Old Czech Legends by Jiří Trnka

OLD CZECH LEGENDS / Staré povesti ceské

ANIMATION FILM

CZECHOSLOVAKIA | 91 MINUTES | 1953| Czech with English Subtitles 

The Czeck film Director Jiří Trnka is renown as the great master of puppet making and puppet animation. His contribution to that special art form is quite significant. Because of his influence in animation, he was called "the Walt Disney of Eastern Europe".

For his Old Czech Legends, Trnka chose six classic Czech folktales, more specifically, historical legends that were put into a literary form in 1984 by the writer Alois Jirásek in his book with the same Czech title as Trnka's film.

Trnka is careful to vary the tales' tone and tempo, transforming long forgoten heroes of national legends into living characters, incarnated by his very unique puppets he designed and made himself. Trnka’s work is equally impressive for his innovative editing, lighting, and sound. He was a winner of many international film award, raising the bar for the future puppet animators and influencing their work, even of the Quay Brothers. 

The film represent a unique opportunity to become acquainted with the work of a master puppeteer Jiří Trnka, and to get to experience his way of transmitting a narrative through his animated puppets.

The film was featured at the Montreal's FNC 2017 film festival (Festival du noveau cinéma) in LES INCORTOUNABLES (THE UNAVOIDABLE) category.     

FNC OFFICIAL SYNOPSES

"The lives of the earliest inhabitants of the historic land of Bohemia, recounted in a series of six stop-motion animation segments. Released in 1953, this film by the Czech director breathes humanity and empathy into the folk tales behind the heroes and legends of Czechoslovakia. Inspired by the book Ancient Bohemian Legends by Alois Jirásek, Old Czech Legends is proof not just of Trnka’s outstanding artistry and puppeteering talent, but also his amazingly inventive use of cinematic language."

MMFA 2017: The Western

ONCE UPON A TIME… THE WESTERN
A New Frontier in Art and Film
October 14, 2017 - February 4, 2018

The Western is first major multidisciplinary exhibition on the myths and stereotypes associated with the genre of the Western film from the 19th century to today. It examines the creation, transmission and transformation of the Western myth in North America in both the United States and Canada. Over 400 paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs, artefacts, film stills and excerpts show how the genre has evolved through ongoing dialogue between the fine arts and cinema. This multidisciplinary exhibition offers a new interpretation of the Western film genre by examining its links to visual arts (painting, sculpture, photography) from the mid-nineteenth century to today.

Initiated by the MMFA, the exhibition is co-produced with the Denver Art Museum (DAM). It is part of the official programming of Montreal’s 375th anniversary.

Similarly to movie making, THE WESTERN also comprises three elements: the set, the cast and the action.

• There are great paintings of Western landscapes, popular novels and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, all of which helped drive American Western mythology setting.
• The types of figures that presided over the creation of the Western, including the cowboy, the “Indian,” the trapper, the scout and the pioneer, have much to tell us about the prevailing stereotypes, conveyed by artist-illustrators such as Frederic Remington, harles Schreyvogel and Charles Marion Russell.
• The typologies for action are alsonestablished: attacks on a stagecoach or train, duels, saloon brawls, and cavalry charges.

The exhibition also traces the evolution of the Western, first through photography and then with excerpts from numerous films: from silent shorts (The Great Train Robbery) to the big screen with Raoul Walsh, Howard Hawks, Fred Zinnemann, Robert Aldrich, John Huston, Sam Peckinpah, John Schlesinger and Henry Hathaway, among others. John Ford embodies the culmination of the classic Western, while Sergio Leone, with his iconoclastic detachment, reframes the genre. The overview concludes with the Western revisited, with films by Clint Eastwood, Kevin Costner, Jim Jarmusch, Quentin Tarantino, Ang Lee, Joel and Ethan Coen, Tommy Lee Jones and Paul Thomas Anderson.

The exhibition also shows how the genre served as a means of expression for the counter-culture movement during the Vietnam War, with films that reflected the growing concern for safeguarding personal freedom. Visitors will see the original Harley Davidson from the film Easy Rider and major paintings by Andy Warhol and Fritz Scholder that speak to the emergence of the American Indian Movement.

The final part of the exhibition concentrates on a reinterpretation of the Western genre by contemporary artists from the 1980s till today. These works also cover the themes of race, sexuality and gender. Indigenous artists also participate with their own take on the Western.

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For more information about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions and activities, visit the museum's website.

Playing with Fire

Centaur Theatre /49th Season

PLAYING WITH FIRE: THE THEO FLEURY STORY

Persephone Theatre Production

Quebec Premiere

Directed by RON JENKINS

Performed by SHAUN SMYTH

October 3 - 29, 2017

The play is based on the book Playing With Fire by THEO FLEURY & KIRSTIE MCLELLAN DAY.

The play is a remarkable solo, two-hour-long performance by Shaun Smyth who impersonates Theo (Theoren) Freury in his autobiographical onstage narrative. Those who might be seated in the first rows will be especially impressed with the tremendous physical stamina required to play this role. The actor's sweat is as real as his skating skills, and the force he puts into his enactment of Fleury's life is remarkable. You don't have to be a hockey fun or expert to appreciate this play. It speaks directly to the audience, portraying Theo's hockey star career and life turbulences that he so remarkably succeeded to overcome.

Extremely successful on ice, Fleury went through tough knocks in his life: uncaring parents, despicable sexual abuse from the person of trust who was building his future hockey carrier, his later alcoholism, drug abuse, gambling and womanizing. Through all that, playing hockey was central in his life, the anchoring stone of sorts, that brought him through various life perils. He was undeniably a great success on ice, but not in his private life. Nevertheless, he managed to navigated through tough knocks, and later to take them with a grain of salt and even irony as revealed in the play based on his co-authored book.  

Fleury  was one of the smallest professional ice hockey players at his times, only 5' 3" (168 cm) tall, yet he was known for his physical style that often led to altercations. He played for Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, New York Rangers, and Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey league (NHL), Tappara of Finland's SM-liiga, and the Belfast Giants of the UK's Elite Ice Hockey League. He was drafted by the Flames at the 1987 NHL Entry Draft, and played over 1,000 games in the NHL between 1989 and 2003.

The play's set is quite unique - a hockey ring where the actor actually skates. What looks like ice is made of plastic that is refereed to as 'plastic ice'. The skates do not glide as easily on it as on real ice, forcing the actor, Shaun Smyth, to exert an extra effort to make his skating seem effortless. Smyth was not a hockey player and in fact not even an avid scater. All the skating skills and passes one sees on the stage are the result of Theo Fleary's personal coaching. Many gestures and moves are exact copies of Fleury's style.

Although the Persephone Theatre Production had received a number of request to permit other theatre institutions to stage this play, all were refused because it was feared they will not be able to capture the real spirit of the play and portray Theo Fleary and his journey with enough authenticity and or even fineness. 'Finness' might appear as a wrong word since a good number of profanities are used in the play, mirroring the exact manner of Theo's speech, yet the play handles quite delicately the narrative of the sexual abuse that justifies this term.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Set and Lighting Designer - David Fraser

Lighting Director - Dean Cowieson

Projection Video Design - Corwin Ferguson

Sound Designer and Composer - Matthew Skopyk

Costume Designer - Juli Elkiw

Stage Manager - Melanie Rogowski

Assistant Stage Manager - Elyse Quesnel

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For more information, visit the Centaur Theatre website.

Sunday Chat-ups

Sunday Oct. 8 @ 12:30pm

FREE

Join Editor in Chief, Lucinda Chodan, in conversation with Playing With Fire playwright, Kirstie McLellan Day.

Saturday Salons

Saturday Oct. 7 & 14

Following the matinee performance.

FREE

Get to know Centaur’s new Artistic and Executive Director, Eda Holmes, in casual conversation about this production and all things Centaur.

Both Chat-up and Salons are being held in the Ted T. Katz Family Trust Gallery and are open to public. Complimentary refreshments are offered courtesy of Bonaparte Restaurant.

Talk-Backs

Oct. 12 (Eve) & Oct. 15 (Matinée)

Following the performance.

FREE

 Audiences are invited to stay 

after the show for a lively 

Q&A with actor, Shaun Smyth.