The Stolen Airship - Ukradená vzducholod' (1966)

The Painted Cinema of Karel Zeman Screening

Thursday, October 12, 2023 - 8:00pm

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Ukradená vzducholod' (The Stolen Airship)

Czechoslovakia, 1966, 88 min. Digitally restored 2022.

Directed by Karel Zeman, Written by Karel Zeman and Radovan Krátký (based on the novel Two Years' Vacation by Jules Verne), Camera by Josef Novotný and Bohuslav Pikhart

In Czech language with English subtitles.

Thursday October 12, 2023

Doors 7:30pm

Film Starts 8:00pm

Tickets $14 / VPES Members $12

In this artistically elaborate adaptation of Jules Verne's novel Two Years' Vacation, Karel Zeman took inspiration from Art Nouveau advertisements and newspaper collages. The thrilling story begins at the Prague Exhibition Grounds, where five boys seize the opportunity to embark on an adventure aboard a majestic airship, intertwined with a humorous tale of espionage.

Airships, unruly vehicles, grotesque horse-legged conveyances, benevolent submarines - all seem to have lives of their own. Zeman uses the widescreen format for the first time here, which helps him to show his visually rich world even more, with purely cinematic trompe lens (tricks of the lens).

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The digital restoration of this film was funded by a donation from Ms. Milada Kučerová and Mr. Eduard Kučera and was carried out by the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in collaboration with the Karel Zeman Museum, the Národní filmový archiv Prague and the Czech Film Fund in UPP and Soundsquare. The sources for the digitization were the original image negative and the original sound negative. The film materials are preserved by the Czech National Film Archive.

The Painted Cinema of Karel Zeman

Live action, special effects, painted backdrops, puppets and animation are all ingeniously combined in the fantastic films of Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman. 50 years after the earliest days of cinema, Karel Zeman returned to the magical techniques of Georges Mélies to create films of unmatched beauty.

In collaboration with the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Los Angeles, the Velaslavasay Panorama hosts three screenings of Zeman’s films exploring a deep sea voyage, the perils of prehistoric life, and the airborne adventures of Jules Vernes.