Jiří Brdečka

The Very Late Afternoon of a Faun (1984)

A bachelor named Faun with a Don Juan complex, seized with a hypochondriac's fear of the ineluctable approach of death, enters a race against time's passage. Faun's sexual love is imbued with the narcissistic vanity of a self-satisfied bacchant who even to ...

The Three Veterans (1984)

It is a story of three veterans released from the army. During one night spent camping in the country they one by one wake up and meet three elvish brothers. Each of the veterans is given a magic item - one gets magic harp that provides him with servants b ...

Das Feuer des Faust (1982)

Faustus wants to invent a fire that is stronger than all previous flames. Then death approaches him. In order to prolong his life, he makes a pact with Mephistopheles. When he has found the fire, he burns the contract and is ready to die. Death shows him l ...

The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians (1981)

In 1897, in a castle near the town of Werewolfville in the Carpithians, a slightly deranged Professor Orfanik experiments with his new inventions which include, even at this early date, television and a film camera. He is also an obsessed opera fan, keeps ...

An Unhappy Marriage (1981)

One of a trilogy of animated shorts based on Moravian folk ballads. ...

The Outlaw's Wife (1981)

One of a trilogy of animated shorts based on Moravian folk ballads. ...

Unrecognized (1980)

One of Brdeček's works in the trilogy "Moravian Folk Ballads". The script is based on Moravian folk songs and the chosen visual form also refers to traditional folk art practices. This story tells of a girl who is waiting for her beloved, who has been dra ...

Prince Copperslick's Thirteenth Chamber (1980)

A meat-eating monarch marries a vegetarian princess. ...

Prince and the Evening Star (1979)

A wonderful fairytale about looking for love, defeating evil and learning some valuable moral lessons on the way. The story begins with the young Prince Velen, who is left in charge of the castle and his three sisters. During the night he has a visitation ...

Adela Has Not Had Supper Yet (1978)

When famous detective Nick Carter visits Prague, he becomes involved in strange case of a missing dog and even stranger carnivorous plant. He becomes convinced that he is standing against his greatest enemy, the Gardener, who supposedly died years ago in a ...

Love (1978)

Another one of Brdečka's variations on the topic of love, with unusual protagonists: a spider and a destitute poet who live in friendship in one room, until a girl turns up with whom the man falls in love. Overnight, the spider weaves a delicate pair of s ...

The Double Life of Josef Hlinomaze (1976)

A combined film, or rather personal profile, in which the naive paintings of quirky comedian and self-taught painter Josef Hlinomaze are brought to life, accompanied by the protagonist's humorous commentary. ...

Closed Due to Illness (1975)

An agitprop piece lampooning a perceived blemish on contemporary society — short notices in shop windows offering a pithy explanation of why the shop is closed. ...

What I Haven't Told the Prince (1975)

This original adaptation of Oscar Wilde's sad, socially conscious fairy tale, The Happy Prince, hinges on the conflict between fact and dream, reality and poetry. The contrast is reinforced by the film's visuals, confronting modern art with Gustave Doré's ...

Accordion Song (1974)

This story of a Soviet soldier who was killed during the liberation of Prague in May 1945 combines Zdenek Seydl's animated drawings with documentary footage by war correspondents. ...

The Miner's Rose (1974)

Adapting a 1930s song, Brdečka presents a ballad of true love between a miner and his sweetheart in a tale that ends in tragedy. ...

The Unlucky One (1973)

Another well-known children's story. Jiří Brdečka made it on commission for his friend, Italian producer Max Massimino-Garnier, as part of a European animated fairy tale project. ...

The Face (1973)

An experimental study in black and white tracing the stages of human life through the transformation of a man's face. ...

The Stolen Battle (1972)

In 1757, the second year of the Seven Years' War, Frederick II the Great stands at the gates of Prague. He has been trying to take the city for weeks, as the enemy commander Duke Charles of Lorraine is inside. Frederick has just defeated him, but the tide ...

Straw Hat (1972)

Slacker Maurice Fadinar wasted his whole inheritance and the only way out of this situation, as it seems, to marry Helen Nonankur - daughter of a wealthy farmer. At the last meeting with his mistress in a nearby forest Fadinar's horse eats straw hat which ...

There Was a Miller on a River (1971)

A picture based on an old folk song tells us a horrifying story about a soldier returning home after twenty years. His parents do not recognize him, they rob and kill him. ...

How Wise Aristotle Became Even Wiser (1970)

A fanciful apocryphal tale about the famous Greek scholar, who is determined not to have his mind taken off educating young Alexander the Great, until Cupid makes him succumb to the temptations of a light-hearted young woman. ...

Prague Nights (1969)

A stuffy middle-aged foreigner, a businessman named Fabricius, lonely and looking for a night's diversion, finds it in the form of a mysterious blonde. In an abandoned cemetery, she tells him three tales involving black magic and erotic obsession. In "The ...

Metamorpheus (1969)

Orpheus reconsidered, starting from animations of mosaic images. Eventually, there is lava. ...

Historie blechatého psa (1969)

Revenge (1968)

Film based on the story by the French writer Gérard de Nerval. A terrifying story that takes us to Paris in the time of the Three Musketeers. The magician Conin enchants evil that afterwards destroys him and a shy love-lorn young man named Eustach. ...

The Power of Destiny (1968)

An ironic anecdote about a fortune-teller perplexed by her customer who laughs at her reading of his palm. According to her, the man is to become a helpless servant. The surprise ending reveals the reason why the customer laughed. ...

Why Do You Smile, Mona Lisa? (1966)

This tongue-in-cheek variation on the popular theme of the mysterious smile on Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting narrates the Maestro's difficulties in trying to make his apathetic bourgeois model smile. In the end, the handsome youth Andrea comes to the ...

Forester’s Song (1966)

A hunter goes out to the forest, followed by his lady love. Things do not go well, as documented in song. ...

Joy of Love (1966)

This melancholy piece about the metamorphoses of love and the eternal dissatisfaction of human beings with what they have was inspired by the lyrics of the French song "Plaisir d'amour. ...

The Deserter (1965)

An absurd slapstick piece about a man immersed in his own dreams, refusing to accept everyday reality. He finds everyone obnoxious, children and lovers not excepted, and decides to fly off to the planet of his dreams. He turns into a spaceship and manages ...

Lemonade Joe (1964)

A satire of the Great American Way, with Lemonade Joe a "clean living" gunfighter who drinks only Kola-Loca Lemonade and convinces everyone else in town (with his gun skills) that all "real men" drink ONLY lemonade! ...

Minstrel's Song (1964)

The poetical story, based on a late Gothic song about the serene and fulfilling relationship of two lovers, is expressed through the minimalist animation of Ludmila Jiříncová's paintings. ...

How to Keep Slim (1963)

A satirical agitprop piece on dieting. The protagonist is a man trying to slim down in various ways; his attempts are radical but inconsistent, and therefore doomed. In the end, he consults a dietician. ...

When the Cat Comes (1963)

While old Oliva tells a group of children about his life as a sailor and how he met Diana and her cat with sunglasses, a strange circus arrives in town. ...

The King of Kings (1963)

During his work assignment in Tamani Kingdom, Czech worker Lojza saves a local man from dying in the desert. Two years later, it turns out the saved man was also the Taman king; and he has decided to name Lojza, a communist, his royal heir. ...

Incorrectly Drawn Hen (1963)

At school the dunce draws a Picasso style chicken on the black board. The chicken comes to life, runs away, and finds itself in the teacher's garden. The teacher thinks he has discovered a new species and christens it with his own name. ...

The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1962)

A 20th century man lands on the Moon and discovers that Baron Munchausen has beaten him to it, accompanied by Cyrano de Bergerac and the characters from Jules Verne's novels about the conquest of the satellite. ...

The Frozen Logger (1962)

A short animated film based on the American folk song about a logger in the habit of stirring his coffee with his thumb. ...

Reason and Emotion (1962)

Reason and Emotion, personified as two gardeners, are opponents in a landscaping contest (French formal garden vs. English landscape park), but inevitably end up cooperating. ...

Our Little Red Riding Hood (1961)

Czechoslovakian cartoon version of Little Red Riding Hood. Here, Red Riding Hood's family finds a way to take care of the wolf. ...

The Television Fan (1961)

The film tries to persuade young viewers that they should only watch TV after having completed their duties; it shows them (and their parents) what the world would look like if everyone watched TV instead of working. ...

Man Under Water (1961)

After the flying machines of "How Man Learned to Fly," this next popular science installment by Jiří Brdečka focuses on the history of submarines and deep sea exploration, denouncing the arms industry along the way, as the politics of the day required. ...

That Kind of Love (1959)

A student commits suicide out of unhappy love to a married man; story is recounted in retrospective by a "judge" who asks the audience to decide who is the guilty party. ...

My Darling Clementine (1959)

This animated precursor to music videos was made on commission for the American company Rembrandt Films. It illustrates an American folk song of the Old West. ...

Warning! (1959)

This anti-war piece presents an exaggerated, satirical overview of the evolution of weapons from a prehistoric club to the atomic bomb. ...

Why UNESCO? (1959)

The cartoon film sets out to justify the existence of UNESCO as an instrument for world peace. ...

Bomb Mania (1959)

Anti-war animation about man's passions for self-destruction by experimenting with dangerous chemicals. ...

The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (1958)

As the world progresses into the industrial age, a professor studying the "nature of pure matter" is spirited away by a would-be dictator and connived into building a super-bomb, as a young reporter and a girl rescued from the sea attempt to warn him of t ...

Wolf Trap (1958)

An orphaned young woman named Jana moves into the household of Robert and his older, possessive wife, Klára. While Klára maintains a strict and manipulative control over the home, a mutual attraction develops between Robert and Jana. The three characters ...

How Man Learned to Fly (1958)

A short, humorous history of aviation based on Kamil Lhoták's book "Balloons, Wings, Propellers. ...

An Easy Life (1957)

Depiction of Czech students in the 1950s. The kids are less interested in communism than in rock n' roll. Czech authorities deemed the work decadent and subversive, which led to the director being kicked out of film school. ...

Lost Children (1957)

In the middle of the eighteenth century, at the time of the Prusso-Austrian War, a cuirassier, a hussar and an infantryman meet by chance and hide together in a secluded place. The war has left different marks on each of them, but they all long for normal ...

Roztržka (1957)

Baton Out of the Bag (1956)

A poor musician with a good heart, as a reward for sharing even the last piece of bread despite being hungry himself, is rewarded with a miraculous napkin on which the best delicacies appear. However, a greedy innkeeper steals it from him along with a mira ...

The Lost Sentry (1956)

Once Upon a Time, There Was a King... (1955)

A selfish self-centered widowed ruler, barely tolerated by his subjects and called appropriately enough, 'King Myself, First' asks his three daughters to name the measure of their love for him. When one of them says, "more than salt", he banishes her from ...

Severní přístav (1954)

A spy film about how saboteurs obtain important data about the activities of a key company, while also trying to thwart the plan and undermine work morale. But vigilant security agencies intervene in time and stop their heinous raids. ...

Kavárna na hlavní třídě (1954)

On his first day in a new place, waiter Josef Kučera stands up for his old servant Bartoš and bellhop Svát. His actions earn him the distrust of the café owner Stýbl, the admiration of the maid Jindřiška, and the hatred of her suitor, the waiter Vac ...

A Drop Too Much (1954)

A careful motorcyclist stops by a cozy pub on his way home to his sweetheart. ...

Old Czech Legends (1953)

A monumental piece of art bringing the heroes of the ancient Czech myths back to life. The picture consists of seven parts: Cech the Forefather, Bivoj, Libuse, Premysl, Girls War, Horymir, Lucka War. ...

O světle (1953)

Velké dobrodružství (1952)

A biographical film about the traveler Emil Holub, conceived as an illustrative story of an exceptional man, who, however, encounters the disinterest and rejection of the domestic Czech bourgeoisie. To this is added an international perspective - Holub enc ...

The Emperor and the Golem (1952)

The Emperor's mismanagement of his country is provoking some in his court to plot to overthrow him. He feels successful, at least, when he discovers the legendary Golem, which he believes can protect him and even cure his imaginary illnesses but, when he ...

Mouchy (1951)

Kašlání a kýchání (1951)

Neviditelní nepřátelé (1951)

Začalo to v době kamenné (1950)

A short film promoting contemporary cosmetic products against the backdrop of an entertaining history of cosmetics. ...

The Emperor's Nightingale (1949)

Adaptation of a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, about an emperor who prefers the tinkling of a bejeweled mechanical bird to the song of a real nightingale. When the Emperor is near death, the nightingale's song restores his health. ...

Song of the Prairie (1949)

An animated singing western short in which a cowboy takes on the villain to save his beloved. ...

Papírové nocturno (1949)

Love and the Zeppelin (1948)

A young aristocrat is madly in love with an inventor, but her parents arrange her marriage to an old army general. ...

Andělský kabát (1948)

A grotesque tale about the adventures of the owners of a miraculous heavenly coat that has the power to turn even the most hardened villain into a saint. ...

Šváb (1948)

Parohy (1947)

Oldřich Nový was and will forever remain the embodiment of charm, elegance and personal charm for Czech cinema, to which all women, regardless of age, were subject. In his unforgettable lover roles, he was not only a romantic who was able to fall in love ...

The Gift (1947)

Trnka reached new heights of modernist abstraction with this innovative, surrealist mini-masterwork, which critic Jean-Pierre Coursodon praised as the Citizen Kane of animation. ...

The Mischievous Bunny (1947)

A grotesque story about the mischievous bunny's antics while decorating Easter eggs. ...

Springman and the SS (1946)

The first animated picture made by Jiří Trnka for adults. It is a comic story of a legendary chimney-cleaner who, with the help of a spring from an old lounge-chair, became the terror of the Prague-occupying SS troops in World War II. ...

Universum Brdečka (2017)

Lemonade Joe, The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians, Dinner for Adele, The and the Golem - These and other Czech cinematography film hits have on thing in common: Jirí Brdecka. The Screenwriter, writer and cartoonist Brdecka was known in Czechoslovakia ...

Adela Has Not Had Supper Yet (1978)

When famous detective Nick Carter visits Prague, he becomes involved in strange case of a missing dog and even stranger carnivorous plant. He becomes convinced that he is standing against his greatest enemy, the Gardener, who supposedly died years ago in a ...

Spanilá jízda (1963)

In the Hussite times, religious truth was sifted even on the tips of weapons. When in 1430 the Hussites set out on a raid to Nuremberg, the so-called Spanila Cavalry, to defend their doctrine, the young commander of the cavalry, the landowner Keřský, who ...

Ceiling (1962)

The young Marta has made a break in her medical education to fully invest in her career as a model. We follow her for a day in her life, almost completely without hearing her voice. It is seldom that Marta gets the space to speak, instead she is mostly sub ...