{"id":4882,"date":"2014-09-15T08:39:54","date_gmt":"2014-09-15T07:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=4882"},"modified":"2014-09-21T11:34:17","modified_gmt":"2014-09-21T10:34:17","slug":"a-jesters-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2014\/09\/15\/a-jesters-tale\/","title":{"rendered":"A Jester’s Tale"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
A Jester\u2019s Tale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\nFormat:<\/B> DVD

\nRelease date:<\/B> 15 September 2014

\nDistributor:<\/B> Second Run

\nDirector:<\/B> Karel Zeman

\nWriters:<\/B> Pavel Jur\u00e1cek, Radovan Kr\u00e1tk\u00fd, Karel Zeman

\nCast:<\/B> Petr Kostka, Em\u00edlia V\u00e1\u0161\u00e1ryov\u00e1, Miroslav Holub

\nOriginal title:<\/B> Bl\u00e1znova kronika<\/i>

\nCzechoslovakia 1964

\n81 mins\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A Jester\u2019s Tale<\/I> (1964) is a delightful and entertaining period piece that combines live action and animated engravings in an original and ingenious way. A farmer named Petr is happily ploughing his field when a group of soldiers press gang him into joining the king\u2019s army. Petr\u2019s independent and ironic attitude makes him completely unsuited to army life. As the army marches into battle in the Thirty Years\u2019 War, Petr stumbles over rocks and is distracted by forget-me-nots. <\/p>\n

In a characteristically humorous turn of events, our hero manages to break his rifle stand, and is forced to shoot from ground level, which serendipitously saves him and an ageing fellow soldier from the firing line. Things begin to look up as the pair find themselves the only survivors of the battle, gaily make off with a carriage full of loot, and even pick up a pretty peasant along the way. But when the three friends are surrounded by enemy soldiers once more, they decide to impersonate the king, his steward and his jester…<\/p>\n

Those who are already connoisseurs of the sly humour and sheer inventiveness of Czechoslovak New Wave cinema will not be disappointed with this 1964 instalment, directed by Karel Zeman. The political liberalisation that took place in 1960s Czechoslovakia meant that filmmakers were blessed with an enviable cross between relative artistic freedom and central planning\u2019s guaranteed funding and facilities. Directors of the time were particularly keen to make films about everyday life, previously a tricky subject: Socialist Realism prescribed films that glorified a heroic past or looked forward to an ideal future when Communism\u2019s contemporary difficulties would be ironed out.<\/p>\n

Films by documentary-influenced directors like Milo\u0161 Forman and Ivan Passer turned their lens on a contemporary setting, but even historical films like A Jester\u2019s Tale<\/I> had something to say about everyday life. Petr is a perfect example of an individualist who does everything he can to avoid the honourable roles that society attempts to impose on him, because he sees the hollow reality behind the hype. <\/p>\n

Zeman makes a mockery of war by representing it through animation. There is something innately irreverent about taking static book illustrations and bringing them to life, and all the more when animation allows unlikely events, like the rank and file soldiers getting their heads blown off in unison. It will remind many viewers of the Monty Python animations by Terry Gilliam, who cites Zeman as one of his influences, along with Polish animator Walerian Borowczyk<\/a>. Zeman stands out for his ability to combine live action and animation in the same frame, to the magical point where it\u2019s hard to tell where the drawings end and reality begins.<\/p>\n

In his engaging liner notes, Ian Haydn Smith tantalises us with descriptions of Zeman\u2019s early shorts, including a popular series of satirical puppet films and Inspiration<\/i>, a lyrical animation of glass. At just 81 minutes\u2019 running time, A Jester\u2019s Tale<\/I> leaves some spare space on a DVD, so any of these shorts would have been a welcome addition to this release.<\/p>\n

The Second Run DVD is presented in a new anamorphic digital transfer and features a new essay on the film by writer and book editor Ian Haydn Smith.<\/div>\n

Alison Frank<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Karel Zeman’s delightful and entertaining period piece combines live action and animation in an original and ingenious way.
\nReview by Alison Frank<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,3],"tags":[169,135,61,134,1017,1018],"class_list":["post-4882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-check-it-out","category-dvds-and-blu-rays","tag-60s-cinema","tag-animation","tag-czech-cinema","tag-eastern-european-cinema","tag-karel-zeman","tag-new-wave"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/purUP-1gK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1495,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2011\/01\/28\/morgan-a-suitable-case-for-treatment\/","url_meta":{"origin":4882,"position":0},"title":"Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"January 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"With all of these influences and cultural winds in the air - and at the tail end of a cycle of Swinging London films - Reisz entered into the world of Laing and counter-culture cinema with Morgan. 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