Iluminace, 2020 (vol. 32), issue 4
Thinking Animation Beyond Genre and Media Limits
Editorial
Animation at the boundaries of genres and media
Matěj Forejt
Iluminace 2020, 32(4):5-7 
The editorial of the thematic issue of Iluminace magazine devoted to animated film maps current methodological shifts and the need to transcend genre and media boundaries in domestic animation studies. It presents historical and analytical studies that examine animation through the prism of the audiovisual industry, fine arts, or in the context of animated documentaries.
Articles
Which Will Be the Right One? The Beginnings of Fairytale Genre in Czech Animated Film after 1948
Lukáš Skupa
Iluminace 2020, 32(4):9-27 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1682
The brief period from 1948 to 1953 can be considered as the formative years of fairytale genre in Czech animated film. This study focuses on the dramaturgy of animated film studios, which were obliged to reorient their production almost exclusively to children's audience. For this purpose the conncetions between children's films and children's literature were developing after 1948. Scriptwriters as well as artists were recruited from the literary area and some of literary fairy tales were adapted as animated films. Especially the type of so called modern fairy tale was determined as the best option for film adaptation with regard to the goals of education...
Goods Above All. Czechoslovak Animation and Advertising in the Early 1960s
Lucie Česálková
Iluminace 2020, 32(4):29-46 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1683
This study explains the popularity of animated advertising film in socialist Czechoslovakia in the early 1960s. It argues that animated advertising prevailed in the Czechoslovak socialist consumer and material culture of the early 1960s because it allowed to communicate a specific concept of goods and commodity fetishism within it, allowed to continue the cultural tradition of animated film in Czechoslovakia and benefit from its prestige both abroad, as well as in the internal domestic competition between the subjects of the advertising industry. At the same time, animation met the requirements of audiovisual advertising for changes in the way media...
Vukotić and the Others. Yugoslav Animation in Czechoslovak Cinema Distribution in the Circumstances of Bilateral Relations
Marie Barešová
Iluminace 2020, 32(4):47-60 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1684
This study deals with the history of distribution of short Yugoslav animated films in Czechoslovak cinemas in the period 1945-1991. Prevailing quantitative data are interpreted especially in relation to foreign policy situation in Eastern bloc, specifically according to the development of international affairs between Moscow, Belgrade and Prague. Film distribution is thus interpreted as a manifestation of Cold War cultural diplomacy. The text also briefly reconstructs institutional background of Yugoslav cinema, especially of film animation and informs about cooperation between Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia in the domain of film animation and special...
The Plasmaticity of Digital Surface. CGI (Sur)Realism in Jon Rafman's Dream Journal
Veronika Hanáková
Iluminace 2020, 32(4):61-73 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1685
The theoretical perspective on CGI animation has been closely linked to the advancement of technology that brings the possibility of creating entirely new realities. Synthetic realism or hyperrealism and other terms usually lead to the mimetic abilities of computer-generated images. The mimetic abilities of computer-generated images can be regarded as the prevailing artistic instinct, according to the myth of complete animation. If the current technical possibilities fulfill the promise of a perfect mimesis of a computer-generated image, does it mean a need to rearticulate the question to consider from an unseen perspective the esthetic quality (and...
Andrey Khrzhanovsky's A Cat and a Half (2002) as a Palimpsest Beyond Conventions
Maria Panova
Iluminace 2020, 32(4):75-93 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1686
This text examines Andrey Khrzhanovsky's 2002 film A Cat and a Half, dedicated to the renowned Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky, through the lens of a working metaphor of a palimpsest beyond conventions, which may be shifted both to the formal as well as the content-focused facet of the cinematic piece. Based on critical reception of Khrzhanovsky's filmography, the analysis puts forth the concept of the complex interplay of types and genres that makes up the film, of its specific structure; it reinforces the notion that combining the different techniques and strategies of representation applied in animation, documentaries, and traditional live-action...
Interviews
The Animated Documentary is Still for a Small Group of Viewers. An Interview with Annabelle Honess Roe
Kamila Boháčková, Michaela Režová
Iluminace 2020, 32(4):95-106
Kamila Boháčková and Michaela Režová's interview with British film theorist Annabelle Honess Roe reflects on the development, definition, and transformation of the animated documentary genre since the publication of her seminal book of the same name in 2013, touching in detail on the specifics of the field of animation studies, the lack of research into audience reception and ethics, the connection between animation and oral history practices, and the future potential of interactive formats and virtual reality.
Film Industry Voices
Painted Animation between the Author's Work and the Film Industry. An Interview with Lucie Sunková
Matěj Forejt
Iluminace 2020, 32(4):107-113
Matěj Forejt's interview with artist and director Lucie Sunková highlights the technological and aesthetic specifics of the unique method of animation using glass painting and reflects in detail on her experience as lead animator on the international co-production film Přes hranici, in which her distinctive artistic style had to be compromised in order to accommodate the limitations of teamwork and a more realistic production style.
Ad Fontes
Something New Came up with Each Film. History of Czech Animated Film in the Collection of Sound Recordings of the National Film Archive
Marie Barešová, Eva Strusková
Iluminace 2020, 32(4):114-123 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1689
The text by Marie Barešová and Eva Strusková describes the systematic development of the National Film Archive's collection of audio recordings, which, through oral history interviews with eyewitnesses and key creators, maps in detail the institutional, technological, and everyday history of Czech animated film from its beginnings during the Protectorate, through the era of nationalization, to the current digital transformation.
Reviews
"Not Corrected or Otherwise Manipulated": Digitizing the Films of Jan Kříženecký (Jiří Anger (ed.), Filmy Jana Kříženeckého / The Films of Jan Kříženecký)
Benoît Turquety
Iluminace 2020, 32(4):124-130 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1690
Benoît Turquety's review presents the DVD and Blu-ray edition of Jan Kříženecký's films, produced by the National Film Archive, highlighting in particular the radical and non-interventionist approach to digitization, which rejects traditional retouching and color correction. edition of Jan Kříženecký's films produced by the National Film Archive, highlighting in particular the radical and non-interventionist approach to digitization, which rejects traditional retouching or artificial adjustments to the frame rate and instead reveals to viewers the raw material nature and historical patina of the oldest Czech film works.
Facts from a Steel Cabinet. History of Austrian Cinemas during the German Occupation (Klaus Christian Vögl, Angeschlossen und gleichgeschaltet. Kino in Österreich 1938-1945)
Tereza Czesany Dvořáková
Iluminace 2020, 32(4):131-134 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1691
Tereza Czesana Dvořáková's review presents Klaus Christian Vögl's acclaimed book mapping the history of Austrian cinemas during the Nazi occupation, highlighting the author's thorough archival research into legal, economic, and institutional changes and the process of Aryanization, while also criticizing his sometimes overly positivist approach and neglect of more recent literature in the field.
From the Family Chronicle of a Custom Filmmaker (Herma Kennel, Als die Comics laufen lernten - Der Trickfilmpionier Wolfgang Kaskeline zwischen Werbekunst und Propaganda).
Matěj Forejt
Iluminace 2020, 32(4):135-139 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1692
Matěj Forejt's review presents a biography by Herma Kennel dedicated to Wolfgang Kaskelin, a German pioneer of animated advertising with Czech roots. While appreciating its valuable insight into the workings of the advertising industry and the complex fate of a persecuted creator of Jewish origin during the Third Reich, but at the same time critically points out the book's genre inconsistency, the absence of deeper film analysis, and the uncritical adoption of contemporary terminology.