odysseus has to serve the nymph Calypso, he remembers his great adventures: the glorious victory over Troy; the curse of the sea god Poseidon, whose son he overpowered; the wrestling with Circe, the Lotophagi, the Sirens with their enticing death song and the battle with the bloodthirsty Scylla. Penelope, his wife, meanwhile fights against intrusive suitors who want to kill Odysseus. Athena sends him his son as a savior, who defeats Proteus, Poseidon's vassal. Odysseus is able to free himself from Calypso. Disguised as a beggar, he returns home, punishes the suitors who are after his money and is reunited with Penelope.

1986

Oil Gobblers

Oil Gobblers 1988

6.60

A zoologist and a biochemist go out into an oilfield with a cameraman and filmmaker to observe and study the elusive oil gobblers.

1988

Castle of Otranto

Castle of Otranto 1977

6.60

An adaptation of the 1764 work of the same name, the first Gothic novel. In this mockumentary, the amateur archaeologist Dr. Vozáb has set to prove that the supernatural ghost love story takes place not in Italy, but in Otranto Castle near Náchod in Czechoslovakia.

1977

Briar-Rose or the Sleeping Beauty

Briar-Rose or the Sleeping Beauty 1990

6.20

On her fifteenth birthday the princess finds a diary written by her mother when she was young. The diary tells of the Queen's secret, early love. The Princess goes into the forest to meet her mother's former lover. When she looks into his eyes, she realizes why her mother had fallen in love...

1990

Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a Sailor from York

Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a Sailor from York 1982

7.00

The picture, unlike the other film adaptations of the story, focuses much more on Crusoe’s life before and after his stay on the island. Following the principle of setting the novel right, it describes Crusoe’s experiences with delicate irony and understanding.

1982

Mean Barbara

Mean Barbara 1989

9.30

When the village school master discovers the body of a mean-spirited, miserly old woman, with whom he has had a disagreement, he decides to dispose of the body himself without alerting anyone else to it, but when the body is discovered by another villager the same cycle begins again, with the body eventually passing through the hands of half of the village.

1989

Players

Players 1982

1

Cartoon tennis match, with players based on Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe.

1982

The Vanished World of Gloves

The Vanished World of Gloves 1982

7.20

Using an array of gloves in different styles and from different historical periods, the film is a short history of the cinema - from silent movies via pastiches of Buñuel and Fellini and Close Encounters of the Third Kind to a futurist junkyard where tin cans become animated police cars in a city of urban decay.

1982

Leonardo's Diary

Leonardo's Diary 1972

6.50

Animated drawings inspired by Leonardo da Vinci are intercut with seemingly unrelated (but in fact strangely similar) live-action scenes.

1972