Polish Masters of Animation Pt. 2: Jan Lenica

Wow, it’s been a while. Hopefully I’ll be updating regularly again after this. Here’s a couple links to start this one off -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Lenica

http://www.kinoeye.org/01/06/bird06.php

I’d read about him. I’d seen his stark, violently striking posters. Some of my major influences cited him as their influence. But, it wasn’t until recently that I finally experienced some of the most mind-numbingly brilliant animation I’ve ever seen, created by him in a period between the 1950s and the present. Jan Lenica is, without a doubt, one of THE masters of not only animation, but cinema as a whole.

The bootlegged DVD I got a hold of features four of his films, along with a mini-documentary (in Polish) of Lenica at work. The films are:

Dom, 1956 / 1958 (?)
Nowy Janko Muzykat, 1960
Labirynt, 1962
WYSPA R.O., 2001

There aren’t any clips available, or even very few stills, so I am going to direct this not specifically at each film, but Lenica’s style overall.

The earlier work is much cruder technically, but the films seem to hold much more artistic quality, working on editing nuances and interesting graphic amalgams. Lenica’s origins in poster work are very apparent in Nowy Janko Muzykat, which follows the ‘exploits’ of a cut-out figure man, who appears to have been drawn by an eight year old. The films, with the exception of the most recent - WYSPA R.O., employ collage cut-out animation, sometimes woven together by live-action shots. The entire system lends itself to a Svankmajerian feel. One comes away from Dom, which was made while Lenica was still working collaboratively with Walerian Borowczyk, looking at Jan Svankmajer’s work with new eyes, much like discovering Svankmajer AFTER the work of the Brothers Quay. It’s all a disillusioning process, down to the very core inspirations.

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The masterpiece here is Labirynt, an excruciatingly complex piece of cut-out animation employing various images which seem to have been taken from the pages of an archaic encyclopedia. The entire work reminds one of the surreal, ambiguous events which take place in the 1968 film Yellow Submarine (a feature film transporting the Beatles through an animated world of monsters, various pop-culture references, and modern popular songs).

All in all, this is some of the most inspiring work I have seen in a long time. Simple at times, but always brilliant. If anyone has a chance to ever get any of his films on video (I had a heck of a time!) make sure you do! Review score: 5/5.

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EDIT: Holy moly - someone using the username TheMotionBrigades (http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=TheMotionBrigades) has posted alot of very cool stuff on YouTube, including some of Lenica's films! Here you all go - enjoy!

Labirynt, Part 1

Labirynt, Part 2

Dom

Nowy Janko Muzykat