Iluminace, 2019 (vol. 31), issue 3
Laterna magika among media, styles and formats

Laterna Magika between Media, Forms, and Formats

Lucie Česálková, Kateřina Svatoňová

Iluminace 2019, 31(3):23-25  

The editorial of this thematic issue presents the results of a multidisciplinary research project focused on documenting and preserving Laterna magika and introduces a collection of specialized studies that examine this multimedia phenomenon from the perspective of the role of film scripts, dance, music, and technical and scenographic background.

Experiments with a Lore. Alternative Screenwriting of Laterna Magika

Jan Trnka

Iluminace 2019, 31(3):27-45 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1632  

This article is focused on the multimedia phenomenon called Laterna magika, or more precisely on its screenplays seen as an alternative to mainstream film screenwriting and traditional play writing. I try to fill one of the blind spots in the history of Czech screenwriting by seeking for answers to very basic questions regarding the form of scripts and nature of their development. I argue that there were two basic models of text and writing: a) a convergent model of text and writing: demonstrated by examples of two main types of formats distinctively determined by theater and film conventions, so called literary-dramatic and technical-directorial formats,...

Between Dominance and Absence. Dance (with the Media) in Laterna Magika

Magda Španihelová

Iluminace 2019, 31(3):47-60 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1633  

The study focuses on the form of dance in productions of Laterna magika from its historical beginnings up to the modern era at the turn of the millennium. Dance was one elementary elements present in multimedia productions of this experimental scene since the Expo World Exhibition in 1958 in Brussels. The dance changed its position according to a different creative starting points - from an insignificant mediator linking individual scenic elements through dominant role in the period of ballet productions at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, to the the total absence of dance in the era of so-called drama programs. Throughout Laterna magika's history,...

The Music History of Laterna Magika

Jan Černíček

Iluminace 2019, 31(3):61-87 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1634  

In Laterna magika's sixty-year-old history, a long list of well-known composers collaborated on its performances representing a broad spectrum of approaches both in terms genre and style. Given its relation and connection to some older types of theatre stage forms containing music, the creative work for this institution could be generally categorised as theatre music, however, its constitutive usage of film projection and related synchronization of music with film picture, fixed to a film copy, also connects it with film art. The resulting multi-media stage figure is (viewed from the perspective of music) mostly derived from the traditional forms such...

Havel and Hýbek. Two Prisoners, Two Friends and Two Films

Jan Bernard

Iluminace 2019, 31(3):5-21 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1630  

Michal Hýbek (1957-2003), participated as a university student in documenting the life of alternative culture. In 1982 he was sentenced and imprisoned for his cooperation with the samizdat magazine Vokno. In prison he met Václav Havel, with whom he later made short film Letters to Olga (1986). This movie was used to introduce Havel to the world when he became the laureate of the Erasmus Prize. In 1988 Hýbek shot an adaptation of Václav Havel's one-act play Unveiling - but he didn't finish its editing. He also participated in the activities of the samizdat film group Čeněk and helped to establish another samizdat videogroup Original Videojournal. After...

Film Adaptations "Behind the Iron Curtain" (Petr Bubeníček, Subversive Adaptations: Czech Literature on Screen Behind the Iron Curtain)

Petr Mareš

Iluminace 2019, 31(3):100-103  

Petr Mareš's review presents Petr Bubeníček's English-language monograph Subversive Adaptations, which introduces Czech film adaptations from 1954 to 1968 to an international audience through detailed analyses of selected works and a flexible concept of subversiveness. The reviewer particularly highlights the complex interconnection of aesthetic and cultural-historical aspects, despite certain simplifications resulting from the focus on foreign readers. -historical aspects, despite certain simplifications resulting from the focus on foreign readers.

The Threads of Film Criticism (Huw Walmsley-Evans, Film Criticism as a Cultural Institution)

Ondřej Pavlík

Iluminace 2019, 31(3):104-107  

Ondřej Pavlík's review presents Huwa Walmsley-Evans' monograph Film Criticism as a Cultural Institution, which examines film criticism as a cultural institution and interconnected ecosystem in a time of alleged crisis and digitization. While the reviewer appreciates the comparison between the American and Australian environments, but criticizes the methodological vagueness and absence of reflection on newer forms, such as videographic criticism.

Close Encounters. Václav Havel and Cinema (Jan Bernard (ed.), Václav Havel a film)

Pavel Bednařík

Iluminace 2019, 31(3):108-113  

Pavel Bednařík's review presents a publication compiled by editor Jan Bernard, which comprehensively maps Václav Havel's relationship to Czechoslovak cinema in the years 1957–1989 through collected theoretical reflections, unrealized screenplays, and sources. The reviewer appreciates the exceptionally careful archival work, but at the same time points out the structural and interpretative imbalance of the introductory study.

Humanization of Technology. An Interview with Vladimír Soukenka

Jan Trnka

Iluminace 2019, 31(3):89-95  

Jan Trnka's interview with architect and scenographer Vladimír Soukenka provides a detailed insight into the specific creative, operational, and technical processes of Laterna magika in the 1980s, using examples of innovative productions such as Orbis pictus and Vivisekce to illustrate the extraordinary difficulty and creativity involved in precisely combining analog film projection and live theater action.

Quido Emil Kujal (1894–1970) (1840) 1903–1970

Jiří Kutil

Iluminace 2019, 31(3):96-99 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1636  

Jiří Kutil's text presents the life and professional career of Quido Emil Kujal, a pioneer of Czech film journalism and founder of the Czech Film News, mapping his activities from his successes in the First Republic through his problematic work during the Protectorate and post-war discrimination to the contents of his personal collection stored in the National Film Archive.

New Acquisitions of the NFA Library

Iluminace 2019, 31(3):114-120