May

Čeněk Zahradníček, E. F. Burian / Czechoslovakia / 1936 / The film already had its Czech Premiere / 10 min.

synopsis

The multimedia production May (1935–1936) by theatre director E. F. Burian was based on the complex avant-garde concept of the D 34 synthetic theatre, which featured the legendary “voice-band” technique and incorporated film projections. These stage films, shot in 1935 by Jiří Lehovec for the first season and a year later by Čeněk Zahradníček, are examples of the use of surrealist formalism by the Czech interwar avant-garde. Whilst only fragments of Lehovec’s material have survived, Zahradníček re-edited his version in 1976 into a short avant-garde film.

biography

E. F. Burian (1904–1959) was a versatile artist who worked primarily in theatre. At the age of just twenty-two, he published his own artistic manifesto entitled Polydynamika, in which he called for the interconnection of theatre, music, recitation and film. A year later, he founded the musical recitation ensemble Voiceband, whose unique technique he developed at the D 34 theatre. Together with set designer Miroslav Kouřil, in 1936 they patented a synthetic stage form called “Theatergraph”, which foreshadowed the practice of the Laterna Magika theatre.

Jiří Lehovec (1909–1995) was a member of the Hackenschmied-Berka-Lehovec informal photography group, and his interest in photography also gradually led him to film. During his military service in the late 1930s, he worked at Armádní film. After the war, he co-founded Krátký film, where he produced a series of predominantly educational scientific films in which he was able to apply his interest in experimentation. He also taught at FAMU and, in the late 1980s, became a member of the video department.

Čeněk Zahradníček (1900–1989), a trained photographer and film lab technician, was one of the founding members of the Czechoslovak Pathé Club of Amateur Filmmakers. He collaborated with Vladimír Šmejkal, a member of the Říše Loutek theatre, director and screenwriter, with whom he made several award-winning amateur avant-garde films. In 1936, he began working with E. F. Burian at Theatre D on stage films. From 1937 onwards, he worked as a cameraman and reporter for the Czechoslovak film weekly Aktualita.