TRNKA, JIR

born Feb. 24, 1912, Pilsen, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now Plzen, Czech Republic] died Dec. 30, 1969, Prague, Czech. motion-picture animator, preeminent master of the Czech puppet filmmaking tradition, painter, designer, cartoonist, and book illustrator. Trnka, who was trained as a painter in art school, won a design competition organized by the Czech puppeteer Josef Skupa in 1921. He worked with Skupa at his studios for more than 10 years, but his own efforts to start a puppet theatre failed. By 1935 he was designing for the stage and illustrating children's books. Between 1938 and 1945 he primarily worked as a designer for the National Theatre in Prague but illustrated many children's books. In 1945 Trnka turned to animation and produced his first film, Zasadil dedek repu (Grandpa Planted a Beet). His first puppet film appeared in 1947, part of a cycle called Spalcek (The Czech Year). After that, nearly all his films were made with puppets. Among the most notable are Csaruv slavik (1948; The Emperor's Nightingale), Arie prrie (1949; Song of the Prairie), Dobr Vojak vejk (1954; The Good Soldier Schweik), Sen Noci Svatojansk (1959; A Midsummer Night's Dream), considered by some critics to be his masterpiece, and Ruka (1964; The Hand). Trnka redesigned puppets especially for the camera: their range of movement was limited, their heads were enlarged, and their facial expression was limited chiefly to the area around the eyes.