Mature Mastery (1962-65). Courtesy of Czech National Film Archive.
(Jiri Trnka, Czechoslovakia 1962–65, 74 min., DCP)
Animation of Jiri Trnka. In the 1960s, at the height of his artistic output, Trnka turned to increasingly dark, surreal, satirical, and politically defiant subject matter. The result was a string of visually innovative, modernist masterpieces that encompass dystopian science fiction, religious parody, and, in his final crowning achievement, an impassioned protest against state censorship. This shorts program includes: Passion (1962), in which a boy’s need for speed grows up along with him; Cybernetic Grandma (1962), a satire on automization; Archangel Gabriel and Mistress Goose (1964), a bawdy, medieval-set tale based on a story from The Decameron; and The Hand (1965), Trnka’s final work about toiling under the restrictions of a totalitarian government.