Czech animation director Michaela Pavlátová, who has been working on animated short films for many years, specializes in humorously exploring issues such as sex, marriage and love in a rugged and vivid unique style. His works have not only been nominated for international film festivals such as Oscars and Anxi Animation many times, but also won the best short film at the Berlin Film Festival.
Next, I will share Pavlátová's journey of learning and creating animation, and introduce her award-winning short film "Desire StreetCar", as well as the feature film "My Sunny Land", which won the 2021 Ansey Animation Jury Prize (also the opening film of the 2021 TIAF Taichung International Animation Film Festival).
Under the director's journey, she examines the creative intentions of "Desire StreetCar" and "My Sunny Land", leading readers into her idealistic and full of vitality of creative world.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" Data-track="3" > explore human desires and pursue creative freedom</h1>
"Only animated shorts are as free as birds."
Director Michaela Pavlátová studied animation at the Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague, and originally wanted to study painting, but because she knew the Japanese experimental animation director Nobuhiro Sagahara, she was given a Super 8 negative film camera, which prompted her to start making frame-by-frame animation.
After that, Pavlátová continued to work as a book illustrator and university teacher, until she went to San Francisco WildBrain Animation Studio as a director, and officially began her animation directing career.
"What I like are videos that are humorous, witty, and unconventional." Pavlátová said that because life in San Francisco was not easy, coupled with her reluctance to change her creative style to cater to the market, she decided to move back to Prague with her husband to continue teaching and began to create independently.
Exploring human physiological desires and emulating the bizarre style of Czech animation masters JanŠvankmajer, Jiří Brdečka and others is exactly what she aspires to.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="22" > reason for animation</h1>
Although Pavlátová has directed and acted in several live-action drama films, she is still passionate about experimental animation. One of the most important reasons is creative freedom, she explains:
"When shooting a feature film, not only will there be producers, investors, etc. who will have opinions about your creation, but you will also be bound by huge funds." 」
Therefore, since the maturity of computer animation technology, Pavlátová has begun to be willing to complete multiple tasks by one person and exert his creativity, which she also calls "kitchen movies", believing that this kind of creation can maintain an absolute sense of freedom.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="30" > animated short "StreetCar of Desire"</h1>
"For me, reality is the biggest source of inspiration because you don't have to explore the subject, the key is only how you understand reality." 」
"Desire StreetCar" won the 2012 Annecy Animation Fabisi Award, Best Short Film, etc., and was criticized for its bold depiction of specific details of women's fantasies based on the hints of tram objects.
Originally, director Michaela Pavlátová was invited by a French production company to participate in a project to produce a short film about women's lust. So she began to depict a woman lying in bed, letting many hands touch, and listening to her favorite soundtrack, and finally imagining the story of the tram and the female driver.
Pavlátová explained that the female driver did not refer to a specific character, she just wanted to use this story to try to portray the sexual fantasies of universal women, while making the fantasies more wild. However, after finding that the initial version had too many explicit shots, Pavlátová decided to refer to her husband's opinion and change the color and shape of the controller operated by the female driver to metaphorically men.
Because the female driver constantly swings her chest, legs and other parts, Pavlátová must use flash, After Effect and other video software, soil steelmaking to superimpose layers, and spend time to make all objects appear rhythmically bouncing, making the production process a lot of obstacles, but she also laughed: "I didn't forget that this work is related to sex, I just think it is full of rhythm and fun." 」
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="32" > animated feature film My Sunny Land</h1>
"I want to do something beyond animated films."
Winner of the 2021 Annecy Animation Jury Prize, My Sunny Land tells the story of a Czech woman, Herra, after marrying an Afghan man, begins to regulate Afghan society in the post-Taliban era (2001-2021).
Five years ago, director Michaela Pavlátová was trying to write a screenplay for a feature film in order to break through her creative framework, but the work was eventually difficult to produce, so she decided to turn to the adaptation of the novel by Czech writer Petra Procházková, trying to portray a powerful female protagonist.
"It's not possible that this movie will be released in Afghanistan." Pavlátová said that although the story is about cultural understanding and integration, she still does not shy away from touching on issues such as marriage and violence in Afghanistan, and shows scenes such as love and cultural taboos, so that the film faithfully reflects the current situation of local feminism, and then highlights the heroine's courage and tolerance in the face of foreign cultures.
"I want the audience to walk into the cinema and forget that it's an animated film." Pavlátová explained that compared with the relatively spicy and bold style of painting in the past, this time she focused more on the story text, and adopted a sketch-like character design, trying to make the audience ignore the existence of animation technology, but during the period, Pavlátová still took a year to set the character's appearance, so that other animators could further set the action, background, etc.