September 13, 2020

A je to minutiae #4: a trip to the countryside

Lubomír Beneš at the wheel, circa 1981

Moving on into episodes with 1982 copyright dates, this time we will discuss the final batch of episodes completed at Studio Jiřího Trnky's Čiklovka branch, which consists of the unusual triplet of Sťahovanie, Voda and Záhradka.

These episodes feel interconnected. Although a long way off from being part of a real sequence of episodes, they are still the closest the series has at any point come to follow-up episodes. Even though all three end in complete catastrophes, it is easy to imagine Pat and Mat quickly fixing the mess they made by their moving expedition and continue with managing the water supply the next day. They mess that up as well and move on to gardening another day and so on. The connection is, of course, that all of the episodes take place on the newly-introduced countryside set. A good question to ask is: why not include Skokani? Although that episode is the only spiritual successor to these three, it was not filmed at Čiklovka, but at Wenzigovka (as confirmed by Jan Klos) so I will talk about in the next post. This one is too long as it is.

The upper image shows director Luboš Beneš working on the stone bridge. I've put the image as being shot circa 1981 because it appears to show the set and props in preparation. The 1982 episodes brought a change in the characters' appearance. They now sported thinner eyes and no longer utilized different face expressions. I wrote about how this led to them acting a bit differently back in February. If you take a closer look at the photo, you will notice (apart from it being scanned improperly - I noticed this too late and will fix it when the opportunity arises, sorry) that the puppet still has the old face on. I say 'the puppet' because I can't name it Mat - it is wearing a yellow shirt! All this makes me believe the photo was snapped in the middle of preparation.

The set is the original series' most ambitious. It is a big change from the confined surroundings of a typical flat or, at most, the back yard. Some of the details on this cozy, homey set are marvelous, like the stone walls and bridge, or the tree stumps scattered around, which I only noticed by watching TDK's masters. It is fun how they contrast with the ragged, barely standing chaloupka reused from 1975's Kouzelný dědeček, whose erratic movements are also charming in their own way, or the ridiculously redundant front gate. It is a neat link of the characters' clumsy, but optimistic nature. 


It is interesting to note how both Sťahovanie and Voda feature a solo writing credit for Beneš, while his usual colleague in that section, dramaturge Vendulka Čvančarová, was paired with Vladimír Jiránek for Záhradka. This makes me wonder whether the two episodes were prepared in advance. The 1981 episodes have more things in common with the 1979 episodes and feel like a holdover from that era. 

Then comes Sťahovanie (Stěhování in Czech), the most expansive episode of them all. Sťahovanie is a mini-adventure in itself which takes place in three different locations: the apartment building, the countryside and the road between them. It is not difficult to reimagine it into a feature-length film (let's call it Pat and Mat on the Road) as its sections can easily be expanded upon; for instance, by adding sequences about moving the furniture in or out and more roadside troubles.


Here is the first location and the first appearance of the house number 13, which would be carried over to future locations. A good eye will notice that walls have largely been repurposed from the previously seen back yard.


These episodes have some innovatively framed shots, no doubt the result of a more spacious set. I like the symmetry in these scenes.




However, some limitations of the camera equipment of the time are also noticeable in this episode. Jan Klos animated it - we've already discussed how he had a distinctive way of mixing the animation frame rates: singles (one frame per movement), twos (two frames per movement) and threes. Klos played with them a lot in this episode, but the change in different rates is quite noticeable. Nearly every time the exposure settings change, we can see a line appear near the middle of the frame. It seems as if the camera treats every frame rate change as a change of scene, with the line visibly separating one setting from the other. That way we get the same scene in multiple exposure settings, which produces a flickering appearance. Here are some examples:






Indeed, I have seen the same artifact appear between two shots (two separate scenes), for instance, in Gramofón. If anybody can offer some technological explanations on why this happened, I would like to hear them.


There are many funny poses in this episode. Here's Pat trying to stick to the wall as much as possible.


From this time on, two pairs of puppets were in frequent use, distinguishable by the faces: one pair had bigger, rounder eyes and mouths, while the other had thinner features. Klos is recognizable by the latter pair, as he used it from Skokani onward. I originally thought that he used that pair in this episode as well. That's not correct - entirely. The thinner-faced puppets do appear, but only sporadically. In fact, it's the puppets with the rounder eyes which Klos primarily uses in this episode. I originally thought Chocholín might have helped out, but I don't think that's the case now, as the animation appears to have been done entirely by Klos. Therefore, it seems this is one of those rare episodes in which one animator uses multiple pairs of puppets. The switches to other puppets occur at strange moments. The best reason I can come up with is that the scenes with the thinner-eyed puppets were animated later on, especially as Chocholín uses the thicker-eyed puppets in both Voda and Záhradka. Here's an example of close-up scenes featuring different puppets. I am including two snapshots of the first scene to again demonstrate the difference which occurs when changing frame rates.




Here's a particularly strange set of switches from the second half of the film. Thinner Mat:


cut to thicker Pat:


thinner Mat, next scene:


thicker Pat continued:


in the next scene, thicker Mat now appears!


thicker Pat continued and joined by thinner(?) Mat - it is hard to tell:


this wider shot appears to feature both puppets in the thinner-eyed variants. Pay close attention to the books in the car:


as their placing changes in the close-up shot and it seems the puppet does as well, meaning the scenes were not filmed at the same time:


A quick word on the props: as we know, when an opportunity to reuse a prop came about, it was taken. Beneš must have kept his somewhere handy. Here are the chairs you saw two images ago appearing in his first puppet film, Račte prominout (1974):


that chest next to them? Here it is in his Akorát (1977)


    Where are Pat and Mat going anyway? I haven't been able to decipher the signposts. Maybe Czech readers can help out.


The background does not move in this scene, so I presume the scene was done in an efficient and economical way by moving the stones and the tree in front and behind the car while the car itself remained in the same position. The same technique was used in some later episodes.


As mentioned, Jan Klos animated this episode and, as always, makes everything more entertaining. I think his Pat and Mat become just a bit more guarded after Grill, although the breakneck speed and vivacity they displayed previously does show up in certain scenes, especially these near the end, when the two again take things too far away.



Klos continues experimenting with the caps. Here is Pat's bemused expression.


and his cap going up in shock.


What don't you see in the above framegrabs? The holes on the soles! Pat and Mat's feet always have two holes which are used to fix the puppets to the tables. By watching some newest episodes (like Potrubní pošta) I noticed that the holes are usually masked (another sole is applied with glue) when the feet show up on the screen for an extended period of the time. Here are some examples of both unmasked and masked soles:




I've written about Klos extensively in the last post. Here are some frames which show the different devices he used in trying to provide that extra something. I like how many of these are funny or interesting on their own even though they were never meant to be seen in isolation.





most animators would not have bent Mat so much and would not have needed to pin him down



It appears here that Pat is standing on a bar tied to the car.



Pat falling over and getting up again is one of those complex scenes worth seeing frame-by-frame. The fall is intentionally photographed with blur. I guess they used some kind of multiple exposure back then.




I've tried to capture everything I could from the hopping action, which includes Pat being suspended from a rig above the set.


And here's the ending.


Reassembling this many props must have been exhausting.


The closing titles are almost the same as before. The letters were traced once more before being reshot.


Voda

I believe the first scene in this episode was actually animated by Jan Klos. Not only does the animation look more like his work, but the opening shot is framed practically identically to one in the previous episode, so maybe they were filmed back-to-back. Karel Chocholín definitely animated the scene after this one (Mat stopping with the car), though.



Here's a shot from the previous episode.


Here is maybe the most bizarre case of unwanted objects on the set. What appears to be a car part shows up for a single frame. You really can't miss it as it takes up quite a bit of space. There's something next to the back wheel as well, which remains for another frame. I often wonder how these props ended up on the set in the first place, especially when they seemed to have been noticed right away. The animator was probably focused on doing the next movement and forgetting the range of the frame.


Before watching the superior copies from TDK, I never noticed how the soil really gets replaced between shots...



... and how the puppets leave footprints in the "plowed" earth.


a work of postmodern art.


Look at the beautiful tree stumps in this great composition.


The pen was seen in many ... a je to! episodes, but it's older than the series. It is also there in Akorát:



Chocholín's Pat and Mat are often so reckless. Here's Pat casually discarding the hammer, which goes out of the frame.


The picket had to be suspended from the rig.


Another look at the (un)masked soles.



And here's one of the holes being used to fix Pat to the set. It is very brief, completely unnoticeable in regular viewing.


Another stump!


The end of the episode features one of those great catastrophic conclusions. How was this filmed? I don't know, but I can have a guess. Maybe they placed a tank of water between the camera and the set (or installed it to the camera) and slowly moved the camera upwards. You can see that the portion of the frame consumed by water remains identical. If you can think of an alternate solution, please comment. (There are some in the comments, I'm adding.)



Záhradka 

A charming addition to the cottage unnoticeable on a low-quality copy: a lantern, and a working one, too. It is turned off by Pat when he hears the alarm clock.


It can be seen here in another intriguing shot by Vladimír Malík, along with some jugs which haven't been seen in other episodes...


... unlike some other props. Here are images from 1979:




1982:




... and 2020!



Here's another nice shot by Malík in his last work on the series and one of his last works at Čiklovka.


Here's another instance of something unwanted appearing on the set for a bit. Unnoticeable on a tightly-cropped version.


The bottles could have genuine labels. One is some sort of Speciál and another appears to be a Staropramen, a popular beer even today. I think I have one in the fridge right now. The Czechs could again help out with the labels here.


Douane - the garden gnome came from outside of Czechoslovakia. Very expensive move for 1982!


Notice how something is in the camera's way in the lower right corner (in several frames). The enormous box had to be suspended with two rigs. ..


... which makes this scene even funnier. After all the trials and tribulations of getting it to the garden, it appears Pat can actually hold it in his hands!


Somebody rearranged the brushes in the middle of this scene.


Some dust is lodged in the camera and awkwardly appears in several scenes towards the end.


... and that's it for this post!


40 comments:

  1. Another beer is Prazdroj, known today as Pilsner Urquell.

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  2. About the water - I think so, I think they placed a tank of water between the camera and the set. Or they put a specially formed piece of plastic, which could be perceived as a water in the film, and moved with it frame by frame. (If you understand my words).

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  3. "Where are Pat and Mat going anyway? I haven't been able to decipher the signposts. Maybe Czech readers can help out." - I think they are on the way to Mezno (Středočeský kraj, okres Benešov; https://mapy.cz/zakladni?x=14.6558677&y=49.5305628&z=13&source=muni&id=3521). I don't know if there was any deeper meaning in it (somebody had a cottage in this village or something other), but one thinkg that makes me smile (or almost laugh) is that this village is in the Benešov subregion. And guess who was the director of this entire series? #Beneš-ov

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    1. This kind of in-joke was exactly the kind of thing I expected. I tried googling names starting with "Mez", but came up short. The other name seems to end with "-ov", but it's not Vlahov, Vranov or similar names I tried to find.

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    2. It might be Janov (Středočeský kraj, okres Příbram; https://mapy.cz/zakladni?x=14.4433216&y=49.6521028&z=11&source=ward&id=4762), the distance between these two villages is only 30 km, which is almost the sum of the numbers of distances written on the signposts.

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  4. Talking about that horizontal line that appears in St'ahovanie and occasionally elsewhere, it looks like it might be light leaking between the shutter blades. When an animator goes to lunch in the middle of a scene, the camera can sit facing the bright set for a prolonged period of time, with the shutter in the closed position. Over this extended period, light can leak between the shutter blades and cause a line across the frame. This is one possibility for the marks. I don't think it would necessarily be related to the different frame rates but it could be. Light leak in animation film cameras could be a terrible nuisance. Most animation cameras were modified live-action cameras, and were never meant to sit for hours with the shutter closed, and be completely light tight on the particular frame sitting in the gate at the time. In live-action, it would never have mattered.

    The variable exposures on successive frames, which causes the flickering, was (and still can be) a common problem in stop-motion. If the current going into the studio was a bit erratic (and the voltage was going up and down during the day), this would cause the lights to imperceptibly dim or brighten. Again, in live-action, you would not notice, because frames are being taken 24 per second, whereas in animation, you might be taking one frame every 20 or 30 seconds, so the difference becomes noticeable. If a studio does not have the equipment to smooth out and maintain a consistent voltage supply, even someone boiling a kettle will cause the voltage to drop significantly and affect the lights on set. It's quite possible that Ciklovka had a regular domestic current supply, rather than one especially fitted for industrial use, and so flickering was the result. I vaguely remember reading that one of the excuses that the authorities used for shutting down Ciklovka was that the wiring of the building needed to be completely redone. People moved out of the studio , and when they came back, the authorities had shut it down. Don't quote me on that, but it does ring a bell.

    The way the blur was done in scenes with Pat falling over and getting up again was not by double exposure, but something simpler. During the exposure of the individual frame, while the shutter was open, the animator would pan the camera a little, which would cause the whole frame (and everything in it) to blur. The animator had to get the timing just right, so he (or she) was moving the camera at the precise moment the shutter was open and exposing the frame. It is a bit of a strange effect. In a live-action pan, the subject would usually be in focus and sharp, with the background blurred. In the animated version of a pan, both the subject and the background are blurred, because, of course, neither are moving during the shot. However, despite it being an odd effect, it reads in the intended way, as the camera following a fast action. It's another animation convention, like the very fast walks which were meant to be read as a run. The blur on a few frames of Pat as he flips round into a sitting position is due to the fact that the puppet was wobbling on the wires during the exposure, so blurring. I think in these cases the blurring was unintentional.

    In Voda, the object that appears on the right of frame (with orange handles) looks to me like a pair of wire cutters, and the long thin object that appears next to the back wheel at the same time is a length of stiff black wire. What has happened here (I think) is that the animator wanted a piece of stiff wire to support Mat as he jumps out of the car, and cut the necessary piece and didn't realise he or she left the remaining piece of wire by the wheels, and the cutters behind the car. The fact that these objects appear exactly as Mat is jumping out of the car (and needs support), suggests to me that that is what these objects were for.

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    1. Thanks for the detailed comments, as always. The horizontal line does appear elsewhere as well - the beginning of Raňajky v tráve also comes to mind, so it wasn't a problem present only at Čiklovka. Yes, I've read the electrical installations were one of the reasons for closing down Čiklovka as well, although I can't find at what time that was mentioned at the moment. The production there was certainly eventful, as one paper mentions that "the slowness of production was multiplied by the location near the railroad track, due to frequent shaking of the ground and the animator's tables from the passing trains. This meant the work had to be interrupted for a moment."

      I've also given a thought to whether the object in Voda could be some kind of wire cutter or a similar tool, but I'm not sure if there is a hole between the different ends of the object and the coloring of that object was exactly the same as on the car, which was somewhat unusual.

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    2. The information about the electrical installations being redone comes from this article (https://www.umeleckazahrada.cz/historie/item/5-kratky-film) which is a very good summary of the work that was done at Čiklovka, and also the atmosphere that the filmmakers worked in. It mentions Beneš and also Wenzigova, which may have been in use as a studio space even before Beneš moved there to make more "Pat & Mat".

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    3. Yes, that's right. I read this piece several times and it's a nice remembrance from the people who worked there and are listed at the bottom. It says at the beginning that an animation audition was held at a film warehouse in Wenzigova Street, where the advertising film Knoflíky (1958) was also done - I don't have any info on that film. "Film warehouse" might have been the premises' function by 1982. Jan Klos wrote to me that Beneš "discovered" this space, so I presume no production had taken place there for some time. The article erroneously says that Pat & Mat came to Čiklovka in 1979. In fact, 1979 episodes were done at Bartolomějská. On that note, the mention of Hádanky za bonbón from J. Barta is interesting. Although done at Čiklovka, it was animated by Mensdorff-Pouilly, an animator from Bartolomějská, which yet again shows how some animators were shifted to other branches of the studio for certain projects.

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    4. Thinking about it, that makes the case of the episode Maľovanie even more unusual. Strange that the set was taken to Bartolomějská and the animation was done there when the animators could have come to Čiklovka. It seems that was indeed the case, not just by Klos' memory, but also looking at the credits.

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    5. Depending on how many other films were shooting in the studios at the same time, there may not have been enough space or equipment available at Čiklovka to shoot Maľovanie, whereas there may have been at Bartolomějská. Also, Pat & Mat does not seem to have been regarded very highly by the authorities, so it may not have been a priority when space and resources were being allocated. I guess we'll never know for sure.

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    6. Regarding Wenzigovka, I just discovered this photo on Bedřich Glaser's website: https://art-glaser.webnode.cz/album/bedrich-animator/#img017-jpg

      The drawing says "Happy New Year, 1978", while the caption reads "A budding promising animator in Kratky film's studio in Wenzigova Street". Unfortunately, Glaser's first credit seems to be from 1980, so I have no idea what films were done in Wenzigovka some time before.

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    7. That's interesting - there's always something new to discover...

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    8. Bedrich Glaser is firstly mentioned in Jan Svankmajer's the house of the usher

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  5. I think the rising water at the end is probably either one or two pieces of very thick "rippled" glass or plastic (as Jakub suggests) which is moved frame by frame across the lower part of the image, causing the heavy distortion - when I look at a few single frames, I believe I can see the rippled texture of the glass (I think). With all these effects, though, it is hard to be certain. A tank of water in front might work, but I don't think you would get the extreme level of ripple distortion that appears here, nor could you get the sort of control over the movement of the water that appears here.

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  6. Stahovanie

    It's definitely one of the better episodes. Of course, Jan Klos' animation helps a lot. Whenever P&M have a new idea, their speed increases, which emphasises their impulsiveness. You've already proven that Klos is a man of detail, which can also be seen as P&M approach their new home. The stuff in the car moves several times as they speed up or slow down. I also like how they express shock. Klos uses only a few frames to make quite large movements, which works really well.

    I'm usually not very good at spotting continuity errors, but there is one that bothers me. When they load their stuff on the car for the second time, we first see Mat handing Pat the furniture and then Pat putting everything on top of other things. He ends with the two chairs, but in the next, wide shot, everything is arranged completely differently.
    In my comments on some of the other episodes, I picked a 'funniest bit'. I wouldn't do justice to this episode if I did that here. Also, I simply can't choose.

    Voda

    I hadn't noticed before, but after watching the episode again, I can only agree that it's likely that Klos did the opening shot, which also features a beautiful sunrise. Just before Mat enters the picture, a few frames seem to be missing, judging by the way the cottage moves. The rest of the episode has Karel Chocholin's name written all over it: from Mat taking a shortcut while running inhumanly fast to throwing things out of the picture and plants into the ground.

    Only the second half of the episode is devoted to their search for water. The first part is a bit messy, which shows their short attention span, but Chocholin's animation doesn't show their recklessness as well as Klos'. Both animators let P&M do things that are normally impossible, but with Chocholin it sometimes feels unnatural, whereas with Klos, I immediately take everything they do for granted.

    On a sidenote: according to my 'Pat & Mat Bible' (the book by Robert Lagendijk) the rig above the set is sometimes referred to as the gallows, which sounds much more lugubrious than it actually is.

    Zahradka

    The episode which, thanks to this blog, went from worst to best in terms of quality. This enables us to see another unwanted object when Pat is putting the horseshoes in the cart. I like how they build the tension as to what might be in the crate (which is repeated in later episodes) and how P&M are excited to unpack the (hideous!) garden gnome.

    As for the blue flashes in the lower right corner: I think we see a small part of Karel Chocholin and that he wore a blue shirt that day. If that is indeed the case, it would be the first I see of him. I haven't been able to find a single picture of him. Then again, Marin, you've proven to be much more thorough in your research than I am.

    About the scene with the paint brushes: not only do the brushes in the foreground change, also the ones Pat is holding. This makes me believe it was actually meant to be two separate shots. So, Pat throws the large, red brush to Mat, Mat catches and uses it, Pat throws another, smaller one, Mat uses it to dot the i's and cross the t's and then Pat enters the frame. This would mean there's no room for the still of Pat, which was probably only inserted to fill the gap between the two shots with Mat, assuming they had forgotten to do one shot. I can't really blame the editor, Vera Benesova. It's hard to tell with Chocholin's animation. Also, in my scenario, a few jumps forward in time are implied, which makes continuity even trickier. If they had moved the camera slightly, this could have been avoided.

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    1. Zahradka: Of course, the tension as to what is in the crate compared to the final reveal is very funny. It's good that the episode is not named "The Gnome" or something similar, which would ruin the surprise - like it did with "The Washing Machine" in 1983.

      "This enables us to see another unwanted object when Pat is putting the horseshoes in the cart." - Cool, I never noticed this, so it has been added, thanks.

      Your theory about another scene is interesting, though it's hard to say how probable it is. If there was another scene, it could have been cut for time. Clocking in at 9:13, Zahradka is already one of the longest episodes.

      Karel Chocholín: yes, I also thought about whether the camera caught a piece of his shirt, but I'm not completely sure. Not only have I never seen a picture of him, but I also have no idea what happened to him after 1987, when his final animation credits appear on the second season of Jája a Pája. The people I have asked so far (Jan Klos included) also don't know. He may have moved into illustration: here's a book from 1991 illustrated by a Karel Chocholín, maybe our guy: https://www.databazeknih.cz/knihy/kopa-kopcu-5650

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    2. My wording may have been a bit confusing. What I meant to say about the ending of Zahradka was that the second part of the shot with Pat (with the large paint brush in the foreground) should have been where the still of Pat is.
      "Also, in my scenario, a few jumps forward in time are implied, which makes continuity even trickier." I meant here that it's not only the large brush that changes, but also the other ones. This implies that P&M have been throwing back and forth more brushes in between, but I think that was intentionally not part of the script to begin with. Anyway, it might be best to turn this into a video so that's what I did, using your TDK video as a source: https://mega.nz/file/v8JGRAiL#eA9Ux6hg2rQyt90iQiaAleNP_X2SZhnUASzhh3okI50. The result looks pretty natural to me. The sounds at the end are, of course, off-sync, because I removed the 2 second still of Pat.

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  7. By the way, in 2013, there actually were plans to make a movie that could have been called Pat and Mat on the Road. Kees Prins (Pat's voice in the Dutch version) and Patrick Stoof worked on a script for a movie that was supposed to be "a real road movie full of bad luck on the way", so one storyline across the entire movie. If I remember correctly, it was postponed twice, before being cancelled, or replaced by the Na Venkove movie with seven short storylines (episodes). There's a picture of the people involved on the photo page on Patmat's website. It's the second last picture on the right-hand side. Patrick Stoof is on the far left, followed by Derk-Jan Warrink (producer at Lemming Film), Tomas Eiselt is in the middle and Kees Prins is on the far right. I don't know who the woman is.

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    1. The kids theater play "Pat and Mat go on Holiday" (Pat a Mat jedou na dovolenou) from 2012 is in a similar vain: "The performance imaginatively combines the seemingly impossible - an animated puppet film and a performance with live actors - humorously developing the anecdotal plot of two do-it-yourselfers on a journey around the world, where they finally discover that it's best at home anyway. They travel by train, fly by plane, go into space, travel by ship and find themselves on the seabed, where they struggle with a terrifying tentacle. However, when they finally get to their dream hotel room in a seaside resort, their only interest is to transform the impersonal room so that it is as close as possible to their home."

      That play was scripted by Marek Beneš (who else?) and also features animated parts from the Na venkově set, but the animation is far from Jan Smrčka's standards and I don't know who did it - maybe even Beneš himself? A couple of shots remind me of Bedřich Glaser's animation, but if he put zero effort in.
      https://youtu.be/EaUo5TyeaOY
      https://youtu.be/U6vSIJusJrM
      https:/youtu.be/5yLSU2vjCkY

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    2. "...which would ruin the surprise - like it did with "The Washing Machine" in 1983." - Well I'd say it didn't ruin the surprise at all. They just bought a washing machine (which was one of the biggest lucks) and simply needed to bring it upstairs. And the combination with philately is great and hilarious. It's the same case as Zahrádka. Both names refer to the first half of the episode (zahrádka, pračka) and then it's moved to another topic (garden gnome, philately). And the end combines both topics, mostly in the genius-idea-humorous way. There is a little difference - In Pračka's case, you can find the philately topic throughout the episode, while in Zahrádka's case, you can notice the garden gnome since the second half of the episode. But it's not a big difference, I suppose.

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    3. I don't agree, as naming the episode "The Washing Machine" immediately ruins the anticipation of what is in the crate. It is only a minor point, though, as there is not much humor in the fact that the crate contains a washing machine. On the other hand, the crate is one of Zahradka's best gags, as the whole trouble of getting it next to the cottage is rendered completely useless when the reveal comes that it contains a small gnome which could have been delivered using much less space and energy, even in the car. Pat and Mat make up that discrepancy by building an even bigger, more hideous gnome.

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  8. Hello, I'd like to ask you, if you are going to write a minutae post about Malování episode (because you have already written a post about it, so I'm curious if there will be two posts about one episode). Sorry, it's off topic, but I'm really curious. (I'm not asking when, but if, I don't want to push you to do it).

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    1. I am not planning to (because I already did that post), but even then there are some details I could include.

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    2. Thanks a lot. Don't give up. It's a shame that there are no "Like" buttons. It would be a big number of likes.

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  9. Is there any information about a film with people about Pat and Mat?

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    1. I have no idea what you are talking about.

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    2. I think he means here https://youtu.be/M4SYROHwhEA

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  10. I wonder if "unknown" might be thinking of the stage show that was written by Marek Benes, which combined animated sections on film with actors dressed as Pat and Mat. I seem to remember seeing video of it somewhere. Other than this, I don't think there has ever been a live-action film with actors playing Pat & Mat.

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  11. Will there still be a series A je to minutiae?

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  12. Well These Six Of Those Episodes Were Seen In St'ahovani Voda Zahdraka Skokani Budka And Dazd In The Between Years 1982 & 1983!

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    1. Only the first three were done at Čiklovka. And for the rest of your comments, please don't write comments which are obvious and even explained in the posts which you are commenting on. I will not approve them.

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  13. In Igloo, the car PF 7980 was also appear as a toy version.

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  14. At first, Vera Benesova worked in Dasenka, then she credited as editor in Svatebni kosile and ostrov pro 6000 budiku (Toadette-IAD uploaded it) with another Ciklovka's producer, Vaclav Strnad. During the time, her name is Vera Smetanova. As of 1978 a film, Mozre halali by Josef Kluge, Vera Smetanova became Vera Benesova and she mentioned for the first time along with Goodbye Ofelia. She reunited with Viktor Mayer for the 1994 film, Tom Palecek, and 1997 short film Pavel Koutsky's Duel. The last time Vera and Viktor mentions is About the Elf Racochejlovi (o skritku racochejlovi).

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  15. Breaking news!
    Racte Prominout is here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PNJUcha7DUg&pp=ygUNbHVib21pciBiZW5lcw%3D%3D

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  16. Updated:
    It's Mokre Halali not Mozre Halali
    By the way, 1992 is the time Vera Benesova met Viktor Mayer after Anifilm was established so they reunited here

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  17. A little late to the party I guess, but here goes...

    There seem to be four types of beer in that Záhradka frame:

    1. The beer bottles that have the red circle (actually a "medieval" wax seal) on top of the label are Pilsner Urquell, aka Plzeňský prazdroj. Here it seems one of the bottles says "Prazdroj" while another has "Pilsner Urquell". The design basically hasn't changed to this day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilsner_Urquell

    2. The bottles which say "Speciál" have "Braník" in red letters just below; that's another traditional marque that's still around. It comes from Prague, but the original brewery is defunct; it's now made in the Staropramen brewery. The opposite of Prazdroj, it's a rather low-end marque today*. https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bran%C3%ADk_(pivo)

    3. The horizontal bottle near the bottom right corner does indeed say "Staropramen". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staropramen_Brewery

    4. Finally, there are three bottles with a black-and-yellow logo and dense green letters on a black background. Oddly enough, the label is upside-down on one of the bottles. I'm 99% sure this is Velkopopovický kozel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velkopopovick%C3%BD_Kozel
    I can't find this exact version of the label online but compare to this: https://cdn.aukro.cz/images/sk1610144065941/730x548/velkopopovicky-kozel-etiketa-90450510.jpeg — The general shape of the letters checks out, the yellow emblem is appropriately beer-cask-shaped, and the black thing is consistent with the iconic bouncing buck bearing a big bucket of beer.

    It's funny how they could just casually do this for humorous realism back in the communist era when the studio, the TV station, and the breweries were all owned by the "socialist" state; today it would be considered product placement and the studio would be criticized for selling out (though personally I'd be all for it if it helped them avoid outsourcing production to China).

    *I believe in the 80s all "branded" beers were considered at least a little bit fancy (obviously PU was the luxury brand). It looks like Pat and Mat were no penny-pinchers when it came to their liquid bread (or anything else, given the sheer amount of property destruction throughout the show; what did those guys do for a living, anyway?!). Really cheap beer was sold anonymously, in unlabeled bottles; apparently true experts could tell the brewery of origin by the code which was embossed on the cap. But don't take my word for it as I was born in 1984 and I didn't even drink beer until 2011...

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for your excellent comment. I'll try to get back to you when I have more time.

      Delete
  18. In the Ciklovka branch, we have Magda Sandersova and Vaclav Strnad in the credits for Stahovanie and Voda. However, in Zahradka we have Vera Benesova (from the last episode of Pojar's Zahradka) worked as a editor and noticed that Vaclav Strnad from The Island with 6000 clocks by Petr Sis. They even worked in Pojar's Kdyby (If) and Zdenek Smerana Mala carodejnice (after vsehochlup and dratovat flikovat)

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