Murderous Tales – distribution list
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Jan Bubeníček
Jan Bubeníček
Jan Bubeníček
Noro Držiak
Radek Loukota
Zdeněk Marek, Jan Bubeníček
Marek Hart
Michal Mocňák, Michal Struss, Jan Jinda
Petr Šoupa, Clarinet Factory, Messer Chups, Ivo Keilwerth
Jan Kurka, Jan Bubeníček
Vilém Percy
Katarína Hollá
Ondřej Trojan, T.H.A
Czech Television
PubRes (Slovakia) – Zuzana Mistríková, Ľubica
Orechovská
R.U.R. - Jan Všetíček,Zuzana Picková,
AT studio - Ondřej Všetíček
Soundsquare - Pavel Rejholec, Radim Janeš
Michaela Syslová
Hana Štefanová, Roman Jordan, Luděk Valchář
Jan Budař, Pavel Landovský, Jan Bubeníček, Ondřej
Trojan, Ladislav Frej, Jiří Schwarz, Jan Hála, Lída
Molínová, Denisa Grimmová, Aleš Najbrt,Roman
Milič,Lubomír Piktor,Vlado Zetek,Peter Pavlík
Total HelpArt Film and TV Company (T.H.A.)
Falcon a.s.
Czech State Cinematography Fund,
The Slovak Audiovisual Fund
HBO, Slovak TV and Radio
Special effect animated feature film
80 minutes
Image: 16:9, : Sound:5,1
General audiences
www.smrtelnehistorky.cz
Plot
MURDEROUS TALES is a special effect animated feature film combining
live actors with 3D/2D animation, puppets and back projection. It contains
three stories: Antonio Cacto, Lighthouse and The Big Man, plus three
ultra-short films called Charge the Dragon.
Each episode uses different production technology and is in a different
genre, but both their form and their content are related. All the episodes
are about double standards and the topics of heroism and death.
Something very small meets something very big (a tiny knight meets a
huge dragon, an old Mexican goblin meets a man, a tiny Professor meets
real-life cows, two mobsters meet the Big Man). All these meetings result
in the heroic death of the small principal characters. Each script sees
heroism and death differently.
Synopses of the individual stories
Antonio Cacto
A playful and slightly sentimental story in which Josef (Jan Budař) inherits
an apartment from his slightly odd granddad and discovers Antonio, a
goblin who lives in a large cactus. They play tricks with each other.
Antonio tries to
run away and is
trapped in the
fridge. By the time
Josef finds out that
Antonio was once
brought by his
granddad from
Mexico, it's too
late to save him.
Technology: 3D
animation/motion
capture
Lighthouse
Even though the story takes place on the edge of our world - in a swamp
behind a cowshed - there are no humans in it. We see everything through
the eyes of a 20 centimetres tall creature, the Professor.
The Professor
comes in the
early spring as a
researcher from
the University of
Elsewhere. All
the things we
take for granted
are for him an
amazing virgin
wilderness full of
wonders. He
researches it and
sends excited
reports about it back home. The pinnacle of his research is the discovery
of cows, which, from his perspective, are gargantuan animals with
miraculous abilities. The Professor devotes all his time to researching the
cows. From time to time he sends smaller animals to his Superior back at
the University of Elsewhere as respected guests. As time goes by, the
Professor discovers that his Superior is misleading him and killing and
turning animals into displays. He selects the cows as his next victim. He
wants the Professor to send a cow's head back to the University. The
Professor disobeys, breaks contact with the University and decides to stay
in the swamp even under a threat of the approaching winter, which will
surely mean his death.
His Superior is not one to tolerate such mutiny. He arrives at the swamp
one day. During a fight, both scientists die. The Professor is pecked to
death by hungry chickens, while the Superior drowns in the swamp trying
to run away. In the end, the Professor's beloved cows carry his body to
their shed. Technology: 3D animation/motion capture
The Big Man
The Big Man is a puppet animation road movie about the unfortunate
deaths of two failed hitmen. Bruno and Marvin are not aware that this
mission is the last one their prized, meticulously kept, Tatra sedan will
take them on.
The two hit men
are heading west
to find and kill a
man. The
description of their
target is fairly
general: "he's
someone you can't
miss, a
heavyweight, big
man – you'll
recognise him
when you see
him". Bruno and
Marvin realise they have no chance of finding the Big Man without help.
They decide to give rides to hitchhikers and ask them whether they know
the Big Man and where they could find him. The hitchhikers (a Vietnam
veteran, a philosopher and a nun) all tell their stories and all talk about a
"great man". For the veteran, it was a short skinny man, who saved his
entire unit by sacrificing himself in battle. For the philosopher, it was René
Descartes, and for the nun, Jesus. To the naive mobsters, all these
characters morph into one. So they start to look for Jesus Descartes.
When they finally, under the influence of drugs, almost crash into the real
Big Man, who is about 10 times bigger than them, they are more likely to
ask for his autograph than anything else. But the Big Man pulls out his
gun. In an absurd disproportionate shoot out, the mobsters are both
killed. Only a new dawn reveals how senseless and needless their deaths
were. Technology: puppets combined with miniatures, back projection and
actor scenes.
Charge the Dragon
A cartoon slapstick comedy with two classic heroes – the Dragon and the
Knight - where death is
the punch line at the end
of each of the three short
stories and the knight's
heroism is more or less a
product of his suicidal
stupidity. He is so
convinced of his
invincibility that he faces
the dragon without fear.
Technology: 3D
animation.
JAN BUBENÍČEK – director, screenwriter, author
Born 7/3/1976 in Prague
Graduated from the Film and TV Faculty of the Academy of the Performing Arts
(FAMU) in Prague, in the Animation Department (prof. Břetislav Pojar, Pavel
Koutský). He worked as a director in the Eallin Animation studio (with Noro
Držiak, David Súkup, Tomáš Luňák and Martin Duda) and as a head and
supervisor of the 3D department at UPP Studio. He worked as an on-set VFX
supervisor on the Alois Nebel animated feature film. He is currently working on
his own films in cooperation with AT Studio and in the RUR post-production
studio.