Krysař

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Krysař

French DVD cover
Directed by Jiří Barta
Written by Kamil Pixa
Music by Michael Kocáb
Cinematography Vladimír Malík
Ivan Pit
Editing by Helena Lebdusková
Release date(s) 1985 (Czechoslovakia)
Running time 53 min
Country Czechoslovakia/West Germany
Language Czech
IMDb profile

Krysař is a 1985 Czechoslovakian stop motion-animated feature film directed by Jiří Barta. Its most common English-language title is The Pied Piper of Hamelin, though the literal translation of the Czech title is "The Rat Catcher".

It was one of the Trnka Studio's (named after Czechoslovakian animation pioneer Jiří Trnka) most ambitious projects of the 1980s, notable for its unusual dark art direction, innovative animation techniques and lack of almost any understandable dialogue (similar to the more recent Triplets of Belleville). Except for the narrated introduction, all words spoken in the film are gibberish.

Contents

[edit] Plot

An example of the cubist art design present in much of the film
An example of the cubist art design present in much of the film

The story is a modified adaptation of the traditional fairy tale The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

The film starts with the image of a mechanism beginning to work - as the gears move (behind the scenes), the sun slowly rises up over a town and a new day begins. The town, Hamelin, is shown to be one which is full of corrupted, petty people, where everything is wasted and money and social rank are the first priority. The waste leads to a gigantic rat infestation at night. As the town leaders meet to decide on the best course of action, a stranger appears in the doorway - a hooded piper who with the sound of his playing can entice rats to run over a cliff to their deaths. The town leaders are very happy and offer him 1000 gold coins as payment if he would get rid of all of the town's rats. The piper accepts, and begins walking through the city, leading all of the rats behind him. At the same time, a jewellery seller who was among the elite group of leaders walks into a woman's home and asks her to marry him. The woman (who is so far the only character who doesn't look grotesque, implying innocence) refuses. The jeweller persists, but before he can do anything the piper passes by her house and the jewellery seller is forced to jump out of the window at the sound of the music. After all of the rats jump into a lake, the piper comes back into town, on the way once again stopping the jeweller's advances on the woman. The piper and the woman sit on the bench together as he plays a beautiful melody that is accompanied by paint-on-wood animation (a complete change of style from the rest of the film).

Finally, the piper goes to collect his promised payment. The town leaders (who are in the middle of gorging themselves on food and wine) give him only a black button. The piper leaves angrily. Meanwhile, the jeweller is seen drinking and telling his sad tale of rejection to his friends, who decide to do something about it. That night, they break into the woman's house as she is praying, rape and kill her (this is implied rather than shown). The piper comes, but this time he is too late - all that he can do is close the eyes of her horrified face.

Now the piper climbs up the highest tower in the town, to the top floor where the machinery for the sun that we saw in the introduction is located. At the very top is the god Jupiter, holding an hourglass which symbolizes the life of the town. The piper and Jupiter have a silent conversation, and a decision is made. All of the sand in Jupiter's hourglass runs out, and the gears that make the sun rise stop working. As the first chime of morning strikes, the sun does not rise; instead, the piper walks out and plays his pipe. As the citizens hear him, they turn into rats and follow the sound, eventually jumping off the tower just like the "real" rats did previously.

The only person left is an old fisherman (who was seen watching the city from far off, earlier in the film) who comes to watch. When he gets close to the piper, however, the piper ceases to exist - his cloak, now empty of a person inside it, flies away with the wind. The fisherman walks into the empty city and finds a baby (who is still uncorrupted) in one of the houses. He takes the baby away with him.

[edit] Background

[edit] Home video/DVD releases

An NTSC R1 DVD of Jiří Barta's films called "Jiri Barta: Labyrinth of Darkness" was released by Kino Video on Sept. 12, 2006. The DVD contains most of Barta's filmography (this film and: A Ballad About Green Wood, The Club of the Laid Off, The Design, Disc Jockey, The Last Theft, Riddles for a Candy, The Vanished World of Gloves). The other films range from 6 to 24 minutes in length. The DVD features the original Czech soundtracks with English subtitles.

Other DVDs featuring the film include a Japanese version of the abovementioned release, as well as a French release which has only this film and has French subtitles (from Doriane Films).

[edit] Trivia

  • Almost everything in the film is made out of wood. All of the sets and characters were first drawn on paper and then sent to a professional wood-carver, who carved thousands of different objects for the film.
  • Real dead rats were used for the rat "puppets". Some footage of live rats was also used.

[edit] Awards

  • 1986—Bilbao International Festival of Documentary and Short Films: "Golden Mikeldi" Award.
  • 1986—New Castle: main prize of the festival.
  • 1986—Royan: main prize in category + prize for best music.
  • 1986—Chicago: Golden Plaque for best animated film.
  • 1986—Espinho: Best Animated Film.
  • 1986—San Sebastian: FIPRESCI Special Mention + CIGA Special Mention.
  • 1987—Madrid: Prize for animation.
  • 1987—Sao Paulo: Best Directing, Best Photography.
  • 1988—Salerno: The main prize in the category.
  • 1989—Alencon: "Alencon Lace".

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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