New Goodness

As a supporting film of the new feature film by Jitka Rudolfová “Delight” entering Czech cinemas this week, the viewers will have a chance to see an animated short by director and animator Lucie Sunková called “New Goodness.”

Lucie Sunková remembers the shooting: “When I first read the poem Nouvelle Bonté (New Goodness), I knew that it was not going to be easy to deal with this almost surrealist French text. But it was a challenge and a chance to try an interesting international cooperation. The entire responsibility for graphic design was from the beginning on me, which I felt was very satisfying and enjoyable as well as free and open. Plus the animation method that I use (paint on glass) was ideal for such a poetic-dramatic theme. It was also a pleasure to work with Mr. Viktor Preiss, who narrated the Czech version. After the screening he told me: “I had no idea that one can paint a poem…”

The film based on the poem by Aimé Césair was created for a series of one-minute-long films inspired by the poems of this French poet commemorating the 100th anniversary of his birth. The French original was narrated by Jacques Martial with music composed by François Causse and produced by MAUR film for the company La Maison Garage. The Czech version was translated by the French poet and translator Bertrand Schmitt and narrated for the cinema by actor Viktor Preiss.

The film was animated with the demanding technique of oil painted on glass directly in front of the camera and the production in the Anima studio took almost three months during this spring. The same technique will be used for an animated co-production film directed by the French director Florence Miailhe with Lucie Sunková as the main animator.

Other directors of the aforementioned series included Guillaume Aventurin, Etienne Chaillou, Gilles Elie-Dit-Cosaque, Vincent Escrive, Florent Lazare, Pierre Emmanuel Lyet, Roberto Prual Réavis, Dimitri Stankowicz and Laurie Thinot.

Martin Vandas, producer, MAUR film, says: „When we founded the Association of Czech Animation, one of our main goals was to try and bring back the tradition of animated short films (and not only animated) into Czech cinemas. In this case, digitalisation opens up new opportunities for us but it is still very hard and complicated and each project needs to be approached individually. We first wanted to finish the Czech version and then go and look for a suitable film and a producer who would take us on.

We have found partners in Mr. Viktor Schwarz and the distribution company Cinemart – they showed understanding of our situation and our ideas even with impending deadlines and set premiere dates. 

I also believe that our efforts will not be a single shot in the dark and that we will manage to revive the tradition when audiences in the cinemas are served “main dish with appetizers” – because this is an excellent opportunity for short films to be introduced to audiences elsewhere than at film festivals. Short films present a wonderful opportunity to the cinema in general and the authors themselves – they can experiment with new methods and approaches and show their talent. And the producers have an opportunity to test the cooperation with the authors on a project that is not as financially demanding and risky as a full feature film.” 

RUNNING LENGTH 1 min
PREMIERE 2013