The Emperor’s Nightingale (1948). Courtesy of Czech National Film Archive.
The Devil’s Mill
(Čertův mlýn, Jiri Trnka, Czechoslovakia 1949, 20 min., 35mm)
The Emperor’s Nightingale
(Císařův slavík, Jiri Trnka, Czechoslovakia 1948, 72 min., 35mm)
Animation of Jiri Trnka. Trnka’s first feature-length animation, The Emperor’s Nightingale is his adaptation of a classic Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale about a Chinese emperor enchanted by the song of a mechanical songbird. It is an enchanting animated jewel box awash in hallucinatory, storybook imagery. Preceded by The Devil’s Mill, in which a barrel organ grinder meets the devil on a mysterious moonlit night. This haunted house fable showcases Trnka’s atmospheric use of sound to conjure a macabre mood.