The Karel Zeman Museum is located near the Charles Bridge. Just get off it, walk a few meters and turn into one of the side streets. It has been run by Lenka Priknerová for years. Now, among other things, he strives to preserve the rare puppets and make them accessible in 3D models.
The museum is very interactive. But the puppets must not be touched. Are visitors even interested in it?
Yes, why shouldn’t they? You can try and touch almost everything with us. It is important for us that people understand the tricks that Karel Zeman used when he worked. You can take pictures with his models, in his scenes. We were therefore sorry for a long time that we could not provide visitors with a similar experience with the puppets, so we started working on their digitization.
We are applying for a grant to create interactive 3D models to the Ministry of Culture. Those “our” puppets are truly unique. Very few of them survived.
When the Zlín studios ended, all things were thrown away. Not only the puppets, but also the backdrops, cameras, etc. disappeared irretrievably, only a fraction of the things that helped make Czechoslovak cinematography famous were saved. Only the people who worked in the studios sometimes took something home, thus saving these precious things. Sometimes one of them will contact us and offer us what they have. It’s the same with photographs, filmstrips…
Photo: Muzeum Karla Zemana
How many puppets does the museum own?
Thanks to Ludmila Zemanová, Karel Zeman’s daughter, we have nine of them. You can find them in the display cases, you can view them. We don’t want to have them only in the depository. Among them is the giraffe from A Christmas Dream (1945), to which the Zemans have an emotional attachment. Karel Zeman sewed it with his own hands. She was kept because his children played with her after filming.
In the museum, we also have Pan Prokouk, who starred in several of his films. Just for the sake of interest, he didn’t have a body during the filming. For the desired change of face, capture of emotions, his heads changed with the desired expressions.
And since Karel Zeman did not use joints for his puppets, but wires, they all now need some kind of overhaul. Metal corrodes, disintegrates. If we want to keep them, we have to fix them. As part of this, we want to convert them into 3D models. Photograph them from all angles so that they come to life again and you can then thoroughly familiarize yourself with them in the exhibition within the touch panels. You could even shake them up. We also expect to put these 3D models on our website so that even those who cannot come to Prague can access them.
A Christmas dream, Mr. Prokouk. What other movies do puppets come from?
Next to them, we have, for example, a fabric brontosaurus from Journey to Prehistory. Although he did not act in the film in the end, Karel Zeman had it produced in order to test how certain material behaves in camera shots. Obviously, the material did not suit him. Subsequently, he used natural rubber puppets for the film. We also have a puppet of a monkey and a turtle from the movie Sambo, which was filmed by Ludmila Zemanová.
Purely economically. How much does a similar Zeman puppet cost?
I don’t know. Of course, we have them insured for a certain amount, but if they suddenly “disappear”, it is an incalculable loss. That’s why we want to visualize and digitize them. When we have similar documents, exact copies can be made. You can also work with them, not only in the museum, but it is possible to provide them for the purposes of other thematic exhibitions.
Are people still offering you puppets to buy?
An offer will come here and there. Either to our museum, or to Mrs. Zemanová. We also keep track of who is bidding on what in the auctions. This is how, among other things, the flat puppets from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and The Tale of Honzík and Marenka appeared some time ago. We were interested in buying them, but the seller had high financial requirements.
Excuse me, can you explain the term flat puppet?
It’s paper. In essence, it is a picture to which joints and limbs can be added using adhesive. Then it moves flat, in the environment you paint, create… It’s a relatively simple matter from the point of view of filmmaking and animation. We also teach children to create in our courses.
Ludmila Zemanová: Help Dad’s Stolen Airship take off
In addition to puppets, Karel Zeman’s family tries to restore films. The last one was The Stolen Airship, which premiered again last year. Which one is waiting?
Chronicle of a Fool (1964), On a Comet (1970) and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1977). Restoring films is a vital matter for us. When they are cleaned, “repaired”, they can go back fully into the world, where, as we know, they are very successful.
Which shows their sensational sales in North America, which helped the museum survive the difficult covid times. How are you doing with traffic now?
We are approaching the pre-covid numbers, we are at about ninety percent. In this context, I have the feeling that people have become a bit lazy, that they no longer want to go out for culture. I know this from my own experience. Sometimes my husband and I would rather watch a movie at home than go to the cinema. In addition, the economic situation is not very good for many, people are saving. They usually start cutting entertainment expenses in their budgets.
But your museum is also being talked about a lot in Hollywood. The last time Karel Zeman was mentioned by Ryan Gosling in connection with the megahit Barbie. And he’s not the only one.
We know that some American filmmakers know Karel Zeman and his work well. If they are in Prague, they will be happy to visit us. For example, our museum was visited by Tim Robbins, who was a guest of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in 2018 and whose organizers recommended our museum to him. He was also very interested in puppets back then. He wanted to work with them himself. He even bought some at a shop near our museum.
We sometimes find out about the visits of other famous people only in retrospect, when, for example, they praise us on social networks like Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling. Sometimes I also meet some celebrities in our yard. This happened to me with Toby Jones and Bill Bailey, among others.
Are they on the safe side, or are they just looking for information?
Probably both. I am definitely not telling you that everyone knows Karel Zeman’s work in detail even before arriving in the Czech Republic. Maybe it’s all a coincidence. While flipping through the Prague guide, they are looking for a museum that they would like to see and where they can have fun and learn something. When they contact us, we will be happy to give them a customized tour. When we meet them in front of the museum, we get to know them, we politely ask them if there is anything else they want to know.
Did someone outright reject you?
I’m sorry we couldn’t lure Tim Burton to the museum. He had an exhibition in Prague years ago and I know that he is interested in Karel Zeman, that he knows about him. But he is a big introvert. He doesn’t like to go around strangers. So hopefully it will work out when he arrives again.
Photo: CTK
We discussed Hollywood. Where else does Zeman’s name resonate?
Based on the distribution of his films, I can say that everywhere. Europe is the clear basis, mainly France, Germany and Great Britain. But we also had projections from Australia to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India. We found out that Zeman is also very popular in Brazil. It is clear that his work literally flew around the world. She is still doing well.
His fairy tales and films belonged to my childhood and to Christmas. I was quite afraid of them. Not you?
I grew up in Slovakia, so I don’t associate screenings of Czech fairy tales with the end of the year. I rather remember his feature films that were on TV and I watched them at my grandparents’ house when the weather was nasty outside.
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Where can viewers watch them now?
The restored ones were purchased by TV Nova, which is to broadcast them at the end of the year. Then you can buy them from us, on DVD or Blue-ray. They are also offered by platforms such as Voyo and then, among others, Dafilms.cz, Netflix or The Criterion Channel, which is the channel that made films famous again in North America.
On the platforms, they are in Czech, dubbed and with subtitles. It depends on which language version it is, whether it has already been dubbed in the past. For example, there is an English version of Invention of Doom for the Anglophone market, there are German versions of Journey to Prehistory, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice…
A year ago, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice also came to life with an orchestra at the Rudolfinum. Will it happen again?
We would like to. We are talking about a tour of the Czech Republic and Germany, in which we would like to participate. The actors who made the project are in the game: Karel Dobrý and David Švehlík. Native speakers would be sought for Germany. We deal with orchestras, places where they could play. We have big plans.
